At one small seed we believe in the power of unique ideas and novel concepts. Ranging from technology, design, art and music, we’ve compiled a collection of crazy, fascinating, funny and bizarre findings that we think would be of interest to you. Here are some of our favourite finds this past week. Stay tuned for weekly material…
Image: The Mag
Image: Design Milk
It’s easy to forget to water your plants, but product design outfit Design Soil is making it easier for plant-owners to remember to feed their plants. Water Balance is a vase structure created by Japanese designer Risako Matsumoto for Design Soil. The shelf-like structure lends a new form of intelligence to plant-life, allowing the green shrubs to communicate with their owners. When the plant is perfectly hydrated Water Balance maintains even balance, but once the water has evaporated from the vase the structure tips to one side. The wooden piece is simple and and minimalist, making it an easy fixture to fit in any setting.
Image: PSFK
Business cards play a crucial role in attracting new clients. A boring business card could land in the trash, effectively pushing your company closer to the bottom, but a creative business card could help develop a brand’s success. Ad agency JWT Brazil tapped into this thought-process and created a business card that both reflects the business’s purpose and is usable to clients beyond being a generic piece of paper with contact details.
Bon Vivant is a Brazilian store that specialises in cheese. The shop teamed up with JWT to create the Grater Card — a light metal business card that can grate all kinds of cheese while giving important contact information for Bon Vivant. The clever card has become a viral hit in Brazil to the extent where the cheese connoisseurs have required customers to wait two to three days before asking for a new card. The handy card comes with a protective sleeve so that the grater remains as clean as possible before use.
Image: Iris Scott
Iris Scott is a 28-year-old who creates fine art oil paintings with the tools of oil paint, surgical gloves, and her fingers. Scott began experimenting with fine art and finger painting while in Taiwan. The artist explains that during her stay in Southern Taiwan she struggled to captures her vision of flowers using brush techniques and started using her fingers instead, developing an entirely new aesthetic. As a result, Scott’s works have been commended for the hypnotic movement, sensory texture, and vivacious colours.
Selfridges Drive-Thru Shopping
Image: Julian Castle
Image: Facebook
Online shopping has been a rage for many years now with the advent of online stores like Amazon conveniently helping shoppers to purchase their goods from the comfort of their homes. Selfridges plays host to some of fashion’s most exclusive upmarket brands, and the luxury department store is now opening its doors to online customers. The new service is dubbed ‘Click and Collect’ and it allows clients to purchase their sophisticated pieces online and then collect their items at a drive-thru reception area. Selfridges has been on of the UK’s premier fashion retailers for over 100 years and their deep seated heritage ensures both quality and loyalty to customer satisfaction. However, like many well-established historical brands, Selfridges needs to adapt to the online marketplace and the developing world of new technologies. As such ‘Click an Collect’ is Selfridges’s attempt to occupy more space in the cyberworld. Although customers can buy clothing and accessories online, their purchase will be finalised once they have fitted their outfits and are satisfied with the results.
Image: PSFK
Image: PSFK
Some people love to start their day off with a cup of coffee, but others prefer a soothing cup of tea. If you belong to the latter group then you’ll enjoy Hälssen & Lyon‘s newly created calendar which is almost entirely comprised of tea leaves. Each day is a new bag of tea, and the leaves have been pressed down into wafer-thin tear-off strips that can easily be separated from the calendar and splashed into a cup of steamy goodness. The currently available calendars are being distributed as gifts for Hälssen & Lyon’s business partners and it is uncertain as to whether or not the calendars will be available for public purchase.
Image: PSFK
Living near the ocean is a definite benefit for people who love to surf, but for people who a crave a surfboard experience and are at the disadvantage of having limited or no ocean access there is little chance their craving will be satisfied. However, in an era where people are doing incredibly innovative and imaginative things, the lines between possible and impossible seem to be dissipating. Waveskate allows a surfer to ride the streets or waves as it transforms from surfboard to skateboard and vice versa in seconds. The Kickstarter project aims to create a high quality sporting equipment that serves dual purposes and combines the disciplines of surfing and skating to encourage more interaction between the sports as well as wider participation.
Image: Design Boom
Image: Design Boom
Louis Vuitton Shanghai has opened a new store in a commercial building called L’Avenue. The 24-storey building houses a basement, retail podium and offices, yet most impressively it resembles a giant shoe — a fit to Louis Vuitton’s presence in the building as L’Avenue is now the destination for Louis Vuitton’s largest flagship store. Jun Aoki teamed up with Leigh & Orange architects to create the structure which will feature as a landmark site in Shanghai. Environmental architecture is becoming an increasingly rising phenomenon and Aoki and Leigh & Orange have looked into previous works to develop L’Avenue with the ability to recycle rainwater for irrigation, reduced water consumption and incoporate green areas.
Images: Facebook, Design Boom, PSFK, The Mag, Design Milk, Iris Scott
