Internationally renowned and multi award winning kitchen designer Mal Corboy will be sharing some of his secrets shortly in Auckland on the art of designing a beautiful kitchen. Giving advice on the planning process, products (including finishes), lighting and appliances, it's a chance to meet key experts in the industry who will help you in the planning and design of your new or renovated kitchen. It will last approximately four hours and includes drinks and nibbles - it sounds like a good afternoon to us.

Saturday April 9th, Rendezvous Hotel, corner of Mayoral Drive & Vincent Street, Auckland 12.30pm for a 1pm start. Limited spaces.

For more information contact Mal directly

   

a. The Joy of Living by Max Fraser [Yatzer]
b. The Likes of Tomorrow [Style Park]
c. Catalyst Shelf by Jiyoung Seo [Dezeen]
d. Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet Xenia [The Coolist]
e. The Man Who Never Dies [Nowness]

We're always on the look out for interesting timepieces (due to our obsession with watches) and this latest one from Russian design studio Podvaal, enables your watch to seamlessly also operate as jewellery. Comprised of three bands, the Revolve watch allows hours, minutes and seconds to swirl around your wrist. Made out of three magnetic bracelets, time can be arranged in whatever order you like. You can decide to just wear the hours (if you're not particularly time conscious) or opt for all three. Powered by an LED display, it can be battery operated or fully mechanic.

Kate MccGwire's bird-like forms are on display at the recently opened Soho Gallery Pertwee Anderson & Gold. Their sinuous forms are overlaid with painstakingly precise patterns of feathers. In deep colours, they have a sense of opulence and detail, with many of the feathers plucked from crows and magpies. The detailed surface of each installation creates a tactile nature that begs to be touched and interacted with. There is a real sense of movement and the former life of the birds within each piece.

Set amongst trees and nature, the Juvet landscape hotel located in Gudbrandsjuvet, Norway offers seven private bungalows for a tranquil retreat. Designed by Jensen & Skodvin Architects, the minimally designed interior lends to complete emphasis on the surroundings. Floor to ceiling windows and a timber exterior enable the bungalows to blend seamlessly into their environment for perfect mountain viewing.

Ditto by 3form, the building material shown here, was designed specifically for recessionista architecture. With no-frills, it's module based, which means you can snap the pieces together to form anything from the most basic of structures, to quite complex. Used for room dividers, commercial art, or structures within an office, Ditto is made out of 40% pre-consumer recycled resin and has a honey comb like appearance. We're told that the panels aren't especially easy to install - and that once you've assembled them they are basically there to stay, but Ditto does seem to provide a highly customised solution for a variety of problems.

a.  Graphic Content - house hold items as fonts [T Magazine]
b.  Earthly delights - the slug and the squirrel terrariums [T Magazine]
c.  Cluny House by GUZ architects [The Coolist]
d.  Font in use: A typography study on the fonts around us [Trend Land]
e.  Sunset chapel by Bunker Arguitectura [Dezeen]

Apple excited us twice yesterday - not only did they release the new iPad 2 33% slimmer than its predecessor, but they've also released one incredibly clever case for it called Smart Cover. A protective cover for the screen that also doubles as a stand for the iPad upright or side on. With two magnets that easily attach to the iPad, it snaps right into place and doesn't hinder the design of the device at all.  It puts the iPad to sleep when you close it, and wakes it up when you peel it back. One very clever piece of industrial design...it's also available in a range of colours. 

One further gadget to add to our ever expanding list of APPS and accessories for the iPhone4 is this telephoto lens. Photojojo has just started selling a telephoto lens specifically designed for iPhone. Each lens comes with a sleek matte iPhone case that you twist the lens directly onto. To compose the shot, twist the grip on the lens' manual focus right to make it sharp. With an optical zoom of x 8, it gives the small but effective iPhone camera some further grunt. Available for $35 USD here.

'Movement of a Moment' is a unique timepiece by Swedish industrial designer Jesper Jonsson. He's designed a clock without a face. If you look closely, however, you can see that time is still read in the traditional manner - just indicated by a more subtle visual than the two hands pointing. In this piece, the hour and minute hand are hidden in the back of the clock, their rotation breaks the clock's ambient glow casting a subtle shadow indicating the hour and minute.