July 2011
14 posts
2 tags
Women drivers only
Beacause real men don’t drive around with no kids in Nurmijärvi.
3 tags
Report: Finnish contemporary architecture
Finland has a long and notable history in architecture, and has over the years contributed heavily to the style known as Nordic Modernism.
But that was years ago. That’s why we here at the Kasper Stromman Design Blog decided to visit a contemporary maker of “polygonal garden houses, pavillions and saunas” to report on the current trends in architecture.
Honestly, I don’t really...
Pancakes and lotion?
Honey is a sweet food made out of nectar from flowers by our friends, the honey bees. It is then collected by the Voi Hyvin! beekeepers and for some reason packaged in what looks like a tube of moisturiser.
Personally, I’d add a bee or something to the design, you know, just to clarify. I’m saying this because my hands were a bit dry, and now they are all sticky with honey which...
The most important design challenge this year
Ore.e Ref. is challenging designers of the world to not design chairs in the year 2012:
“We believe that the world already has enough chairs… think about the amount of time you’ll save when you don’t have to design chairs for a year.”
No less than five designers will be rewarded with a “Design and Craft Diploma”.
No-Chair-Design Challenge
Pret-a-porter Kekkonen
Do you remember Kekkonen? Have you ever seen his penis?
Not many people have (or have they?), but the artist behind this dress up doll from the seventies (courtesy of Hymy magazine) either had a close relation to this former president or a vivid imagination.
Also, according to this anonymous artist’s rendition it’s worth noting that Kekkonen’s favourite accessories seem to...
Design Report: Carpets of the MS Mariella
The MS Mariella is a passenger ferry operating between Helsinki and Stockholm. She was built in 1985.
According to Wikipedia she was at the time the world’s largest cruise ferry “with a car deck”.
The ferry has a capacity of 2,500 passengers, but thanks to the lush carpeting covering every square inch of the vessel you won’t notice this, since the passengers pretty much shuffle...
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Special design report: Citymarket Hämeenlinna
To enter Citymarket Hämeenlinna you first have to pass through something I call “the Red Fiery Gate”. This is most likely designed to make you feel very small, possibly worthless. You know who would be proud of this gate? Hitler! It’s a gate fit for a strong leader, with plenty of space for parades on the big half empty parking lot outside. Very impressive.
All this changes however when...
4 tags
Twenty mark fail
The Finnish 20 mark banknote was introduced in 1993. The currency no longer exists, but this note had the value equivalent of roughly 3 euros.
But wait! Apparently people kept confusing it for a 100 mark bill, which looked nothing alike, so in 1997 the Bank of Finland withdraw all the notes from circulation and replaced them with this new design which was almost identical, only bluer.
Fun...
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Slippers for racists
Reino, traditional maker of fine slippers for the over 80 crowd has taken a bold step in flirting with a younger customer base by introducing their new Xenophobic Slipper.
Okay, so technically I made the name up – it’s actually called the Hockey Reino, and the model was born to commemorate a recent ice hockey victory. But with recent chages in the political landscape one can only assume...
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Review: Design Cafe, Sturenkatu
As we here on the Kasper Stromman Design Blog are dedicated to all things design related, we were very happy to notice a self-proclaimed ”Design Cafe” had popped up around the corner!
Okay, so this one isn’t perhaps strictly a Design Cafe, since it also proclaims itself to be an “Internet Cafe”… but the word “design” is in larger type so that must clearly mean something.
...
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Top 5 Vintage Finnish Calendar Tea Towels...
For some reason a bunch of people in the seventies decided the most convenient place to print a calendar on had to be a tea towel. Reasons for this may have included “practically impossible to write on” and “calendars are great when soggy”, but there is no real way of knowing this.
What we do now today though is that they look great and are actually useful around the kitchen. Here’s the top...
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Signs of labour #1
– You sure you’re not starting off too big? You’ll never be able to fit in all the lettering? – Don’t worry about it. It’ll fit just nicely.
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D–I–WHY #1
Doesn’t it break your heart a tiny bit to realise that Magnus has discarded of this nice plate JJ made for him? Or wait, maybe JJ created this and never gave it to Magnus? And if that’s the case, what if Magnus now finds it at the charity shop? Then what?
