Last month, Vidafine had the honour of being invited to the Blu Dot showroom opening by Urban Mode owner, Myrlene. The Toronto furniture boutique has added a permanent show floor connected to its existing store space, housing the Minneapolis-based Blu Dot line of products.

After amusing ourselves with the new goodies populating the garage-turned-store-space, we gathered around for an informal speech by Blu Dot CEO, John Christakos. After a few years in Management Consulting, John left his high-paying job to start Blu Dot with two college friends who shared a passion for design and architecture. With an aim to build affordable, but good furniture, Blu Dot was born in 1997. Since then, the three have not only created useful and affordable furniture, but also built the Blu Dot brand through fun ideas and smart marketing campaigns. Some of these include the Good Design is Good Gallery, featuring the simple things in life that are simply good; and the Blu Dot Desktop Clock, which displays on your desktop a different image for each minute that passes by. Read the rest of this entry »

The end of January closed off the newly debuted Toronto International Design Festival (TIDF) which was headlined by the truly inspiring Interior Design Show held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto. TIDF was a six-day event promoting exhibits, symposiums and lectures held at various locations across the city. New and aspiring home owners, as well as design addicts, including Vidafine flooded the Interior Design Show to get a glimpse of the contemporary works of both international and local design talent. Read the rest of this entry »

“To design a structure that is sculpted by the shamal, perforated by the sun and that sings the song of the wind.”—Adel Zakout

These are the goals that Adel set out when he was asked to design a structure to be located in Doha, Qatar. Located in the Persian Gulf, with summer temperatures averaging over 40 degrees Celsius and almost no precipitation, this capital city is a true desert in need of a distinctive piece of architecture. The project evolved into the Desert Organ, with its contours blending in with the curvatures of the desert landscape, as if it was carved out by the shamal, or desert wind. Adel also had the walls perforated as if the harsh rays from the burning sun have struck through the big white shell, casting shadows onto the underlying sand. More interestingly, with the many pipes created by these perforations, the entire structure acts as an organ to the shamal, creating an audible tone that brings the structure to life in the middle of desert land. Read the rest of this entry »

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vimeo Direkt
by NuFormer

Talk about adding dimensions to a wall – these two videos demonstrate how digitally created objects can interact with real world spaces such as these public buildings. So, what you are viewing aren’t special effects applied to the video – they’re actual video animations projected onto the building itself. That means if you were actually there, you could see giant balls tumbling down from the roof of a building or a mysterious glowing ball of light floating around the columns of a building (assuming you’re looking at it from the right angle I believe). NuFormer Digital Media were the ones who used some fancy 3D video projection to alter our perception in the real world. It definitely seemed convincing when that building looked like it was collapsing, but don’t take my word for it – go check out the video. Read the rest of this entry »

Sylvia from CoolBoom is our honorary guest writer on Vidafine. CoolBoom is an established blog focusing on the most creative architectural and interior designs from across the globe. To see more fascinating living spaces by modern designers from around the world, visit www.coolboom.net.

Waltritsch a+u has created the concept of a new brand of selected blends named Qubik Caffé. I already published the Qubik Bar in Gorizia on CoolBoom and now I want to share with you the Qubik Bar in Monfalcone here on Vidafine. Read the rest of this entry »

What is O.C.D.? As Wikipedia explains, it’s a mental disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety, or by a combination of such thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions). This has been the basis of a jewlery design project by Lillian Pau, a graduate from London’s Central Saint Martins College. What really intrigued me about her project was how she studied O.C.D. (obsessive compulsive disorder) and incorporated her findings into a witty collection of jewelry that really illustrates and represents this sort of human behavior. Read the rest of this entry »

On a recent trip to Kyoto, Japan, I was in awe when I walked into the CHIRI-MEN CRAFT MUSEUM during my last day of the trip. Draped from the ceiling (as you can tell from the below picture), were handmade mobiles featuring creatures, shapes and people of various kinds. The mobiles were created in an assortment of colours and varying in lengths and patterns. I just couldn’t resist, I had to get my hands on some of their cool works of art!
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If I were to make such a bold declaration that 2010 officially marks the year that we declare our love for everything Finnish, it probably wouldn’t be too far-fetched (as you can see from our well-received look into Igloo life). Finnish design firm Lovi Oy certainly reinforces this case with their imaginative and playful postcards. Read the rest of this entry »

Duracell? Isn’t the pink bunny the Energizer mascot?

After some Wiki-research, it turns out that the Energizer Bunny (the one that plays the drums in sunglasses) is only commonly found in North America. The Duracell Bunnies actually came out first in 1973 and dominate the European and Australian regions. So depending on where you live, you may be familiar with either the Energizer Bunny or the Duracell Bunny! Amazing huh?

Our North American friends must have seen the Energizer Bunny playing the bass drum at some point in their lives. The Duracell Bunnies are often caught doing something other than playing the drums, such as organizing themselves into gangs and engaging in activities like such Read the rest of this entry »

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With the old adage – a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s only right to assume that a thousand pictures would make one heck of a story. Takeuchi Taijin shows us just that by using quite literally hundreds of photographs in his Where The Wild Things Are-esque stop motion video. Looking back at the year which has just left us, this light-hearted stop motion story ranks pretty close at the top of my list for favourite videos of the year.

The story itself is simple and straightforward. A boy dressed up in a wolf costume chases after a pig, but it’s the execution which really leaves us in awe. Read the rest of this entry »