When designer Torgny Fjeldskaar isn’t designing bicycles (he is the head of industrial design at Cannondale), he’s making bad ass carbon furniture– all under the brand name Laisr.

Laisr is a furniture brand created and owned by Torgny Fjeldskaar and Javier Alberich. The company is based in Basel, Switzerland. We do high-tech furniture designed and hand-made to stand the test of time. Our current products are designed by Torgny Fjeldskaar, whose daytime job is to design high-end bicycles for Cannondale, a company famous for its innovative use of high-tech materials. Javier Alberich is the creative director. He also worked several years at Cannondale in the past. Currently he’s working as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

Mulheres Barbadas must have been working out their arms, but considering what we already know about them, they’re used to it. They’re a few steps beyond the starting line of five long days of live painting at Sao Paulo’s concept furniture store Micasa, where they’ll leave nothing—walls, tables, chairs, refrigerators, even owner Houssein Jarouche’s Mini Cooper—untouched with black marker. The duo, who take turns intertwining each other’s wacky drawings in magnificent detail, are streaming their intense art session on their site and told me they are already so productive that they’re running out of things to paint. In fact, it must not only be their arms that are tired but their brains too: they’re encouraging viewers to suggest what images they want them to put on the walls and furniture by adding the tag “#mulheresbarbadas” to Tweets. After Mulheres Barbadas reach the finish line, they’ll put the finished goods on for sale at Micasa. The walls will likely stay put though–the building’s schedule to be demolished in a few months. Tune in between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sao Paulo time to watch the fun unfold.

     

Dan Ziglam and Elliot Brook are the directors of UK-based design firm, Deadgood, where everything they make is “deadgood”. The young company has already made Elle Decoration's ‘Brit Talent Hot List' and Design Week's '50 People Making a Difference in Design' for their innovative Form chairs, wire table lamps, bookshelves and hangers. We, of course, love great furniture design, but Deadgood really made our radar when they announced an upcoming collaboration with Jon Burgerman. The doodle chair is screen-printed with a resin-impregnated craft core, overlaid with melamine and pressed at high temperature. It recently made a successful debut in New York and is expected to launch in September. Completely awesome.

Some might think having your own coffin in your house is morbid, but not William Warren. In fact, the furniture and product designer created Shelves for Life, a build-it-yourself Ikea style bookcase that, after you’ve expired, can be reassembled into a coffin. Not only is it good for the environment, it’ll be one less thing your family has to worry about when dealing with your remains. The kits sell for $579 (or 350 GBP) a piece and come stained in a classic blonde wood which just begs for some serious customization. Creepy and awesome.

Practicing Feng Shui (shameless plug for my fathers book) is but one way of expressing oneself and opening up your life through the arrangement of furniture. If you’re not in possession of someone to help you move that weighty bookshelf across the room to a more satisfactory spot that enhances your chi, you could probably be content with another way altogether of using furniture to express yourself. Thankfully, Austin-based designer Cody Haltom’s Furniture typeface allows for the perfect marriage of both verbal and design expression of your inner being. Whether you’d like to craft a passive-aggressive message to your roommate for not being around to help you move said bookshelf or just want to bring a nice home-y feel to your words, this impressive typographical display could certainly do the trick.

Update:
The agency that created this work was The Butler Bro’s, and apparently Cody was a designer on the project.

Iconic French product designer Philippe Starck has made a living adding a modern slant to everyday items from watches to wireless speakers. You could say he’s had a hand in innovating everything but the kitchen sink… until now. Continuing his lengthy relationship with German bathroom furniture manufacturer Duravit, Starck finally makes his arrival in the tastiest room in your home via his new Starck K kitchen sink collection. Combining sleekness with high functionality, his usual calling card, these centers for culinary cleansing that serve a much wider variety of purposes are as much a work of art as the meals you hope to create…unless you’re just microwaving hot pockets.

Via designboom

When emerging designers submitted hundreds of furniture pieces to Thursday's Modern Design Function exhibition at San Francisco's Design With Reach, judges from Dwell Magazine and the SF Museum of Modern Art selected not one but three pieces from local applicant Dylan Gold. Gold used plywoods, plyboo and other responsible materials to create Stink Tree, the Cornered Table and Twisted. The latter is a reaction to Gold's observation of how regimented people can be. “I like things that fall out of line and definitely buck the trend a little bit, but not so far as to lose balance,” he said. “I wanted to see something hard like wood used in a way that people were not used to seeing it, like crossing a plane into the spatial boundaries of another piece.”

The 2,200 square feet of work space that Gold shares with seven other creators is blocks away from the Potrero Hill DWR where the showcase will take place. (Talk about knowing where your purchases originate.) The wood and metalworking shop is also a network for the tenants' artist and fabricator friends “where just about anything can be made,” the designer says.

It would be easy to be blue about the lack of eye-catching public design in many city centers if it weren’t for gems like Slovenian design consultancy Asobi’s outdoor chairs placed along the main street of the city of Ljubljana. The Slovenska Street revitalization project features transformable orange benches and chairs that were designed to be light but durable. The ARPRO material the chairs were created from is completely recyclable and has been used in everything from Volvo cars to baby car seats. Another approach to introducing seating space and blocking local traffic may not have received the same public welcome, which has encouraged the chairs to be made available for sale on the modular furniture site Movisi.

Ross Lovegrove never ceases to amaze us with his serious industrial design talent. We assume that it’s his knack for combining that which is visually stunning with an absurd amount of practicality that drew the folks at Biomega into his collaborative arms for what amounts to a stunning addition to their ever growing line of “furniture for locomotion,” or what in layman’s terms could be called a pretty sweet bike. The Biomega Bamboo utilizes a natural material that when properly prepared, is stronger than steel. The result is an eye-catching fusion of nature and innovation on two wheels. To catch a sneak peek at this cycling sight to behold, head over to Milan’s Design Library at Via Savona between the 22nd to 27th of April, where it will be on display from 10am to 10pm. Congrats JMS!

Sometimes conceptual artists make pieces you would never consider actually using in your home. In fact, we’ve featured a couple of those on this site. But we could see ourselves finding a place for nearly each of product designer John Caswell’s items in our own abode because they aren’t terribly intrusive. In fact, they would probably make mundane tasks easier, or at least more pleasant. For instance, his “taps” transform common water faucets into new, useful products like bottle openers and corkscrews. The “60 bpm” clock combines the great taste of laser-etched vintage records and telling time. A handful of his pieces are in production, but for other items such as the ceramic, ghostlike speakers, the English artist is still actively seeking out manufacturers. We can’t imagine he’ll be waiting long.

Ken Tomita wanted to create an affordable piece of quality furniture that didn’t skimp on design. From this idea, the Chaboo was born. The name originates from the Japanese word “chabudai,” which means “low table.” Ken changed the spelling to reflect his use of bamboo materials, and also allow the user to define its purpose: Is it a table or is it a bench? An original Chaboo in light or dark wood goes for $250, but in less than a week you’ll be treated to a bevy of artist interpretations. Over 50 designers were invited to customize a Chaboo with their signature styles. The artists worked with watercolors, acrylics, oils, inks, silkscreen, vinyl, metal, wood, felt, laser, glass, concrete and even recycled skateboards. There will be an opening reception for Project Chaboo on March 4th from 6-10 p.m. at galleryHOMELAND in Portland and will be on display through March 7th. Shown here is a Chaboo by adorable husband/wife art team APAK.

A while back, in the heyday of ReadyMade, we learned how to build furniture into our lawn. Now, Shinwei Rhoda Yen has taken that concept a step further. By implanting mushroom spores into the furniture wood, it eventually sprouts into … mushrooms. Eventually, the mushrooms will completely take over and destroy the functionality of the furniture, but you don’t buy outdoor pieces expecting they’ll last, do you? No word yet on whether the ’shrooms are edible or have magic powers.

via Designboom

Normally, we would never recommend using the head of a Fender Stratocaster as a place to rest your drink or eat your TV dinner — they’re way too small. However, the fine artisans at Portland, Oregon’s Fender Custom Furniture have made that situation plausible. Behold Deluxe Stratocaster Coffee Table, a solid maple-crafted must have for anyone who lives, or longs to live, the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Complete with six tuning peg caps, three chrome-plated legs and that classic Fender logo silk-screened on, the re-creation of an instrumental masterpiece is ready to turn your rec room into a den of sin. Just remind your friends to keep their feet off of it.

Dima Loginoff’s creations are inspiring, thought-provoking, and occasionally look an awful lot like insects. Originally a hair stylist, the Moscow-born Loginoff has made us wonder if our imaginations can join hands with reality. From the Beetlejuice-like Psyche Lounge (which, considering the state of the economy we could all use a rest on) to the chesspiece Vassili chairs and the floating Liquid hotel, Dima’s interior design and furniture projects make us all want to stretch our creative fingers that much further.

The new Friendly Fires tune “Skeleton Boy” is one that’s upbeat enough to be on repeat for the next week (it’s already on its fourth playback in the duration of the writing of this post). But the real beauty is in the simple, visually arresting video directed by Clemens Habicht. The three band members were outfitted in black suits covered with double-sided sticky tape that caught bean bag balls to form the outline of skeletons on their bodies. If it sounds complicated, it’s actually a wonderful way to highlight the singers’ movements—so much so that your furniture could become a casualty as you dance along.