Sauce

San Francisco-based Method has revamped the packaging for its popula Omop floor sweeper keit and Omop microfiber accessory pads.

Made specifically for Method from a combination of paper and bamboo the new brown packaging has an attractive unfinished quality to it – totally unique next to other products packaged in clear clamshells with bright labeling.

The packaging has a minimal quality to it that alone provides it a creative advantage – you want to look at the packaging, touch it and find out what is in it.

The packaging is both compostable and recyclable (mixed paper) and its creation has an interesting story behind it.

The idea for the new design came out of a “Design Safari” a regular creative departure held internally among Method staff. At the safaris staff members share examples of packaging or creative design they like and discuss it with their colleagues.

The new Omop starter kit packaging is compartmentalized. Everything has its own place in a logical easy to open format (unlike many clamshells).

Method’s Katie Molinari says – the internal layout of the packaging is a little like the experience of opening an Ipod box.

Open the lid of the paper/bamboo packaging on the starter kit to find a bottle of the Omop cleaning solution and a microfiber pad nicely laid out in front of you. Dig a little deeper to uncover the Omop unit itself. So simple its actually rather elegant.

The Omop starter kit and microfiber accessory packaging are both made from the new paper/bamboo packaging designed in-house by Method’s design team.

The new packaging replaces the clamshell style packaging the product used before and began appearing in stores across the country last month. Molinari said the Omop itself is basically the same as the earlier version with a few minor enhancements to its durability and functionality.

Consumers will ultimately judge the effectiveness of the new paper/bamboo packaging but from a creative and design perspective its bold and ambitious – fitting well with Method’s goals of continuing to green their packaging.

The packaging won the Institute of Packaging Professionals’ (IoPP) AmeriStar award.

The newly designed packaging is available for both versions of the Omop and microfiber pads.

via Sustainable is Good

Concrete textile, design: memux (Thomas Mennel, Reinhard Muxel)

Producer: Oberhauser & Schedler Bau GmbH, Hermann Rudolph Baustoffwerk GmbH

Shown on the Red Dot Awards site

Leave, a leaf-shaped fridge magnet designed by Richard Hutten, has been put into production by office furniture manufacturers Gispen.

The plastic leaves were originally designed for the office ceilings of the Boijmans van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam.

“Since it’s a magnet, you can apply it to any metal surface,” says Hutton. “I did my whole fridge with it. A sort of a bush.”

Johans Golv AB is a Swedish design company that develops floor and wall tiles, tables and worktops in a special concrete material – Soft Concrete.
The softness is achieved by adding polymer to the concrete mix, which makes the material structure more elastic. The products are manually crafted and custom made in Sweden.
Drop is a decorative tile from Johans Golv made of Soft Concrete. Drop is designed by Jenny Oldsjö och Ragnar Hultgren. Drop was shown as a product for the first time at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2007.

solidformdesign

For those that saw Dave Brown flashing this book about…

The Reptile collection by Çanakkale Kalebodur & Seramik, has won an award from the Annual Design Review. 

 The Reptile Collection is produced by one of the world’s biggest ceramic manufacturers Kale Group. Çanakkale Kalebodur & Seramik is one of the group’s brands. 

Product designer Can Yalman’s tile line was inspired by the scaly skins of snakes and crocodiles. Also Yalman aimed at recalling Turkey’s ancient tradition of tiling and shingling buildings in repeated geometric patterns. The collection consists of two series named Snake and Crocodile. Each diamond-shaped snake piece has a molded central ridge, and each crocodile square a high rim; the colors and finishes are based on reptilian pelt variations.

What did the Jurors say for Reptile?

The furniture category was viewed by Dave Alhadeff, John Dunnigan and Matilda McQuaid. Dunnigan called the products ‘refreshingly unpretentious’ and about their choices, ‘the more appealing references the piece had, the more we appreciated it,’ he said.

Juror McQuaid: ‘They could easily have called this ‘teardrop’ or ‘shingle’ to appease reptile-phobes. As a grouping, with the interlocking system and overall texture this would have a transformative effect on a room.’

Ecolect is a newly sprouted sustainable materials community with a most ambitious mission: “to be the largest, freely accessible sustainable materials library in the world.” The site will not only be a resource listing, but will incorporate reviews, discussion, and news, encouraging audience participation to further build a bustling eco-minded community.