Personal Products

5.5 Designers present 'Cloning', a range of objects derived from people's physical characteristics. The Paris-based collective set up a laboratory in Milan to collect people's data and integrate these in the design process. The results: eyeball-shaped lamps tinted according to the donor's iris colour or a vase modeled on you own vital statistics.

This form of fabrication utilises the flexibility of digital prototype creation mixed with the skills of artisans who quite literally personalise each object.

The process is intended to counter the increasing difficulties of creating a lasting bond with the objects in our lives – A clothing rack that is a replicated on your own skeleton or a teacup handle formed by the impress of your thumbprint would ensure greater identification with the product.

www.cinqcinqdesigners.com

Seasons Through the Looking Glass

A secret garden that is blossoming in the underground tunnel at the V&A as part of an installation entitled 'Seasons Through the Looking Glass' by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects. Visit regularly and you will be able to watch the rose trees wilt. What is particularly elegant though is the transformation of the cardboard

Open until 29 March 2009
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/contemporary/looking_glass/index.html

An origami curtain which you can be crumpled and then holds its form, thanks to magnets within the pleats .
The simplicity of Florian Krautli's design is stunning.

www.kraeutli.com

(via http://proteinos.com/)

Psychogeography

Obsessively detailed etchings of London rendered in pencil on a white background, Stephen Walters maps document our shared experience of the city and the private life of the artist.

www.stephenwalter.co.uk