Dutch Design Week: Designer Christian Kocx presented Non-Woven series of chairs, lamps and bowls, which are made of unwanted bits of plastic from an injection moulding machine.

"I'm a designer from the Netherlands, graduated from the Design Academy in January 2006," Kocx tells us.

Non-Woven is "a series of products made from the remnants of injection moulding," he adds. "I presented it during the furniture fair in Milan in April 2007 and just a couple of weeks ago during the Dutch Design Week 2007."

The post Non-Woven by Christian Kocx appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week: designer Anke Weiss has created a series of lights from used food and drink packaging.

Weiss traces the patterns and text on the packaging with hundreds of pin-pricks, which allow the light to shine through.

The lights were exhibited at Eat Drink Design in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week last month.

Update 20/11/07: Weiss has just sent us some further information about the project. Here it is:

--

The packaging lights show the transformation of a mass-product into a unique item. Through individual adaptation, the packaging of products like juice, cookies or soap gain a new purpose. The packaging (the purpose of which is to support the sale of its contents) becomes a product itself. It survives the point where it usually turns into garbage.

Elements used in the layout of the packaging which call upon the emotions and desires of the consumer are isolated, and selected parts of the graphics are highlighted. Symbols, words and the structure of the designs make use of deeply rooted spiritual feelings and subconscious longings. The packaging exceeds its original context and gains the radiance of a shrine or icon.

For me making something equals thinking about something. I not only see my pieces as being functional but also as a medium for critical exploration and analysis – a visual form of communication.

I wish to challenge the perception of today’s products and technologies, exploring how I as a visual communicator can be part of a political, environmental and social debate.

The post Packaging Lights by Anke Weiss appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week: Floris Hovers presented a range of handmade metal toy vehicles called Arche Toys during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven last month.

Hovers is looking for a maufacturer for the range, which he makes from steel extrusions. Below is a statement about the project from Hovers:

--

“Arche Toys” is of a collection of metal model cars, which are designed and produced by the industrial designer Floris Hovers. The idea developed from a design commission which Floris has put upon himself in order to find the answer to an important question keeping him occupied: Why do grown-ups still have the desire to play with toys?

It is an inner search towards the balance between work and play. A search for recognizable forms and colours used for designing motor vehicles. This concept has been translated in the design of the archetypical cars of Arche Toys. This thought behind the design indicates that, though typified as toys, these vehicles are meant to express far more than just childrens toys. To be played with, but not necessarily children.

What started as a desire to create one’s own model car, became a serious design project. Throughout the creative brainstorming Floris discovered that this process was about much more than just designing. Different aspects were highlighted, such as: emotion, recognition, sentimental feelings of the past, the graphical design showing the essential importance form and colour really are to a successful design. Also the fact that vehicles start to visually unfold when drawn in 2D on paper.

Looking at the timelessness of the designs, you could argue no period or decade that can be put on these designs, though there is an underlying sentiment towards past times.

The initial collection of the models cars has been steadily built up with ideas emerging from observing brands such as Dinky Toys, Siku, LEGO etc. In a way, Floris has made a start with a collection that will evolve and expand further in time with new designs to come.

The "Arche Toys" are made of steel cylinder profiles and the wheels made of wheel bearings. Each individual toy is handmade in his design studio, from concept drawing to the finished product. Up to now, these model cars can be ordered online only.

Floris Hovers has also been actively producing his own furniture designs, of which several pieces were on display at renowned design shows in Milan and New York. Again, pieces created in his own work place, hoping to find a future cooperation with manufacturers who are willing to put his designs on the market.

Posted by Rose Etherington 

The post Arche Toys by Floris Hovers appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week ended in Eindhoven yesterday (Sunday) but here is another project from the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show: Brandmerk, by Esther de Groot, is a series of amulets representing national identity based on brand logos from the wearer's home country.

De Groot exhibited amulets for the USA (top), France (above), Germany (below) and the Netherlands (bottom).

Here's an explanation from de Groot:

--

Brandmerk.
An illusion on tour

Originally the amulet was an object with great individual value and personal meaning for its wearerer. Nowadays famous brands are a big factor in determining a persons identity.

National brands are also growing in popularity, because consumers seek warmth and security in brands of their own country. Representing famous national logos, these amulets symbolize the contradiction between the longing for security and nostalgia on the one hand and present-day Western commercialism on the other.

National symbols as: de Nederlandse leeuw, der Deutsche adler, le coq Francais & the American eagle are built out of the famous brands of each country. Travellers who leave home can wear these amulets as lucky charms.

Esther de Groot

The post Brandmerk by Esther de Groot appeared first on Dezeen.

Kiki van Eijk presents a new collection of hand-made glass lampshades at Eat Drink Design, the temporary restaurant set up in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week this week (and which continues until Sunday 28 October).

See our earlier story on Eat Drink Design here

See all our stories about Dutch Design Week 2007 here

Here's some text from Kiki about the lamps and also a glass carafe that is part of the collection:

--

Bottled Lamps (22 x 22 x 30cm, glass)

Lamps inspired on the beautiful glass bottles of medieval times. These bottles were mainly used to store herbs and liquor. The subtle contrast of the matte and clear glass gives a magic appearance, but also shows patterns inspired on the scenery around the table and kitchen in medieval times. Herbs, kitchen tools, sugar-tongs, deers of pate and cups form a neat play of light. Every lamp in the series is different and therefore unique.

Bottled Carafe (40 x 40 x 53 cm, glass)

A Carafe inspired on the beautiful glass bottles of medieval times these bottles were mainly used to store herbs and liquor. The subtle contrast of the matte and clear glass gives a magic appearance, but also shows patterns inspired on the scenery around the table and kitchen in medieval times. Herbs, kitchen tools, sugar-tongs, deers of pate and cups form a neat play with the liquor that can be stored into this giant bottle.

The post Bottled Lamps by Kiki van Eijk appeared first on Dezeen.