Here’s a great new project we saw in London for the first time a couple weeks ago… It’s a spin-off of Kawamura Hideo Activity called Rezon that includes clothing, lighting and furniture that was launched in Tokyo earlier this year. In London they presented their On/Off lamp which we thought was a fun way to play with light. Currently it is only available for the UK market - but we hope that they see the potential in the US and mainland Europe as well and will launch the respective versions soon. More images after the jump.

Technorati Tags: 100% Design, Charles & Marie, design, hip home, lighting, Modern living

You know that we have a faible for beautiful ceramics - and Ane Elisabeth Bråthen’s work is right up our alley. Originally from Norway, she’s now a London resident and most recently was chosen to present her work at the New Designers exhibition. We really liked her lampshades, the added crotchet work gives them a very warm and individual feeling that we haven’t seen like this in a while and we certainly hope to see more of…

Technorati Tags: 100% Design, Charles & Marie, hip home, lighting, Modern living

Christine presented Andreas and Moritz alongside the talents corner at 100% East and we simply adored the thinking behind her beautiful design. The original idea was inspired by observing the behaviour of small children who cling to their parents’ leg for support and protection. WIth her design, the adult is represented in aged american walnut, while the child’s stool made from ash is deliberatly innocent and more childlike. The small stool can turn freely around the supporting leg, but can not stray from the parental care of the longer stool. Simply adorable…

Technorati Tags: 100% Design, chairs, Charles & Marie, design, furniture, Modern living, talents

A simple employee at the council rubbish disposal services had a peculiar imagination: he could see teddy bears in every object he observed. As a child he would stare at the clouds imagining that he could see teddy bears in the sky… and today… everywhere, even the black bin bags looked like teddy bears to him.
No one at work could stand his excited cries every time he shouted ‘look at that bear…look at that one…don’t throw it into the garbage crusher… nooooo!…’ Of course he was fired from his job, lost his family and friends and became homeless. Yet even though many people thought he was strange, none of them would admit that they too saw the teddy bear bin bags dumped around the streets of London. This is taken straight from Shay’s website, but it is too good too hide it from you. He is incredibly talented and we met him a couple weeks ago in London, where he presented his bags alongside 100%. We can only hope that this intelligent product will find a manufacturer soon, as it is a brilliant example of the blurring of the lines between art, design and every day products. Way to go Shay!

Technorati Tags: 100% Design, accessories, Charles & Marie, hip home, Modern living

We have told you about the wonderful team of DIY Kyoto and their amazing Wattson earlier this year when we first met them in Milan. Well we met them again in London not too long ago, and thought it was a good opportunity to let all our readers who missed the first post know what an important product they are developing. The Wattson is basically a device that gives you an immediate understanding of how much energy you are using, what that relates to in terms of money, thus turning an intangible good like electricity into something visible and tangible. The effect it had on us was amazing, seeing how much energy you waste by having devices on standby or not using energy efficient devices and caused us to completely rethink our set up. Earlier this year the Wattson was still in prototype stage, but we are very happy to let you know that it is now an amazing piece of craftsmanship as you can see from the images (more after the jump) that is ready to go into mass production. Currently only available for Europe (no US rates are uploaded yet and the 110 V needs to be captured) we hope that it will soon make it to the US, a device so important needs to be available word wide, so we can all have our Do It Yourself Kyoto treaty…

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, Modern living, appliances

Alexander Holmes presented a beautiful piece of work along side New Designers in London a few weeks back that we didn’t want to keep from you. He sees it as an instrument of revenge, we think that might be a bit drastic, but nevertheless like the idea of this unusual lamp. Based on an Auger drill, you have to physically screw the drill/lamp into another object (obviously destroying it somewhat in the process) thus creating a new piece that is both fascinating and unique. The finish and quality of this product was stunning and set it apart from many other pieces we saw there…

Technorati Tags: Charles & Marie, design, furniture, lighting, Modern living

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec never seize to amaze us… This time with a house boat that was a collaboration with Jean Marie Finot and Denis Daversin for the French society of publication designers. Faced with a small budget they came up with a unique way to develop a fascinating work life environment. Different spaces, neither defined nor definitive, give the aluminum structure a fascinating feel, which will soon be even more dramatic, as plants are supposed to cover the entire structure - reclaiming the artificial structure. We will update you on the developments…

Technorati Tags: architecture, Charles & Marie, design, hip home, Modern living

Being in London not to long ago reminded us that Salkim, the hanging bookshelf by turkish design masterminds Ünal & Böler is still one of our favorite bookshelves around. It is such a smart and effective way to store books, no frills, no show, just very straight forward book organization… Just the way we like it.

Technorati Tags: books, Charles & Marie, hip home, Modern living

Here’s another really nice find from London. FuseDesignCollective curated a wonderful show (I heart Design) showcasing the work of 20 of the UK’s most up-and-coming designers. It was a great show combining furniture, light, ceramics and graphic design into a very impressive presentation. Lot’s more pics after the jump.

Technorati Tags: 100% Design, accessories, Charles & Marie, design, furniture, Modern living

We met Hannah at 100% Design a few weeks ago and really enjoyed her unique ceramics. She takes a very refreshing approach to traditional transfer methods and combines modern form with traditional patterns. Hannah, who graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in July 2005, has already gained impressive press coverage from The Guardian weekend magazine, Elle Deco and Country Living unfortunately for all us stateside, her work is only available in the UK for now. For now…

Technorati Tags: 100% Design, accessories, Charles & Marie, hip home, Modern living, tableware