Studio Mama's Pallet Stool Download

Check out another great Studio Mama project out of the ultimate potentially free resource, wooden pallets. Download the Pallet Stool by clicking here!

Ain't Studio Mama great! Thanks Studio Mama! Buy some of her stuff!

DIY Wooden Train Set

Note: The DIY wooden train track link given below is a dead link. Click here to visit my post with updated info.

Original Post: My two year old is really into the wooden train sets you can get from Brio, Imaginarium or Thomas and Friends (Thomas the Tank Engine). He plays with these trains for hours. The only problem is, you pay like $30 for this tiny little set of 12 pieces! Don't even get me started on the cost for a Thomas branded train character. Wow! Anyway, we are relying on birthdays, grandparents and holidays to fill out his set so we can build a sufficiently mongo train track. The problem for me is, I look at this wooden track and think, much to my wife's annoyance, "I can make that." Its wood, I've got a router, how hard can it be? So, to my point. I got online yesterday and found a site for a guy that has done it. He's posted instructions for building your own wooden train set online here. Your very own DIY wooden train track, cars and buildings. The step by step process is all listed here. I'm not even sure what the guy's (or ladies') name is, but in the interest of full disclosure, his e-mail starts "bkdonnelly". So I assume the last name is donnelly. Thanks Donnelly!

For my two year old's birthday, I built him a nice little train table out of that white shelf board and castor wheels you get at the home improvement store. I built it the size of an Imaginarium play mat we got and it turned out pretty good.  Thomas And Friends Sites On Sodor Play Mat By Fisher-Price (Google Affiliate Ad)  I put a drawer in it that is out of an old drafting table I no longer use to store spare track pieces. Above is a picture of what it looks like should you want a general idea of how to build your own.  Don't think you can do it yourself? Check out these cool pre-made train tables.  Kidkraft Metropolis Train Table And Set (Google Affiliate Ad), Kidkraft Ride Around Town Train Table And Set (Google Affiliate Ad).  Regardless of what you do. Make it yourself, or buy it... your kid will probably just play with the box the trains came in anyway.  Good luck!

Studiomama's Pallet Chair Download

11 July 08 update: The link to download this chair is no longer active. But, check out Ms. Tolstrup's very cool other designs here!)

Nina Tolstrup, also known as Studiomama, is a Danish designer living in the UK. Recently profiled in Dwell magazine, she has that European design aesthetic that is so popular. I love it. I hate it. Its too good for its own good. Its brilliant. In the end, I usually end up loving it... who am I kidding, those Europeans are just too cool.

She designed a chair in 2006 for an exhibition called Ten, 10, X, which the premise was to design something that could be had for 10 pounds (I don't know how to or want to take the time to figure out how to make the "pound" sign, sorry.) Anyway, she came up with designs for furniture that could be assembled out of pallets. Pretty smart. The instructions for a really cool chair could (can) be downloaded from her web site and built by the "Downloader" from locally sourced materials... wood pallets. Its interesting on a few levels, but mainly because pallets start out spare and utilitarian, but she managed to make them into this beautiful lounge chair, which is spare, and utilitarian, but beautiful on a whole different level than a pallet. You look at the chair and say, "that is vaguely familiar", then it hits you... a pallet! Cool.

I like this idea of being able to have high design, or a piece of art available for anyone smart enough to find it and motivated enough to recreate it. Check out Studiomama's Pallet Chair.













Check out Studiomama
Download the chair design here (11 july 08. Sorry, no longer an active link)
Check out Dwell magazine

Pallet and chair photos copyright of their respective photographers.

Dutch Playgrounds Cage Kids!

Those crazy Dutch designers are at it again... good design is so common in the land of wooden shoes that they need to lock their kids into it to appreciate it! The photo is of playground equipment designed by Carve, a Dutch firm that is rethinking the playground.

One might have a niche if they moved in on the Dutch designers and started designing bad stuff, or just churned out completely "un"designed designs. Carve turns out crazy looking playground furniture, while our "non-designer" could design a pole... stuck in the ground... for kids to run around. BRILLIANT! Bad design becomes good because it is not!

Just kidding. Obviously those Dutch have a culture of looking at solving design problems differently than a lot of the rest of the world.

Anyway, check out Carve, they sincerely have revolutionized the playground. Can't wait for the U.S. playground equipment manufacturers to catch on and start copying these ideas in old growth redwood!

A nod to the Cool Hunter for doing the hard work and bringing this to our attention. Thanks Cool Hunter! You are so cool... cool!

Photo credit to Carve or the Cool Hunter.

Great Green Collaborations in Furniture

Creative reuse of scrap wood by Scrapile furniture studio in New York. A collaboration between Carlos Salgado and Bart Bettencourt. Scrapile makes use of scrap wood from local woodworking shops that might otherwise throw out these valuable leftovers. Reuse or repurposing is the only true form of recycling.

Jenny Argie and Andrew Thornton's furniture designs for children under the name Argington, feature items that can adjust to grow with your child... sustainable design. Fun and simple furniture for kids. And trying to design something that won't be thrown away with all those disposable diapers is a noble goal and pretty green. Check out their simple Galap Rocker" below.









Photo credit to Argington furniture.

The Cool Hunter

I like to think I am cool enough to "give a shout out" to the following site, but now that I think about it, I put quotes around "give a shout out" in addition to using the slang "give a shout out" which is really dated and not cool at all. Oh well. I accept my uncoolness.

Check out the following site if you want to be cool. The people who update this site are WAY cooler than I am:
The Cool Hunter

Picture above credit to The Cool Hunter.net. "Props" to The Cool Hunters, and the designer of the room shown. There I go again with those quote marks.

Hella-of-a Designer

Surfing the internet the other day looking for great designers, and the name Hella Jongerius keeps coming up. Rightfully so. One of a crop of great Dutch designers, formerly with the famous Droog Design, now producing work under Jongeriuslab. A substantial list of collections and design accolades to her credit. This is apparently an important designer for our time. I just like the stuff she designs. Insert description of work here... her work is nice to look at, but have you ever noticed that people who write reviews of things use the same language over and over again? Makes it feel unoriginal. I hate that.

Check out her site. I'm curious to hear what you might think we'll remember Jongeriuslab for in 30 years. What is the icon? Is there one piece? Will the style just get grouped into a big group of Dutch designers with "this style". Write a post. I'm curious about your opinions.

My Favorite Designers... Today

I'm going to compile a list of my favorite designers... as of today that is. I reserve the right to drop or add a designer as I so desire. Why is it important that I rank my favorites? Because I can. Why should it mean anything to anyone else? Because they might like these designers too.

Designer for me includes graphics, animation, engineering, furniture... basically anything and anyone that makes something that is visually pleasing to me.

In no particular order:
-Takashi Murakami - I talked about him in a previous post.
-Chris Ware - phenomenal illustrator of Jimmy Corrigan, Quimby the Mouse and other kitschy characters and their comics. Totally retro style, and correct me if I'm wrong, all hand illustrated! Amazing!
-Imaginary Forces - They do all kinds of animation and motion graphics. I like the saying they have on their home page, "At one point in time, everything had not been done."
-Johannes Gutenberg - Arguably the most important figure in communication before Al Gore invented the internet? Known for the Gutenberg Bible, but really, movable type... I realize it is a stretch to call him a "designer," but so much that he did is so important to design. And what design minded person doesn't love the look of moveable type.
-Chank Diesel and his Chank Co. - He's a new breed in type designers. I realize this might be a bit of a stretch, but I like that he doesn't take himself too seriously, and just keeps cranking out fonts.
-Marek Reichman and the Aston Martin Design Team - Responsible for the Aston Martin... a very, hot, production car.
-Frank Gehry - I realize he's become cliche, but you have to appreciate his crazy, computer driven designs for museums all over the world. The firm should disband however, and become architect martyrs...leave us wanting more.
-Antoni Gaudi - The original Frank Gehry

Print/Pattern Vacation

Take a little vacation from your day at my fellow blogger's site print & pattern. A site devoted to the "world of surface pattern & design." Great designs... err, patterns. Very simply enjoyable. Worth a visit.