April 26, 2011
April 19, 2011

The Cool Collector is proud to present:

Injecting New Ethics into the everyday!

During the projectweek of the Willem De Kooning Academy for arts & design in Rotterdam, the Netherlands trendforecasters Mona Dekker and Irene Westerbeek organized the project: Injecting New ethics into the everyday.

'The future belongs to those who create it'

By injecting ethics in everyday objects and concepts designers of today are able to influence the world of tomorrow. Baby boomers, cultural creatives, entrepreneurs, karma queens all consumer groups that are highly active in making the world a better place for the next generation.
But what about that next generation? What are their needs and values about ethics? In the ideal ethical world of 'the old generations' there's no place for pop, youth culture or for big brands or other appealing lifestyle stuff that makes being young so nice!

After a inspirational kick-off presentation by Irene Westerbeek about Ethical Consuming the contesting students from the 1st until the 3rd year were challenged to give their visions on the future of ethical consuming.
In groups they researched several ethical trends and transformed them into visual product-concepts that they believed in!

We hope you will enjoy it!

With special thanks to the students:

Mirre v/d Berg, Veerle Evens, Lisa Galesloot,
Marjolein Heije, Floor Kuitert, Jude Finies, Karen Hogenboom, Nora Solisa
Cindy bakker, Sarah Distel, Crissy Fila, Lianne Huizinga, Cecil Kleine, 
Lilian Radovic & Suyin Ridderstaat





Cool Collector # Brand Files

Here in Rotterdam, my hometown, Boijmans museum recently bought a peanut butter floor from artist Wim T. Schippers who I absolutely adore! I just found out that peanut butter art was not only happening here right now but also on the web in the Nutropolitan Museum of Art!
A very exciting project by peanut butter brand Peanut Butter and Co. I also just realized I never wrote the word peanut butter so often in a such a short time!
Anyhow people can send in their peanut butter creations. Each entry has a great name, is photographed well and comes with instructions on how to make it yourself! Now the Nutropolitan museum is not only a online-museum, on their website you can read about more events and pop-up events around this peanut butter phenomenon. 
I hope a apple brand will come up with this idea, ever since I remember I like to cut my apples into weird shapes before I eat them, just for fun...






Cool Collector # Art Files

Arranging and ordering objects seems to be the new trend in arts lately, organizing things and creating new order and structure seems logical in today's world where old structures are changing very quick!
Though I really love watching these artworks I never post them because I really don't know what to say about it!
Therefor I was really relieved to find these works from Marco Ugolini & Pedro Motta who actually have a good explanation for their organizing-artwork.

'I see the supermarket space as a space of manipulation. The attempt, in this action, is to subvert this structure of power. The pictures have been taken in collaboration with Photographer Pedro Motta, in a supermarket in the same neighbourhood of the art center. None of the products have been bought after the shooting.' Marco Ugolini

Would have enjoyed it more if they did buy their selection and shot a picture of the cashiers face!
Cool Collector # Gadget Files

Nokia Research Labs has created a magnetic ring called Nenya, which can control your cellphone as you twist it on your finger. The ring looks like a standard piece of jewellery, but is actually a strong magnet. Moving the ring causes changes in the surround magnetic field, which are picked up by a bracelet worn by the user that connects to their phone Bluetooth. You rotate the ring to pick from a number of options, which could be memorised, played as audio through headphones, or displayed on a screen, then push the ring towards your fingertip to select. The options could include asking a caller to hold, or updating your location on a social network. The researchers conducted two small trials and found that people could accurately position the ring in roughly 45 degree increments, suggesting that a ring-controlled menu could contain up to eight options. They will present their findings at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Vancouver, Canada next month.

I'm not really sure if I am excited about this idea, wearing something that magnetic around my body, but on the other hand there is already so much radiation in the air, a little more might not matter. I am also wondering if you are a litlle nervous type that's continiously playing with their hands and all, could it be you call all kind of people and remove shit from your phone without noticing. Guess not, but I'm really curious about how it functions in practice!

And if we are going to wear rings to control our cellphones, we might also wear rings to control our computers, laptops, tablets and other gear... Can't wait to see what that looks like!

Cool Collector # Interior Files

I love this bunk-bed from London-based Australian born designer marc newson. Is bunk-bed 'bunky' was presented at Milan design week 2011 for Italian Home. I really love the fact you can easily seperate the beds and make it two singles. Besides that it looks very cosy, playfull and exciting and very refreshing!Too bad I don't have kids!
April 11, 2011

Cool Collector # Interior Files
 
How cool is this chair designed by Joey Zeledon! The design simply appropriates the plastic hangers and the steel closet rod from a standard closet and creates a chair from those elements, turning the closet inside-out.  Besides it's multi-usable, it's also very appealing to the eye and very inspirational for the DIY-hards amongst us. I see a lot of these steel chairframes just stading by the trash or really cheap in second-hand stores because the sitting is broken. All you need left is a bunch of plastic hangers! Good luck!



Cool Collector # Art Files

While doing some research for a assignment for a group students I bumped into these collage's. Don't know the name of the artist, but she calls herself la Fashion Geek. Didn't love everything but these art-inspired collage's are quite inspiring! It sort of proves how youngster are able to create new messages by destructing cultural symbols and putting them back together in another context! Especially love the 1st. image, it's just very romantic and horrifying at the same time! Considering she created these in July, when none of the protests against dictators were happening yet! A quit foreseeing eye! via

 
Cool Collector # Garden Files

Last week I held a presentation for the biggest garden product supplier of the Netherlands, we talked about urban farming and the importance of selling and creating appealing products for bringing this amazing trend in practice for the normal consumer. Anyhow I searched my bud off for a appealing picture of a trendy way to keep chickens in the city and couldn't find anything. A few days later I have found what I was looking for! It’s shaped like an egg and it was design to house 2 to 4 chickens, called the Nogg, designed by furniture designer and engineer Matthew Hayward and Creative Director Nadia Turan. Great for the small urban farmer! Love it!



Cool Collector # Toy Files

Back in the days, a LONG time ago, my generation played with toys without cables, wifi, adapters etc. Nowadays when you visit a child-birthday or something all the kids sit down on a row focusing on their Nintendo DS, playing alone together. When there's no nintendo ds around they will concur any other computer or smart phone available. It still surprises me they prefer spending their together-time behind their little machine's instead of playing with toys or a with a game together. I guess that's just the new normal. Anyhow this playmobil mash-up made me really laugh! Maybe that's the future of toys! Mark Zuckerberg dolls, Nintendo coloringbooks, Twitter Barbie, Foursquare Lego, etc. 






Cool Collector # Shopping Files

While surfing I bumped into this amazingly cool webshop. A must-see for the art lovers amongst us! Click for Art is a British site where some very cool artist sell their art printed on pillows, canvas, coffee cups, bags, eye masks and soon on very cool chairs! For pop-lovers it's especially very attractive, cause most collaborating artist produce pop-images! It also made me realize maybe artists should consider more initiatives like this, it's a practical way to make money and also for the consumer a nice possibility to buy art for a price that's more appealing then the price for the common painting!