HBL Analysis: Glazes

Ice cream white cups with pink dripping by Lenneke Wispelwey

Whether hand-thrown on a potter’s wheel or mass produced to a stock shape, the application of a glaze to ceramics can completely transform a piece.

WGSN-homebuildlife explores the curious world of finishes and glazes: from eccentric, bubbling lava glazes and rugged, earthy stoneware to the pure matt surfaces of bone china and porcelain.

Frame Moooi Award: Call for entries

Publishing company Frame and design brand Moooi have teamed up to launch the Frame Moooi Award, which seeks to find the best furniture or lighting designed for a predetermined interior. Applications will be accepted online from 1st September, with the winning design set to scoop a 25,000 Euro prize and a feature in Frame magazine.

WGSN-homebuildlife original designs

WGSN-homebuildlife original artwork

Each year, the WGSN-homebuildlife design team puts together a collection of original designs - 25 lamps and 65 furniture pieces - inspired by our extensive global research and product resource library.

This year's downloadable original designs - both sketches and high resolution renderings - are now live! Subscribers can access by clicking here for the lighting collection and here for the furniture collection.

HBL Analysis: Pets lifestyle

Fine dining at the Longcroft Cat Hotel

The pet industry caters for a uniquely large market. 62% of US households own a pet - a total of 71.4 million homes. More than half own a dog, while 38.2 million own a cat. Across Europe, 62 million homes across Europe own pets, with 60 million cats and 52 million dogs.

These figures are echoed around the globe: we are a world of pet-lovers, and we want only the best products for them. In a major new report, WGSN-homebuildlife presents the current and emerging trends in lifestyle products for pets.

Chigo: kids' lifestyle brand focus

Following our recent report on wooden toys for children, as seen at the Tokyo trade shows, WGSN-homebuildlife focuses on the unique Japanese brands which specialise in wooden toys for kids - beginning with Chigo.

Yoichi Yamamoto Architects 2D/3D chairs at Issey Miyake, Tokyo

Yoichi Yamamoto architects for Issey Miyake, Tokyo

Japanese design firm Yoichi Yamamoto Architects has created a visual merchandising display in Issey Miyake’s Tokyo store windows entitled 2D/3D Chairs, which plays with perspectives. Inspired by Miyake's philosophy of "from 2D cloth to 3D dress", Yoichi Yamamoto have sliced the tops off a series of traditional, comb back dining chairs and arranged them across the shop floor. When viewed from a front-on perspective the chairs appear in full form, complete with seat and legs.

Modern Frustrations at the Sumarria Lunn Gallery, London

Tim Phillips, 2011

Some of the world’s greatest advances in technology have been developed to alleviate the stresses of everyday life. Who would have thought that these modern advances could lead to greater frustrations? The desire to streamline processes has seemingly led to more aggravation due to overcrowding, bureaucracy and information overload. Coming to London’s Sumarria Lunn Gallery in September, Modern Frustrations is an exhibition that brings together the work of Tim Phillips, Ross Jones, littlewhitehead and Blue Curry in four different explorations of this theme.

Sweetch18 by Benoit Lienart

Drawing inspiration from Gerrit Rietveld’s 1928 classic Red and Blue chair, the Sweetch18 is a multifunctional piece: a coffee table that can turn into an armchair and vice versa. Designed by Benoit Lienart, Sweetch18 is available at Outdoorz Gallery, a prestigious design gallery based in Paris.

Alessi Opens New Flagship Store in Milan

This month, Italian design brand Alessi opened a new flagship store in Milan on 14-16 Via Manzoni, designed by Spanish designer Marti Guixé. The location is in addition to the existing showroom, which has been the key address for the company for over a quarter of a century. The store is Guixé's third project in collaboration with the Italian brand, having previously designed the Alessi Shop and Museum in Paris in 2008, and the 2011 exhibition Italian Dream Factories (subscribers, click here for our report on it) at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan.

LDF 2011: The Auction Room

A unique exhibition held at The Gopher Hole as part of the London Design Festival will showcase an auction room that is actually up for auction. The Auction Room by Mariana Pestana & Designersblock is an exhibition in which the architecture dictates the curatorial direction, meaning once the type of room they'd like to create is decided, the subject matter follows. In this case, fifteen designers were asked to create the components of a working auction hall - chairs, a hammer, tiles, light switches, tables, lamps, a rug, and cups & saucers. Some of the designers participating in the exhibition include Alex Hellum, Studio 801, Katrin Baumgarten, Harry Trimble, and Yehrin Tong.

The exhibition is open to the public from September 19th through 25th, during which time visitors can pick their favorite pieces and place a bid. Unlike traditional auctions, monetary offers are not accepted forcing interested buyers to get creative with their offerings. Read all of our LDF 2011 previews so far here.

Minimalist Posters of Children's Stories by Christian Jackson

Christian Jackson has created a series of fifteen posters depicting timeless children's stories using minimalist imagery. Contrary to the bright colors and playful aesthetic typically associated with children's fairytales, Jackson's posters bring out the underlying darkness present in these stories. 

HBL Retail: Kitchen Theatre

Russell Hobbs press preview, autumn/winter 2011/12

Cooking demonstrations have been widely seen by WGSN-homebuildlife's retail team at the press events this year; reflecting the growing trend for kitchen theatrics within the home.