Rafael de Cárdenas

This relatively recent furniture collection from New York based designer Rafael de Cárdenas reminds me of the famous work from the 80's collective Memphis founded by famed designer Ettore Sottsass.

Pedro Gadanho

Beautiful interior from Portuguese architect Pedro Gadanho.

MADE furniture

MADE is an interesting company out of England offering great prices on original designs. By producing the furniture themselves in Asia, MADE can offer reduced prices and even production dates on many product pages. The Designs are trendy, modern and unique. Reminiscent of mid-century modernism, most pieces seem to be constructed to high standards. Please let me know if you have actually bought something from them.

Made.com - Obsess LED Light, Multicolour from made.com on Vimeo.

Also, check this great innovative card board sofa.

Made.com - Flexible Love Collection from made.com on Vimeo.

Montréal portes ouvertes

I took some time on Sunday to visit a few businesses at Portes ouvertes Montréal Design/Design Montreal Open House. This is a unique event in which design businesses open up their offices to the public. I visited an architecture office (Nature Humaine), a graphic/exhibition design office (Atlerier Louis-Cahrles Lasnier) and an interactive motion design company called Moment Factory. What most surprised me was all the IKEA furniture I saw everywhere. I don’t know why, but I somehow expected to see more custom designed desks and light fixtures.


Moment Factory‘s office was beautiful. So much light and open space. They even had skateboards available to get around the huge office quickly. However you can see what I mean about the heavy use of IKEA furnishings in this shot above. I see at least 2 IKEA flower pots and 2 light fixtures. They even had 2 giant PS MASKROS pendants in their main conference room.

In the other offices I visited there we many Ikea hacks. What I mean is modified IKEA furniture used to make cubicals and office dividers, and many many EXPEDIT bookshelves.