Design of the Week (No.8)

Stir-ring my imagination this week is:

(No.8) Déglon Meeting Knives

Ok, Ok, some of you may have noticed I haven't stuck true to my 'Design of the Week' theme, but I'm guaranteeing a 'Design of the Week (ish), sometimes Fortnightly, Design of the Month'. 

This week I bring you the luxurious Déglon Meeting Knives, a product designer's wet dream! (sorry that was crude... but I'm leaving it in)

This clever little set of knives sit inside one another for easy storage and safe keeping. But that's not why you buy them, you buy them because they look frigging cool! A statement piece indeed, the Herman Miller Chair of Knives! 

I've got to say, I love the matt black finish, it's very ninja. But I bet it's a bugger for finger prints! Sadly, the reality is that, with a set of 4 costing you a cool £900, you're probably going to be too scared to use them! Still, as I advise my Blog readers each post, if you're struggling to find me a 30th Birthday present, look no further than my Blog post for inspiration! 

FYI, I decided to buy a car the last time I had £900 spare. 

Vote for Four-Play!

Hello blog readers,

I need your help! Last month I entered a design competition for furniture store Dwell. My entry has now been posted onto their website and I need your votes to get me into the final! If you like my design please follow this link and give it a star rating (5's are good!). If you really like my design, leave a nice comment too and you will be my friend forever!

You'll find my design here, it's called 'Four-Play': http://dwell.co.uk/dfd.php?category=adult 

And here's what it's all about:

Inspired by the game of Connect Four, ‘Four-Play’ is a side table with integrated coasters. The glossy plastic coasters are contained underneath the glass top and can be removed by simply releasing a latch and dropping the table top. Designed to fit the existing Dwell range, the beauty of this design is simplicity in which you can customise the look and feel of the table. The consumer is given the freedom to swap in and out different coloured coasters to suit their mood or match their home decor.

The table features a stainless steel frame and is available in walnut, glossy white or glossy yellow. Dimensions: 40 x 42 x 47.5cm

What do you think then gang? Is it a winner?! I've got to admit, I really enjoyed designing a piece of furniture, I haven't done it in ages. I'm a big fan of Dwell, it's nice just to go in and get inspired. 

Anyway please, please take a minute to give me your vote, I really appreciate it!

Peace out,

Rik x

Qualy-ty? or in need of seasoning?

OK, so it seems my dear friends took a hint. A couple of months ago I reviewed the Qualy Four Seasons condiment holder and said how much I loved the idea of it - well, now I own one! 

Last Friday I left my permanent job to pursue a freelance design career and get my kitchenware company up and running. As a leaving present, my dear colleagues bought me the Qualy Four Seasons, so now I can review it properly - thanks guys! 

So here it is, and the first shock I got was just how big it was:

As you can see, the domes are about 7cm high, making quite an impressive statement on your dinner table. But let's go back a few steps, to get the full user experience. The product came packaged in a neat presentation box (below), with the four seasons laid out in order. On the pack lovely little diagrams explained how to fill up each dome, clean it and use it (although I'd guess the last bits obvious!). 

Once in, I began to fill each dome. This was done by removing a twist lid from the base and pouring the condiment in (below). I began with salt and what struck me straight away was how much salt clung to every plastic surface, including the inside of the dome. This gave you a frosty look (which I guess is quite apt for winter!) but not totally desirable aesthetically. I guess the trick is to use less fine salt. 

It also got into the closing mechanism of the lid so you had to brush it clean before you put the lid back on. But the thing that really got me was how much salt I p**sed all over the work surface! Surely I'm not that clumsy?! Well, on to the pepper, see if I could do this a bit more efficiently... and again, no, pepper everywhere, WTF?!

...whoops, there's a hole in the top of the dome, the instructions didn't tell me to put my finger over it, what a wally! Newly enlightened I filled the remaining two domes with mixed herbs for autumn and chilli pepper for spring (as I mentioned in my first review the spring bit doesn't really work!).

So there we are, the Qualy Four Seasons. Yes, I few technical difficulties along the way, and over clingy salt, but do you know what, it looks great and makes me smile! Will I use it in day to day life? Probably not. But when people come round for a dinner party you can bet that this little widget will be one of the first things they're talking about :-)

Design of the Week (No.7)

Stir-ring my imagination this week is:

(No.7) The Nunchops Nunchuck Shaped Chopsticks

As ThinkGeek.com put it "The perfect combination of eating utensil and weapon into one weapon-looking-tastic eating utensil". This idea is bonkers, I think that's why I instantly love it! There are some tenuous benefits to this design also; 

1. You'll never be stuck with one chopstick wondering where the other one's got to! 

2. The decorative ridges along the bottom end provide more grip, meaning that slippery bit of chicken might actually make it into your mouth! 

3. If your brother annoys you at the dinner table, or a fly lands of your plate... thwack... dealt with!

The Nunchops Nunchuck Shaped Chopsticks retail at around $5 (£3.10) and are available from ThinkGeek.com, I think that's a bargain!

Design of the Week (No.6)

Stir-ring my imagination this week is:

(No.6) The Eva Solo Citrus Press

This little gem is great for two reasons, not only does it look super sexy, but it's also practically solves two of the great problems with most conventional squeezers; it catches the pips and it catches the juice (without p**sing it everywhere!). I love the detailing; the matt silver squeezer, the matt black funnel filter and the little ripples in the base of the glass. If there was one criticism, it's a bit pricey at £45, but I still want one!

Johnny the Pirate, it's been promotional!

Any product designer will tell you, the joy and reward of our job is seeing the finished product out there in the market place. Ironically for me, this is quite rare. The promotional merchandise I design at present is sent all over the world, so to see it ‘out there’ isn't that regular an occurrence. 

I did have some joy earlier in the year with the Cravendale Kermit Backpack promotion. This was a massive UK promotion and involved a large scale marketing campaign including a TV and cinema advert. It was great to say “I did that!” and ever greater kudos witnessing Kermit the Frog holding my product in the promo ad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggGvYd9-OCU 

Kicking back with Kermit (the backpack)

But saying that, you do occasionally get ‘fan mail’, which can be a lot of fun to read and a great talking point in the office. We recently received an email from a lovely Canadian gentleman and super fan. Jonathan, a 45 year old ‘big kid’ with a background in classical animation, collects toys and merchandise to “pass on to his son as he gets older”. At the time of writing his email, Jonathan’s son was yet to be born (although all being well, he’s now a proud daddy!). Super fan Jonathan then went on to praise all the great merchandise we have created in the past and list some of his favourites. It would seem he’s probably got a better historical collection in his basement than we do at work! The crux of the email was that he’d seen our ‘The Pirates, Band of Misfits’ money tin and hoped he could get permission to purchase one from us (for his son). We, of course, sent him one for free for writing such a nice letter and sending us a great photo.

And for everyone’s amusement, here he is!: 

Johnny the Pirate 'Super Fan'

The range of promotional merchandise I did for 'The Pirates, Band of Misfits'

Thank you Jonathan, you make all the hard work worthwhile! Keep collecting, your son will love you forever! And I guess this is a little warning to me given the amount of toys I already have around my own house... I need to invest in a basement before my wife chucks me (and my toys) out!

Rik x

Blogger goes AWOL...

OK guys, so I set up a new and exciting blog and you’re just getting into it when the posts stop! Where the heck has he gone, it was just getting interesting... typical! Well, I apologise for staying quiet for a couple of weeks, my life has been a bit manic!

I decided to soak up a bit of sport and did it in a big way! Firstly I travelled up t’North to watch the British Open in Lytham St.Annes. This is where my folks still live and have a house by the course. This meant that, not only could I nip home for lunch and avoid paying £7 for crap fish and chips, I could also watch some of the golf from the bedroom windows! And seeing as the camera Nazis were stopping me taking photos on the course I got my zoom lens out from our house! It is really surreal to see old misery guts himself, Tiger Woods, pass the house you grew up in! Anyway I had a great weekend taking to the course on the final day and watching champion Ernie Els tee off on the last. Watch carefully on BBC iPlayer and you’ll spot me in the crowd, fame at last! 

The view from my parents house

A shot of Tiger from the back window

The 18th grandstand

I then took the first of my two planned trips to the Olympic games! I’ve got to say, the experience was amazing! All the staff and volunteers were so friendly making for a fantastic atmosphere. Add to that witnessing two awesome games of water polo and having a good nosy around the Olympic Park, I had a brilliant time.

View of the fabulous Olympic stadium

In the pool, Hungary prepare for their Water Polo match

Shot of the action

Me and the misses

I’ve popped four photos up for you, but if you’d like to check out some more (there's some lovely ones!), here are three links to my Facebook pages: 

Olympic Games - London 2012:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150992319933553.423273.513778552&type=3&l=4e4c3a5553

Water Polo - Hungary v Montenegro:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150992355753553.423275.513778552&type=3&l=9a6463b88b

Water Polo - Croatia v Spain:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150992367128553.423276.513778552&type=3&l=a907b2ab02


P.S. Congrats to the Great Britian team, you are doing amazingly well! Had a magical night last night watching Jess, Mo and Greg, truly inspirational! Shame our footy boys still can’t take penalties... never mind!

Design of the Week (No.5)

Stir-ring my Imagination this week is:

(No.5) The Alessi Diabolix Bottle Opener

The Alessi Diabolix (also known as the 'Little Devil') has to be my favourite bottle opener. Not only does it look great, it's also a damn good bottle opener and feels great in the hand! I have had a yellow one of these little beauties for a few years now and he still makes me smile every time I get him out of the drawer. You can buy one for around a tenner. Fun, functional and more fun, devilishly good!

Building an Olympic 'Lego'cy

So we’re all getting excited about the Olympics coming to London!? (Well some of us are). Admittedly, it is very London centric, and for those living in the North I can see why they all feel a bit peeved. I was peeved the day my £500 ticket gamble resulted in no Olympic tickets at all. Yes, the system for buying tickets was dreadful and rewarded those with more money to gamble with, but if you persevered like me, getting a ticket was possible. I’ll be off to see the reigning Olympic water polo champions Hungary play Montenegro as well as World Champions, Croatia, play Spain – this is quite exciting! I’ve also bagged some ticket to see the game of ‘Handball’ played in the basketball arena. Handball is not only a term used in football to denoting cheating, it’s also a bizarre sport played avidly by countries such as Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. By all accounts it’s super fast paced and you’re guaranteed at least 20 goals at each end! Some say it’s a mix between football (without your feet), netball and basketball, we shall see!

What excited me nearly as much as bagging some Olympic tickets was the release of 9 Lego minifigures representing the British Olympic Team! Anyone who knows me will also know I love Lego, particularly the minifigures. I’m also a bit of a pro at feeling the little foil packets to work out which figure is inside. This said, I did find the latest bunch of minifigures difficult to work out, but you’ll be happy to know I still managed to find them all! And here they are! Ace!:

Design of the Week (No.4)

Stir-ring my Imagination this week is:

(No.4) The Fred and Friends Kitchen Kong Gorilla Whisk

How fun is this?! I'm all for adding a bit of fun to an everyday item and this does that perfectly! I don't know how well it functions but I'd have a little smile on my face every time I got this out of the drawer! It retails for around £9 which I think is a great value pressie for one of your loved ones... (hint hint).

Design of the Week (No.3)

It's time for 'Design of the Week', yeah! And this week, contrary to what I'd planned to do (introduce a product from a different designer each week), I'm returning to design firm Qualy for my inspiration. I spotted this design last week and loved it! So...

Stir-ring my Imagination this week is:

(No.3) The Qualy Four Seasons

I love a little play on words, and this is great. Each little pod holds a different condiment. So your salt is in the 'winter' pod, your chilli flakes are in the 'autumn' pod etc! I'm not sure how successful the 'spring' pod is but hey, I forgive them for that. What a clever bit of thinking! Great work Qualy!

Cheep Shots

Thought I'd share with you three photos I took of a baby Great Tit that was born in the broken stump of our apple tree. We think this little fella was the runt of the nest, he was better at hoping than flying. I'm happy to report though, that having not seen them for 2 weeks since leaving the nest, the other morning we spotted four baby Great Tits munching on our bird feeder. Finger crossed, this little guy was one of them!

RSI is a pain in the neck... and shoulders, back, elbows, arms, wrists, hands and fingers!

Designing products all day sounds like fun doesn't it? Well some days it is, and you can get a real buzz from it, other days it's a chore (like any 9-5 job, correction 9-5.30). But I enjoy what I do. That is until my little demon kicks in. I've been working pretty intensely on computers for 10 years now and to start with it was no problem. But in the last 4 years I've suffered pretty badly with RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury). For those of you who are not very familiar with this, it's a condition by which pain and discomfort is brought on by repetitive action. In my case, intense use of a mouse and keyboard.

When I trained to be a designer we were still using pencils and marker pens to do design mock ups (this makes me sound really old now!). We'd regularly be in the workshop turning our ideas into sculpted forms or working prototypes. My working day was varied. Then I became a professional designer and everything changed! The pace and expectations changed, everything was wanted instantly, there was no time to re-draw a widget in green to see what it looked like. Photoshop and Illustrator replaced my paper, the mouse and keyboard my hands.

Unfortunately, spending 7 hours working at a computer all day in a very intense and stressful environment has effected my health. Last year I spent over £1000 at the chiropractors straightening my twisted spine (after years of bad posture at my machine). I've also had to live with nasty aches and pains in my shoulders, back, arms, elbows, wrists, hands and fingers, not fun I tell you!

So why am I writing about this on my blog? Well, it's not for sympathy (although I'll take it!), it's to highlight the fact that you all need to take real care of yourselves! Once you start getting RSI it's very difficult to get rid of. It's only by stopping what causes the symptoms that you can fix it. So when you earn a living (like me) using a computer, it makes stopping (or even taking regular breaks) very difficult.

As a regular feature in my blogs I'm going to highlight some ways you can help yourselves. I've read some great articles on coping with (or avoiding getting) RSI, and I'd like to share it with as many people as I can.

Sorry to preach guys, but this is something I feel really strongly about. Whenever possible my posts will be witty and fun, but occasionally, it's good to get serious. RSI is crappy, let doctor Rik fix you!

Take care,

Rik x

Design of the Week (No.2)

Welcome back to my weekly feature post entitled 'Design of the Week'.

Stir-ring my Imagination this week is:


(No.2) The Qualy Sparrow Salad Set

 

The minute I set my eyes on these two little sparrows I was in admiration of such a wonderfully simple and beautiful idea. The 'ikkle' birdies perch on the side of the bowl where the lip has been raised to accommodate them. Their tails fan out to form the shape of the salad spoon and fork. I love all the gentle curves in this design, particularly the way the bowl and birds flow together. I don't own this yet, but really want it. I've given up dropping hits to friends and family...

The Qualy Sparrow Salad Set retails at around £30 and is available with sparrows in green, white or black.

I can't decide which colour I like best...

Why Dual Functionality is B*****ks (Part 1)

Anyone who knows me will also know that, when it comes to product design, I have a pet hate - 'dual functionality'. For those who are not familiar with the term, this means a product that has two uses i.e. a pen that is also a torch, or a spoon that is also a fork. Now I'm all for a product 'with a clever twist', but if that means instead of doing one job well, it does two jobs averagely, that's just a bit s**t isn't it?!

A case study in point:

The Futon (or Sofa Bed)

Now when I went to university and wanted a new double bed. Somebody said to me "Get yourself one of those 'Footons' Rik, they're from Japan, great space saving device. You get a bed and a sofa - two for one!". Sounded idyllic I thought, so I toddled off to my local Argos and bought the best one they had (glass panels and everything - god bless the student loans!). I was the envy of my student friends and my bedroom was the central hub for late night drinking. It was ace... for about a week! And then it started creaking and I noticed the springs in my back at night. Within a month it was so uncomfortable to sleep on I returned to my single bed in the corner. In fact, it soon became a crap sofa as well, adorned with more cushions than people.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but is the Futon / Sofa Bed just a bad joke for those who have friends round to stay?! "Oh, we've set the bed up in the spare room, great little thing, only £100 from Ikea". Yer, I know why you don't sleep on it!! So I rest my case, if you want a bed, buy a bed, if you want a sofa, buy a sofa - there is no middle ground... unless you're evil or a fan of the floor!

Rik x

Use the Pattern... Good in knit I am

Randomly, I came across these little beauties the other day. They have nothing to do with kitchenware, but I'm posting them anyway because I love them!

The wife (Helen), says she will knit me one, and if she enjoys it, she'll do the lot. I am a very lucky man! I've asked her to start with Yoda (below), he has to be the coolest bit of 'knit'ware I've ever seen! What an awesome cloak.

Anyway, kudos to Lucy Ravenscar for inventing the patterns. Check out her website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucyravenscar?ref=seller_info

Design of the Week (No.1)

Hello again reader(s), figured it'd be nice to kick start this blog with a bit of inspiration. Weekly I plan to throw up a pretty picture of a piece of design that I love and tell you why. So here goes:
Stir-ring my Imagination this week is:


(No.1) The Alessi Magic Bunny

This little kitchen widget is a favourite of mine. It's a toothpick holder that is cleverly disguised as a rabbit in a hat. Pull the bunny out of the hat and the toothpicks inside fan out, ace! It makes me smile every time I use it and looks great on your dining table - particularly when you've got friends round. Fun and functional, just how I like it :-)

Hello reader!


Who am I? Well, I'm Rik, I'm 29, I live in the UK and I'm a professional product designer. This is my first blog and hopefully an opportunity to share with you a bit of me. A few interesting facts before we begin:


1. I was born in Kenya, Africa. My parents worked there for three years during the early eighties. As a baby, I only lived there a year of my life, but hold the place dear to my heart. 


2. I'm a Northerner, living in the South. I've been an Essex boy for nearly 5 years now, but have yet to pick up the local 'twang'. Most people think I'm from Yorkshire, but I grew up in Lancashire, in Lytham St.Annes.


3. I have a wife. She is nice.


4. I'm into Art, Sport, Music, Culture, Wildlife and Food. And boy do I love my food (not in a fat way - I just eat everything!). My mum was a cookery teacher (also known as 'food technician') so I've always had a healthy and expansive diet.


5. I'm quite good at poetry despite the fact that English was never one of my strongest subjects at school (I am Kenyan born after all... lame excuse). 


So what do I hope to share with you reader? Well, put simple, I have a passion for Kitchenware. It's what I do - I design it. I'm hoping to launch my own range of products in the near future and want a place to share my inspirations and thoughts. Not everything I post will be directly linked to kitchen paraphernalia, if I see something arty that I like, I'll post it. If I see something that makes sense, I'll share it. 


Let's see how we get on!


Rik x