Functional beauty
Access ramp, port of Calais
Matching graphics
“Your penny is worth more at the Cooperative supermarket” is a great slogan, and the graphics on these match boxes are even better. Not sure from which period this is ( I would guess late 70’s early 80’s), but I wish retail graphic design would more often be this convincingly simple, minimal, bold & confident (even if it looks a bit communist).
Cheap & cheerful
Creating a street stall for a one day event to sell hand made scarves from Bangladesh is not my usual design brief, especially if the budget had to be kept at an absolute minimum. But there is always a way, even if it means going to the DIY shop..
Scarves designed by Luxembourgish designer Anne-Marie Herckes with the assistance of the Vocational Training and Employment Generation Project of the NGO ‘Friendship’.
RAL 2005 Leuchtorange
Another beautifully functional colour, RAL 2005 is the standard safety orange for sea rescue boats.
Pondicherry shows the way
Some years ago I took this photo in the city of Pondicherry, India. Amazingly low-tech this hand-painted and sculptural road sign shows the way, also by its expressive and truly functional shape. Love it!
Seaside beauty
I am again and again fascinated by the beauty of engineering projects. This mold / matrix to cast a sea defence wall is one of these examples where the beauty of making these structures is almost more interesting then the final result. It also makes you wonder why not more adventures structures are being cast.
3D tiles
Outdoor ceramic tiles in the public realm always fascinated me, especially if they are in relief. They seem to be such a good solution for buildings, street furniture and walls. There is an almost endless scope of design options; texture, pattern, light reflection, colour ..etc. The slide show shows examples from Belgium (Ostend), Portugal (Cascais) & France (Le Tréport).
If any reader knows of other fine examples, please let me know. I would like to collect more images and hopefully I can post a more comprehensive collection of examples in the near future.
Vacation-land
I found this 1952 tourism brochure at a car boot sale in Belgium. Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg – vacation-land is a great slogan, the land of leisure and pleasure! I also like the wood carving style font and the friendliness that transpires through the illustrations. Although the message is very simple I think it still works today!
Please check-out the post below with the map on the opposite side of this page.
Back to nature
I have seen this type of benches before in forests and parks without really appreciating them. But the concept of a bench with a cast structure that mimics root wood, as disturbing as it looks, starts to grow on me. If you choose casting as a technique you can also open up to other shape typologies, no reason to keep the geometric language you pretty much have to respect if you fabricate something in any other standard way.
To then paint it in such a colour makes the bench almost eccentric, even if it goes against the initial idea of making the bench blend into its natural surroundings.
I also wondered if Maarten Baas came here on holiday one day…
Shopping info point in Luxembourg city
A very small but dynamic, elegant and highly versatile space commissioned by the Union Commerciale de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Primarily it is a place where visitors can get any shopping information (opening hours, retail services, maps, customised shopping trails …etc) the city has on offer. Within that primary task of giving out information it is also a place where the city’s retailers can celebrate particular themes and organise special events & exhibitions.
Furthermore, the second aim of the space was to establish best practice retail design with innovative materials and finishes. The floor is made from two coloured resin floor (made from cast Polyurethane). The grey brown floor is split in the middle by a central band of white that invites the visitor in from the outside. This band is then folding up to create a central display made from thermoformed partially back-lit white Corian sheets.
By contrast, all the walls are lacquered in a warm dark and super mat Nextel paint finish. This material, often used on control panels and dashboards, is hard wearing and extremely light absorbing to minimise light reflections and emphasis the artifacts & displays. Moreover, the lighting is kept low to focus on the displays and create a beautiful museum like experience.
Cramped into an area of only 50m2 the space is packed with multiple functionalities while keeping a sober and high-quality appearance.
Plastic fantastic
A friend of mine has sent me the link to this very poetic and wonderful short film by director Ramin Bahrani and narrated by Werner Herzog about the tormented life of a plastic bag.
Take 15 minutes off work and watch it: http://www.futurestates.tv/episodes/plastic-bag
- Still from the movie Plastic Bag © Ramin Bahrani
Picnic in Armenia
A friend of mine sent me this amazing picture of a picnic area in the woods near lake Sevan in Armenia. The first reflex of a local authority would be to paint these structures in a camouflage green / grey to blend in. I find this choice of colour stunning and beautiful, the contrast of the cyan blue in the wood highlights both nature and man-made structures, producing a surreal fairytale ambiance.
Photo © Sandrine Scheller
Georges Zigrand Design Consultancy 
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