Goodmorning, a Danish strategic design firm recently developed stylish phones for a Belgium tele-company called TopCom.

Here shown the Butler 500 cordless DECT phone and the Butler 920 Skype phone.

The Butler 500 is a much simplified DECT phone for Topcom. Designed to be simple in expression and simple in use, the Butler 500 can be placed in its charger vertically or horizontally. The back of the phone houses a back-lit screen – to offer the information that matters. The keys use a touch-sensitive membrane but are graphically divided with fine lines “engraved” in the surface. In a world of over-styled and over-cluttered DECT phones, block offers a refreshingly simple phone which still has a strong presence.

The Butler 920 phone for Topcom is pure ”ear candy”. Designed as a high volume and relatively cheap Skype (VOIP) phone, the Butler 920 should be available in a range of bright, candy colours. The top half of the phone houses the screen within a case of clear plastic. The Butler 920 offers a fun and simple companion to your computer.

The Butler 500+ or “Partner phone” for Topcom is so-called because, unlike conventional DECT phones, it forms a strong partnership with its charging base. When sitting on its base, the partner phone creates an attractive whole, with an embedded screen which shows you just the information you need. A small scoop in the handset both helps to locate the navigation keys and makes it easier to pick the phone from its base. The base holds the handset in place with a magnet so that the partner phone can be placed horizontally or mounted on a wall.

(Goodmorning Technology is a strategic design firm, placed in Copenhagen Denmark. With 15 people working within the fields of product, graphic, digitaldesign, architecture, strategy, business, communication and ethnology they develop and design innovative solutions in a complex world)

Link: Goodmorning

Hot news for collectors and others whom are interested in design: a remarkable auction with a selection of unique installations and products made in the exclusive material, DuPont ™ Corian ®. Among the designers are greats such as Ron Arad, Zaha Hadid and Sottsass Associati.

The auction takes place Dec. 18 at the Pierre Bergé & Associés in Brussels, one of the main galleries for design, and of course they accept bids from Finland.

All items are exclusive originals and are created for various exhibitions and fairs. There is everything from art objects from Sottsass, to futuristic kitchen design by Zaha Hadid, which shows that DuPont ™ Corian ® is a material which is extremely versatile and easy to work with.

The idea behind YayArt is to make art available for everybody! In their statement on the site they wrote that they want art out of the dusty museums and out to real people.

“Imagine art without the snob! Art without the obscene prices and buying barriers. Art from upcoming artists, that are refreshing, new and still alive!”

Link: http://www.yayart.com/

I would like to recommend to our Swedish readers to check out Kockredskap.se online store. They offers stylish kitchen accessories, kitchenware, ceramics and more. They works exclusively with highest quality trademarks but in same time they offer reasonable prices. Folks from Kockredskap.se consider that when it comes to cooking people must do it with quality tools.

http://www.kockredskap.se

H is for Home recently posted about Lundtofte:

The Danish company Lundtofte produced high quality, stainless steel pieces - predominantly kitchen & dining wares, but also some decorative household objects.

More info on H is for Home

IVANAhelsinki is an exclusive art fashion brand. It brings delicately together Slavic rough melancholity and pure Scandinavian moods.

Paola Ivana Suhonen is the artist behind the fashion pieces, starting from her dark naive mind-landscapes, northern legends and western romantics, doing prints, graphics, shortmovies and well, everything that is involved with the visuals. She runs the family-owned company with her older sister Pirjo. Every single IVANAhelsinki piece is ateljee manufactured in Finland. The whole production philosophy is based on ethical and ecological choises. There are a lot of handmade details and traditional Finnish handcraft methods are featured.

“IVANAhelsinki started as my personal art-project, now it’s a way of living to us. I could easily spend my life travelling around and go to my road trips, but it is pretty much ok to do cute, straight cotton and woollen dresses for charismatic drummer girls and girl women. They are the ones who love moonlight fields, pirates, dark forests, crummy motels, champagne state of drunkness, fragile butterflies, unstable relationships, cowboys and guardian angels. After all, I’m sure they are just after a love of their lives, just waiting to see, will he be a rockstar, a motor biker, a gnome, a cosmonaut or a sailor.”

Paola Ivana Suhonen is a Helsinki born designer and artist. Her most well known for her own art fashion brand IVANAhelsinki which has in 10 years grown to an international art brand. The essential part of IVANAhelsinki is the design clothing line. Paola Ivana has been in charge for the design and art management of this line ever since 1998 when it was established. Paola Ivana has done several alternative projects where fashion, design and modern art have been combined. “I am not fixated with certain materials just the opposite; different materials are ways and means for me to express my own, inner world. The pieces I have created are souvenirs of my soul world.

In addition to her own personal design and art projects, Paola Ivana Suhonen has done product development, graphical and concept designing for example for Head Snowboards, HP Sauce, Google, Swarovski, Coca-Cola, Canon, Amnesty International and Mori Art Center in Tokyo just to mention a few. She has designed “Saimaa” dish serie for Finnish traditional porcelain company Kermansavi and “Guardian Dog” jewellery for Kaipaus. Paola Ivana Suhonen has graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki from the fashion and textile design department. Today she teaches in that very same university. In fall 2008 Paola will move to New York for a year to be more involved with her great love, the movie making.

Link: IVANAhelsinki

Birmingham 05 May 2008 Autoadapt already occupies a leading position in the rapidly growing market for adaptation of automobiles for the elderly and people with physical disabilities from their head office in West Sweden. Now, Autoadapt is reinforcing its product base, its distribution network and technical knowledge base through the acquisition of operations in Finish Turvax Oy.

”Autoadapt and Turvax will collaborate on several development projects. This is a very exciting time, and both companies are looking forward to creating new solutions that can help people with physical disabilities to drive cars,” concludes Peter Wahlsten, Managing Director of Autoadapts U.K.

During the past decade, Autoadapt has grown to be Europe’s largest supplier for “Adaptation of vehicles to the needs of the elderly and disabled”. Today, approximately 90% of production is exported to more than a hundred dealers in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and the South Pacific.

To learn more visit www.autoadapt.co.uk

Via theautochannel.com

Known and admired for her multi-tasking talents as well as her signature style, Electrolux announced today that it is tapping Kelly Ripa for the U.S. launch of its new premium appliance line – a stylishly sleek new collection that’s poised to transform America’s kitchens with a fresh jolt of European style and performance, helping today’s busy families do more — better, faster and easier.

As part of its North American launch, Electrolux also announced that it will be joining Kelly Ripa in supporting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, a cause important to its target consumer and to Ms. Ripa. “Ovarian cancer affects thousands of women and their families each year,” notes Ripa. “That’s why I am so grateful to Electrolux for stepping up and helping me to raise money and awareness to help fight this insidious disease.”

In addition to an interactive web site promotion that will raise money for OCRF while engaging consumers in a fun, first of its kind on-line game where they collect Kelly Ripa’s collection of designer handbags for a chance to win a suite of Electrolux premium kitchen appliances. , Electrolux is also donating a portion of retail sales of select appliances to OCRF, with the goal of raising more than $500,000 over the next two years to help fight ovarian cancer.

Link: http://assets.m80im.com/resources/electrolux/electrolux.htm

If you’re in London, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels or Milan, keep an eye out for giant AEG-Electrolux posters which are measuring and displaying ambient noise levels. The giant posters created by blowUp media are driving a unique campaign to promote a “silent” washing machine from AEG-Electrolux, a leading European white goods brand. Decibel meters are being installed in and around a number of the sites to monitor ambient noise levels. These are then connected remotely to LED screens embedded in the giant poster creative where the current decibel level will be displayed. The decibel levels at each site location will also be fed to a campaign website (in UK, www.noiseawareness.co.uk) to allow users to compare noise levels in the five cities as well as find out more information on this issue.

CLUB 2008-02-04 Talking, Working or Brandy: Lammhults Club Brings People Together. Design: Johannes Foersom/Peter Hiort Lorenzon

Club, the new chair from Lammhults designers Johannes Foersom & Peter Hiort-Lorenzen, is a comfortable alternative to stiff, formal meeting chairs. Designed to be grouped together wherever people meet for conversation, Club provides a relaxed setting for organized or informal exchanges of ideas and information. Club comfort suits cozy reading of a book at home or waiting for an airplane in a crowded lounge.

Link: Lamhults