Luxury Design Trends

A piece of landscape. Translated into seatable interactive furnishing piece. No distinction between backrest, armrest or footrest, stacked or spread r..

Room for Squares is in american elm, cotton canvas and leather strips. Inspiration has been traditional japanese architecture and carpentry. The const..

The classical Suiss hospital blanket is modified in terms of colour, designed by Isabel Bürgin. A modified weave construction turns the hospital ..

set of vases for cactuses from silvered glass

[ By Steve in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then a host of eager entrepreneurs really, REALLY admire Apple Inc. and its visionary founder & CEO, the late Steve Jobs. Dodging Cupertino’s copyright lawyers at every step, they seek to juice up their bland with the famous Apple brand. These 10 outrageous Apple brand and logo ripoffs showcase the most egregious transgressions of those eager to co-opt the fruits of Apple’s labor.

Steve Jobs Action Figure

(images via: Mashable)

The wildly popular, unofficial and unauthorized Steve Jobs Action Figure was in many ways a victim of its own success: word of the figurine spread across the globe and permeated the deepest corners of Cupertino: yep, the smoky back rooms where the legal beagles roam. Kudos to M.I.C Gadget for their sublime expertise in designing this superbly detailed action figure; boo-dos to the suits for shutting it down.

(images via: M.I.C Gadget and Walyou)

Give M.I.C Gadget credit for trying – in a series of attempts to satisfy Apple Inc’s legal department they first relabeled the figurine as the “Pineapple CEO”, then swathed it in a burka-like black face covering. All to no avail: the product was so accurate in its portrayal of Steve Jobs there was just no way to pass it off as anything else.

Apple Apples

(images via: Blog!NOBON)

Call them Apple Apples or the even more redundant iApple, these logo branded fruits still taste sweet. The concept originated by a Japanese fanboy with far too much time on his hands is based on the fact that apples won’t turn red if they’re not exposed to sunlight. Selective masking results in tasty tattooed fruit that make great desktop offerings to your favorite tech teacher.

(image via: Blog!NOBON)

The next best thing to an Apple iPod is an iPod apple… well, sort of. Though it’s rather useless as a music player it can come in quite handy should you get the munchies.

iShampo

(images via: HumorStorage)

Trying hard or hardly trying? After applying the time, money and risk inherent in any new business venture, the originators of “iShampo” went and shot themselves in the foot by leaving off the final “o”. Then again, their assumed market is a non-English-speaking country who likely will only recognize the non-tectural logo. Anyway, let’s enjoy smug white iShampo shampoo and technical black iShampo conditioner!

(image via: Ministry of Tofu)

Claiming to be an officially licensed Apple product is one thing, having an officially approved Apple aroma is another… and just what would an actual Apple Shampo, er, Shampoo smell like? Apples? Too obvious. Perhaps, as a netizen commenter suggests, it “smells daintedly of sugared oranges with a whiff of cut grass and a sprig of winterberry”.

Apple Pantyhose

(images via: Beijing Kids)

What can be said about Apple Pantyhose besides the fact that it’s made and sold in South Korea? Well, it comes in brown or blue, for one thing, and… blue pantyhose?? Anyway, once they’re out of the package their Apple brand marketing mystique instantly fades, though one way to get it back is to wear them on your head while robbing an Apple Store.

Hello Kitty, Goodbye Steve Jobs

(images via: Sanrio and Hello Kitty Hell)

We have to assume Sanrio got the official OK from Apple Inc to use their brand trademarks in this well-intentioned tribute to the late Steve Jobs but that still doesn’t make it right. Then again, Sanrio also pimped out Hello Kitty to Hooters so nothing is sacred it seems.

Apple iFoot Shoes

(images via: Fanbuxie and LOVE)

When you’re a shoe manufacturer whose main influences are Converse All-Stars and Apple products, and your customer base feels similarly, the result is a wide range of high-top sneakers proudly displaying the classic and current Apple logo. Best feature? They run without needing batteries.

(images via: Jessie Kavana Customs)

Naughty or nice? These custom shoes are one-off models made per order for an Apple employee, who obviously doesn’t work in the company’s legal department. Check out the string of Christmas lights encircling the toe, wouldn’t it be cool if they actually lit up? Perhaps there’s an app for that.

Apple 7-Eleven

(images via: M.I.C Gadget)

If you’re looking for an Apple iPhone 7-11, get your apps to Guangzhou, China but prepare to be disappointed. The store supposedly does NOT sell real or imitation iPhones, and odds are you can’t get Big Gulps, Slurpees or apples there either. You CAN get sued, however, if you’re the store owner.

iPhone Brand Gas Stove

(images via: Kotaku, Bolong and M.I.C Gadget)

If this officially inspected iPhone Brand Gas Stove rings, DON’T answer it… at least, not when it’s on. Wuhan State Police recently seized 681 neatly boxed iPhone Brand Gas Stoves from a storage warehouse recently. Those official-looking tags indicating the stoves had passed inspection? They’re fake too.

(image via: Bolong)

Isn’t it great to know China’s law enforcement authorities are finally getting serious about copyright infringement? It would be if they were, but these stoves were impounded because their safety switches were defective. That’s some darned fine police work there, Lu.

Fake Apple Stores

(images via: LA Times, Business Insider and Tech Crunch)

Laws affecting intellectual property may be weak throughout much of East Asia but the law of supply and demand has never been stronger. Take China’s imitation Apple Stores, near-perfect copies of Apple’s signature stores right down to the t-shirts and ID tags worn by the employees. Not all Chinese cities have official Apple Stores so local entrepreneurs step in to fill the gap. Ditto for Myanmar, where a snazzy pseudo-Apple Store brightens up a street in Mandalay (top).

(images via: Apple Gazette and M.I.C Gadget)

For every letter-perfect imitation Apple Store there are probably two, three or more imperfect ones such as those above. Business, one might say, really sucks.

‘iFeng’ 4S Blow Dryer

(images via: Dumaujvaros and Cult of Mac)

From suck to blow: it’s the iFeng 4S, a ballsy tribute to a guy who probably hadn’t used a hair dryer in years. The 900-watt “tribute edition” dryer is limited to just 99 copies, and if you believe that then the Chinese online seller probably has an iBrooklynBridge you might be interested in as well.

(images via: Dumaujvaros and Cult of Mac)

The iFeng 4S (“Feng” is Chinese for “Wind”) appears to be made from ABS and PC, the latter being the only off note the chunk dryer plays. Why use its snout to memorialize Steve Jobs, though? We have to assume the company owner is an Apple fanboy hit hard by Jobs’ passing. He had the chance to express his feelings in a uniquely personal yet public manner and he did exactly that.

(images via: Gizmodo and Daily Mail UK)

Call it a perfect storm of brand envy, marketing desperation and creative bankruptcy, resulting in logo hijacking on an unprecedented scale. You’d think consumers regardless of first, second or third world residency would know better and maybe they do, but simply don’t care – the power of the Bitten Apple transcends the quality and relevancy of the item it’s stuck on.

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In today’s world of information overload and soul-killing McJobs, however, brand saturation is turning marketing mantras on their heads. From debranding to unbranding to back-door product placements, it’s hard to know who’s selling what – which is the whole point.
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Rad Rebranding: How 10 Famous Logos Have Changed Over Time

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Haunted House? The Abandoned Mansion of Steve Jobs

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Modular indoor pet shelter inspired by architecture and textile technology.This shelter gives pets the private space they need while stylishly adaptin..

MIMIC can be easily installed with use of its independent legs in combination with a replaceable plate, seamlessly harmonizing with the surroundings.

[ By Delana in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

If you were to travel today through the area that was once Yugoslavia, you would come across some incredible massive objects that allow an unexpected look directly into the area’s past. Before dissolving into several smaller countries in the 1990s, Yugoslavia became home to a number of large-scale futuristic monuments.

(all images via: Human’s Scribbles)

The monuments, scattered all throughout the former Yugoslavia, were erected in the 1960s and 1970s by then-Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. The Spomenik, which literally translates to “monuments,” are commemorative markers which immortalize WWII battle sites and locations of concentration camps.

Although the events marked by the monuments were dark, the sculptures themselves are utterly fantastical and otherworldly in nature. They were created by a number of different sculptors and architects, each piece imbued with a unique sense of cultural history.

The highly abstract objects take many unexpected shapes, appearing to represent giant models of microbes, huge crystals, deconstructed architecture, even alien plant life. The gigantic, mostly concrete, shapes reflect what was then a very strong, proud country. The form of each monument was selected for its symbolic meaning, having some sort of connection to the site on which it stands.

Throughout the 80s, the monuments were visited by millions of Yugoslavians, especially younger people who were pursuing their patriotic education. But when Yugoslavia dissolved, visits to the monuments dropped off almost entirely – and upkeep of the structures was abandoned.

Since the early 1990s, the monuments have been completely neglected. They sit there now, rising high above the surrounding trees and before majestic mountains, their historic origins becoming more obscured with every passing generation. Many of the desolate structures are crumbling into inscrutable ruins. Will these mysterious objects become the Stonehenges of the 20th century?

This series of Spomenik photos was created by Jan Kempenaers, a photographer who felt compelled to make the difficult journey through the Balkans to document the forgotten Yugoslavian giants. Using an old map of the monuments from 1975, he traveled to each of them in turn, capturing them in their current state of sad, melancholy glory.

Though the monuments themselves – the sculptures, completely removed of their meaning – are still quite striking, it is hard to ignore the pain and suffering that they represent. When they were erected, they were meant to bear witness to the atrocities that took place during WWII. Today, their meaning is nearly lost to time and political upheaval. Many incorrectly believe the structures to have been Communist propaganda material, but in fact the monuments were meant as tributes to the anti-fascist uprisers and everyone else who died in the second world war.

These lonely monoliths no longer immediately call to mind the approximately one million Yugoslavs killed in World War II. Over time, they have begun to look almost like natural parts of the landscape rather than the testament to human resilience and national pride they were meant to commemorate.

Insofar as it is possible to enjoy a work of art without knowing what it represents, stumbling across one of these monuments in the Balkans must be a truly awe-inspiring experience for foreign visitors. But we like to think that there are also some adventurous historians out there, still visiting the monuments to pay their respects to the fallen people they memorialize.

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[ By Delana in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

If you ever needed proof that science is completely amazing, the mind-blowing phenomenon of quantum levitation might just do it. A group of researchers from Tel-Aviv University demonstrates the incredible effect in the video below. We aren’t physicists, but the science behind the phenomenon goes something like this: a crystal sapphire wafer is coated with an extremely thin ceramic layer. When it is cooled to an extremely cold temperature, the ceramic-coated wafer becomes a superconductor.

Putting the superconductor into a magnetic field causes something called the Meissner effect. From there, there is a lot of complicated physics that happens with magnetic fields, superconductivity and magnetic flux tubes. The powers of superconductivity and magnetism fight against each other. When the superconductor moves, the flux tubes move as well – but the superconductor tries to prevent this and so becomes “pinned” or “trapped” in mid-air.

The effect is nothing short of stunning. The wafer appears to levitate effortlessly – and it doesn’t hurt that it gives off impressive amounts of vapor, making the demonstration look almost like magic. It even seems to float upside-down. We have a feeling that if every high-school science teacher used a demonstration like this in class, we wouldn’t be saying “we aren’t physicists” today.

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Outstanding In Their Field: 10 Outrageous Outhouses

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Hey You, Get Onto My Cloud: Bizarre Floating Transport

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The plugbook is made in the shape of a book which hides itself between your other books. When you need it, just take it out and pull the cord. Simple ..