Vahakn Matossian

Vahakn Matossian is a British-Armenian designer studying at the Royal College of Art and Design. I recently came his site and love the Bear+Cart project, a mobile workshop where Vahakn creates totems for the curious passer-by based on his/her wishes and stories.

For those of you in the Denver area, that should get you inspired to work on your artifact over the long weekend for the Community Challenge: My Little Mania. Also Pecha Kucha Night Volume 4 is Tuesday at Buntport!

B3 Designers

While browsing through the many photos of London Design Week, I came across this amazing project by the British design firm B3. They constructed an entire Cardboard Cafe out of 8,000 boxes. Everything from tables and walls to seating and cups were made from cardboard and edged with orange paint for a nice visual effect.

5.5 Designers: Cloning

French studio 5.5 Designers have created made-to-measure seating based on an individual's weight and posture. The chairs and stools are part of the group's amazing Cloning series, where everything from furniture to combs are made to order (and made to fit).

Kevin van Braak

Dutch designer Kevin van Braak's 'Caravan' offers a little piece of park on the go. This towable trailer unfolds to reveal an elevated green space, complete with flowers and a small campfire area. Seems like the perfect addition to Park(ing) Day, which I am hoping to be part of in Denver this year.

Hotel Transvaal

Hotel Transvaal is a city wide community hotel project taking place in the Hague, Netherlands. The city, which is undergoing drastic urban redevelopment, has found a unique way to keep both commerce and neighborhoods intact during the transition. Led by a group of artists, Hotel Transvaal offers one to five star accommodations in buildings across town; structures slated for demolition or new residences which have not yet been occupied.

The result is a series of roaming hotel rooms, with reception services offered by people in the neighborhood. A local cafe becomes the hotel restaurant, a gallery - the lobby. In this way, local residents feel the economic benefit while building community ties.

Sparks: Sarah van Gameren

Sarah van Gameren's work is just as much about performance and process as it is about the final product. With 'Big Dipper' Sarah designed a machine that can create 24 chandeliers in a 24-hour period through the process of traditional candle making. The machine periodically dips the forms into vats of molten wax, building up 12 layers over time. Read about Sarah's other cool project 'Burn, Burn, Burn' here.

Sparks: Brian Dettmer

With nothing but an exact-o, some surgical tools and a whole lot of patience, artist Brian Dettmer creates these amazing book sculptures. I can't even imagine how long these take to create, but they're beautiful.

Sparks: Magnetosphere Quilt

The intersection of science and design has always been fascinating to me, and I'm not talking leaf motifs on pillows - I mean true mega-nerd, ultra-geek combinations. Like this fellow from San Fransisco who creates amazingly beautiful images and video through processing. He gave an image he created of the magnetosphere (top) to his very talented mom who translated into quilt form (bottom).

Not only are the colors and design great, but the craftsmanship is amazing too. Not being able to find a wide enough fabric for the backing she used one inch squares for the entire project. She should team up with Denyse Schmidt!

If you like nerdy science imagery like me (after all I named my kickball team Science for the People), you should check out the rest of Robert's site, especially the butterfly project.

Sparks: Tokujin x Moroso

This week's Sparks goes to Yoshioka Tokujin for his recent installation at Moroso. During the Milan Furniture Fair, Tokujin transformed the Moroso showroom into a ethereal wonderland all by using the most humble of items - the drinking straw. Utilizing over 3 million transparent straws, Tokujin crafted these amazing cloud-like structures as part of an exhibition for his new Panna chair (center).

Sparks: Because We Can

This week's Sparks focuses on the wondrous work of the Oakland based design company Because We Can. They recently completed a project for Three Rings, a video game development company in San Fransisco. Working collaboratively with their clients, Because We Can designed and transformed a 3,000 sq. ft. office space into neo-Victorian, steam punk wonderland based on the Nautilus from the novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

The project included:

• Custom built desks designed by Three Rings employees
• A Tentacle Attack lounge with 10-19 ft. tentacle cushions
• The Salon, a conference/dining area with custom lighting and idea boards
  
• And one amazing bike storage room, aka the Engine Room (via lfstyl)

Sparks: TransPlastic

The concept behind Humberto and Fernando Campana's latest project 'TransPlastic' is pure genius. The collection tells the fictional story of how nature reacts to the mass quantities of synthetic materials we've produced by running rampant and overgrowing it. The series is on display right now at the Albion Gallery in London and includes seating, lighting and tables.

However, when you look at the top image it is clear which pieces are the most successful. The 'Illuminated Meteors' (aka blobs of light) seem unfinished as if the bulbs themselves were an afterthought, while the single chairs are too similar in form to the original shapes. The best of the collection by far are the larger, amorphous multi-seat creations. They are the ones that hold true to the story - nature growing wild over everything plastic in its path. They leave much more to the imagination than just a single plastic chair that happens to be surrounded by wicker.

Sparks: Tunnel Vision

In 2005 sculptors Dan Havel and Dean Ruck transformed two Houston area homes into a spiraling vortex of awesome. Utilizing the structures' existing siding, the artists created a funnel-shaped hole that led users in walking upright...only to leave them crawling out the other side. The installation was made possible because the buildings were slated for demolition, which also sadly means this project has come and gone. (via designboom)

Sparks: Keetra Dean Dixon

Keetra Dean Dixon is moving right up the ranks on my list of designers to watch. I wrote about her 'Everything will be OK' bedspread earlier this week, but wanted to share more of her fascinating work.

Now I'm a big fan of public art in general, but I love it when installations are hidden and meant to be discovered. Much of Keetra's work aims to, "encourage patience and optimism in unexpected circumstances."

This can be seen in her series 'Little Public Plaques', in which tiny messages are left throughout the city and in her 'Photobooth' project. The booth was left in semi-public spaces with no explanation as to it's extra qualities. Users posed for photos as normal, but then received pictures which were, "analyzed and customized with forecasts consisting of patterns, symbols and messages."

Sparks: River Glow

'River Glow' is an intriguing concept put forth by designers Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin. A runner-up in Metropolis's Next Generation Design Competition, this project aims to monitor water quality while providing some pretty visuals.

The mechanics work like this: an LED is connected to strands of fiber optics, which turn color in reaction to the water's pH level. The optics are also joined by thins strips of photovoltaics, which assist in keeping the LED recharged.

When the water's pH is OK, a green glow occurs...but when the pollution levels are high, the floating mass turns red - creating a gentle reminder of the normally invisible pollution that is all around us. While I think this project is wonderful, my first thought in seeing the image above was what if a boat ran through all these floating apparatuses? I can just see trails of red dragging from boat propellers everywhere. Could be just as interesting though... (Via Inhabit)

Sparks: Gerda Steiner & Jorg Lenzlinger

Recently there was quite a bit of internet buzz surrounding Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger's 'Falling Garden' installation in Venice. The Swiss artists, who have been working together since 1997, create some of the most magical and inspiring installations I have ever seen.
Their work often revolves around the idea of a garden, a place that is both a source of quiet reflection and wild growth. Each piece tells a fascinating story, but beneath each project's beautiful presentation and whimsical design, lies a deeper narrative that deserves as much attention as the artwork itself. The installations often include found objects - everything from plant life to pigeon bones, discarded cables to tiny car parts.

If you have few minutes, I recommend browsing through their website, which is filled with wonderful descriptions about the concept behind each project.

Some of my favorites include 'Heimatmaschine' (bottom image) and 'How Did the Walrus Get to Madrid'? (middle two images) The latter is part investigation expose, part ode to the displaced walrus, who found himself on the wall of the Natural Science Museum in Madrid. The artists explore the animal's origins and mythical legends surrounding walruses throughout the world.

The most wonderful artist's statement though is hidden in the summary of 'Brain Forest', shown in the top two images. A crazy collection of objects are suspended and connected to represent the wild connections of the brain.

In the artists own words, "In the rain forest of the brain, the bio-diversity of thoughts proliferates and the intellect's short-circuits whirr in your eyes. Needless to say, as time goes by the circuits get tired and nervous; there are burn-outs and failures. But chance creates the most sparkling ideas."

Sparks: The Wrong Store

"It's really a collection of all of our favorite things," is how Tobias Wong and Gregory Krum described the products in their most recent project, The Wrong Store. Located in a small storefront in West Chelsea, The Wrong Store is a guerrilla concept in the form of a pop-up shop. The catch is you can't enter the store and you can't buy anything, at least not individually. You see, the goods in the Wrong Store come as all or nothing package.

Nearly three years after Tobias's 'Terminal 5' project in JFK (an installation which sadly only lasted three days), a new store has come to life, this time in a 6' x 10' room. The small space didn't stop Tobias and Gregory, Retail Director for the Cooper-Hewitt, from assembling an amazing collection of limited edition, and in some cases one-of-a-kind pieces, that blend art, fashion and design.

The Wrong Store is truly window shopping at its finest, only you'll have to get your wistful watching in soon because this little shop will only be open for two months. Thanks again to Tobias for being the nicest guy at ICFF, from giving me a mini-tour of the shop to getting my friends into an overcrowded party, meeting him was one of the highlights of Design Week.

Take a look of at some of the highlights from The Wrong Store below.

A passerby glances past the "Come in...we're closed" sign outside The Wrong Store.

Everything in it's place... the perfectly curated desk.

Five shelves of goods...

Yves Behar's 'Monster' sculpture and sunglasses by Bless.

Close-up of the sunglasses by Bless.

'Helmet' - a hand crocheted gas mask affixed to a helmet by Hella Jongerius and the 'Totem Doppelganger by Anton Ginzburg for Kid Robot.

'Money Cube' by Dean MacGregor and 'Brush #2' by Fredrickson Stallard.

'One Minute Sculpture' by Marcel Wanders, 'Vase' by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and 'ExoLight' by Laurent Massaloux.