Other People's Trash

As the illustrious CLI intern, I had the good fortune to visit Cape Town's Heath Nash Studio. It wasn't quite what I imagined, since it was pretty much a large room full of plastic trash (like containers, bottles, etc.). But even cooler because it was easier for me to imagine the process and amount of work that goes into producing things out of Other People's Trash. While Heath has many light fixtures and tons of other cool stuff that is actually really beautiful, my favorite is the cool soccer ball made electrical wire over a galvanized steel frame. The cool bowl comes in both black and white and green and yellow (the color of South Africa's bafana bafana!).

It's great for putting in some fruits and other stuff. I love mine! Plus, Heath is suuuuper nice and cool.

http://www.heathnash.com/strength.php

This lamp = true love

I'm pretty keen on Guillaume Delvigne's work. It seems he is a pretty respected and prolific designer. In particular, I like his Lamp 010. Not quite sure where it's available since we at CLI have no French speakers.

But check it out here: http://guillaumedelvigne.com/projet.php?id=154

He has other cool stuff on his site, so browse away!

South Africa!

Friends! Cheese Lovers! Our CLI intern has been away for a few weeks in the land of the beginnings of homo-sapiens! Yes, Africa!

And while there, the illustrious intern has discovered a really cool bunch of designers. Indeed, the design scene, particularly in Cape Town, South Africa is quite impressive. And cool!

One cool dude we met is called Liam Mooney. He has his own studio of South African-made goods, including this cool bench and sofa-like piece. Drool. Liam is super nice and fun. I wish our intern's suitcase was big enough to bring some of Liam's furniture over, but alas, we will have to make do with our pictures.

http://www.liammooney.co.za/signature/the-low-back-settee/#

Matthew Hilton is cool

I'm really into Matthew Hilton's Case Furniture, but for some reason, I can't find where where one can "acquire" his cool sofas. Does anyone in the world wide web have any ideas? I know he has his own website, but the Case Furniture is not on there. Oh well! I'm not really in the market for a new sofa, but these are pretty cool!

http://www.architonic.com/pmsht/stanley-range-sofa-case-furniture/1125887

Cool eco lighting!

As avid readers, we at CLI are constantly perusing the world wide web for great table lamps and floor lighting. Just today we saw this amazing lighting concept by Rodger Stevens. Apparently this Mr. Stevens dude is quite an accomplished designer, with many accolades to his name. Bravo!

Check out his cool Arm, Paul and Rodger lamps here. They are made from eco-friendly wood and are compatible with compact fluorescent lighting. I want one (or two)!

http://rodgerstevens.info/index.php

Does this look familiar?

Hi!

Do you remember sprinting back and forth the basketball court in high school? No? Well, I do! It was hard, but good fun at the same time. Anyway, this cool coffee table and bookshelf thing are made from recycled gym floors! That's pretty cool. I'm sure they were cleaned very well, so they probably don't smell like sweat! Ick.

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/reclaimed-gym-floor-coffee-table

Poki Rack by Holm Giessler & Jennifer Heimann!

Check out this cool Poki Rack by Holm and Jennifer! I quite like it. It adds a bit of an organic feel to an already simple drawer. Unfortunately, I think the designers are quite new, so it's hard to get some price and dimension descriptions, but check out this website anyway! Maybe you can check it in a few weeks. Or better yet, if you get to go to the Stockholm Furniture Fair, then you will see this in person. Also, if you are going to the design fair, you are really lucky!

http://www.hallo-essen.com/hallo-essen/leer.html

A cool clock

Mr.Clock_Hye-yeon.park_Design Product_2010 RCA from hye-yeon.park on Vimeo.

We at CLI are quite taken by Hyeon Park's Mr. Clock. It's sort of a museum peace, and I'm not sure people would really want this in their house, but there are those of us who dare to be bold. Check out the cool video also, and you will see that Mr. Clock's brilliance is in that it is interactive with humans (or other moving objects). I kind of want one, but don't have the space. Perhaps you do, dear CLI reader!

http://www.hyeonpark.com/index.php?/mrclock/mrclock/

A cool Portland-based company!

I am pretty in love right now with this cool "Civic Stack" by a Portland, Oregon based company called Von Tundra (run by three dudes: Dan Anderson, Chris Held, and Brian Pietrowski). I wonder how much it is! I hope it's not like $3,000. I am hearing a lot about Portland these days, and really need to check it out. Check out the rest of their cool furniture and other stuff on their site below.

http://www.vontundra.com/civic-stack

Prouve's Potence on a super budget

This dude named Brendan Ravenhill has designed a pretty nice lamp that is a pretty good price! At $150, the Cord Lamp is attractive and well-designed in that it can hide screws in the wall, and also be pivoted to the desired position without moving. I want one. Sign me up!

http://www.brendanravenhill.com/index.php?/objects/cord-lamp/

A cool desk/table!

I've sort of been on the look out for a new desk. My current desk is fine for the amount of space I have, but in the future it might be nice to have a multi-functional place to work, especially my glorious darling also needs a place to work. Maybe this desk is big enough for both of us!

This wonderful thing is called Doppelleben, and it is the recent creation of the Ahhaproject design studio. Basically the table can be a desk/work space, place to have tea or snacks, and then later on when you are done working, it can become a dining table! Note that the tabletop consists of two layers. If you need to use the lower layer, you can slide two lightweight panels down the sides. And when the work is done (or is safe to be interrupted), the panels come up creating a surface for dining and entertaining.

That's pretty neat! If I had this desk, it would be put to good use right away. In fact, instead of sitting at this tiny console table, I could be using the Doppelleben instead. Someday!

http://www.ahhaproject.com/

Under My Roof!

I think CLI has mentioned the brilliant work of Christian Vivanco before, because he is such a great designer and genius. I am quite taken by his "Under My Roof" desktop storage thing! It's very playful yet functional. What more can one ask for in great design?

If I had enough room on my desk, I would totally get this. It looks pretty easy to build. And it looks fun!

http://christianvivanco.com/storage/under-my-roof-new/

I really like this Pontus Desk by Pinch Design in the UK. It won a design award from Wallpaper magazine, and it is well deserved! The desk is quite expensive and can come with the optional pigeon-hole unit. I hope you like it too!

http://www.pinchdesign.com/pontus.htm

A cool dude named Seongyong Lee

I want to meet Mr. Lee, because he is a totally awesome Korean designer, and I am in love with his plytube stool and bench. Plytubes are really cool and despite their lightweight appearance, they are quite strong. I want one right now!!! In fact, if any of you out there can find out where he sells his stuff, let me know and I will personally see to it that you receive 3 pounds of our favorite cheese here at Cheese Lovers International.

Mr. Seongyong Lee studied product design at the Royal College of Art in London, and my hat goes off to him. Cheers, Mr. Lee!!

http://www.seongyonglee.com/

Frederik Roijé - a cool Dutch dude

I seriously wish I could go back in time and study furniture design at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands!! Alas, time machines have yet been invented. But I have an idea: When they finally are invented and become affordable enough for regular people, I will transport myself back in time to around 1997 or so and convince my past self to attend the Design Academy, then I will return to 2011. Brilliant!

I digress -- what I really wanted to talk about was Frederik Roijé and his "Slow Sofa" which is made in the Netherlands. Made out of fabric, foam, metal and plywood, the sofa was designed to accommodate a sofa that evolves with whatever configuration you would like, since the parts are modular. I quite like it. I wish they made it in leather, but oh well!

http://www.roije.com/#/products

A really cool phone!

We at CLI love practical things, and that's why we totally love the new John's Phone by John Doe Amsterdam. There is nothing fancy about this phone, and it has no email, internet, special ring tones, text messaging, etc. Many might wonder why a person would want something with only the most traditional function of a phone, but I find myself thinking "why not"? Sure, it's great to have GPS, facebook and the NY Times accessible at all times, but sometimes it gets to be too much! Don't you agree? Sometimes it's nice to not be sooo connected to the wired world. I'm not sure I am personally ready to give up text messaging, but I would seriously consider it for this phone since it's sooo pretty! Check out all the colors it comes in, and it even has a place for you to physically write down phone numbers! What a novelty nowadays!

http://www.johnsphones.com/