The Donut Project

Umm, how sexy are these? TSOVET Time Instruments, or watches to the lay person, are inspired by vintage industrial gauges and avionic instrumentation. The inspiration is apparent, and makes for some nice looking watches.

Feel free to pick up the all-black SVT-AT76 for my birthday. Find your favorite at www.tsovet.com.

Kevin Rose posted a great video about the design ethos of Dieter Rams, to show where much of the inspiration for designer Jony Ive comes from.

To Apple fanboys/girls Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, is a god. But where does Jony draw his inspiration? Meet german industrial designer, Dieter Rams:

Jony Ive, as you probably know, is the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, responsible for much of the design to come out of the company since the late 90’s. Behind Steve Jobs, he is probably the most important mind at the company.

(Above: Braun designer, Dieter Rams. Below: Apple’s Jony Ive)

The video touches on Rams’ famous ten principals to “good design.”

Good design:

is innovative
makes a product useful
is aesthetic
makes a product understandable
is unobtrusive
is honest
is long-lasting
is thorough down to the last detail
is environmentally friendly
is as little design as possible

(photo & post via Kevin Rose)

Cyglo Tires are bicycle tires with LEDs embedded in the rubber to give cyclists unprecedented visibility to motorists.

Switched using a motion sensor within the tyre, high powered, tough and durable LED bulbs are built into the tread or wall of the tyre and can either flash or be permanently on, so when the wheel turns at any speed, a perfect ring of light is formed whilst continually and perpetually creating it’s own power.

Many cycling accidents innocently occur simply because the cyclist is never seen by the motorist. These, while helping you look like the hippest hipster on the block, will help cyclists combat that.

Register your interest at www.nightbrighttyre.com and follow them at @CYGLOTyre.

From The Smithsonian Museum comes “Spacesuits.” A look into the development and history of the suits that helped take man into outer space. This book features dramatic photographs of the Smithsonian’s collection, as well as never-before-published historical images of spacesuit development and testing—range-of-motion studies (reminiscent of old Henry Dreyfuss studies). Be the first to own a copy of this amazing collection. Purchase your copy of Spacesuits here.

At this years ICFF Cleveland based furniture design and manufacturing company Objeti took home the Editors Award for New Designer. View their collection and see who else took home accolades at ICFF

Are you tired of that same old boring glowing Apple logo on the back of your MacBook? Well pimp it out with stickers from Stick with me, baby! — stickers that turn your Apple logo into a MacBook Bro, or a MacBook Mo.

As a side note, their site is slick. The drag & drop into the cart is wicked awesome.

Bro or Mo? Buy at www.stickwithmebaby.com.

BMW Art Cars have been going on since the mid-seventies. The task for the artist is to take a production or race-spec BMW and create an artistic outer appearance. It is fascinating to the see the transition of art styles over the years as well that the design of the cars. This years artist is Jeff Koons. The M3 GT2 will be used in various upcoming races, most notably The 24 Hours of Le Mans. Old BMW Art Cars have be done by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, R. Rauschenberg and David Hockney, just to name a few. More images after the jump.

via Fast Company

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I really love the pieces from the Jose Collection from Mauricio Arruda.

Jose Collection is a family of storage furniture pieces produced out of materials and processes that achieve a more responsible environmental impact. With previous experiences in design research and academia, his approach to the collection analyzes the product’s life cycle. The urban landscape produces plenty of material that goes overlooked and underused; Arrudawas able to see the opportunity to such urban norm.

Really great concept and execution. I would gladly have these in my home. See more of furniture here.

via the best part

This bench by Frank Cresencia is stunning:

Splay Bench explores the relationship between the interior and exterior spaces created by furniture. Here, slats are used as an opportunity to create an exterior surface, while exposing the interior space between them. The inverse barrel form is sliced so that the relationship is between the bench and the floor of its environment, not the surfaces of the piece alone.

You can purchase it at Voos Furniture, only $1,800.

(via BLTD)

The Water Bobble, designed by Karim Rashid and produced by Move Collective LLC, is an everyday water bottle with a twist.

Each ‘bobble’ features a carbon filter that allows users fill their bottle with tap water, and enjoy clean, freshly-filtered water. The water bobble was created in an effort to reduce our daily waste of money and resources on bottled water.

Americans alone spend $17 billion every year to slake their thirst for portable water. The costs are not limited to our wallers, either: nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to make plastic water bottles. Most of those bottles are casually discarded. They end up in our landfills, in our oceans, littering our sidewalks.

It’s nice to see a designer like Karim Rashid step in to design something beautiful that people will want to own. The only way environmentally-friendly alternatives can succeed are to offer something that the everyday wasteful monotony doesn’t offer. Many times, great design can be the x-factor. Rashid has made an object that people will want to own.

It’s also nice to see something beautifully designed offered at an ‘everyman’ price – $9.95. Check out the slick www.waterbobble.com for more information, and to order a bobble. Retail stores will begin carrying these March 1.

As a sidenote, the web site is very nice, with some beautiful transitions.

What do you think? Would you give up your daily water bottles for an everyday bottle that offers clean water, no matter the source?