A Product With Character: Old Sign Letters Are Given New Lights & A New Life.

Character of Finland is a company that rescues old typographic signage from demolition, chooses the most stylish letters and turns them into individual design objects that they offer for sale. After replacing the old neon tubes with LEDs, they add a transformer, install a power cord and give them a new life cycle that you can purchase for yourself.

Some examples of their products:




Numbers, letters and glyphs are amongst their offerings you can buy here



Character Oy
Tel . + 358 9 682 2002
Vuorimiehenkatu 16
00140 Helsinki
Finland

Wood Jungle Wall Clocks By Nir Meiri. Walrus, Giraffe, Bear & Deer.

A series of four wooden wall clocks designed by industrial designer Nir Meiri. Each is shaped like the head of a different animal. $89 USD each.

Deer:

H 60 W 48 D 4.5 cm.

Bear:

H 39 W 28 D 4.5 cm.

Walrus:

H 36 W 26 D 4.5 cm.

Giraffe:

H 45 W 38 D 4.5 cm.

Buy them here

Meet Pawly, Man's Best Table Lamp By Ilsa Parry.

Pawly, made by Ilsa Parry for REthinkthings, is a lamp with the body of man's best friend and a head of a shaded lightbulb, intentionally reminiscent of the cone one puts on a dog's head to keep him from scratching or biting.





Made with a slip cast ceramic hollow body, he's available in standard single color glaze or bespoke [custom] patterns on request.




Measures approx 30x20x45cm
Price £280.00 GBP
Buy him here

REthinkthings is a Liverpool based product design agency owned and directed by 3D creative consultant Ilsa Parry.

Tom Otterness Designs A Hip Home For Cookies. The Mama Bear Cookie Jar.

It's not easy to find a hip cookie jar that isn't ridiculously kitschy. This is the only one I've ever seen other than the Bunny Rabbit Cookie Jar by Momoyo Torimitsu. And it's a beauty. The white ceramic "Mama Bear" was fashioned after sculptor Tom Otterness' original bronze version.



The beautifully designed ceramic cookie jar measures 12.5 in (31.75 cm) h x 9.5 in ( 24 cm) w x 9.5 in (24 cm) d. The exterior white glaze is contrasted with a cadmium yellow interior glaze that emits a magical warm honey like glow when the top is opened. It is an open edition with a decal signature on the neck and ships is a beautiful box designed by the artist. Retail price is $185. (click here to order)




The edition was inspired by Otterness’ bronze “Mama Bear” [shown below] and shares the artists ability to attract the viewer to a wonderful inviting image while subtly introducing a mother’s concern for her children and their future in our environment.


images courtesy of Cerealart and Tom Otterness

On February 9th, Cerealart Projects will begin shipping The“Mama Bear” Cookie Jar by Tom Otterness


Artist Bio [courtesy of Cereal Art]:
Tom Otterness (b. 1952 in Witchita Kansas) is an American sculptor whose works adorn parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums in New York---most notably in Rockefeller Park in Battery City Park and in the 14th street/ 8th Avenue subway station---and other cities around the world. He was the first artist ever to have contributed a balloon to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. "...he made a giant Humpty Dumpty suspended in an upside-down tumble, as though he might have jumped from one of the swanky Central Park West rooftops..."

His style is often described as cartoonish and cheerful but tends to carry a political punch.His sculptures are filled with multiple meanings and allude to sex, class, money and race.These sculptures depict, among other things, huge pennies, pudgy characters in business suits with moneybag heads, helmeted workers holding giant tools, and an alligator crawling out from under a sewer cover. The main theme of his work seems to be the struggle of the little man against the capitalist machine in a difficult and strange city. His aesthetic can be seen as a riff on "capital realism" and blends high and low, cute and cutting.

In 2005, "Tom Otterness on Broadway", his largest exhibition to date, featured 25 different works installed between Columbus Circle and 168th Street in Washington Heights. The project was sponsored by the City of New York Parks and Recreation Department, the Broadway Mall Association, and Marlborough Gallery, and traveled to three other cities - Indianapolis, Beverly Hills, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Grand Rapids exhibition featured more than 40 works across two miles of the city's downtown area and at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

Known primarily as a public artist, Otterness has exhibited in popular exhibitions in locations across the United States and around the world, including New York City, Indianapolis, Beverley Hills, the Hague, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Venice. His studio is located in Brooklyn.

Beginning Feb 23rd Mr. Otterness will be exhibiting at The Marlborough Gallery in NY.
Tom Otterness: Animal Spirits
Marlborough Gallery
40 West 57th street NY
February 23, 2011 - March 26, 2011

Tom Otterness

The Domino Wall Clock From The Carbon Design Group.

from the press release:
We live in a hectic world. Alerts, alarms, and reminders prod us through our days with unforgiving precision. Challenging this pressure-filled environment, the Domino Clock™ takes a simple, iconic object and transforms it into a new way to tell time. The concept is simple. Three larger-than-life dominoes are equipped with articulating dots that flip back-and-forth between black and white to keep time. They hang on the wall or stand free, communicating wirelessly as they quietly mark the passing hours and minutes. By subtly abstracting the idea of time, Carbon’s Domino Clock creates a more relaxing experience.



Challenging Expectations. While the idea itself is pretty straight forward, it challenges the assumptions we make about familiar objects. "People have a lot of immediate associations with everyday things, especially iconic ones," says Joe Sullivan, industrial designer at Carbon Design Group, a Seattle-based product development consultancy. "It’s interesting to play with these expectations. In this case, we’re taking a well-known object out of its normal context and giving it new capabilities, allowing it to function as something completely different."




"The numbering scheme on dominoes and dice developed as a way to represent numbers that’s immediately recognizable, so in a lot of ways it makes perfect sense to use it as a time piece," explains Sullivan. "Everyone gets it, but the fact that we’re not used to seeing it in this context makes it unexpected at the same time. It’s this shift in context that gives the concept a twist."



Fueling the Passion. The Domino Clock was one of a number of ideas bubbling up in the Carbon studio when it was selected to be a Carbon Passion Project. Similar to Google’s 20% Time, Carbon’s Passion Projects are designed to fuel the creative spark. "They’re a way to push the boundaries… to try something new, to take a break from the constraints of client projects and play a little," explains Dan Blase, President of Carbon Design Group. "These projects foster Carbon’s culture of learning and play, and, at the same time, give our team the variety they thrive on."

Making it Real. Simple ideas often require a good deal of work to keep them simple. "Form-wise, it’s a very literal reference to a domino, so 95% of the up-front heavy-lifting from an aesthetic standpoint is defined from the get-go," says Sullivan. Once the form is set, the conversation moves quickly to feel and function. The reference to real dominoes plays heavily here as well. From their playful falling motion, to the weight of the ceramic materials in your hand, dominoes have very specific physical qualities inherent to them. "The clock wants to communicate these same qualities, from the materials down to the precise motion of the dots."



"If you imagine a domino scaled up to a foot tall, it would be quite heavy and have considerable inertia. The mechanism that creates the motion needs a sense of gravity to it to give the flip the feel of falling," says Sullivan. It was up to Eric Davis, one of Carbon’s mechanical engineers, to solve the challenge of creating a small mechanism that generated this slow movement, yet was very quiet. The additional challenge of powering thousands of transitions a day without burning through batteries meant Davis would need to design a custom actuator. Ultimately, he developed a mechanism that runs off a small, electromagnetic coil. "You might call it a ‘single-poled motor,’" says Davis. "The magnet and the iron move around the coil… opposite the way motors are usually designed." The device can be fine-tuned to get just the desired flip speed. And, best of all, power is only required to initiate the movement, and not while the device is in either the black or white resting state. A more detailed explanation and video demonstration of the Domino Clock proof of concept prototype is available on Carbon’s site.

Elastic Co. Releases The Google 2010 Pillow.

Each year, Elastic Co. creates a throw pillow that features some of the top Google search terms of the year.

The natural army duck cotton canvas has the text printed in black silkscreen and the pillow is filled with 10% Down and 90% Feathers. It also features the Elasticco stamp on the back.


Buy the $65 Google 2010 pillow.


Google pillows from previous years:
2005:

2006:

2007:

2008:

2009:


All the above pillows can be purchased at the Elastic Co. etsy store.

A Wicked Way With Wood. Font Wall Art & Coasters By Jen Pepper.

Jen Pepper, the designer behind Peppersprouts, combines technology with crafting to create homewares and wall art that have a modern style combined with a traditional sensibility. While she also works in acrylic, I am especially fond of her hand drawn and laser etched cherry and walnut coasters and wall art.


Sans Serif Font Wall Art:


Fan of sans-serif typefaces? Then you'll love this.
Set in laser-cut walnut wood are Helvetica, Gill Sans Light, Century Gothic, Verdana, Univers Light, and Arial Black.

Easy to hang from Two small finishing nails.
Size: 15" x 14.25" (38cm x 36cm) and 1/4" thick (6.4mm)
Material: Dark Walnut
$70


Serif Font Wall Art:


Prefer serif fonts?
Then try this one. Set in Palatino, Copperplate, Archer Book, Courier Bold, Garamond, Times, and Georgia Bold.

Easy to hang from Two small finishing nails.
Size: 15" x 14.25" (38cm x 36cm) and 1/4" thick (6.4mm)
Material: Dark Walnut Laminated MDF
$70

"Home Sweet Home" Coasters:


The hand drawn houses have been etched on the surface of the wood and someone has gone and cut out all if the windows. The coasters have been laser cut from cherry wood, that has been hand rubbed with tung oil to protect them.



This set of coasters contains 4 coasters, each one has a different house.
Size: 3.4" x 3.4" and approx .25" thick.
Material: Cherry MDF
$28

"Take A Seat" Coasters:

The hand drawn chairs have been etched on the surface of the wood while little pieces have been cut away for very fun look. The coasters have been laser cut from cherry wood, that has been hand rubbed with tung oil to protect them.



This set of coasters contains 4 coasters, each one has a different chair.
Size: 3.4" x 3.4" and approx .25" thick.
Material: Cherry
$28

Classic Wood Silhouette Coasters:


The hand drawn silhouettes have been cut from the wood and the fancy ornate frame was engraved into the surface of the wood. The coasters have been laser cut from Colour Rimu wood, that has been hand rubbed with tung oil to protect them from water damage. Easy to clean, just wipe with soap and water.



This set of coasters contains one coaster of each silhouetted figure.
Size: 3.4" x 3.4" and approx .25" thick.
Material: Cherry MDF
$28

"Song Bird" Coasters:


The ornate designs or twirls and swirls have been engraved onto the surface of these wood coasters, while some dots, leaves, branches, and stars have been cut out making for a very lovely 3 dimensional object. The coasters have been laser cut from a cherry wood, that has been hand rubbed with tung oil to protect them from water over time.



This set of coasters contains four coasters of the same design.
Size: 3.75" diameter and approx .25" thick.
Material: Cherry Wood
$28

Shop for all the above shown items and more here.

About peppersprouts

Blurring the line between computer aided design and traditional craftsmanship, peppersprouts offers a wide range of affordable and eco-friendly homegoods.

It all started in 2009 in a tiny basement apartment in Brooklyn, NY. With a background in graphic design and the urge to create something new, Jen sketched a design for a coaster that she would love to see on the shelves of her favorite shop. With the help of some awesome people she was able to have her design protyped through laser cutting. After that, the ideas just keep flowing.

By using modern manufacturing techniques, and a little elbow grease, peppersprouts is proud to offer an affordable, well designed product.