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Mondrian Madness: In Furniture, Shoes, Home Decor & More.

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian has been inspiring designers for many years with his later paintings from his De Stijl genre and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. He painted a lot more than his most famous compositions of geometric grids incorporating primary colors red, blue and yellow (with white and black) but today I want to show you the incredible number of items that play off those particular pieces.

First, two of his most famous paintings shown below for context:

above: Piet Mondrian, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930

above: Piet Mondrian, Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, 1921, Tate Gallery. London.

And now the homage to those paintings by designers of all types, with products of all sorts.

above: Yves Saint Laurent's famous 'Mondrian' dress, 1965, residing in Victoria and Albert Museum

above: Kara Ross Mondrian-style clutch bag. (no longer available)

above: Christian Louboutin's Mondrian Wedge (no longer available for purchase)

above: Mondrian tumblers from MoMA
buy them here.

above: Mondrian Wool Area Rug
buy it here.

above: Piet cabinet by Al & Jo

above: Acrylic and wood wall cabinet designed by Athene Galiciadis and Cédric Carles of www.atelier2ce.org

above: Roger Schamay of Atelier Schamay designed this wonderful display cabinet for his Vitra miniature chair collection

above: Foscarini's Teorema floor lamp by Ferruccio Laviani
buy it here.

above: Nike just released these Piet Mondrian SB Dunks last May.
buy them here.

above: Mondrian T-shirt
buy it here.

above: Glass vases by PO
buy them here.

above: the Piet Bowl
Buy it here.

above: stunning lacquer boxes (actually authorized by the Piet Mondrian Hotlzman Trust)
Buy them here.

above: Mondrian style tile coasters
buy them here.

above: Mondrian inspired glass wall clock
Buy it here.

above: The Chromifocus wall mounted fireplace
Buy it here

above: the Piet bathroom cabinet by rqr.estudio was a finalist in the 2004 Cevisama show, but unfortunately has not been mass-produced.

above: Naef Modulon Blocks are clearly inspired by Piet.
Buy them here.

above: The Mondrianum is a tabletop storage box designed as a project by Dmitry Grigoriev for Art.lebedev studios.
Read about it here.

Even technology has gone Mondrian-a. Korean Media Systems has released the ARO, a 1.8-inch portable hard drive. Best known for its mobility and low power consumption, it features a built in Mondrian design, plug-and-play operation, SF-coating stability and LED indicator, USB 2.0 (480 Mbps). Available in 60g, 80g or 100g.

buy it here.

Love Mondrian and you want a Mondrian styled cake? Then contact cake artist Stephanie McLoughlin who made this adorable Mondrian cake:

Stephanie's Cakes.

above: There's even Mondrian Cheese, see it here.

About Piet Mondrian:

b. 1872, Amersfoort, The Netherlands; d. 1944, New York City

Piet Mondrian was born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, Jr., on March 7, 1872, in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. He studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, from 1892 to 1897. Until 1908, when he began to take annual trips to Domburg in Zeeland, Mondrian’s work was naturalistic—incorporating successive on influences of academic landscape and still-life painting, Dutch Impressionism [more], and Symbolism [more]. In 1909 a major exhibition of his work (with that of Jan Sluijters and Cornelis Spoor) was held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and that same year he joined the Theosophic Society. In 1909 and 1910 he experimented with Pointillism and by 1911 had begun to work in a Cubist mode. After seeing original Cubist works by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso at the first Moderne Kunstkring exhibition in 1911 in Amsterdam, Mondrian decided to move to Paris. There, from 1912 to 1914, he began to develop an independent abstract style.

Mondrian was visiting the Netherlands when World War I broke out and prevented his return to Paris. During the war years in Holland, he further reduced his colors and geometric shapes and formulated his nonobjective Neoplastic style. In 1917 Mondrian became one of the founders of De Stijl [more]. This group, which included Theo van Doesburg, Bart van der Leck, and Georges Vantongerloo, extended its principles of abstraction and simplification beyond painting and sculpture to architecture and graphic and industrial design. Mondrian’s essays on abstract art were published in the periodical De Stijl. In July 1919 he returned to Paris; there he exhibited with De Stijl in 1923, but withdrew from the group after van Doesburg reintroduced diagonal elements into his work around 1925. In 1930, Mondrian showed with Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) and in 1931 joined Abstraction-Création.

World War II forced Mondrian to move to London in 1938 and then to settle in New York in October 1940. In New York he joined American Abstract Artists and continued to publish texts on Neoplasticism. His late style evolved significantly in response to the city. In 1942 his first solo show took place at the Valentine Dudensing Gallery, New York. Mondrian died February 1, 1944, in New York.

above left: published by Taschen. Above right, published by Phaidon

Buy Mondrian Books, gifts and more here.

I continually add to my list of Mondrian inspired items here, it ill be more recently updated than this post, so be sure to check it out!

Blondel Chocolates and +41 Make Sweet Collaborations With Nike & Alife

Blondel Chocolats in Lausanne, Switzerland certainly doesn't look hip or trendy. But looks can be deceiving. Tucked away on a cobblestone street, it's hard to believe they have produced some of the hippest chocolate collaborations of late (with some design help from the folks at +41).

Above: The interior of Blondel Chocolats, always packed with both locals and tourists.

For the 25th anniversary of Nike's Air Force 1, designers from +41 created these delicious looking wonderful miniature milk and white chocolate shoes available for purchase:

1 pack = 3 boxes (1 pair per box) price, which includes shipping, is 30 €, buy them here.

mini choco sneakers pack (1 pack = 3 boxes, one each of Dunks, 1 Trainers and Blazers.
Price is 30 €, buy them here.

Not available for purchase but equally delectable are +41's large versions of the AF1 in dark and white chocolate:

And here are a few pics of Blondel's chocolate chief Bastien creating these yummy kicks:

The designers at +41 also helped to commemorate New York's ultra hot shoe and apparel store, ALIFE, 's debut in Switzerland this past June 19th at GRAND with a Blondel chocolate bar and choco-t shirt.

The 'ALIFE CHOCO-PACK' (Choco T-Shirt and Blondel's chocolate bar) were available only at the Grand boutique located at Traugottstrasse 9, near Escher-Wyss Platz, and Cellophane but both seem to be sold out everywhere.

Shop Alife here.

Blondel Chocolats began in 1850 and is world renowned for making delicious chocolates and confections. Be sure to stop by if ever in Lausanne!

Above: chocolatiers Yves and Bastien in the kitchen of Blondel's.

Blondel, Chocolats fins
rue de Bourg 5
1003 Lausanne
blondel@chocolaterieblondel.ch
www.chocolaterieblondel.ch

A Modern Take On Nixie Tube Clocks from BDDW, Chronotronix, Puhlmann and Peter J. Jensen

Most Nixie tube clocks ordinarily look a little steam punk and a little scientific a la Thomas Dolby. But I found a few companies that make nixie clocks pretty enough for almost anyone's taste. The neon tubes, when combined with blackened bronze, silver chrome, and stunning woods, become an unusual blend of science and art, making a functional item a pretty piece of home decor.

What is a digital Nixie Tube?

A nixie tube is an electronic device for displaying numerals or other information. The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode, and multiple cathodes in the shape of Arabic numerals. Applying power to one cathode surrounds it with an orange glow discharge. The tube is filled with a gas at low pressure, usually mostly neon and often a little mercury and/or argon, in a Penning mixture (Weston 1968), (Bylander 1979,).

above: A typical Nixie tube clock.

How Nixie Tubes work:
Each glass tube typically contains 10 or more individual cathode wires in the shape of numbers or letters. The cathodes are stacked so that different numerals appear at different depths, unlike a planar display in which all numerals are on the same plane relative to the viewer. The anode is a transparent metal mesh wrapped around the front of the display. The tube is filled with the inert gas neon (and other gases) with a small amount of mercury. When an electric potential of 120 to 180 volts DC is applied between the anode and any cathode, the gas near the cathode breaks down and the digit spreads into a glow.

1. The NIXIE desk clock

Above: Silver plated bronze exterior with digital nixie tubes.
The desk clock easures 6"H x 11.5"W x 2.5"D and is available in Blackened bronze, Natural bronze, Silver plated

2. The NIXIE wall clock

Above: Bronze exterior with digital nixie tubes.
The wall clock measures 21.25"H x 9.5"W x 2"D and comes in Blackened bronze or Natural bronze

3. The WOODEN NIXIE Grandfather clock

Above: Wood exterior with digital nixie tubes.
Measures 75"H x 10.75"W x 7"D and is available in American white oak / Dark oak finish, Osage orange / Natural oil finish, Claro walnut / Natural oil finish

Known mostly for their hand crafted wood furniture, BDDW makes stunning tables, chairs, mirrors, lamps and rugs, too. You can inquire about their nixie clocks and see all their beautiful furniture and rug designs as well here.

Another company making Nixie tube clocks that have updated them with wood and chrome finishes is Nixie Clock.net. Since 1997 they've sold Nixie Tube Clocks and living accessories. The company is located in Germany and they run a warehouse in the United States in order to improve their service standard. Having started retailing Nixie Clocks they are now developing their own Nixie Tube Clocks and below are some of their models.

CHRONOTRONIX V400 NIXIE TUBE CLOCK:

Buy it here.

The CHRONOTRONIX V300 NIXIE TUBE CLOCK:

Buy it here.

Unfortunately the CHRONOTRONIX IN-18 NIXIE CLOCK shown below is sold out:

As is this lovely one made by Karlsson:

Check out their inventory and pricing here.
The ones above can also be found here at Chronotronix Nixie Tube Clocks.

The Puhlmann Nixie Clock designed by dutch designer Frank Clewits is another nice modern version:

Above: wallclock with Nixie-tubes, steel, L32,5 x H 16cm, incl. adaptor

Unfortunately, I can not find this clock for sale anywhere. Even the puhlmann shop doesn't seem to have it.

Another site that sells handmade nixie clocks, as well as nixie clock kits, is Peter J. Jensen's tubeclock.com.