Day Off Seat by Lana+Savettiere Architetti

Posted by Pereka:Designer / at 23:18 / / 0 comments

'Day Off Seat' design by Lana+Savettiere Architetti. I was met with them at 100% Design

in London last month. for more information : t. +39 011 8141183 - f. +39 011 3810337 or www.lana-savettiere.com

Uncle Oswald is My Hero at 100%Design London 2009

Posted by Pereka:Designer / at 23:01 / / 1 comments

Jinsop Lee and Justin Kim endured two years in the army without killing anybody. In between all the toilet scrubbing and not killing of anybody the two of them hatched a grand plan to one day start a design company.

It would be a different kind of design company. First, the company would have nothing to do with money. In fact, losing money would be encouraged, as long as everyone involved was having a good time. More importantly, their company had to have the name “Uncle Oswald” in the title. Therefore, “Uncle Oswald is My Hero” was founded to fulfill these lofty goals. For the memory impaired, it is also acceptable to refer to the company as “Uncle Os”.

Their first product is called the “Dreyfuss Special.”

Henry Dreyfuss was a fellow industrial designer and quite famous in his own right. His most enduring design is a series of wonderful phones used the world over for 50 years. Unfortunately, these phones are made of Bakelite, a material that is so strong that it never biodegrades. Ever. There are landfills filled with mountains of these phones.

Jinsop and Justin decided to re-use the handset of these phones, but instead of designing the handset as a new phone (which Jinsop already tried in university) they went ahead and redesigned the handsets to be used as a stereo speaker system for MP3 players. Thus, the younger generation will get to use a product that was once used by their parents and grandparents. As an added bonus, the speakers sound brilliant. Admittedly, this has nothing to do with Jinsop or Justin and everything to do with Vincent Kim, the company engineer without whose expertise and sanity the ‘Dreyfuss Special’ would not have been possible.

Our goal was to design a product that people would covet not because it was recycled, but rather because it was a decent looking product that worked well, and just happened to use a recycled component.

Retail prices for the 'Dreyfuss Special' vary from 20 pounds for the basic model to 50 pounds for the Blutooth version.

When not fiddling around at their little firm, Jinsop teaches industrial design at Kyung-Il University in Korea and rides motorcycles. Justin is taking a masters course in industrial design at Goldsmith University in London and taking care of his dog. A miniature poodle called “Mimi”.