Tag Archives: trend

Weekend Colour Inspiration – the beautiful depth of black

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We are huge fans of grey here in the claire potter design studio – and all greys, from the pale chinchilla fur greys to the deepest and darkest of greys which are edging on black. Actually, it is these deeper greys which we love the most, but what about black itself? Has black shaken the 80′s throwback status that it once had?

Well, going by this stunning image we found via The Minimalist, black could be the way to create a deep, strong yet calm room.

The Minimalist x Real Living mag March 2013-3

The amount of black used here is quite incredible, but that is exactly why the design works. Interest is introduced with the black being represented in different ways – the soft matt wooden panelling on the wall, the high gloss of the fridge and the delicacy and intricacy of the illustration on the wall.

Even though black is usually thought of as being flat, this image is anything but flat.

But the reason why is quite simple  When creating any minimal interior, it is very important to maximise the textures of the surfaces so any blandness is banished, both visually and texturally. Light falls differently over different textures so flatness is eliminated.

Also, using such a rich and deep colour such as black, otherwise neutrals such as these pieces of wooden accessories and the table are given a ‘pop’ that they would not get in another scheme.

This is a brave colour scheme, but if you are able to give it a chance, black could just be the colour for you.

(image via The Minimalist)

the importance of humour in design – the Peter Bristol Clip Bag

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Design can, and does, create real change in the world. Change for the good. Design has the ability to progress humanity and alter lives for the better. Design is serious and we take our responsibility as designers very seriously indeed. But it is just as important to have a sense of humour and on occasions it is great to see design that makes you smile. We saw this on Pinterest and loved it – the Peter Bristol Clip Bag.

A little black bag is essential for any wardrobe, but (as you might expect) the ordinary bag does just not do it for us. It would have to be unusual in one way or another. And this is why we fell in love with this particular design.

It just looks exactly like the fold back clips that litter the studio and ironically, my own bag. Plus, it looks great as a lovely simple piece of design with that little bit of quirkyness. As Bristol observes,  ’new scale creates new purpose’.

Bristol is currently looking for manufacturers for the Clip Bag, so it could not be too long before you see me turning up to a meeting with a Clip Bag full of stray clips.

(image via Core77)

a new, sustainable visitor centre for the Great Fens

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Visitor centres are funny beasts. They need to be pieces of architecture which are relatively stand out so they act as a kind of wayfinding structure for the site, yet they should be closely related to their locations and compliment the thing that people are actually coming to visit in the first place.

There can be a delicate line between these points. Stand out, yet not too shouty.

The new visitor centre which has recently been unveiled by Atelier CMJN for the Great Fens in Cambridgeshire strikes a nice balance.

Atelier CMJN, Great Fen Visiting Center, Cambridgeshire, rainwater collection, eolic turbine, fen, organic architecture, adaptation, Architecture, Green Materials, Daylighting, green Interiors, energy efficiency,

Constructed from locally sourced timber, the structure also plans to house water recycling, a water heat pump and rainwater collection.

There is also a very nice connection to place, as the side openings in the building allow visitors to see how the surrounding water levels and the landscape changes throughout the seasons.

This is exactly what a visitor centre should do – introduce the building / subject / location to the visitor in such a way that is supportive, not intrusive. The choice of the circular plan will allow this building to open to all of it’s surroundings and the material choice will give a nice vernacular feel to the structure.

A building that we would like to visit as much as the Great Fens themselves.

(image via Inhabitat)

Weekend Colour Inspiration – accidental combinations

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Colour is a very personal thing. Colours that I love together, you could absolutely hate. Colour links into the deepest of our memories – just like a scent can transport us to a particular point in our lives, colours can take us back there too.

But sometimes we think just a little too hard about colour – and colour combinations and what ‘goes’ well together. There is a great deal to be said for the accidental and the slight clashing nature of some pairings when you are just not thinking about it. And this can be really exciting.

This image we found illustrates this perfectly – when you look at each of the colours as they sit together, there are a few really odd sections, but overall? The colours sort of blend and work as a whole, because they are all part of a similar palette – in this case, almost autumnal.

This kind of treatment is perfect for a charity shop find, or to rejuvenate a cabinet that has seen better days and is very fitting for the eclectic interior design aesthetic that we tend to work with. If the cabinet is nicely battered too and has lovely cup handles like the example above, then it sort of gets a little industrial too, which is only a good thing in our books.

(image via 16 house)

another ethical tea towel…

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We have a bit of a confession to make. We are secret tea towel collectors.

That is right – we do not own a dishwasher here in the studio, with the crockery piling up over the period of the day until one of us gives in and washes the lot. Usually when we are having a grump at AutoCad or waiting for Sketchup to render our lighting or something.

Usually it sits on the drainer and air dries, but there is always a trusty tea towel on hand just in case we really have left it that long and are desperate for a cuppa and there are no cups.

But the choice of tea towels is quite important. Fair trade, organic or ethical cotton. It will possibly be vintage, could be hand screen printed, but it definitely will be patterned and graphical in some way.

Recently I wrote about ethical tea towel choices for EggMag, which included a great tea towel from the Radical Tea Towel Company, featuring a lovely print about Womens right to the Vote.

tea towel

But the one from the range we have in the studio? This lovely tea towel, which is of course, bright green and features the Yeats quote ‘tread softly for you tread on my dreams’. With the inprint of a foot and the inclusion of the carbon footprint down the side, it is obvious the intentions for this tea towel message are environmentally based, which is a nice thought to have when you do a bit of drying up.

Plus the tea towels from the Radical Tea Towel Company are sourced from ethical bases and printed in the UK using water based inks by a family run business.

So if you are looking to spread a message with your drying up, take your pick.

(image by claire potter design)

Wednesday Walls – honeycomb wall storage from Bloq

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We are in the process of working with a client in Brighton to create an eclectic interior space which is welcoming with a bit of wit too. So when we were looking for an interesting display and wall storage option for the hallway, we were delighted when we spotted this image over on Pinterest.

Hallway storage - interesting shapes

Found over at House to Home, this image features the great Honeycomb wall storage boxes from Bloq – designer makers based in Surrey.

Honeycomb is available in a variety of sizes in a variety of finishes – all made with care and precision here in the UK. They are available in timber finishes as well as the painted shown above and are perfect for creating interesting pattens which are not only decorative but useful too.

They interconnect beautifully with a very chemistry style feel, which fits very nicely with the eclectic interior design aesthetic. The image above also includes an initial – perfect for allocating one section to each member in the family perhaps?

Available to order from the main bloq website, from £106 per wall storage unit.

(image via Pinterest from House to Home)

Open source design – the Sea Chair

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Great design is not highly polished. It is considered from start to finish. Great design adds to the world – for the better. Great design, to coin a phrase from Cradle to Cradle thinking – is elegant. And this very unassuming stool has to be one of the most elegant we have seen to date.

The Sea Chair has been created by Studio Swine and Kieren Jones and is one of the featured Designs of 2013 currently on show at the Design Museum in London.

The design is extremely simple. It is a stool created out of plastic, in a highly recognised and familiar form. But what is beautiful about this stool is the story of its creation.

Created by hand, each stool uses only pieces of waste plastic fished out of the sea – cleaning up our oceans whilst championing the beauty of the accidental and the hand made. It has a real raw beauty which we find stunning.

But the Sea Chair is not one of those very worthy designs which are made from recycled materials  by hand, but cost a small fortune to purchase.

The Sea Chair is also an open source design.

So, for anyone wanting to create their very own Sea Chair AND clean up a section of beach in the process, the full methodology of how to create the piece can be found on the Studio Swine website. Right down to how to create your own furnace and how to identify different types of plastic.

This type of project really gets us excited – using an otherwise waste material, a low tech process and a hand made finish to produce an item which will be different from the next.

Visit the Studio Swine website for full details on how to create your own Sea Chair.

(image via Studio Swine)

Weekend Colour Inspiration – colour on the edges…

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This week for weekend colour inspiration we are looking at a very easy and quick way to transform a room, which we spotted over at Pinterest and illustrates the fact that you do not have to colour a whole space. Colour can live on the edges…

colour on the edge

As you can see from the image  the majority of the space is very clean and white, with lots of great textures, which begin to provide interest. The inclusion of the painting brings a nice pop of orange, which could bring too much of a contrast to the area, was it not for the colour on the door.

But coloured doors are nothing unusual, despite this being quite a brave shade.

We really loved the inclusion of the coloured edge of the door.

Plus, if you did not want to paint a whole door a completely different colour, you could use this technique to get a bit of interest into the space. Just painting the edges of the door gives you the option of closing the door and removing the colour, or leaving it ajar to link spaces together.

And if this was still a bit too permanent for you, there is another way to get a very similar effect for very little investment in time and money.

Washi tape originated in Japan as a decorative, coloured and/or patterned tape for crafts and packaging and is very similar to masking tape. It is now widely available online in a variety of block colours and patterns, which would be suitable for any scheme.

2 pack MT Washi Tape - Tsugihaghi C x D

Ensure that your door edges are clean, dry and as smooth as possible, then just add your tape. If you want the edge to stay long tern, you will have to paint over the tape with clear varnish or watered down pva glue, but test it to see that the colours of the washi tape do not ‘run’.

Or, use it to get a bit of temporary interest into a space.

(images via washi tapes and house to home)

Repair is alive and well at Milan

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We are big fans of repairing items in the studio, with us often working with clients existing pieces of furniture - re purposing then into new pieces to fit a scheme. As well as saving money that can be spent on other elements of the design, there is great satisfaction to be gained from taking something that no longer fits the needs of the client and transforming it into a new piece to be loved.

This ‘fixing’ and repair movement is gaining momentum with an increasing amount of designers taking otherwise discarded pieces and creating new pieces. Plus, the craft element of fixing which was previously dismissed is quite rightly being celebrated within the realms of ‘design’. This is not only a vital development for the processes of design but for the reinvention of the hand made - with the new ‘limited edition’ of one single, repaired piece being born.

Plus, repair has shown up at the recent Milan Design Week – a design festival which showcases the very new, high end pieces by a global design community.

This chair by Progetto Pronto Intervento we spotted at Inhabitat and we instantly fell in love with the unashamed repair and clean method of reinvention.

 green design,  green design event,  green materials,  green packaging, salone del mobile, milan furniture fair, green furniture,  Milan Design Week,  Milan Design Week 2013,  young designers,  zona tortona

The timber frame has been retained in its natural form, with a new seat being cut in translucent acrylic – playfully yet functionally stitched to the supports below with cotton string in a contrasting colour. A very simple yet effective addition to an old frame that not only rescues it from the scrap timber pile, but reinvents it for a modern interior.

Great inspiration for those charity shop furniture finds…

(image via Inhabitat)

Weekend Colour Inspiration – vintage book graphic colour schemes

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We have lots of sayings that we like to use in the studio. From ’work hard and be nice to people’ to ‘why fit in when you were born to stand out?’, but my personal favourite has to be a quote from the wonderful Paul Smith.

‘You can find inspiration in everything. And if you can’t, look again’

Which is how I explain our obsession with taking photos of everything. Everything. Things, textures, fonts. Natural or man made. Design, fashion, architecture. Because you never know where your next spurt of inspiration will come from.

And whilst on our recent trip to Amsterdam we filled our phones with lots and lots and lots of stuff - many of which have featured here on the Ecospot in various forms.

IMG_1835

So today we are looking at another three images from the Dutch collection – three books which we spotted in an antique book fair in Amsterdam and just loved. We are suckers for nice colour combinations and nice fonts, so these were real winners and out came the phone…

IMG_1832

Despite their age, the colours were remarkably vibrant and were quite beautiful. The pale blue, greys and whites on the Texel book really appealed to me (lovely grey again…), but the rich oranges, reds and greens were stunning. The juxtaposition between the colours was inspiring and illustrations, well, you could have easily framed them.

IMG_1833

So this week we are not really showcasing a particular colour scheme  but a process – look at everything around you – explore, take photos, cut images from magazines  And not just of a finished design – stuff.

It is that ‘stuff’ that you will look back on one day and discover the germ of a new idea. Because you really can find inspiration in everything. And if you can’t, look again.

(images by claire potter design)