Lights To Inspire

This is just a quick post about a few lamps/lights I came across that I think are pretty cool and intriguing. Looking at the images below you will see they make use of everyday objects and recycle them to their optimum potential. These show that being 'Green' and Recycling can be fun, cool, modern and exciting.

Land Peel

I stumbled across this design and thought that it was quite extraordinary. We all know how uncomfortable it is to sit on a hard floor for an extensive length of time and it isn't long before your bum is numb or pins and needles are tingling in your legs and feet. This design by Shin Yamashita would stop this and allow you to sit at ease on the floor working with your laptop, reading books or simply just sitting watching television. It comprises of a flat three panel mat from which a table, seat or rest can be made simply by lifting and folding the panels.

Recycled iBook

I thought this was pretty cool looking and in a way it brings a whole new meaning to recycling and an end of life use for products. Today we are constantly trying to use materials and products that throughout their whole cycle are more environmentally friendly and even have a use at the end of their life. This can't always be achieved of course but when I stumbled across this Apple iBook that had been turned into a clock, it shows that even things you may not think have a use once they stop working, do.

This is a fully working clock made from an Apple iBook; even the mouse has been incorporated as a pendulum.

The keys of the Apple iBook have not been wasted either as they have been transformed into cuff links.

Cinderella's Chair

When fairytale meets furniture this is the result. Created by Anna Ter Haar. This series of chairs has been designed so that each individual chair has it's own personalised, to fit, glass leg. The first time I seen this I honestly thought "Why has someone given a chair a glass leg?". It understandably is a question you would ask yourself considering glass is a very fragile and easily broken material; which I truely didn't ever think would be combined with an everyday, hard wearing object.

Each glass support is custom made to fit a specific chair, much in the same way a prosthetic leg would be made to fit a human. The name has been given for obvious reasons but rather than wear a single glass slipper like Cinder's, the chair wears a blown glass prosthesis.

Despite, how the chair may look or you may think (like I did) the new legs are strong enough to carry weight, so the chairs are by no means strictly ornamental.

Flexible Love

When I first seen this video of the 'Flexible Love' chair I thought it was absolutely amazing. It's made entirely from cardboard and is such a simple but very quirky design. However, I was sceptical as to whether or not the chair could actaully hold people and have up to 16 people's weight on it at once but the second video that I found shows it can! :) This is another fine example of how bio-degradable and re-usable products such as Cardboard can become a very interesting, smart and important design.

Hands On Chair

When I first saw this design I thought it was not only an amazing but simple design, I thought it was also very clever. Seating sometimes can be a very public specticle and there has been plenty of times I've been out and about simply wanting a seat that you could sit on, relax and not have everyone staring at you on their way past. In my eyes this is the perfect solution to private seating in a public area. It can be for one on one or arranged so that a whole group of people can sit together.

Above is a picture of the chairs joined together, to create a private space by allowing the chairs to 'hold hands'. The sides of the chairs function as shutters that can be open, closed or connected to other chairs by way of magnets.

This chair has been created by designer Joon Soo Kim from South Korea. When I further tried to research this designer I found it quite difficult because as it turns out he owns a company with another designer and the 'Hands on Chair' was one of this first individual pieces of work.

If you want to look at more work by them go to their website at www.joonjung.com

They are Conceptual Product Designers based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Their abstract level of design is mainly based on humans and everyday affairs.

Me, My Mum and Her Handbag

Nearly every girl out there loves buying or receiving handbags and having loads of them to chose from to match every outfit and fit every occasion....BUT recently, my parents came to visit me and my mum's new handbag caught my eye. It got me thinking, why do we really need multiples of the same style of handbag, with the only differences being the colour or pattern? Why do we need 3, 5 or 10 of the one style of bag? I know your thinking, well you answered that yourself, it's because we want different colours and patterns but when you see my mum's new handbag, you will understand why I began to ask these questions.

Above is a picture of my mum's ordinary looking handbag.

Below is a picture of why I asked the earlier questions.

The pattern on the bag can be removed to reveal the inner handbag shape. The cover attaches to the bag with strong magnets and can be removed and replaced as often as you want. I totally loved this! You simply choose the shape of the bag you want and buy whatever patterned or coloured cover you want and attach it to the bag. It's as easy as that! A really simple design that is so effective and quirky.

It kind of makes you wonder; what other everyday item could you modify/improve so simply and effectively? In a way it made me think, How come nobody else thought of this? It seems like such an obvious idea.

I just think this handbag concept is so quirky and intriguing. I have included some more pictures below: