How Do You Improve Jacobsen's Egg Chair? Cover It In Helen Amy Murray's Leathers

Above: Arne Jacobsen's classic Egg chair given new life with the "Peony" leather fabric.

Above: detail of "Peony" design

Helen Amy Murray is internationally recognized for hand-crafted, luxury creations inspired by nature and form, to create 3D surfaces within textiles.


above: 'Bird and Blossom', one of her newest designs

Helen won the Oxo-Peugeot Prize in 2004 for her innovative designs. She develops bespoke commissions using luxury materials for applications ranging from interior products, upholstery, wall coverings and art.

Below are some of her previous projects, done for personal and commissioned clients.
She certainly knows how to bring life back into an old wing chair or tub chair! Take a look at these stunning pieces:

Above: Wing chairs enhanced with the Bloom Pattern

Above: detail of "bloom" on wing chairs

Above: an otherwise boring tub chair is reinvigorated with "Bloom"

Above: Detail of "bloom" on a tub chair

Above: A traditional Edwardian armchair upholstered in "Rose"

Here are some of her wonderful patterns, both her newest collection and some of her classics.
These, along with more, were unveiled at the 100% Futures section of the 100% Design show:


Above: Succulent

Above: Chrysanthemum

Above: Oriental Flower

Above: Tropical

Above: Lattice

Above: Feathers

Above: Fishscales

Above: The designer, Helen Amy Murray. As lovely as her work.

Helen Amy Murray


E-mail the artist here.

Vitamins For Your Home

Vitamin Living designs some terrific new products.

You're probably familiar with their 'urban gnomes'(immediately below),
but did you know that Vitamin makes many other cool products as well?


Above: Vitamin's hip china urban gnomes, also available through their site.

Shown Above:
Tab A (a vase and ashtray in one), Tab B (a planter and ashtray in one) and two their new salt and pepper shaker designs are shown above. "Hoody" where the salt and pepper come through etched butterflies in stainless steel tops and Pebbles, where the salt and pepper come through the etched designs.

Above: The E-light. Lights that subtly interact to movement sound and the arrival of emails.



Above: their Hex lampshades and dinnerware collections.
See more about Vitamin and shop their online store by going here.

Floating Houses: The Wave of The Future?

Pardon the pun, I honestly couldn't help myself.

Awhile back I did a post on hotels built on the water. Now I have found AquaDomi*, a modular system of floating houses. Although the images are computer generated, apparently these are available and for sale, not prototypes.

* like many of these proposed floating and underwater residences, the company has gone out of business since I wrote this post and there is no website.

AquaDomi has built cafes and restaurants using these design principles.
They describe themselves on their own site below (from the English version):
AquaDomi is the houseboat of the future, because it is module based and therefore gives the owner the possibility to create his own house, exactly the way he wants.
It is the goal of AquaDomi to deliver a unique and individual design, which fulfils the wishes and demands of both present and future.

The Noma is their newest line of floating houses ...
The Noma series is available in three models: 64 sq.m., 96 sq.m. et 160 sq.m.



The houseboats have a floor-to-ceiling height of 300/250 cm or 250/240 cm. Family Noma is the largest in the series. The Family Noma is ideal for a family with children or alternatively two families that wish to live together. The houseboat can also be used as a combined home and office. Family Noma is spacious and has many terraces. It is family-friendly for those who would like to live close to the water. The access to the houseboat goes through the terrace/court.

The two bedrooms each have an area of 16 sq.m. and are equipped with wardrobes. Each bedroom has its own terrace that is accessed through sliding doors. The kitchen is available in many colours and variations. It is centrally placed. AquaDomi offers a large variety of light, well-arranged quality kitchens with all modern equipment. The dining room and living room are connected to the kitchen and the arrangement offers many possibilities. The living rooms with large panoramic windows open to the smallest terrace, which is partly covered. There are two wonderful bathrooms with shower and two technical rooms for the technical installations. The total area of the house is 120 sq.m. The surface of the terraces is 4 x 8 sq.m. and 1 x 12 sq.m.

Model A160HB01 Family Noma.
The model is designed by Teodor Mikkelsen, Denmark.
The construction is based on AquaDomi's modular system.

AquaDomi concept as worded by them:
We have tried with AquaDomi to integrate a number of contrasts in one concept in order to unite the best of both worlds. It is a floating residence that combines the comfort and the spaciousness of the house with the boat’s location and mobility. AquaDomi is a product that combines unique architecture that is tailored for the owner’s individual needs, with the economic and quality advantages that a rational production offers.







The following holds true for most all their models:

Guarantee- 2 years with service inspection and 5 years right to submit complaints.

The floating restaurant is delivered and assembled on location, by the AquaDomi® service team. When everything is in place, a certificate for the logbook and the insurance/financing company is issued. Read more about delivery and maintenance here.

Delivery time is 3-4 months counting from the date of the order.

Choice of material: We will discuss the choice of materials with you, so that you at the end of the process have unique, waterborne restaurant – your and your customers' satisfaction.

See their brochure slide show on slideshare here

All exterior materials are maintenance-free and need only washing once a year. Materials and profiles can vary according to your choice.

Infrastructure: The houseboat is connected to the public infrastructure for water, waste water, electricity, telephone, community antenna and internet.

Into water related architecture? Then have I got some great posts for you!

•Floating Hotels and Offices

•Bouroullec Brothers Floating House

•The Underwater Poseidon Resort & H2Ome

•The Silverfish Floating Home

Handled With Care: Contemporary Ceramics Show Opens Today

‘handled with care’
163 designers from 35 countries,
more then 500 contemporary ceramic pieces
To see updates on the show click here.

Viral Maketing Better Than Product: Bullet Proof Baby.

UPDATE: In 2007 I blogged about Bulletproof baby- what I thought was a company that made actual Bulletproof baby gear and infant safety protection. Even then I thought it seemed absurd, I didn't make the leap to the fact that it was part of a marketing rouse (nor did slashgear, gawker, metro uk and many other sites and bloggers) for a then soon to be released film.

Since then it has come to light, that the entire site, the products and the wildly shocking video were all part of a 'viral' marketing plan for what must have been an awful film called Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owens, Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci that was released in 2007.


the plot synosis: A man named Mr. Smith delivers a woman's baby during a shootout, and is then called upon to protect the newborn from the army of gunmen. The movie promised a lot of shooting (at one point Clive Owen even shoots the umbilical cord off a newborn).

Sadly, the site, the viral marketing video (the video shown below in which a mother is firing an automatic weapon at her baby clad in a bulletproof stroller) and the products within are far more interesting than the film turned out to be. See for yourself.

My post as it ran 2 years ago (now with a few parentheticals and addendums):



Can only afford a house in a not-so-safe neighborhood? Afraid to raise kids in a geographic area that's got a safety rating of 2? Fear no more! Bulletproof Baby Gear is here. The following products are not a joke, and what blows me away (pardon the pun) is that almost everything is out of stock.

Need a bullet proof stroller? Cost is $599.00 and it's sold out.


How about a Baby Flak Vest (seen below)? $70 and sold out.

Baby's first gas mask? My First Gas Mask runs $264.00 and is out of stock.

How about a riot helmet, a shield?
My first D4-55 riot helmet:


a Bullet proof crib? Yep, they're all sold out.


The toddler taser:




Watch them shoot up the baby stroller in their demo video (now uncovered to be a viral marketing ploy):


They also have some fun and well designed logos (see below) for the faux company and you can buy real merchandise from them at their cafepress store here.


The founders:

The 'now known to be phony' story behind the company:

Welcome to Bullet Proof Baby Industries, the baby protection specialists. I'm Stella Stevenson, Founder and CEO of BPB Industries. I've been an industrial designer all my life, and decided to establish 'bullet proof baby' when my first son, Randy, was nearly killed in a drive by shooting in 2004.

When stray bullets hit the pram but narrowly missed my son, I realized there was a gap in the market for a range of products to protect babies in today's increasingly violent society. Since founding the business in 2005, we've gone from strength to strength, adding new products to our line, and winning awards for our product design innovations. Please note that due to recent events, demand for some of our products has been high and as a result some may be temporarily out of stock. Make sure you check back soon! Make your baby safer today, with Bullet Proof Baby industries.

----Stella & Brian

I had never heard of the movie written and directed by Michael Davis (perhaps you did?) despite it starring 2 of my favorite male actors and was put out by New Line Cinema.


see bullet proof baby here.

learn more about the movie here


Other Phony Viral Sites:

POMEGRANATE PHONE

Another viral marketing rouse that has continued to fool the public and garner a great deal of attention,is that of the faux Pomegranate Phone. I am still amazed how many of my readers write to me requesting the price or where they can purchase it.

TATTOO YOUR HEART
And then there was this phony site and service to promote a new music release from Vikunju, promising to tattoo your actual beating heart:

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