with Yulia Peshkova

Fly Hummer HT1 phone

To somehow diversify and personalize their lineup, phone brands often collude with third-party brands. Most often these are fashion brands, but more unusual unions also happen. The European company Fly and the American manufacturer of Hummer jeeps worked on this model, as the name suggests. The latter, however, participated in the project only as a source of inspiration. The photograph does not convey this very well, but the phone inherited many features from the favorite car of Russian oligarchs. Firstly, the colors are yellow, khaki and sand (it is claimed that these are Hummer's signature colors). The phone also comes with replacement panels in the same colors, but with camouflage coloring - for those who find pure color not brutal enough. Secondly, the front panel roughly follows the pattern of a jeep radiator, and the menu control button looks a lot like a wheel. Finally, the clear polycarbonate protective covers with black rubber inserts resemble nothing more than tires. As for the power and technical characteristics of the slider, they are not as impressive as those of an SUV, but quite decent: touch screen, three-band operation, stereo Bluetooth, modem, USB port, ability to connect a MICRO SD memory card, FM radio, 2 - megapixel camera, MP3 player, video recording in MPEG4 format, etc. However, it is clear that buyers of such phones are not paying for their amazing capabilities.

www.hummermobile.com

Wattson Electricity Meter from Diy Kyoto

As you know, the word “economy” in Europe does not carry any shameful connotations. This refers to the case when it concerns natural resources. People of all income levels can, without any coercion, turn off the water while soaping up, or buy a small car solely to consume less gasoline. In this context, it is not at all surprising that a little thing called Wattson, which helps save electricity, is wildly popular here. It was invented by three recent graduates of London's Royal College of Art, united under the Diy Kyoto brand. In order to somehow inform the public about their invention, they showed Wattson at a couple of exhibitions of aspiring designers. The item made an absolutely indelible impression on the press, and over the past few months, Diy Kyoto has been written about by everyone from Vogue to The Independent, and the designers themselves have been inundated with awards and prizes. Meanwhile, the object of admiration itself does not represent anything extraordinary - roughly speaking, it is an electricity meter. But extremely advanced. It consists of a sensor that is invisibly attached somewhere in the area of the fuse, and a small box that receives signals from the sensor via Wi-Fi and shows the electricity consumption (you can see it in the photo). The merit of the designers is that they came up with the idea of materializing the meter, turning it into a nice piece of furniture like a clock, and visualizing abstract kilowatts, showing them in the form of very concrete money. Actually, this is the idea: by programming the price of a kilowatt, you can observe a more or less rapid flow of money from home. Moreover, if you link the meter to a computer, you can save your entire electrical history. The designers calculated that Wattson can reduce the electricity bill by 20 percent, since there is no such person whose heart does not tremble at the sight of rapidly changing numbers. True, before you start saving, you will have to spend money: in the plastic version the meter costs {pound}150, in the exclusive wooden one - twice as much. In light of our electricity prices and attitude towards saving, this whole story does not look too impressive. But there is no doubt that everything will change soon.

www.diykyoto.com

Phonofone II speakers from Science & Sons

This is not a modern version of the gramophone, as one might assume. Although Phonofone is directly related to music. It’s quite difficult to imagine it clearly, although the word “columns” would probably be closest to the truth. Phonofone itself cannot produce any sounds. It has neither mechanics nor electronics, it does not connect anywhere. This is a useless pipe made of pure ceramic, although quite beautiful. But when paired with an audio player, it turns into a powerful speaker system. The pathetic sound emitted by the player's headphones, when passed through a pipe, turns into a strong, deep sound. To do this, you just need to attach them to Phonofone. The secret is in the pipe design and material. True, the speakers have one small feature: the creators recommend using them exclusively with iPod and Apple brand headphones. They say that their technical characteristics are simply created for each other. But I suspect it's a matter of design. The guys from Science & Sons simply don't want you to ruin the snow-white beauty of their creation with ugly players from other brands.

www.scienceandsons.com

Grandmateria project at Libby Sellers gallery

The use of unusual materials (the simpler they are, the better) has become a very fashionable activity lately. With their help, designers try to breathe new life into familiar objects. And most often it works. A lamp made from matchboxes, for example, is not a chandelier with crystal pendants; you may not buy it, but pay attention. The Grandmateria project is dedicated precisely to the study of material as the basis of a thing. And even more - he refers to the legend of the philosopher's stone, trying to show how the most modest material, presented outside the usual context, can turn into gold. The project is not that large-scale - there are only four works by young English designers - but it is interesting. Stuart Haygarth, recently a successful photographer and graphic artist, and now a fully-fledged industrial designer, proposed the Tail Light chandelier. His method is to collect various types of garbage and then turn it into usable objects. We see this in Tail, except that instead of chaotic waste, he used hundreds of plastic housings from taillights. And once again he demonstrated that it doesn’t matter what kind of rubbish it is from, the main thing is the result, which is not just decent, but even impressive. Designer Peter Marigold combined tree branches and fragments of guitars, violins and other stringed instruments in Octave shelving (they, by the way, now decorate the window of the Paul Smith store on Sloane Avenue). In this combination, he was interested in the opportunity to show the kinship-contrast of natural wood and wood already processed by man. It's not like he spent decent things on his project; of course, everything was collected from waste. The famous designer-engineer Moritz Waldemeyer turned to Corian, which is not the most unusual, but still not fully studied material (in fact, this is not the first time he has done this - we have already written about one of his projects). Not without LED lamps, which Waldemeyer, in fact, specializes in. By Royal Appointment chairs are shaped like the famous Mackintosh chair with a high slatted back, and the interior is an extremely progressive mechanism. A small sensor on the back tells the “brain” of the chair the color of the person sitting’s clothes, and it transmits a signal to the built-in LEDs, which begin to glow with the appropriate light, creating a halo around the person that is in harmony with him. Plus, the holes in the back, starting from almost imperceptible at the seat, increase towards the top, which is why the chair seems to smoothly dissolve in the air. Original, but I prefer the latest project - the Erosion bench by Julia Lohmann and Jero Grundmann. It consists of a wooden board placed on a base made of soap (and not made of stone and plastic, as it might seem). With this soap, the designers wanted to challenge the “ideality” and completeness usually characteristic of furniture. Firstly, these legs were cut out of a single piece somehow, without a special plan. And secondly, and what is especially interesting, it is difficult to say how soap will behave over time. It will presumably harden, but its shape and color will constantly change slightly. And here the properties of the material will have to be investigated by the owners. All four models were released in limited editions and are still living the life of art objects. In early October they were exhibited at the gallery of Libby Sellers, who worked as a curator at London's Design Museum before quitting her job a few months ago to start her own business (Grandmateria is her first project as a gallerist). Then she will show them at the Frieze Art fair in Regent's Park (more about it on page 54), and in December she will take them to Art Basel Miami Beach. Hurry, as they say, to see.

www.libbysellers.com

Pie pan by Konstantin Slawinski

At first, this subject does not seem particularly interesting. A silicone mold for a pie (muffin, etc.), which can be bought at any supermarket. But take a closer look, and you will notice that the bottom is multi-level, especially so that the cake is baked as if pre-divided into portions. Wider, narrower, higher, lower - for a man who loves sweets, a hungry teenager, a girl who is losing weight, etc. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s so brilliant. No matter how much you ask to cut off a small piece solely for testing, they never listen. But there’s no escape here, everything is already divided. Konstantin Slavinski is generally a very pleasant designer, everything about him is somehow to the point and with humor.

www.konstantinslawinski.com

Magazine "Kommersant Weekend" No. 58 dated 10/05/2007, p. 68

Authors:

Yulia Peshkova

DESIGN – Weekend – Kommersant