Eco-Friendly Design

The cool Swiss company FREITAG is producing and marketing bags and accessories made from used materials found on the road outside your front door like old truck tarpaulins tanned by exhaust fumes, cycle inner tubes and used belts, as well as the newest resource of used airbags. They have a great reputation for functionality, design, durability, quality and uniqueness….but hey what can you expect….they’re Swiss!

FREITAG is now giving their shoppers a chance to take their shopping to the next step, they are letting them become the designer too. Each bag is already distinct because none of the recycled truck tarpaulins look alike. So when you choose a FREITAG bag in the stores you are already making your own statement, but the FREITAG designers still feel that when they are cutting those tarps they are taking the creative part away from us.

So the F-CUT as they call it, places full power into the hands of the consumer without putting the dirt in our hands too, as they say. On www.freitag.ch/f-cut you can now become your own designer. The opportunity does come with a warning though: “F-CUT is easy. But in the end, it is now your responsibility. This way F-CUT is not about buying or making the wrong bag. Think about it. “

That is why FRIEAG offers you a way out….. They say:

You can decide to put the FREITAG logo on your F-CUT bag (in case you need the support of FREITAG in making your decision), or you can decide to go without it.  After all, you are the creator. It’s your fault!

Korean artist Kwangho Lee gets most of his inspiration from childhood memories. In his own words: “I had great time growing up in the countryside with my grandparents. I have such great memories and most of the ideas and inspirations I get for my works are based on them.”

In his work, he talks about two things. One is about the search for possible changes and new meanings in the most ordinary objects of our daily lives. By making little (or it may be big) transformations, the objects gain new meanings with only one purpose: function. Second is to express the symphony of design and craft. His projects never encounter machinery process. Therefore only small quantities are crafted by the hands of Kwangho Lee.

Here is some of Kwangho Lee’s work presented in his own words:
“The biggest inspiration of this lighting is my mother’s knitting hobbies during my childhood. Her knitted sweaters and gloves remind me of the good days of my childhood. I saw the neat pile of electric wires as yarns and soon decided to knit (weave) my own. Other than knitting with needles, I developed a new way of weaving the rubber but solid wires into long, scarf-like or brush-like form of lighting. They are woven by one long wire which varies in length-from 10 to 300 meters.”

“EPS (Styrofoam) is something very easy to spot every now and then. I sculpted a mass of Styrofoam into a sofa and because of its characteristic, the longer you sit on it, the warmer it gets.”

“The remains after the harvesting season in farms are large bundles of rice straw. It used to be my favorite playground. These rice straw are something very familiar to Koreans although you don’t reside in farms.”

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“We are all distinctively unique, and the beauty of it is that there is still something universal that links us all together. The more it is personal, the more it becomes universal!

To act upon what truly speaks to our heart is a personal choice but it is also a way to share part of ourselves to others”

This is Urban Pigeon’s vision and their unique and beautiful T-shirts reflect this vision with ease.

Urban Pigeon was born out of a passion for colors and images and now expresses itself through clothing and design. They create pieces that reflect people’s universal personality, and at the same time they believe in supporting their local community. Each garment is hand printed at their silk-screening studio. Their priority is to offer you high quality and to encourage local development in the textile and garment industry. Fabric, dyes, patterns and assembly are done locally in Quebec, Canada.

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Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager made clothes for themselves to wear out to clubs in the early 90’s during their late teens. After extensive international travel and countless compliments on their clothing a business was executed.

Junky styling was the perfect tag to attach to their unique style of clothing. Charity shops and jumble sales were the chosen source of second hand traditional suits to deconstruct and then redesign into twisted tailored garments.

Now 10 years later, with their well-established shop in Brick Lane and in-house production site just down the road, nothing is holding this company back. Anni and Kerry are still best friends and the same multi-talented crew are putting out new clothing ranges in every direction. Images from their 2008 fashion show.

[via] www.junkystyling.co.uk/