be CRATEive

ALL ABOUT VISUAL CULTURE AND CREATIVE WORLD ___________________________curated by: www.CRATEive.co.uk_________________________

[crateive]

Blickfang x 3 this Autumn (Vienna, Hamburg & Zürich).

Thanks to a fantastic Culture.pl program for young Polish designers we will have a chance to present our collection aat three major International Design Fairs in Vienna, Hamburg and Zurich. We feel very motivated and ready to start working on new products.

[crateive]

10 Of The Coolest Product Packaging Designs – Shopikon Blog

Hiding these boxes behind gift wrap would simply be a shame.. Read more on Shopikon!

[crateive]

This is soooo soothing. I could watch it over and over again. Watch it to see how the traditional Japanese wooden dolls called Kokeshi are made. This video will be putting me to bed tonight.

[crateive]

Beautiful PIGEON kick scooter

kick scooter

[crateive]

Mod Notebooks: A service that digitizes handwritten notebooks and syncs to the cloud David Graver, coolhunting.com

Writ­ers and illus­tra­tors often fill note­book upon note­book with ideas, word­play, sketch­es and doo­dles. Many are then lost to a draw­er or a shelf, and the cre­ativ­i­ty stays locked away. Mod Note­books has a brand new solu­tion for…

Is this really an ultimate solution to notes, drawings and doodles forever lost in our drawers and cupboards?

[crateive]

DESIGN TRIP: VATTOLO Concept Store, Udine, North-East Italy.

Udine is a very elegant and proud town laying in a north-east corner of Italy cornered by Austria to the North and Slovenia to the East. Before the turmoil of the twentieth century Udine for centuries was an important Venetian stronghold and the second largest city of the Venetian Republic. On the eve of 19th century Udine was ruled by the French only to be passed over onto Austro-Hungarian Empire and then consecutively onto Kingdom of Italy, Austria, Italy, Germany and finally onto Italy. Udine shares its story with many towns located near borders. They share the same difficult political faith but are all usually blessed with influence from the neighboring countries in architecture, art, design, food and language. It is often the case that these cities that have both fortune and misfortune of existing near borders develop stronger alliance not with particular country but with the region. Friulian culture reaches (or at least it used to) across boarders and unites Italians, Austrians and Slovenians under the Friulian umbrella. In Udine one can still hear people speaking Venetian or Friulian.

Udine with little over 100,000 inhabitants isn't too big and it gives a nice feeling of a town that can be traversed on foot without feeling at all provincial. Udine is second most important city in Friuli-Venezia Giulia region after Treiste (residents of Udine would definitely claim otherwise). However, it feels more lively than Trieste but this might be down to the fact that we visited the town during big arts and crafts festival Friuli D.O.C which attracted many craftsmen from the area (from bricklayers to artisan cheese) and hordes of visitors.

There are many attractive boutiques in the city center making Udine a really worthwhile destination for fashion and design lovers. 

Right in the center of Udine stands a beautiful Venetian-Gothic style town hall. You need to walk around it and at the left side colonnade you will find Vattolo Concept Store. It's beautifully located and it is apparent that the owners were mindful of the elegant setting when they were designing the interior. The space is really nicely and thoughtfully arranged with concrete covered vaulted ceilings and huge windows looking over Via Cavour.

Vattolo features many fantastic objects mainly from Italian brands and designers but it feels truly international. The store space is not huge (could be a little bigger on the ground floor) but boasts with incredible design so every visitor will not walk away dissatisfied.

I've made a selection of the most interesting products that I hop you will all enjoy:

- Brick 33 by Gervasoni - table base made of sections of trunk Wrightia bark-free and hand-carved rectangular top 240x100 cm sheet of waxed iron

- Cloud 10 by Gervasoni - sofa, multilayer and solid wood frame, polyurethane foam of different densities covered with quilted padded with goose down and polyester staple fiber, removable cover.

- Vintage by Sartori - the Vintage collection was created by Sartori with the intention of using old carpets, bringing it to a second life. In this way the old carpets are re-colored with shades of different colors such as blacks, purples, grays, so taking a youthful and modern dress while carrying a special message from the old days.

- Brick XS S M L by Gervasoni - section of the trunk of Wrightia, peeled and hand carved. Design: Paola Navone

- Handmade decorative vases by Vanessa Mitrani

- Muffin Tree by Bensimon Gallery - muffin Tree The collection consists of three different wooden floor lamps from 80 to 160 cm.

- Skygarden by Flos - designed by Marcel Wanders, 2007.

[crateive]

[crateive]

Use this typeface in your contemporary design projects and be happy

[crateive]

RESEARCH TRIP #1: Veneto, North East Italy - CREATIVE SURPRISES OF VITTORIO VENETO, part 4/4

Last of the places from Vittorio Veneto we would like to mention is a design shop Zecchin. It was the proverbial cherry on Vittorio Veneto’s creative cake.

Alvaro Zecchin opened his first design store in Vittorio Veneto in 1979 and since then his name became synonymous with great design. His shop is located in the heart of the historic town centre under the arcaded pavement. Huge windows overlook a busy cobblestoned road.

Inside we found an array of wonderful products from the best contemporary designers. Walking through the shop was like walking on the pages of the interior design magazine. It seemed like every ‘hot product of 2013’ was there. The shop offers  a nice and relaxed atmosphere and it wasn’t crowded so we had enough time to contemplate all the products.

The item that got us truly excited was a ‘Pig’ designed by an Italian Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba. It was our first face-to-face encounter with one of his ‘crate-animals’ and since these projects are relatively close to what we do, we always wanted to see it in flash. ’Pig’ is part of the series ‘Sending Animals’ which consists of three animal-shaped plywood crates which are designed to serve as storage units. It’s a really clever and playful use of the crate aesthetic. It’s rough surface looked quite nice in the shop being juxtaposed against other high-gloss pieces. The series is produced and distributed by Saletti.

Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba is an amazing designer and artist and we strongly recommend you visit his website and explore his other projects.

Other item that made us really excited was a table/bench resembling a giant clothespin. ‘Molletta’, because that’s how it’s titled, was designed by studio Baldessari e Baldessari and it’s phenomenal. It’s funny, clever and playful. It has something of a surreal appeal of Dali’s ‘Lobster Phone’ or Mae West Lips sofa. It also strongly evokes the spirit of the best of POP ART design. 

There were many products that we liked (see pictures) and Zecchin is definitely an amazing design shop. We strongly recommend you stopping there or even making a detour if you happen to be in the area. With the best part of the ski season still ahead of us and lovely Cortina d’Ampezzo just around the corner from Zecchin it doesn’t seem that improbable. The town happens to lay just mid-way between Venice (and its airport) and Cortina d’Ampezzo so make sure you account for a nice stopover in Vittorio Veneto for a design-infused-cappuccino.

[crateive]

You will find collection of ZNAK wallpapers/ wall designs, made by most distinctive contemporary artists from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, consisting of 29 unique designs.

[crateive]

XMAS GIFT ALERT! An absolute must-have for anyone using a shared office fridge at work.

[crateive]

Meze 11 Classics earbuds are the best and most portable retro headphones deliver natural sound with a unique look. Comes with 3 sizes of soft silicone earbuds and an EVA case for carrying.

[crateive]

An interesting video for one of the best songs of the end of 2013!

[crateive]

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Ayn Rand

[crateive]

[crateive]

[crateive]

Extraordinary project for a building renovation in historic Marais neighbourhood in Paris. 

After all sorts of furniture made of the ubiquitous europallets it seems to be time for architecture to make use of the easily available and cheap material. Personally I'm not convinced it's a right use for them but I must admit that the building looks impressive and very interesting but... only from bird eye's view. Up close the façade seems too chaotic for my liking.

Nevertheless Malka Architecture deserve a huge round of applause for creating an interesting-looking student accommodation building for a tight budget.

For more photos and other very interesting projects head to:

http://www.stephanemalka.com/