Kartell

Kartell is an amazing producer of some really fabulous industrial design products. They are based in Italy and have been around for almost 60 years! Designs continue to be cutting edge yet always classic in form and function. Somehow they manage to meld timelessness with the contemporary in their pieces. Plastic is the name of the game for Kartell, and they do it well!

Above is one of my favourite pieces they produce, designed by Ron Arad. So sculptural yet functional. Love it! Available in Canada at Gabriel Ross.

Everyone Loves Tulips

I am really digging these tulip chairs at the moment. I think they are amazing. So retro cool yet still modern. Truly a modern classic thanks to the genius of Eero Saarinen. It's hard to believe he forst dreamed these up in 1956! You can read more details about Eero and the tulip series here. The chairs are available to purchase in Canada at Gabriel Ross in Vancouver. The price tag on them however is a bit much for me at the moment. In fact I will be saving for quite a while just to be able to afford the miniature version of the tulip ($213 Canadian.) My Blythe would be happy though!

Commercial Acrylic Apps.

The Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin has a facade of acrylic panelling that allows light to penetrate the interior during the day for a natural illumination and at night the lights glow from the inside. Photo credit: Retinal Fetish

Above is a detail of a huge acrylic application in the Dubai Mall which is one of the biggest malls, hence a HUGE scale for this piece. Photo credit: UggBoyUggGirl

Here is a nice application of acrylic in a commercial facade. Stunning for the colour and we all know the instantly recognisable brand here. Photo credit: Sou

Plastics

We have seen so many interesting uses of plastics in materials class. Here are a few applications I caught with my own camera (sorry bad lighting, mostly these were taken incognito!)
This is an interesting application of acrylic rods; they are placed in this mirrored large scale lettering and lighted from the inside. The effect is great signage with high impact. The letters fill the entire facade of this window. (Store is LIME in Place Versailles Mall.)
This is an interesting acrylic/lighting combination that are installed throughout the mall at Place Versaileles. It was hard to get a good photo of it but it is quite an eye-catching application. I am new to this area so I am not sure if this is actually a "pre-update" item since the neon look doesn't really carry well in all the areas of the mall. In fact sometimes it just seems completely out of place.
More plastic applications for lighted signage (also Place Versailles mall.)

DIVA! The shocking pink says a LOT!

Wallcoverings - Wallvinyl Just for You

When we think "wallcoverings" many things come to mind. In this new era of digital on demand printing some great customization is possible. Including custom wallvinyls of pretty much any image you can think of.

This offers some great possibilities especially for the commercial and trad show applications. These would be some lighter and easy to install pieces for those companies that want high impact with re-use and ease of installation qualities.

This example is in a sport club where soccer is obviously foremost on the minds of the visitors.

Some sci-fi for your living room perhaps? All photos from ID-WALL.com on Flickr. See the website here.