As you probably noticed, NDB in good relationship with Electrolux, we’ve been years a media sponsor of Electrolux Design Lab, Me was chosen as jury member for their latest Ergorapido competition, etc. This time we have chance to being one of the first blogs to get to invite our readers to a new online gallery and a competition for Electrolux Kitchen Stars.

Here the excerpt from their press release:

Share your best kitchen moment to win!

The kitchen is a major force for social networking – a place used for more than just creating meals. That’s why Electrolux have conducted a global search for kitchen anecdotes. The search provided all manner of unusual, intriguing and inspiring stories: a couple hearing their son saying his first words; playing host to 11 Latvian weight-lifters; demonstrating how to make orange juice at the Brazilian Embassy in Stockholm and sending out a live 24/7 webcast for three months from an Italian kitchen.

The search for Kitchen Stars continues.

Electrolux have 89 Kitchen stories and are looking for one more to help us celebrate our 90th anniversary. Your story could be the one that helps create the next revolutionary kitchen product.

“Our consumers are at the heart of our products” says Martin Hörnqvist, Electrolux global head of consumer insight. Martin Hörnqvist continues, “All creation and development of our products at Electrolux has it’s origin in broad consumer insight research. We study how people interact with their appliances in their home to understand the link between lifestyles and why consumers select a product and how they use it.”

Are you a Kitchen Star?

You qualify as a Kitchen Star if you have one or more freestanding or built-in Electrolux appliances in your kitchen and have a story to tell about a moment when you felt like a star in your kitchen. For inspiration, check out our site. If you have something great to share then upload your story together with a picture of your kitchen at www.electrolux.com/kitchenstars. Then simply tell everyone you know to vote for your kitchen moment to see if you can become a winner.

The prize?

This is not only an opportunity to join an illustrious group of Kitchen stars, the 90th Kitchen Star will also receive the iconic Electrolux ErgoRapido.

For further information about Electrolux or the Kitchen Stars project, please contact: lina.hook@electrolux.se

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects have won the Region Skåne’s architecture award for its construction “Strandbaden dance restaurant. The project was honored as the best building in southern Sweden in 2009.

Strandbaden dancing restaurant is a combined restaurant, meeting room and disco located in Falsterbo in Sweden’s southernmost tip. KKA won the 2007 international architectural competition in competition with 80 other proposals to design the building. The building has also been nominated for Sweden’s debut price and The Great Indoors awards.

http://www.kjellgrenkaminsky.se/index.php?blp=84

The stool Nitton° is a product from a sustainability project. Questions like “How can a stool be designed to be more environmentally friendly, economically profitable and with social features?

The stool is made from thin layers of wood that are pressed together with glue and heat. The glue is a new type that is not dangerous for our environment and is extra hard to allow the thin construction. Thin construction minimizes material and double curved surfaces allow maximum weight. To give it social values the stool is designed to comfort a small group of up to nineteen people. If you put nineteen stools together you get a circle that is the perfect size for a small group when communicating, everyone can have eye contact and easily hear each other, perfect for schools, libraries and museums.

The name Nitton° is the Swedish word for nineteen, the degree sign connects to the stools curve that is also nineteen.

The stool will be shown at the fair “Hem 2009” in Stockholm, Sweden this week 1-4 October

Link: www.karloskar.net

Electrolux, a global leader in home and professional appliances, selected Cocoon as the Electrolux Design Lab ’09 winner. The announcement was made at the finals in London on September 24, 2009, at 100% Design London, the UK’s leading architecture and design event.

“Cocoon” is a sustainable response to the world’s growing population and its desire to consume meat and fish. Similar to heating popcorn in a microwave, Cocoon prepares genetically engineered and pre-packaged meat and fish dishes by heating muscle cells identified by radio frequency identification (RFID) signals. The signals detect the specific dish and then suggest the required cooking time. This process uses science to create food, lifting a burden on the planet by reducing the need for further intensive farming and fishing. The negative effects of this process, including the mass transportation of food around the world, clearing of land and distortion of ecosystems, are then negated.

Jury motivation

A jury of internationally-recognized designers judged the entries based on intuitive design, innovation, and consumer insight. Their motivation: “Cocoon addresses a controversial issue that is very real: humankind’s continued desire to eat meat and fish. A great design concept polarizes opinion, and this is exactly what Cocoon achieves by exploring this issue. An inviting, tactile design, the Cocoon resembles a gemstone with a metal accent reflecting the heritage of the Swedish art-glass industry. Cocoon meets all of the brief’s criteria: it is daring, cutting edge and truly innovative in its focus on social and environmental issues.

Arkitektgruppen GKAK recently completed project “Bråviksskolan” - School of Braviken, in Norrkoping community, Sweden.

“Bråviksskolan is a building for contemporary schooling, for looking into the future, for different educational models, with a purpose of catering to the needs of our children. Playfulness, aiming to abandon archaic values like order and discipline in favour of improvisation and imaginaton. An ambition is to answer the creative abilities of mankind, whether young or old. Teaching will strive to meet new demands and so must the organisation. Though, the children will always be the same… Bråviksskolan aspires to affirm and assert the creative abilities of mankind, whether young or old. Teaching must strive to meet new demands and so must the educational organisation.”

Bråviksskolan in the Lindö district of Norrköping was completed in August 2009. The school is specifically built for children aged six to twelve, and has partly replaced the former Lindöskolan.

Arkitektgruppen GKAK is an architecture office based in Norrkoping and Stockholm, Sweden. Arkitektgruppen GKAK works in the wide field of architecture, planning, interior design in projects for corporate and public clients. Arkitektgruppen GKAK is part of the company group Developing Design Sweden.

Link: Bråviksskolan

DesignBoost 2009 will take place in Malmö Sweden between October 14 and November 15 under the theme “Design for Life”.

Today Designboost reveals the twelve first Boosters at the BoostTalk (lectures) on October 15. As earlier years Designboost has invited Boosters from all over the world which represent the true frontline within design in its broadest context:

Ken Yeang, Architect at Llewelyn Davies Yeang Ilse Crawford, Creative director and Designer at Studio Ilse Richard Hutten, Designer Max Fraser, Director at Spotlight Press Colin Drummond, Director of Cultural & Business Insights at Crispin Porter + Bogusky Ineke Hans, Designer Katarina Graffman and Kristina Börjesson, Anthropologist respectively Researcher sustainable design Magnus Lindqvist, Futurologist at Pattern Recognition Behrang Miri, Rapper, Actor and Teacher Jonas Pinzke - Harry MacNeil, Corporate Social Responsibility at The Good Guys

Ten more Boosters will be revealed next week.

For further information please contact : Peer Eriksson/Designboost, peer@designboost.se +46 705-336631 David Carlson/Designboost, david@designboost.se +46 707-982897 http://www.designboost.se

Designboost envisions a holistic approach as a condition for sustainable design. To fulfil this vision we believe in upgrading design competence and boosting competitiveness by knowledge sharing. Designboost is created by award winning communication strategist Peer Eriksson, founder of the communication agency Peer Communication and international acclaimed design and future strategist David Carlson, founder of David Design and David Report.

Ralston & Bau is working together with Fretex (norwegian salvation army) to create re-designs made out of their old products. To re-use objects putting them in a new context, makes not only a sustainable impact, it also gives new live to objects that tell a story.

During the last ReDesign Summer Camp Ralston & Bau made their first redesign series: Tekannelampe (tea pot light) & Ståltrådlysestake (steel wire candle holder). All products are handmade in house.

The “Tekannelampe” is made out of old tea pots, garden pottery, bowls and lamp shades. The cable flows out from the spout, while the handle invites to carry the lamp around.

The “Ståltrådlysestake” is made out of old lamp shades. Only strong lines describe the shape, seeking simplicity.

www.transplant.nu

more pictures: http://www.transplant.nu/?cat=229

Autodidakt is a small type design studio in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started up in 2006 and is run by Göran Söderström. Focus is on designing and developing original typeface families with high aesthetic and technical quality. In other words, provide tools for people working with typography. Available today is a small but original collection of typefaces that can be used to help communicate, build identity and to express. This collection will slowly grow as more typefaces are released.

http://www.autodidakt.se/

International author and speaker, Stefan Engeseth, gives away 10,000 copies of his new book, The Fall of PR and the Rise of Advertising, at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. It is one of the world’s largest book releases with a retail value of €103,600.

In our harsh economic times, it is important to move business forward. That’s why author Stefan Engeseth gives away 10,000 newly printed books at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, taking place June 21–27. A copy of his book will be included in all delegates’ bags. It felt so logical for the author to do this that he also in person will hand out books at the festival. His goal is to raise the economic bar with his book, which is full of creative and inspiring business ideas. It is Engeseth’s dream as an author to reach all the readers who can make a difference, so he will also give away the full book as a free download on his site www.detectivemarketing.com. Isn’t a bit too out-of-the-box to give away 10,000 books? ‘People keep telling me I think outside the box, but I really don’t know what they mean. I’ve never even seen the box,’ says Stefan Engeseth.

During Elfack Fair in Gothenburg traditionally organized Elfack Design Award design competition. Among 16 selected contributions the VANN project was selected as winner . The jury, which has selected contributions are Kaj Abbe Herd, Region Manager for SVID (Swedish Industrial Design Foundation) and Kalle Klockars, Studio Manager at Propeller. They describe the product as “smart, well made and the Nordic light”.

Vann is a new type of product that works as furniture and light fixture. Applications are all types of outdoor environments where you want to create a decorative environment that combines furniture and lighting. The fixture, or the podium if you like, have a seat of iroccoträ, a weather-resistant woods that have the same properties as teak. A frame is constructed of painted aluminum strips that create a decorative grill. The light source comes from a 20W halogen lamp. The fixture is custom designed for the terraces to the newly renovated hotel, conference and spa facilities Vann (www.vann.se) outside Lysekil.

Design Jonas Werning & Tor Olsson, Phosforos Lighting (www.phosforos.com) More info: www.elignosjoab.se