The Design Crack Guide to Green
La Chanh Nguyen – Moss Bath Mat
At my firm, David Baker + Partners, we’ve really been getting into green roofs. Green roofs are basically grassy pads of moss and other plants that sit on your roof to help keep the heat in in the winter and cool in in the summer. This bath mat brings a bit of the green roof [...]
Circumflex Accent Chair by Zoe Mowat
Zoe Mowat has come up with something I find quite special. Her Circumflex accent chair is a perfect triumvirate of steel, cast plastic, and walnut which creates something that is forward thinking and yet retains an old-world richness. Usually, when I see chairs like this they’re either too clumsy or look like a robot made [...]
Bubblicious by D-Vision
D-vision very clearly ums up the beauty of their bowl the best: “A bowl comprised of varying volumes of spheres, to place fruit of different sizes, in a way that enables to position the object in a new equilibrium each time, due to the change in the center of gravity. ” How cute! An [...]
Tubes by Tsunami Glassworks
Tubes by Tsunami Glassworks was one of the highlights of ICFF for me. I’m a sucker for contemporary glass design, and this work surpassed all others in my opinion. Each piece in Tubes is hand blown and finished, and each piece has its own character and hue. When all pieces are assembled to make a [...]
Paraseat by Steven Haulenbeek
The paraseat is a beautiful concept that exploits the use of a simple mechanical concept. It’s a simple plastic cantilever with a lot at the end that allows you to wedge this thing on a post and use paraseat as a comfortable impromptu place to read a paper or have a drink. If you combine [...]
Heineken World Bottle: Green Means More than the Color of the Bottle
Heineken has created one of the most ingenious products I’ve seen in days. As you can see from the image above, the new Heineken World Bottle or WOBO can be used as a building material after its contents have been consumed. This product presents a real challenge to my moral compass. One perspective is that [...]
Double Butter: Renegade Modernists in Denver
Someone just sent me this video today, and I don’t know what to make of it. All I know is that the persons who sent me the video are part of a small Denver design and fabrication studio named Double Butter. I know they have an incredible talent for making fine furniture. I know that [...]
Balancing Bowls from Royal VKB: Stupidly Simple Measuring Device
I am in love with this product! These are the unbelievably simple measuring devices by Royal VKB called Balancing Bowls. Royal VKB, by the way, is a young Dutch kitchenware firm with a vast stable of talented designers. Their work really creates new rules for how you can eat serve and make food. It’s quite [...]
Conversation Chair by Ana Linares
Ana Linares is a freshly graduated designer who went to Pratt in New York. But even though she is fresh out of school, she has a number of competent designs under her belt, the most exciting of which is the Conversation Chair. This chair is one of those pieces that is almost an instant classic [...]
Claim(p) by Maya Goldblum
I have been cordially invited by 2Modern to do a weekly guest blog which I’m extremely excited about. As I was reviewing the posts in this blog trying to find what my niche might be, I was blown away by the the depth and diversity of the blog. I find Design Crack similar in nature [...]
Celine Green Buffalo Leather Handbag: Who knew buffalos could be so chic?
If you live in New York, chances are you have or you soon will see the Celine Green Buffalo Leather Handbag around town. It’s H-O-T hot. First, let’s talk about the buckle. It’s a really chunky buckle which, to me at least, almost reminds me of the Fendi double buckle bag in the way it [...]
Munimula Wine Tray: Innovation in Simplicity
The Wine Tray designed by Munimula is a piece I saw recently that I thought I would include as an example of simplicity at its finest. This piece actually solves a major problem which is how do I easily carry a bottle of wine and four wine glasses into the other room to serve my [...]
Carrie on Bike by Design House Stockholm
Design House Stockholm is a company that finds and creates great Scandinavian design, and they’ve been doing so since 1992. They probably have dozens of designed products that I could easily show on this site, but I’d like to start with a bike basket called Carrie. This piece gets to me because, as a daily [...]
Bombay Sapphire Martini Glass by Tomek Rygalik
You may remember several months ago that Bombay Sapphire had a competition to redesign the martini glass. Tomek Rygalik was awarded First Prize. The glass is a totally new concept in martini drinking where the stem is held from above. It looks as if it were a splash frozen in a photograph. I also imagine [...]
