Skateboard decks find that they go through short and abusive life cycles as fanatical skateboarders repeatedly perform tricks in tough environments. These decks end up fraying, cracking and wearing out rather quickly which consequently results in skateboarders going through an abundance of them in their skateboarding careers. Read more »

With the goal of captivating, inspiring and activating tomorrow’s thinkers to take positive action towards saving our planet from the accumulation of waste products, David de Rothschild, a 31-year-old English banking heir and environmental daredevil along with his team of hand picked scientists are on a mission, to address the issue of sustainability with the creation of Plastiki. An all around environmentally friendly masterpiece, the Plastiki is a 60-foot catamaran floating on approximately 12,000 reclaimed whole plastic bottles which have been highly pressurized. The masts are made out of reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipes, while the ropes are also made from recycled plastics. Read more »

There was certainly a lot of hype leading up to the launch of Apple’s newest gadget, the iPad which was announced a couple of weeks ago. Almost everyone was predicting Apple was going to roll out this revolutionary device. But when Apple unveiled the iPad’s specs, I kinda sat there with a somewhat dumbfounded look that read “that’s it?” It felt like a giant bubble burst above my head of all these fantastic concepts that I, and others envisioned the iPad to be and all we were left with was this giant iPhone. Nevertheless, when it comes to revolutionary and the type of applications that the iPad and iPhone has the potential for, it always brings me back to Mac Funamizu’s amazing concept, the Looking Glass. Read more »

With a background in working with different materials such as steel, aluminum, bronze, ceramics and glass, Roger Borg decided upon working with neon tubing as his current medium of choice. Having seen a television program on neon, he was inspired to incorporate neon into his artwork. Essentially that’s how his company 419 NEON, which produces commercial neon signs and architectural lighting came about. Read more »

As probably the most iconic fixation on an American dining table, Heinz ketchup has almost become synonymous with the term ‘condiments’ when referring to food. While I only prefer to use a moderate amount for my fries and nothing else, I’ve witnessed more than a handful of people who dump ketchup on pretty much everything they eat. It’s easy to see how this is possible as ketchup is readily available almost everywhere there’s food. A little over 40 years ago in 1968, the first ‘rip and squeeze’ packets were unleashed upon the fast food world – something we in the Westernized world are more than familiar with as well. It seems as though these tiny packets with the zigzag lines have gotten a bit of a makeover. Read more »

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 more »

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 more »

“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 more »