Piave - Italian for [Designer] Toothbrush

Ever wondered what the secret to an Italian supermodel smile is? The answer takes the form of these over well-designed toothbrushes from Italian toothbrush manufacturer Spazzolificio Piave. The special chrome and iconic Kent Comb style editions are made in Italy and certified by the University of Milan.

It isn't the first time the Italians have worked on a toothbrush, but refreshingly Piave gets it right with a focus on simple materials and simple angles. At around £5 each, these are an easy win for any design conscious boutique hotel, airline amenity kit or aspiring mancave locker-room.

The Locker Room - Chrome Louvre Vents

Following the previously mentioned post on interior signage, the mancave locker-room can be easily enhanced with additional hardware. These chrome louvre vents add an industrial coolness to the shower room; no cutting holes in your doors required. Be sure to use matching chrome machine screws.

Teak, Holly, Lacquer & Fizz... Veuve by Riva

It may be October 31st, but the combination of teak, holly, lacquer and fizz is no Halloween concoction (despite the seasonal pumpkin-yellow label of Veuve Clicquot's signature bottles). This presentation box for the 1998 Grande Dame from the aforementioned champagne house, is a work of design excellence.

Crafted by super-iconic Italian yacht maker Riva, it features a polished teak and holly construction: Reminiscent of the achingly cool wooden motoryachts dotted around Lake Como in Italy, and manufactured of course by Riva. Throw in some black lacquer, chrome, a engraved nameplate and you're ready to hit the water. Purchased from New York merchants Sherry-Lehmann on Park Avenue.

Paris 2010 - Les Puces du Design

This month, Design Trawler ventured over to Paris for the bi-annual design exhibit that is Les Puces du Design. Held twice a year, almost 100 design dealers from around Europe and the World gather to exhibit their best 20th century design pieces.

Like a kid in a candy store (or rather, the previously mentioned Can A Suc store), it was difficult to focus attention on any one area. Prices were high but the quality and variety of items made this 'flea market' a museum-quality exhibition - the bonus being everything's for sale. You can't say that about the V&A!

Architectural Sweetener - Design or Foodstuff?

I discovered the posh creative sugar company Can A Suc in the Printermps Haussmann store in Paris. While I'm not generally a fan of sugar in my coffee, it's just as well because this little spiral of perfectly shaped sugar 'steps' are best rolled-out for guests.

For around £30 you get  enough sugar pieces (in brown and white) to refill the perspex holder three or four times... at which point you can head back to Paris for a refill, or come up with a similarly artful way of displaying sugar cubes.

Banking back in Style - Ballograf Epoca

So the public backlash against bankers has subsided. Ever ahead of their time, the Japanese realise that it's about time banks and bankers should be celebrated (not that I'm biased or anything). I spotted the beautiful Epoca Bank pen last year in the Scandinavian Design House at Omotesando Hills in Tokyo.

Manufactured by Jan Johansson's and Tommy Kvistsuper's Ballograf AB in Sweeden, this is an iconic ballpoint with black/chrome satellite stand and classic ball bearing rope. It deserves to be on every desk, by every telephone and on every counter in the Square Mile. Buy! Buy! Buy!

Le Fridge by Veuve Clicquot

 

Had to get this one posted before winter rolls in. Every year Veuve Clicquot commissions a designer to create a new 'ice box' presentation case. Iconic in so many ways, the charming 2010 design by Denis Boudard manages to incorporate Veuve's trademark yellow with a simple 50's fridge form. Does what it says on the door, keeping the bottle of brut cool for up to 2 hours. Do grab one before they run out.

100% Design London - Stephen Johnson

I mentioned that some of the events and exhibitions held as part of the London Design Festival weren't commercial enough - 100% Design at Earl's Court was probably on the other end of the scale, with all it's high-budget corporate stands and weighty press kits.

I liked Stephen Johnson's 'Happy Happy' chrome/aluminium bows. Commercial, at £3,000 each and similar in style to the works of Jeff Koons, Stephen was refreshingly forward about his inspiration - A bow is a commercial 'folly' intended purely to look pretty and make people happy. Like the work by Dixit, I think it sits at the design end of the Art-Design scale, and is certainly less twee than his other work.

Tent London - Design Trumps Art

Highlights from the Tent London exhibition this weekend included Dixit Design Lab. In particular these Yes No art pieces caught my eye for the interesting use of colour and 3D layers. The artworks are made from stepped, hand carved and lacquered segments in Y and N patterns with graduating colours and embossed/raised text reflecting the positivity (or negativity) of the word.

I particularly like the use of light to make shadow emphasis the design. Interestingly the rep made it quite clear that the pieces were not art, but actually design. Fantastic to hear somebody finally make the distinction between the two and hail design as something that can command a £2,500 price tag.

Designersblock London - Top Picks

I was invited to a preview of the Designersblock London exhibition last night as part of the London Design Festival. A few most designs were highly conceptual and un-commercial, but a few did stand out.

Gerald the Dog from Lazerian (pictured) is a £10 cardboard do-it-yourself kit that takes the form of the company's mascot. Charming and accessible, the angular cardboard form replicates Lazerian's more ambitious designs like the £1,700 Bravias armchair - made from over 200 hand cut components.

Also of interest was the Light Light by Charlie Sekers; an iconic representation of a table lamp made entirely from a neon tube-light, and the luxury flat-pack Baba Lounger chair by Objekt International.

Wall St. Martini by Michael Godard

A recent visitor to the mancave commented on my 'nice olives' - while I admit, the aforementioned steel Malteser dispenser would probably dispense olives equally as well, alas I was not serving olives that evening. Instead my visitor was refering  to the painting which takes centre stage in the living area. I thought it was about time I unmasked it.

Called Wall St. Martini, it personifies a handfull of olives running round the trading floor of the NYSE, buying and selling and larking around by the giant martini glass trading post. A bit of fun, but relevant as I picked it up in Miami weeks before embarking on my first job in the City of London. By the American self proclaimed 'rockstar of the art world' Michael Godard, it wasnt the Martini's, but rather the Mojito's I was on when I stumbled in to the Godard gallery in Key West. Bespoke frame by Village Framing.

Argentine Malteser Dispenser

Picked up this shiny dish in the Buenos Aires Design shopping centre in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Firstly, I'd like to comment on the brilliant idea of a shopping centre featuring only design and independent furniture stores; would definitely like to see the format more widely rolled out.

The dish is made from cast steel and doubles up neatly as a Malteser dispenser when friends are visiting (although I haven't tried it for size with Ferrero Rocher's yet - clearly the Argentinian Ambassador hasn't been round). Really like the streamline form which is far superior to the clumsy equivalent from Dwell.

The Harbour Master Telescope

Asides from lashings of shiny chrome hardware, black stitched leather and elegant wooden tripod, there is a very good reason why this Harbour Master Telescope found it's way into the apartment. And there's no mancave link to keeping an eye on your pet T-Rex as it wreaks havoc in the neighbouring village.

The reason is twofold. The first being that I saw one in the private library of the $20,000 a night Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons New York (that's another story). The second is suggestive, and touches on my previous post of furniture as metaphor. A telescope implies there is something to look at outside; which implies the apartment is a) penthouse-high, b) perched on a cliff-face, c) is actually a yacht... or d) is a rather less auspicious sounding 'yacht-perched-on-top-of-a-really-tall-cliff-face'.

Furniture as Metaphor

You may want to sit down for this one, the concept is a little abstract I admit. This sideboard, isn't actually a sideboard. It's a grand piano. No, it doesn't fold out in a spectacular origami display like the Boxetti Television either. I wanted a grand piano, but that didn't fit. Neither did a normal upright piano. So I chose a piece of furniture in a similar shape to an upright piano, finished in a piano-black lacquer and with similar chrome hardware.

It's not a bookshelf; it's contents are hidden just like a piano and when placed in an environment where a piano wouldn't look out of place, metaphorically speaking, I think it creates a similar visual effect. That, and how many pianos do you know that can house a fully stocked bar?

Flint - Mancave for Knife

They say you don't realise what you've got until it's gone. I think it also works the other way around - Sometimes you don't know what you're missing until you have it. Despite my earlier comments about modern man in the kitchen, I've been looking for a decent set of kitchen knives for about a year now.

We all want to chop our carrots like a Samurai but with top Japanese knife sets pushing £1,500 I'd rather buy a fleet of Wagyu livestock and set about making tatare with a plastic airline utensil. Luckily however I stumbled across these achingly smart blades in Habitat (not literally you understand). I've never seen such a magnificent combination of angles, shiny metal and earthly stone - perfectly summed up by the name of the series from which they're from - Flint.