Designist Dream

I came across these products separately, but together I think they pose some interesting questions about designing the body and for the body. Each work below reflects layers of meaning in the recreation of the body into a particular medium. Each has something to say, perhaps, beyond, hey nice bod.

Take these three tee-shirts by Israeli design student Irit Lanciano. The idea is simple: the human body has receptacles and containers - hands, stomachs, breasts - and manufactured products serve as receptacles and containers. What happens when the two meet? When what covers your body serves the same purpose with the addition of a newly attached appendage. Where does the human body begin - by its definition and purpose - and the manufactured ‘body’ begin?

Or how about these beautiful leather shoulder bag by Riva. Called the Torso for Design by Riva, it’s a slender and elegantly shaped lithe fashion accessory that comes in an amazing array of colors. (The leather textures are quite sumptuous too.) The detailed stitching and layering of materials along the top edge - what makes the rectangular shape almost hourglass - recalls the curves of a (woman’s) body her hips or her chest. Either way, this small open-hole detail elevates an everyday shoulder bag from merely beautiful to somehow sensual.

Finally, these leotard-clad dancers are by Israeli ceramic artist Meira Una. Despite the impression of flexibility and movement they give, they’re actually frozen in their poses. As vases, the extensions of their body - what actually moves and breathes beyond the ceramic case - are the flowers, plants or leaves that you put in them. An interesting take on what’s natural, alive, (im)material and eternal.

I was very excited to happen upon this Designboom’s feature article on the Israeli design student art exchange and training program in Chinese bamboo production and craft. Back when I first posted about it, I could only find photos of three bamboo toys. Now we can all drool at the super cool Metropolis cityscape set by Israeli design student Michal Zohar (above) or the hipster-meets-scooter by Israeli design student Etay Amir (below) and plenty of other toys - which I’ll put up on flickr - show how cool bamboo is for kids and parents alike.

Now, environmentally, the benefits of bamboo as a material are plenty and it seems that as the material of the moment, bamboo is also enjoying the spotlight of modern design. Keeping Israeli designers on the forefront of eco-conscious design - and strengthening the Israel-China design connection - is Daniel Fintzi who is working on some products for Bambu Home. “Bambu provides design solutions made from renewable materials that excite and delight people about sustainable alternatives for modern living”. They’re work ethic is astonishing too: it just keeps getting better. They only use bamboo that is sustainably harvested and free of fertilizers or pesticides, ie. from organic sources and treatment. They employ fair trade practices for artisans, workers and production. All products are reusable and/or biodegradable. They donate a percentage of the profits to environmental causes. And the list goes on! Plus, and this is important too, Bambu home accessories are beautifully modern yet handmade with a touch of classic. Check out the Veneerware utensils and plates by Bambu below. Now that’s the kind of Made in China I’d want to fill my house with. Looking forward to seeing what Daniel will be designing for them.

{Crossposted to Green Prophet}

“Go, get it yourself,” never sounded as good as when Lior and Tal from Chunt Designs told me that their ‘By the Book” night table will be available for purchase at this weekend’ s HaSalon home furnishings fair in Tel Aviv. Now in it’s second year, HaSalon - meaning the living room, parlor or sitting room - is a home design fair celebrating Israeli smaller studios and independent designers from the hardworking to the handcrafted. Some of the designers listed to present are so new, they don’t even come up (yet) on Google (imagine that) while others like Shahar Peleg and Ototo are more established and sold worldwide. The products range from lighting, clocks, to shelving and furniture and back to wall and table accessories. Incidentally, the top left looking trivets by Ototo caught my eye at the Designed in Israel exhibition a while back. The trivets double as napkin rings and look super cool as white porcelain jax - so they’re multitasking the aesthetic with the purposeful. And right on your dining room table. Cool.

HaSalon is open this Friday April 4th, 10am - 6pm, and Saturday April 5th, 10am through 9pm, at the Comfort Club, 13 Comfort Street in the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv. For those of you abroad kicking yourself that you don’t live in Israel and therefore can’t share in the home design fun, have no fear, I shall take upon myself to bring you coverage of the best and brightest from the fair. That is, whatever I can manage to write down in between my shopping extravaganza!

Celebrity gossip mongers TMZ caught Debra Messing at LAX airport dressed, well, casual would be the gentle way to put it.

But for some reason TMZ decided that Messing’s, “voluminous coral parachute shmata and head scarf,” somehow ended up, “looking like a Tel Aviv kibbutz farmhand.” Hmmm, not sure where I should begin with that really. A Tel Aviv Kibbutz? Not possible. A Tel Aviv farmhand? Can’t say that’s the latest trend being touted around these Tel Aviv streets.

So what to do? Get some real (good and exciting) Israeli fashion - and hope that Debra Messing will too.

1. Check out the real fashion forward of Tel Aviv and garner a street-wise impression of what we’re wearing. My favorite site Ilook was one of the first and is still the best street fashion photo blog from Tel Aviv. The interviews are in Hebrew but the photos are universal.

2. Read up in the Designist Dream archives for links and reviews of Israel’s current leading fashion designers, accessories and trends. Including some of my personal favorites like Sigal Dekel, Fishndag, and Shelley Leemor.

Yes, that’s right. A fruiton. What a name!? I was so excited to see this in a Tel Aviv design store last week. Loved the design, the name made me smile and then there’s the concept. This isn’t your beat-up old post-college futon. The Fruiton is made by Israeli Design studio Tom Pol because “every fruit deserves its individual space.” So not only do your apples get to recline in regal style atop an Israeli design home accessory, they also get some r&r. Which, when you think about it, kind of makes sense, after all, why should all your fruit have to duke it out for prime positioning in your typical conical-shaped fruit bowl? Why not grant each fruit - or vegetable just to be PC - get its own chance to showcase its natural beauty or seduce you with its tasty intimations…

So, I may be reading way too much into this but the Fruiton is for fun fruit and voyeuristic veggie loving design fans who like their centerpieces as conversation starters. For Tom Pol, their design is about, “the pleasure of a shape, the confidence that emerges from quality and the comfort of something functional.” And it doesn’t get more functional than a futon.

{Crossposted to Modern Tribe}

If you’re like me then the last thing you like to do at night, is read a great book or magazine a you doze off to sleep. And ideally, your bedroom is a serene retreat from the daily doings of work, errands, kids, family, relationships, et cetera. I say ideally because if you’re like me, then your bedside table is cluttered with end-of-day items like your glasses and jewelry, a reading lamp, maybe a photo or a special gift. The last thing to top this heaving pile of stuff is that book or magazine you’ve been angling to curl up with all day. Piling high as you head off to sleep, this mass is also the first thing that almost topples on you as you wake up.

Well thinking of how to better organize our lives, Israeli design studio Chunt Designs have come up with a retro solution. Check out these cute bedside tables complete with an open slot for your books, journal or mags. Founded by Bezalel Industrial Design graduates Tal Ophir and Lior Savir, the goal is to use their creativity and friendship to design clever and fun home solutions. The tables are available in a variety of color combinations including this funky patterned version. Now you can sleep easy with all your evening necessities cleverly (and stylishly) stored away - bringing you one step closer back to that beautiful bedroom retreat.

How ironic that a week long - or two-week long - theme on work got me all out of sorts and out of my regular work/posting schedule!? My apologies to all for the scarcity in exciting Israeli design items to brighten your days. And a promise to start right away with some exciting news, pics and links to what’s been happening on the Israeli design scene here in Israel and abroad. Hooray!

So for a little cherry atop this welcome back Thursday sundae, above are the beautifully crafted Sugar handbags by Israeli accessories designer Riva Naroshevitch. Her line Design by Riva is ubiquitous on Tel Aviv’s shopping-forward streets mostly setting trends with its careful attention to design and clever use of textured fabrics. In her own words, “When I approach the design, I try to visualize the clients wearing it as if it was a dress or a shirt.” In other words, nothing more basic or rudimentary to your wardrobe than these lovely purses, shoulder bags and wallets.

One of the perks of Designist, is meeting all sorts of cool and creative people in Israel and around the world. Daniel Fintzi is one of those people: cool, creative and taking China by storm. Born in Tel Aviv, Fintzi went on to study and work in Milan and Paris - where he interned with Arik Levy (sigh). He wrote me overjoyed to read a ‘quality’ blog in English about Israel’s design scene. And I wrote him back overjoyed to not only receive such high praise from a designer, but also to learn more about the interesting designs featured on his website - ranging from underwear to tableware and everything in between.

Fintzi’s workspace above really caught my eye though. The combination of a glass-topped table with a three-wheeled bicycle cart base and those design-cannon Panton chairs? Wow. What an inspiring junction: there are the materials - glass, metal and wood and plastic - each referring to a different era, craft, method of production and endproduct; there are the aesthetics, the pure glass as a luxury item, the bicycle as a practical, tradesman item and the panton chairs as, well, just a groundbreaking design, plastic-meets-furniture item; and then there’s the message, which to me, was ethereal though grounded. As if you’re on a tangible, heavy bicycle cart but you’re floating in a dream world where cloud-like amorphous white chairs and see-through glass crisp air fuel your creative energies.

But don’t take my word(s) for it. I asked Daniel about his approach and design for this workspace and here’s what he had to say:

The bicycle cart is the conference\kitchen table for the Shanghai headquarters of ?WHATIF! creative innovation company. Based in London WhatIf helps companies to find new ways to innovate people, products and brands and meet changing client needs through unconventional research methods. Usually they come a step before the ad agencies… Coming to Shanghai I’ve been freelancing on collaborative projects for an international interior design company with a local branch called PDM International. Mostly I was creating original furniture pieces for their projects. A friend working with WhatIf came to me with the office design project, so I was able to really design the entire project (but I worked with PDM for the construction and project management so I can’t take all the credit).

In Shanghai, WhatIf had found this old towel factory which they wanted to convert into an office; they wanted to keep an open space while maintaining a warm feeling, and always relating the space and design to Shanghai. They also needed spaces to be easily convertible based on their changing schedules - workshops, events, meetings, presentations, etc. This explains the concrete and wood combination, wood marking the “live” area of the office. The trike was supposed to be a mobile meeting spot, but eventually we decided to convert it into a dining\meeting table. Together with the Panton chair, it creates a sort of fusion between the entrance’s chinese furniture and the office at the back with the workstations.

Overall, I think the effect is eclectic yet coherent. And the design certainly both breeds and reflects creativity and inspiration. I for one would love, love, love to work in a place like this. How about you?

Sorry I’ve been behind on my posts lately - actually I’m behind on my flickr pics too. Yikes! Things have a way of piling up on you even when they’re fun and interesting. My only excuse is that I’m battling a cold/ flu thing that’s leaving me brain dead with exhaustion. So to make it up to you, I’m going to continue the work theme this week because I have a lot more to write about including: a beautiful work space by Israeli industrial and interior designer Daniel Fintzi, working in the kitchen and unique office furniture designs from Israel - or how we like to look while working here. So please stay tuned and bear with me as I start to be able to breathe out of both nostrils… well, one’s a start right?

In the meantime, here are some interesting links about Israeli designers and artists making waves in the news:

~ The Wall Street Journal asks, “Is it art or just really expensive furniture?” Great question. Great article. And leading the discussion visually - the first photo featured - is Israeli design legend Ron Arad’s aluminum “After Thought” series (2007), at the Jablonka gallery space at the Frieze Art Fair last fall as featured above. Also peppering the discussion are works by Israeli design superstar Arik Levy.

~ Israeli contemporary artist Michal Rovner is interviewed in the Brooklyn Rail as her installation piece Makom II, meaning place or location, finishes its last week on view at the Pace Wildenstein Gallery.

~ For those of you in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Armory Art Center is celebrating Israeli Art month with an exhibition on Israeli textile art called “A Common Thread”. The month-long exhibition is accompanied by lectures and workshops by Israeli designers in the fields of fashion, jewelry and textiles.

Nothing says, ‘Now I’m seriously getting to work’ better than organizing or re-organizing your desk. Then again, nothing says, let me put off this project just a little more until I feel really pressured to complete it. Tomay-to, Tomah-to. Sometimes it’s not clear where clearing away old papers from your desk ends and putting your work on hold to clear your head begins. And that’s where the Israeli design items for your desk top come in. Take a look at these creative suggestions for your office or workspace. Designed to blur the lines between professional and fun, practical and stylish.

1. I’m not a clutter fan. Nor do I particularly like my desk filled with stuff - pencil holders, staples, paper clips, and pens. Thanks to Israeli design studio Monkey Business, not only do all those jangly tchotchkes have a firm resting place, but the interlocking tin parts form a rotating calendar as well. Talk about multitasking with style!

2. Take a memo or make your to do list in retro-humorous fashion on these illustrated memo pads by award winning Israeli cartoonist and illustrator Ruto Modan. Then post’em anywhere you’ve decided to stick these mini cork board tiles also by Israeli design collective Monkey Business. Say goodbye to the overbearing rectangular corkboard that is so large and cluttered that you hardly remember your own home phone number. Place tiles in strategically visual spots so you won’t forget important items or miss reminders throughout the day.

3. Found a penny or in this case a shnekel? Well you’re in luck because this innovative calendar by Israeli designer Ruthi Kantor lets you scratch off the days each month. Control your daily destiny by clearing the whole month before it begins or idly scratching off one at a time. It’s just too bad there are no prizes or surprises to be revealed.

4. You can really really take your time to enhance your daily computer usage with these keyboard stickers - or Skinboards as the hip kids are calling them these days - are by Israeli design company Dean’s Presents. There are tons more designs on their website ranging from the pink and flowery to the graphic ‘I <3 U' to my personal fave, the hardcore keyboard below. Let the email anarchy begin.