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SWAROVSKI X PHILIPS Announce CRYSTAL USB Drives






Philips and Swarovski partner to bring a range of innovative fashion accessories

Amsterdam, the Netherlands/Paris, France, Mar 22, 2007 - Leveraging both companies’ strengths, Philips and Swarovski have jointly designed and developed a range of new and unique products that will take technology to a new, fashionable level for women. The Philips and Swarovski alliance will develop new market opportunities for each company by integrating high fashion and technology.

The first fashionable innovations created by Philips and Swarovski are the Active Crystals range of products which will be launched this summer includes sound accessories and storage devices.



"Philips alliance with Swarovski combines two distinct and strong brands in order to create a unique proposition for consumers,” said Rudy Provoost, Chief Executive Officer, Philips Consumer Electronics. “The outcome of the alliance is a range of products that go back to the essence of what many women are looking for: The fusion of functionality and fashion through a unique combination of technology and elegance. We are combining luxurious design with the practical, everyday benefits of consumer electronics to complement Philips’ brand promise Sense and Simplicity and Swarovski brand promise of Poetry & Precision"



Combining Simplicity and Poetry of Precision
The new range is the first result of the Philips and Swarovski alliance focusing on providing performance and class, offering technology with style and demonstrating a feeling of movement and activity combined with fashionable innovation. Targeted towards fashion conscious women, the products combine the technologies of both companies to create unique, high-end products with a luxurious look and feel.

“The Philips and Swarovski alliance brings together the greatness of two companies with common values of uncompromising focus on quality, design and technological innovation,” said Daniel Cohen, Member of Swarovski’s Executive Board. “Both brands have distinct identities, rich histories and a passion to re-invent and enhance their value propositions, pursuing both brand repositioning and commercial goals. The result of this partnership will be a series of products that will provide women and consumers with meaningful and fashionable products that will enhance their lives.”



Swarovski is a well-known brand in the fashion and jewellery industry. It brings credibility, style and design to the alliance and an opportunity to create a unique product proposition with Philips. Unlike other products using the Swarovski crystal stones, the Active Crystals combine unique elements of functionality and fashion: truly jewels with a soul.




A limited collection will be available for a June sneak preview at Colette, the concept store in Paris. The full Philips and Swarovski Active Crystals range will be commercially available in Europe, North America and Asia in department stores/consumer electronics retail and in the Swarovski stores as of August 2007.


Specific product details, pricing and availability will be announced over the coming months.

Note: A limited amount will be available in June for those of you who are true early adopters, but you will need to also purchase yourself a flight to France, because the only place to get the first release of these drives is exclusively at the store Colette, a Parisian boutique specializing in artistic design pieces.

Pantone Stuff! Plus... Dinnerware on Sale Now


Please note, there's a newer post on this blog with the largest collection of Pantone and Pantone-inspired products available globally, see it here.

I get so many compliments on this fun Pantone Color porcelain dinnerware collection that I thought I'd share the fact that it's 30% off right now at Fishes Eddy (one of only two places that carry it!)





What is Pantone®?
PANTONE® the color authority, Richard Herbert President, Pantone Inc.

Whatever your color may be, recent innovations have made reproducing that color accurately, in any medium, anywhere in the world, an affordable reality. I am proud to be able to offer our customers the most advanced, efficient and complete color solutions available today. Our newest color devices offer a practical means of streamlining the color workflow around the world. PANTONE Color Cue™2 will make your color inspiration easier. The PANTONE digital color devices will make your color vision accurate. Rely on Pantone to make accurate color easily accessible and affordable.

From print and digital color reproduction to product development for fashion and interiors, Pantone continues to offer total color solutions for all industries. Because of our forty years of experience, proven color expertise and technical know–how, Pantone has earned the reputation as the world’s color authority.

Best known for their formula guides, Pantone has a really cool website that carries lots of other unexpected goodies, templates, insights, articles and information.


Sit down and relax...
on Pantone Flight Stools!

Now you can have the same magnificent stools that were launched at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair... and will make appearances in several museums all over the world! The amazing British design team, Barber Osgerby, pays tribute to Pantone by producing a multi-dimensional chip!

These birch stools from Isokon Plus are available in a range of colors from the warmer end of the spectrum--Yellow, Pink, Red and Orange. Lawrence Herbert, founder and innovator of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® will sign 20 of this limited edition... 50 total.



Take a look at the passport holders, zip wallets, tote bags, notebooks and other things made by Pantone® below:




Look at these cute felt bags:





For those of you not familiar with the PANTONE system (also known as PMS), check out their site.

Do You Know About Pantone Universe?



To see their "cool" site, go here.

And they do Colorstrology:


Check it out

Click here to link to their main site.

Please note, there's a newer post on this blog with the largest collection of Pantone and Pantone inspired products available globally, see it here.

J Schatz Hatches A Lot More Than Egg Designs. Great Modern Home Decor.




If you are familiar with the name J Schatz at all, it's most likely in conjunction with his beautifully designed, seen everywhere that's hip, Egg Birdfeeders. (seen below).

His own site states:
Using instinct and inspiration, J Schatz creates objects that bring wonder and joy to life through the creative and innovative use of the materials at hand. We are dreamers and explorers. Clay is the primary material that inspires us to create. We mold and sculpt clay into shapes that are pierced, scratched, carved, drilled, glazed and fired into beautifully finished products.



If you shop at DWR or shop at museum stores, then you may also be familiar with his Egg lamp:



If you actually read blogs like mocoloco or design*sponge then you may even know his Buff Humpty (seen below).



But did you know that he's hatched (forgive me, I couldn't resist)....

Egg Banks?


Egg Planters?



Egg Birdhouses?



Designing Color
The J Schatz Collection features ceramic ware that is finished in one of our 24 glossy colors. They hand apply the colors using method based techniques to ensure that each product has a dazzling surface. They do not retouch our product photography. What you see is what you get.

Are you aware of his Egg Table Lamps?


Tall Egg Table Lamps?


Egg Floor Lamps?


How about his Single Stem Egg Table Lamp?


Or the Triple Stem one?


How about Vases?



Okay, so eggs don't rock your boat?... keep reading....

2000
It began humbly in 2000 when Jim Schatz made the first prototype Egg Lamp in his East Village apartment in Manhattan. The kiln was the size of a hat box and the apartment was cramped. He sought refuge in the woods three hours from the city and purchased a kiln large enough to fire thirteen products at a time.

2007
J Schatz now has four kilns and employs four hard working artists who work hand in hand with Jim to create beautiful, glossy finished ceramic ware. Thousands of products have been sold to satisfied customers located throughout all fifty states and in 13 countries around the world. The company has eleven product lines: Buff Humpty, Cilindro Pendants, Egg Banks, Egg Bird Feeders, Egg Bird Houses, Egg Lamps, Egg Planters, Happening Curtains, Night Flight To Venus, Poodle Butts and Vases.

Then what about his "Night Flight To Venus" table lamps?


Or his Solid & Pierced Cilindro Pendant Lamps?




Or his "Happening Curtains"?



Certainly his Poodle Butts will make you giggle:



As a hands on ceramic manufacturer, J Schatz promises that each product that leaves thier studio is beautifully finished and offer each customer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They design, create, assemble and ship all products from our studio in New York.



Want to learn more or to buy a J Schatz of your own?
The click here for a list of retailers

Alice Mara combines Photography & Ceramics



Alice Mara creates earthenware or slip cast porcelain that then has digitally printed images upon it, making it both beautiful and functional.




Above: Blue Skyscraper Plate

In her own words:

My work is about the urban landscape.
Having lived in London most of my life I enjoy walking around the place and taking pictures of buildings that interest me. I recently completed a body of work depicting my local environment, Walthamstow, which involved cataloguing a nostalgic journey of familiar landmarks.

Using a computer, I enhanced the photographs to give them a fantastical, surreal appeal. I like the viewer to be able to recognise the environment that I choose to decorate the plates with, either through a sense of having visited the place or a general recognition of the London theme.

By placing these images onto plates, I transform the identity, function and value of the plate into a decorative work of art which becomes readable for the viewer.

Here are just a few of her pieces:



Above: Her "Hanging People" Bowls

Above: Purple Bridge Plate




Alice Mara's contact details:
Archway Ceramics, 410 Haven Mews, 23 St Paul's Way, London E3 4AG
T: 020 8925 1706 M: 07841 574 699 E: alicemara@hotmail.com

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