Swarovski Amplify - 6 New Glowing Lanterns By Yves Behar's Fuse Project.

The AMPLIFY chandelier’s aim is to put the Swarovski crystal effect into the hands of more people through the simple construction, easily accessible light source and sustainable materials.

Designer Yves Behar and his Fuse Project designed 6 different shaped lamps, each one carefully crafted to maximize refractions on the inner surfaces. This effect can be seen on the faceted shade material, thus emulating the cut and reflective nature of the crystal inside. Each chandelier becomes its own large glowing crystal.




While the Fuse Project's previous large scale lighting sculptures have showcased the crystal in a grand scale, with this latest project they wanted to bring the notion of accessibility and sustainability to crystal lighting.

Traditional chandeliers are made of numerous lights and crystals, they wanted to change this equation: 1 crystal + 1 low energy LED light + a faceted paper shade = AMPLIFY.



Resulting in multiple beautiful reflections and rainbow color bursts… Just what is expected from crystal, but this time the effect is amplified to get the most out of just one crystal.



AMPLIFY is a beautiful single crystal light, or it can be grouped to create a bigger effect.




Each of the six chandeliers will be available in production from Swarovski in the next year. To continue to amplify the concept of accessible crystal, each of the six unique lantern shapes are housed in a flat package that echoes the shape of the chandelier it contains:

The packaging graphics are simple and illustrative to reflect the different shade shapes and components contained inside.



Fuse Project
Swarovski

Teepees & Cabins For Your Feline Friends From Loyal Luxe.

Simple and affordable ways to give your finicky feline a home of which she can be proud. Loyal Luxe designs and offers flat-packed, easy to assemble cat homes made of recyclable cardboard in the shape of Teepees and Cabins. And yes, they sell the faux bearskin rug, too.

Native American Teepee and Faux Bearskin Rug:


Canadian Cabin:




Modern and rustic simultaneously, the cute abodes- suitable for cats, kittens or even a chihuahua- come with additional adornments and can be easily customized.





Loyal Luxe was founded in 2008 by Maud Beauchamp and Marie-Pier Guilmain, two industrial designers and pet lovers who graduated from Université de Montréal. Born from the idea that products for domestic animals deserved to be different, they knew that people and their animals would be excited by the prospect of products that were more refined and daring, by products that were a perfect match with their tastes and the interior design of their home.



Buy them here

The First 100% FSC-Certified Wood Bicycle in the U.S. From Renovo & Collins

above: the Renovo R4 Pursuit model made with FSC-certified CollinsWood.

The Collins Companies has just announced that it has commissioned the first 100% FSC-certified bicycle in the nation. In case you were wondering, FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council.

The bike, manufactured by Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, is an “R4 Pursuit” model that features a stiff, powerful and lightweight frame. All of Renovo’s bikes are custom-made – adjusting the stiffness and ride quality to the customer’s individual riding style and weight.

Renovo is one of the few companies in the world that manufactures wood bicycles (but not the only one, be sure to see Woody Bicycles ) and the only one making them with hollow frames.

Here's a few of Renovo's beautiful wood bikes and frames made with Black Cherry, Hard Maple, Birch, Hickory, Padauk, Sapele, Laminated Bamboo and exotic woods like Purple Heart, Bubinga and Wenge:








“I am proud to have used 100% FSC-certified wood on this particular bike,” stated Ken Wheeler, owner, Renovo Hardwood Bicycles. “We utilized a species combination of CollinsWood® from the Collins Pennsylvania Forest including; Black Cherry, Hard Maple, and Birch.”






Collins had this bike commissioned for one of their employees, to demonstrate their continued commitment to this mission. “Although wood bicycles are still in their infancy, we are constantly exploring new ways to have CollinsWood incorporated into everyday products and we want our customers to explore new uses,” said Cameron Waner, marketing coordinator for The Collins Companies. Waner continues, “Specifying FSC-certified wood in their projects is one of the most powerful things our customers can do to change the way wood products are harvested and sold around the world.”

The bike made its worldwide debut at the Greenbuild International Conference in Chicago, on November 17-19, 2010.

Renovo Bikes

Oh Tannenboing! A Modern Sleek Aluminum Sustainable Christmas Tree

Designed to appeal to your modern sensibility and your green lifestyle, tannenboing is a hip, environmentally friendly and reusable modern Christmas tree made of recycled aluminum. Produced in the USA, it easily springs into a modern Christmas tree each season and can then be flat-packed away for easy storage until the next year.







The tannenboing is a blank slate that can serve as a display for cards, ornaments, or jewelry. The smaller version makes a great point-of-purchase display to hold gift certificates, cards and other small items. The clean design doesn’t take away from the articles or ornaments being displayed and it can be used as a display tree, design element, or modern sculpture all year round.


Tannenboing is environmentally friendly, and can be made from aluminum, wood and even recycled paper. The display piece is flat-packed and easy to assemble. At the end of the season, the tree can be taken down and put away for next year, or it can be recycled.

One tannenboing – the aluminum, spiral Christmas tree comes with an installation kit containing a gated hook, a gated wood screw and two cables (for ceiling heights of 8 and 9 feet). For ceiling heights higher than 9 feet, be sure to purchase the appropriate size cable.

The tannenboing has over 200 small holes around the inside and outside edges to use for hanging ornaments or display items. The holes are 1/8 of an inch and work best with metal hooks.

Only 100 first edition trees have been created and are available now for just $395 plus shipping. Order now, while supplies last.

Lufdesigns Brings Nature & Whimsy To Efficient & Ecological Design.

Tsunho Wang and his firm Lufdesign began as a product development company in Seoul, Korea in 2002. Wang and his designers have since moved into a conceptual approach, sustainable innovation and new ways to approach branding.


above left: Tsunho Wang of Lufdesign, and right: The infiniti headphones, a recent design concept

Nilfish, lufdesign’s brand, develops various technologcal and organizational products through collaborating with rising designers from outside.

Having received several awards for their innovations and wonderful design concepts like; the melding of a trash can and dust bin, a flying stick camera, the Saver clip which displays the amount of energy being wasted, and a wind-chime that can be programmed to emit data and nature sounds, they are now selling two of their products directly via their site.

The DustPan+Bin and Flying Stick Camera concepts:

The "Saver Clip" concept won them a 2007 Red Dot Design Award:

Concept for the Wind-Bell:


So what have they produced and how do you get them?

The Leaf Tie, a cute and effective way to add nature to the ordinarily cold concept of cable management, actually donates a portion of their proceeds to ecological conservation.



Sold in a pack of 12, the leaf ties are available in six attractive colors and look cute added to just about anything:




The leaf tie has spawned such consumer love and loyalty, there's even a flickr pool for user's photos here.


The Fork And Cream Sauce is another clever cable management design, a large portion of whose proceeds benefit Save The Children.





Both the Leaf Ties and The Fork and Cream Sauce are available directly from their site via paypal.


Lufdesign
121-835, 323, Seoul Design Studio, 3th fl,
DMC HI_TECH Industry Center, 1580, Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea
Tel 82 2 3153 7263, Mobile 82 10 2785 3807,
www.lufdesign.com