You might have already seen Vitra House as it has been covered widely by design media. However we are big fans of Jacques Herzog’s and Pierre de Meuron so we make no apology for showing it again.

The building reaches five storeys in height and containing 12 separate ‘houses’. It is targetted toward design-aware consumers who will appreciate the building as well as the Vitra products inside. Bryan spent some of his early professional life designing Conran’s Habitat stores in the UK and the US and the building reminds him of stacked Habitat logos!
Whilst the design looks simple, of course it isn’t and is testament to the architect’s (not to mention the builder’s) skill.
The building is in Weil am Rhein, a community that is a suburb of the Swiss city of Basel in Switzerland. Weil am Rhein is located by the River Rhine, close to the meeting point of the Swiss, German and French borders.

We love fabulous construction details that look elegant, simple and stunning.

That description describes this staircase in a private house in Scotland perfectly. The house was designed by Julian Hunter Architects and the cantilevered glass helical staircase by Diapo.

Each glass tread was cantilevered 1300mm and weighed over 80kgs. Each tread is amazingly only supported by a 80mm wide stringer and was tested to take 1 metric ton at its tip.
The entire stair coils around a 4 metre diameter, three storey high halogen-lit fish aquarium which is 15 metres high and specially fabricated in Las Vegas. Each tread of the staircase is suspended 40mm from the aquarium face. The gallery balustrade was also commissioned to complete the circular atrium surrounding the Aquarium.

The building offers 360˚ views of Gleneagles’ Queen’s Course and the countryside beyond.

We just want to know how you tip the goldfish food in!

In this Intel Visual Life short documentary, Michael Wolff, co-founder of Wolff Olins Agency and one of the preeminent visionaries and authors with regard to 20th century brand expression and identity, talks about his approach to looking at the world, including the muscles of curiosity, appreciation, and imagination.
Bryan has met / worked with many of the original ‘visionaries’ in British design including Terence Conran, Michael Peters, Rodney Fitch, Nick Jenkins and many of the successful ‘second & third generation’ – David Davies, Stuart Baron, Vaughan Oliver etc. What was common with all of these people is an intense curiosity about everything and this short film describes it beautifully.
This is 6 minutes of filming about all things which might inspire you in some way. Make a cup of coffee and watch it HERE.

This is a fabulous desk lamp designed by the Irish designer Shane Holland.
The Ruray lamp is an LED Desklight named after a legendary wave ‘Tonn Ruraigh’ apparently formed off the County Down coast in Ireland hundreds of years ago.
We love the wave shape of the main body of this new lamp which is hand formed from one piece of composite aluminum.
This is an excellent mixture of fine craft, high-tech materials, and low energy lighting. The LED strip provides bright, even light and 30,000 hours of lamp light.
See Shane’s website HERE

Utilising new communication technologies in our work where relevant is something we love to do. All brands should embrace the opportunities that the multichannel world offers. Unfortunately very few really do. However, Amanda’s love of all things graphic, including body art, brought the story of the interactive tattoo to our notice.

Karl Marc of the Paris based Mystery Tattoo Club has created a tattoo with a twist… watch the movie at the link HERE

We like chocolate but recently we found something that made our eyes, as well as our taste buds, water.

Like many of you we went along to the recent Marketing Week Live event in London. It was a sign of the times to see what used to be approximately 5 different events now wrapped into one and you had to applaud the energy and buzz in Olympia.

The only downside is processing the mass of stuff you are bombarded with. We went specifically to talk to a handful of companies that might be able to help us with specific projects which was very useful but the most eye catching stand out of the thousands we saw was the Chocart stand. If you have never heard of Chocart please go to http://www.chocart-london.co.uk/ and check out what they do.

These are bespoke and personalised chocolates like no other. They can replicate photographs, logos, images and text in amazing resolution on Belgian dark chocolate by ‘printing’ them in white chocolate in raised relief. The whole end result is 100% chocolate and far to good to eat. The chocolates also come in nicely thought out packaging.

Guess where our next client gifts are coming from?

Chris and Bryan like their malt whisky but can only dream of owning, or even tasting, a bottle of the limited edition Glenmorangie Pride 1981. We love packaging and combine that with a liking for good whisky then it is no wonder Pride caught our eye.

Glassware designer Laurence Brabant and furniture designer Wouter Scheublin have created the limited-edition packaging (which is to be priced at £2 500 a bottle) after being chosen from a shortlist of 30. This is their first collaboration and the packaging is modelled on the Glenmorangie and Château d’Yquem wine casks.

The Baccarat crystal decanter, created by Brabant, is hand-blown and heat resistant, aiming to showcase the ‘deep gold’ and ‘opulent’ colour of the whisky; while the curves aim to create a ‘stunning contrast’ to the linear wooden case.

Scheublin’s structural wooden box packaging uses a hinging mechanism, which lifts the bottle out when opened.

Scheublin says, ‘This mechanism is quite unique. It uses the energy of the action of opening the box to unfold the contents so the bottle can be displayed without being touched, while the carefully crafted oak box reflects the complexity and refinement of the whisky.’

Dr Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s head of distilling and whisky creation, says, ‘[The packaging is] very luxurious, very beautiful and very different, something with two sides: one to reflect the character of an extraordinary whisky, the other to celebrate the heritage of Château d’Yquem.’

Glenmorangie Pride 1981 is limited to 1000 decanters.

We can only wish.