Thank you to all who came yesterday to our opening in Barcelona!
Thank you (also) to Lars and Jordi who did an amazing job with the space

You can check more of their fantastic work here:
http://www.jordicanudas.com
http://larsfrideen.com/

Our new book is available form today at Otracosas Gallery. It looks back at the past years of the DesignMarketo projects, how the initial idea evolved and morphed from its first insemination to our present days. Text by Brit Leisler, DesignMarketo. Pictures by Amandine Alessandra. Designed and printed by DesignMarketo in East London. Soon available online.

A little while ago, Loris&Livia sent us some nice pictures taken during the production of their Lemon Toys.
Following our brief about “Lemonade for All“, Loris&Livia decide to rethink the traditional wooden lemon reamer. They teamed up with skilled wood carvers and turned vintage and new stair balusters into a series of kingsize sculpted juicers. Those gigantic lemon squeezers will help you prepare deliciously fantastic lemonades—the extra length adds to your natural force to get the juice out.

This is a first edition of twenty pieces, made in beech, ramin, mahogany, ash or english oak.
Each piece is unique and hand carved.

A few pictures by Maria Jeglinska during the production of her Tie Jug at Glass solutions
The Tie Jug is the second cable-tight inspired object in the work Maria has developped for DesignMarketo.
The Tie Jug was initially presented at our “Lemonade For All” series of commissions presented during Sofia Design Week 2011.

Sometimes we receive very nice emails—this one is one of them. It perfectly illustrates what we believe is beautiful around what DesignMarketo is doing…

Lisa, in Chicago, bought the Stihl Life Plate Olivier designed and made, in Paris-France, for our Dinner with DesignMarketo at Barbican, in London.
And she wrote back to Olivier, sending him pictures of the arrival—and Olivier forwarded us her email. Chouette!

Thank you Lisa, thank you Olivier!

* Lisa Smith is a designer, educator, and writer based in Chicago and is part of the Object Design League, an organisation that promote experimental design in the Chicago IL area; Olivier Lellouche is a designer based in Paris, he started up his own design studio with a clear motto: ‘fun, machines & nature’.

** have you seen Amandine’s pictures of Seeds, Sprouts, Shoots and Leaves yet?

The 15 degree wall shelves designed and made by Lars Frideen are featured in the current Wallpaper issue (April 2011)—IDEABOOKS used those for their popup shop at St Martins Lane in London, and OMMU bookshopin Athen use them to feature their most interesting publications.

In the issue the work of Lars is used to showcase a “mood-enhancing mix of this month’s hottest products”.

The shelves are available from DesignMarketo directly but you might want to get in touch first to check dimension and custom sizing and modules.

Yesterday Andrew and Shai invited us to discover their most recent project and sample a few nitro ice cream… You might have read about it recently – London has finally got its first nitro icecream bar. They designed the interior of the new Chin Chin Laboratories’s nitro icecream bar in Camden.

As a key idea behind their work they developped a mad scientists lab environement, where preparation area, display cabinet and lightning devices are all inter-connected with a lot of playfulness.
No wire on the floor; everything goes trough the pipes seems to be one of the main very practical feature. Details amongst others, that I really liked, the cords of the swing have been partially un-woven and re-woven on themselves – there’s no knot!

* Chin Chin Laboratories are located in Camden – the address is 49 Camden Lock Place.

** Andrew Haythornthwaite and Shai Akram began their collaboration shortly after graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2006 on the Design Products course headed by Ron Arad. Their projects have taken them to China, New Zealand and now, back to the UK.
They presented their Fruit Fishing for FoodMarketo in Milan 2010; which is based on the scientific fact that apples float and pears don’t.

While browsing the archives, we stumbleupon this short animation that we made a little while ago and never published – it was made to explain the assembly of the flat pack chair designed by Lars Frideen and shot on location in his studio. The chair is made out of 4 elements, piece of wood pre-cut and easy to assemble – requiring no glue or screw.

* Lars also designed the 15 wall shelves working on the same principles of sliding and interlocking simple wood elements – providing a functional storage solution.

** Pictures from Interior Photography

Ken updated his website; he decided to use the see-through technique; instead of representing his work, he used a frame to curate others representing his work.

http://www.kenkirton.com/

Although, I am hesitent to call this my new website, I would prefer my new frame. There are already enough platforms where we can voice our opinions, display our work and even publish our everyday thoughts. Therefore instead of creating an exhibit of work I have created a frame, enjoy! It’s Friday.

* Ken’s work on DesignMarketo: Cook for a day, Three Boys, One Bench and An Apple a Day.

The Theatre of the Air/ AIRSPACE ACTIVISM=ENACTING THE INVISIBLE
is a set of 2 exhibitions – in London and Newcastle
it is the fruit of the collaboration in between geography researcher Dr Alison J Williams and Interactions designer Nelly Ben Hayoun

Where beats this Human Heart/ Space in Between
Exhibition runs 19/06/10 ‐ 23/06/10
The Bunker
@ The Print House
18 Ashwin street
London E8 3DL

A disused WWII air raid shelter in Dalston, East London, is the backdrop for the exhibition. Inside the passages and chambers of this dark and cavernous subterranean, 5 artists have created a spectacle of sensory and experiential overload.
Use an audio locator to spot the planes coming!

Interventions/ Newcastle University
Exhibition runs 28th June- 2nd July
The Exlibris Gallery
The Quadrangle
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU

Who owns the airspace above our heads? How can we take back control of these spaces? What is the extent of the airspace we can control?

Nelly Ben Hayoun (Interactions designer) and Dr Alison J Williams (geography researcher) met through the Interventions Project, an initiative based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. This venture teamed for 8 weeks designers with social scientists to develop innovative ways of commenting on their academic research.

(more…)

Alexandre Bettler (co-founder of DesignMarketo), Régis Tosetti and Loris&Livia are part of the exhibition Switzerland Design for Life at the A Foundation – along with our friends Laurent Benner, Jürg and Urs Lehni and Lex Trub. The show will feature as well Bureau Collective, Bureau Destruct, Elena Rendina, Grotesk, GVA Studio, ID Pure studio, Kellenberger-White, Kueng Caputo, Nerves, Stefan Jost, Super Position, Voegeli Voegeli, Zak Kyes and a few others.

* The show is on from this friday (private view by invitation) until July the 1st, 2010
** A Foundation: Rochelle School and Club – Arnold Circus, London E2 Old Street tube station, Shoreditch Overground (East London Line)