Three students from the Pratt Institute in New York City won prizes for their innovative overnight bag designs in the 2011 Collab Student Design Competition, an annual event held in conjunction with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Out of 115 projects from seven different design schools, Pratt’s Silvia Terhedebrugge and Elisa Boell won first and second prize respectively, and Jeannie Wu was awarded first honorable mention.
Love the geometric pattern of this wooden clutch by Lebanese designer Nada Sawaya.
Ok, here they are… the absolute best of the best, crème de la crème, most popular posts of the year. If you read only ONE post on Design Milk, this is it!
Jumpfrompaper handbags
Up-and-coming Taiwanese designers Chay Su and Rika Lin certainly have a bag full of tricks, literally. These may look like posters, but they’re actually three-dimensional, fully-functioning bags.
Much of what we do here at Design Milk is source the newest and coolest products to hit the shelves and design fairs. This year’s batch of home furnishings are innovative, cool, and highly covetable. From a hauntingly beautiful carafe to an über-practical seating system, we bring you the best accessories we found.
Sculptural Bike Storage
Quarterre designed three sculptural bike storage solutions –- Hood, Branchline, and Shadow –- to support everyday life on two wheels. The pieces are not only useful and good-looking, they elevate the bike to a work of art.
When it comes to fashion, Design Milk looks for products that combine high tech sensibilities with a modern aesthetic. This round-up encompasses the most cutting edge style-related items of the year, including watches made from paper and wood, a pair of shoes not quite made for walking, and of course, laptop accessories. If you’ve got it, flaunt it, we say.
WeWood Wood Watches
These natural wood timepieces are not just sustainable, they’re celebrity magnets. Rhianna, Ke$ha, and APL of the Black Eyed Peas all own one.
I am so giddy about this post! After my experience playing around with a new Ultrabook, I had a fun idea to work with a designer to create a product that was inspired by the lightweight, fastness of the laptop. Intel was generous enough to support this fun project, so I called NYC-based designer Brad Ascalon to see if his studio would be up for the challenge.
Laptop bags these days are still a bit bulky, and since the UB is 2-3 magazines thick, it’ll fit in just about anything. I asked Brad to take a look at the same Acer Ultrabook that I had a chance to check out last week and create a laptop bag inspired by his experience — in just two days! Here’s what he came up with:
Hester van Eeghen is a Dutch-born luxury bag designer that crafts beautiful leather goods for both women and men. All of her bags are designed in Amsterdam and constructed in Milan from fine Italian leathers. The sculptural bags feature geometric shapes and unexpected color combinations that have an almost architectural feel.
The Victoria Saddle Bag design by British designer Ian Mahaffy for English cycling brand Brooks grew out of playful fashion observations within cycling.
The new Utility Backpack by KILLSPENCER is a sleek, solid-looking backpack with all the bells and whistles you need except crafted in a subtle, modern way.
These colorful Hoptu Laptop Sleeves designed by Looptworks are made from 100% upcycled nylon neoprene from excess wetsuit material. They make sleeves for 10” and 13” laptops, each featuring zippered outside pockets to hold all your small stuff.
