Phaidon Press, international producer of beautiful books, is launching a new and very comprehensive monograph of the eclectic designer Hella Jongerius. Presenting her work in unprecedented detail the book itself is designed by celebrated graphic designer Irma Boom, and is also available in a special collectors edition, which comes with the bonus of a lovely Hella Jongerius vase…

Jongerius' trademark aesthetic combines industrial manufacturing with handcraft, traditional and contemporary influences, and unusually contrasting materials and textures. Highly illustrative and often whimsical, her oeuvre features stitched ceramics, rubber basins and dining tables being clamboured all over by giant amphibians.

Jongerius was a key pioneer in the reintroduction of craftsmanship in contemporary design, and the book's title, 'Misfit', alludes to her belief that quality craftsmanship is only present in the imperfect object, that it is the "flaws" that tell of the process, and show the hand of the maker, making it more precious. In the lavishly illustrated, stitch-bound book the main texts are four conversations between Jongerius and author Louise Schouwenberg about this, her working methods, and her key designs to date.

It has such an inviting name, for starters. Handle Me is a new range of cookware designed as a collaboration between three up coming young Scandinavians Christoffer Angell, Øyvind Wyller and Simen Aarseth.


Launched this week at the Maison Objet design fair in Paris, the designers say they were inspired to make the range by the ancient roots of the product category. "Cookware has been an essential tool of basic human survival since before the beginning of civilization, like the wheel and stone axe," says Angell. "Cast iron is a very durable material, and as designers there was something intrinsically romantic about the idea of making near-immortal products. In a society overloaded with fast-food products we believe that basic cast iron cookware is more relevant than ever."


What could reconnect us with 'proper' cooking better than a proper casserole dish? Complete with dowel handle, this is a tool for creating some really hot stuff in the kitchen.

Tis the season for new furniture, and as we're making our merry way around Maison Object in Paris, and Stockholm and Cologne design weeks over the coming month, we're hoping there will be some wonderful and uplifting new ideas to inspire great trends for 2011 and ease the inevitable Fair Fatigue that tends to set in when you've seen too many new chairs you can't in, in too short a space of time.

Perhaps the most likely to trigger an attack of the latter is the massive and sprawling Cologne Furniture Fair, on now until 22nd Jan, so it's lucky we've already found a bout of new creative energy in the form of young Berlin-based designer Mark Braun. The trained carpenter has made a name for himself over the short couple of years since he made the transition to designer with beautifully simple, sharp and well-constructed pieces. This year he is launching three new products at the show:  LIFT, a series of mono-block roto-molded plastic tables; FLOOR 95, clever hallway furniture formed from bended metal tubes; and the versatile TON, a collection of wooden stools in bleached oak.