HBL News: Category winners announced for Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011

Homemade is Best cookbook by Forsman & Bodenfors for Ikea: winner of the Graphics category

The winners across the seven product categories have been announced for the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011, currently on show at the Design Museum in London.

HBL Pattern & Colour Inspiration: Sally Angharad

MA graduate Sally Angharad has launched a new collection of bespoke paper designs that take inspiration from the weathered finishes, aged surfaces and colours of Venice.

These unique tactile wall hangings are created from sourced papers which are then printed with delicate patterns. Sally uniquely manipulates and distresses them by hand and arranges them into layers, simulating peeling paint and billboard posters. The layers of paper are sensitively arranged, creating an inspiring palette that plays with combinations of pattern and proportions of colour.

Info@sallyangharad.com

HBL Product Launch: Crown paint, Originals Range

Crown Paint, Originals Range

Crown Paint has launched a range of matt emulsions that draw inspiration from the classic shades from Crown’s past. The range is exclusive to B&Q and is available in 14 colourways.

Fashion designers at Design Indaba 2011

Mohair sweater by Laduma Ngxokolo - nominated for the prize of Most Beautiful Object at Design Indaba 2011 - Photo by Astrid Arndt

The Design Indaba conference spans all forms of design and some of the most beautiful imagery and print and pattern we saw at the conference came from emerging fashion design talents who are saving traditional indigenous design work from extinction.

Rising star Laduma Ngxokolo is a Port Elizabeth-based knitwear designer. His colourful collection is inspired by traditional African Xhosa beadwork.The collections has already earned him first prize from the International Society of Dyers and Colourists, and now a nomination for Most Beautiful Object at Design Inaba 2011.

Maarten Baas at Design Indaba 2011

The recently reopened Mendini restaurant designed by Maarten Baas at the Groninger Museum featuring his clay lamps

One of the stand-out talks from the second day of Design Indaba was by Dutch designer Maarten Baas. Taking a last minute decision to change the format of his prepared presentation, Baas gave a  heartfelt and honest view of his work and his thoughts on the design industry. From revealing that, in his opinion, "his worst project" was his 2009 Shell cabinet (below), to his views on sustainability: "People use it as an excuse to create more needless design, I like to make well made products that people will keep for a long time - that's sustainable". Baas covered all areas of his work and even created his own FAQs at the end of the presentation.

Joe Saavedra at Design Indaba 2011

Parsons graduate Joe Saavedra is a young technology designer who creates open source designs available for anyone to replicate via instructions and videos on his website. Presenting his work yesterday at Design Indaba, Joe charmed the audience with two of his impressive student projects.

The first was the humourous but ingenious SOBEaR which he described as combining his two favourite things, "robots and alcohol". SOBEaR is essentially an intelligent bartending robot with a breathalyser built in. By pressing a button in SOBEaR’s left foot and then blowing into the alcohol sensor above his bow tie, the drinker can see their alcohol reading on a scale of 1 – 6, displayed using LEDs embedded on the bear's chest. Then SOBEaR pours a drink with an alcohol-to-mixer ratio that he deems appropriate for your current BAC level.

HBL Blog of the Week: H is for Home

H is for Home

The WGSN-homebuildlife team highlight a favourite blog each week for our Twitter followers, and due to the popularity of the feature there we have decided to explain our choices a little further each time by publishing it here as well.

Our choice this week is H is for Home, the blog of a Lancashire-based online homewares shop whose owners publish their design findings and enthusiasms online on a regular basis.

WGSN loves: the alphabet-themed posts, which focus on one object (for example, J is for Jug or D is for Daisy) and showcase a few of their favourite items from this category.

QuaDror, A New Structural System at Design Indaba 2011

Dror Benshetrit has introduced QuaDror at Design Indaba, a new space truss geometry that can adapt to various conditions and configurations. It presents structural efficiency and several design initiatives, from product design to architectural projects.

HBL VM News: The Conran Shop spring 2011 window

The Conran Shop spring 2011 window

The Conran Shop presents its key looks for spring 2011 using a innovative faux cherry blossom tree to produce a light, uplifting window display in its London, Paris and Japanese stores.

HBL Retail: EverydayDutch at Selfridges

Bicycle Stove by Florike Martens

Opening to the public today at Selfridges in London, EverydayDutch is a month-long collaboration between the department store, the Dutch embassy and Design Cooperation Brainport in Eindhoven. Curator Jane Withers has selected pieces by a variety of Dutch creatives, from established designers such as Hella Jongerius and Scholten & Baijings to recent graduates from Design Academy Eindhoven, to be displayed and sold from The Wonder Room, a concept space at Selfridges.

Wallpiercing by Flos

Wallpiercing, part of the Soft Architecture series by Italian lighting specialists Flos, has scooped a handful of design awards already this season and is now on show as part of the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011 exhibition at London's Design Museum, where it has been nominated in the Product category.

Vessel Gallery and Candy Black at London Fashion Week

The exhibition room at the Freemason's Hall

London's Vessel Gallery have collaborated with new British creative studio Candy Black for the latest Vauxhall Fashion Scouts event. Candy Black worked on the branding, promotion, website and interiors for Vauxhall Fashion Scout; curating two exclusive spaces at the Freemason’s Hall in Covent Garden, London.