Archive for the ‘Product Design’ Category

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Sneak peek | Fun with felt: Custom ornament prototype

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Around the holidays, we made some special Christmas gifts — they were ornaments based on our child’s drawings (our 5 year old Jr. VP!).

We had a few requests to have custom ornaments available in the future and while it’s no longer the season, these things take time and we’ve put our thinking caps on! Behold, a first prototype in 100% wool felt, in a beautifully vibrant shade of red:

As fun as they were in acrylic, the ornaments are spindly which could lead to the little limbs snapping off, and frankly, it smells horrible to laser cut plastic. (Not to worry, our laser has a carbon filter, but it certainly does not smell like roses or anything good for you).

Wool felt on the other hand is quite pliable and doesn’t smell any worse than a hair dryer. We’ve washed the final product and there’s actually no residual odor.

So we’ve got our thinking caps on and will be experimenting with designs for some trivets and other household goods aside from the ornaments. What do you think?

 

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Inspiration | Streets Clock by Fluid Form

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Obviously, we have an affinity for things that are laser-cut (all of our engraved wood designs are made with our laser-cutter).

So color us impressed when we came across Fluid Forms‘ Streets Clock.  While the laser-cut design is impressive in itself, what really pushed it over the edge for us, was being able to make a personalized clock on-the-fly using the street map of the city of your choice.

I made a clock of our hometown of Ottawa, ON with the hands centered on Parliament Hill:

Or you can check out this neat little gallery below:

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Inspiration | Cuboro marble runs

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

I found the cuboro blocks a while back and I lost the link along the way. It took me minutes! (which I think is long for google-searching) to find it again, and I think I had to luck in on a search for “wooden cubes ball run“. 

In any event, I thought about the cuburo blocks again because Eric and I were talking about really cool toys that a) don’t require batteries, b) have long-lasting play-value and c) actually seem fun enough for us to play with. Our own son might be a little young for this yet, but doesn’t it look fun?:

Cuboro marble run starter kit

Larger Cuboro set

The blocks are all made with FSC accredited beech wood that is left untreated.

Of course, such a toy doesn’t come with a chintzy Wal-Mart price-tag.
You can buy these wooden marble run blocks online at Inquisitive Kid, and a starter kit is $149, and a larger set is $199. Yeah. A bit pricey to just go out and buy on a whim, but one can dream for future birthdays right? (For a child, I mean.. yeah…)

Happy family with cuboro

I guess if the actual toy is too expensive, we could always just get him the cool books about building different runs ($27.50).
cuboro books

While Cuboro doesn’t really have a direct link to our own modern jewelry designs, it’s always inspiring for us to see what products are out there, using simple, natural materials.

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Inspiration | Plushie! for the pattern impaired

Friday, December 14th, 2007

Saw this via BoingBoing:

It’s “Plushie: an interactive design system for plush toys“. It’s a little interactive program that allows someone who couldn’t draw a pattern to save their life (me! me!) to create patterns for 3D plush toys. They’ve got a link for the demo program (see under ‘Demonstrations’), but it’s for Windows only and not for us lowly mac users. It looks intriguing enough though, that I’m willing to unearth my old, loud PC to give it a shot.

I’ve made plushies in the past, but they’ve been more along the lines of fluffified flat shapes, as evidenced by these:

These are my version of Eric’s parents, done in miniature, about 5″ high, with cardboard versions of their furniture. It was part of their Christmas gift a couple of years ago, and it’s been hard to top… I figure the gift of the grand-child will just have to suffice now.

In any case, I’m already thinking I’d like to try more 3D plushies when there’s actually time. (Time?)

Oh and FYI: next Tuesday the 18th is our last day for taking orders. Then we’re closing shop until New Year’s. We’ll still be around answering emails though. And if you’re stuck for a gift, and don’t want to do the panicked, last-minute shipping, we’ve always got gift certificates.

Posted in Inspirations, Textiles | 1 Comment »

Inspiration | Beyond just a folding chair

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

I can’t remember where I found this originally, but I did think it was cool enough at the time to bookmark it.

This is definitely a design I’d like to see up close and personally.

P.S. Happy fourth of July to our American friends!

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Inspiration | Expanding shoes = Longer product life

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

We found Inchworm shoes recently via surfing Gizmodo.
These kids’ shoes expand one full size (in half-size increments) thereby increasing the amount of time that your kid can actually wear them since for such wee little feet chances are, the shoes won’t get worn out, but rather grown out.

There’s quite the range of styles for both little girls and boys. It’s nice to know that 5% of the sales goes towards Juvenile Diabetes Research.
The Prowler ($19.95)

Cute! These slip-on Primers ($19.95)

From a product design point of view, I’d love to get my hands on a pair to see just how the sizing mechanism works.

(They even address this a bit in their FAQ:
Why hasn’t this been done before?
Because as simple as it is to operate the shoe – this was not easy to accomplish!)

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Inspiration | Mmm… sushi

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

One of the (many) things I missed being able to eat while pregnant was sushi — I mean real sushi with the raw fish and not the placate-the-craving-with-the-cooked-stuff kind that I was able to eat. Though, I do have to say that the Dynamic Rolls and some of the other special Maki at Sushi Time on Queen St. in Toronto are really freakin’ good.

But I digress. This post is supposed to be about some cool sushi-inspired pillows. My brother and sister-in-law recently purchased these pillows and apparently they’re just as cool in person.

The pillows are made by Cindy Tomm and Mel Maghuyop and sold on their site. These original sushi pillows make a good I-heart-sushi gift :), especially when they’ve got a fall sale going on.

My favourite is the Ebi Nigiri, for the shape of the shrimp ($35 US). (Yes, I realize this is a ‘cooked’ sushi — the eating and the pillow-thing are different).

The rolls are pretty cool too.
Like this ‘Flat California Roll’ ($36):

You can see the full catalog here, and then go out for sushi.

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Inspiration | Eee! Monsters!

Thursday, September 28th, 2006

We love our unusual plush around here.

Eric recently came across Cotton Monster (via Modish) — the work of quilt/monster maker Jennifer Strunge. Jennifer makes a range of monsters that vary in size and price (between $35US for a baby monster and $80 for a more grown-up one).

The monsters are all made with recycled clothes and linens. A much better use for a fleece that’s been outgrown, I’d say.

Make sure you check out the Monster Care guide and the Cotton Monster blog. Jennifer’s got images of some crazy big monsters there and other fabulous creations.

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Inspiration | Multi-functional furniture

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

There’s something functionally cool about furniture that does double duty for different functions. In the most recent issue of dwell magazine, we saw an ad for some pretty cool products by the European furniture company, mobelform.

Many of their pieces are suitable for very small European-type spaces and makes great use of very tight spaces. Of course, there are some hefty price tags to go along with such ingenuity, unfortunately.

First up is the Nuovoliola at $10,180. It’s a wall-bed unit that went put away is a little love seat with a shelf on top. Pulled down, the shelf is a support for the bed and a shoe rack. Nifty.

This next piece, the Doc Divano ($5470), is kind of fun since it’s a sofa and a bunk bed all rolled into one:

Finally, the Spazio 05 ($6020) is a neat idea, but I think it only works well if you can keep a desk uncluttered enough to withstand the movement up and down.

The listing of mobelform’s latest products is here, or you can view their full catalogue.

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Inspiration | Play with your furniture

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006

We found Movisi‘s modular storage/shelving system, PLAY, via DesignSpotter. In many ways PLAY is like lego for grown-ups except that it allows you to make your own furniture.


There are 3 basic elements to the PLAY system and together they let you create a variety of configurations. Movisi sells PLAY kits starting at €30.00 for a one-cube kit.

Seems both fun and practical to me. Fun since you can reconfigure your shelf whenever you like and practical since the pieces are made with a lightweight closed-cell foam that’s friendly to hardwood floors and walls and easy to clean.

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