Cling-wrap, cling-film, stretch-wrap, Saran-wrap or food-wrap. Wherever you’re from and whatever you may call the ubiquitous, sticky, transparent stuff, it’s been keeping food fresh since 1949, when the first branded form of cling-wrap made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) appeared on the market. Once held up as a mould-thwarting modern marvel, the material is now widely derided as an environmental menace....
There’s a lot to be said for the Instagram-worthiness of, say, a faux-futuristic beauty brand identity that’s all gloopy, metallic, kinetic typography, ‘terminal green’, and unabashedly Gen Z-baiting ‘y2k’ art direction. It’s easy to assume that projects that allow designers the creative freedom for unabashed experimentation – playing fast and loose with legibility and lofty conceptual thinking – are the...
More plants, less plastic. A noble mission. Over the last decade, revelation has followed revelation with regards to the environmental impact of what seemed like the most innocuous of objects. Now it’s the turn of the humble flower pot. Yep, that. Stacked and sitting empty in the shed, or at the bottom of the garden. It turns out that these...
Tangent GC began as a Scandinavian organic garment and shoe care company developing products that intended to increase the life of clothing and footwear, and entered the organic skincare market in 2016. The longevity of skin being an understandable extension of that original intention. The company’s graphic identity, a typographical system designed by Essen International under the creative direction of Carl Nas, established...
Salbini, formerly Fesal, is an online retailer of premium European furniture and appliances based in southern Italy and shipping internationally. It deals in both one-off purchases and tailoring for large commercial projects, offering both local and global brands. Fesal comissioned Studio Brave to rename and refresh its brand and overhaul its online store. While the project features revisions to type...
Christopher Hall is an internationally renowned furniture and interior designer from New Zealand with studios in London and Istanbul, with a third due to open in Barcelona soon. His interiors and bespoke furniture collections are characterised by a sensitive integration of the classical and the contemporary, a material refinement and sculptural elegance. Somata, his latest collection of 32 handcrafted pieces, is an...
Graanmarkt 13 is a restaurant, high-end concept store and apartment in Antwerp. It is described by Base, the studio behind its graphic identity, as a special house, a crossover place full of surprises. This was articulated through a story that positioned Graanmarkt 13 as a haven for people in search of objects and experiences with soul and meaning. Garden 13...
Piccolo is an Italian seed brand with a particular favour for those that are ideal for urban growers, people with small balcony gardens or working with limited space. It is a brand with character, with product naming that includes Slim Jim Aubergine and Spacemaster Cucumber expressing the space-smart dwarf varieties of the range. Piccolo worked with UK-based studio Here Design to develop a...
Smithey is an ironworks producing kitchenware from its location in Charleston, South Carolina. Smithey’s first product, a 10 inch skillet, features a smooth, non-stick cooking surface, created using a handcrafted method of finishing and polishing. This process was developed in response to the rough, coarse and sandpaper-like finish that proliferates the ironware market, which creates an uneven surface temperature, makes it...
Thanda is a luxury home accessory business bringing high-end artisanal products crafted by people in South Africa to the UK market. It does this with the intention of helping to support local communities, promoting ecological awareness and proving that sustainability does not have to compromise aesthetic. Thanda worked with London based graphic design studio Karoshi to articulate and express this positioning and the...
Tina Frey is an American homeware designer with a studio in San Francisco. She is inspired by the fluid lines of the sea, the curves and contours of nature, objects picked up while traveling, and the translucent colour of ice lollies and jelly beans. The design of each of her products—which include plates, bowls and utensils—is rooted in simplicity and functionality. These are sculpted...
Husler & Rose is an online boutique and occasional pop-up store that retails thoughtfully designed, carefully constructed and long-lasting furniture, homeware and lifestyle objects sourced from across the UK and Europe, professionally and sensitively restored by owner and furniture maker Ben Rowland. Inspired by Herbert Bayer’s Bauhaus posters and the jazz record sleeves of Duke Ellington, London based graphic design studio...