Dutch Design week 2013 / part 1

A week ago the whole city of Eindhoven was centered around design. All kinds of design and mostly dutch design ofcourse as from 19 till the 27th of October the Dutch Design week 2013 was held. From all around the world designers gather to see the newest design developments and during this one week Eindhoven is more alive than ever.
Being a designer myself, every year I visit many locations to find inspiration and enjoy the art of design.
So here a selection of the many photo's I took, which will hopefully inspire you as well.

Latte art

Recently I started working as a bartender at a big cafe/restaurant. It has an easygoing atmosphere and cool industrial look as the cafe is situated at the old light factory of Phillips in Eindhoven.

Being a bartender I have to 'make' all the drinks, which in most cases means grabbing the right bottle (which is not as easy as it sounds when 10 more orders are waiting..).

Making coffees however requires some serious skills. Especially frothing the milk for the cappucino's and latte machiato's to create the perfect thickness is essential for thier quality as well as for the creation of what is called 'latte art'. 

Latte art is created by pouring the frothed milk into the cup while moving in specific directions. This way beautiful hearts, flowers or even swans can be created. 

I must say the first time I saw my collegue make a heart it didn't seem that difficult. Yet after many attempts past weeks I rarely succeed in making a nice heart or flower. 

So respect to all the baristas out there who just like that draw onto your coffee!

I guess I still need a lot of practice but hopefully I will get there one day ;)

(even though this wasn't created by just pouring the milk, I couldn't not post it :p )

Wooden necklace

Hello dear reader, it's been a while!
Shame on me..
But here a brand new blogpost!

About a month ago one of my best friends sadly moved to Sweden to follow a master course on design for two years. She will be working with wood a lot, which she is very good at, so what better present to give to her than a wooden necklace which I made myself :)

From a project I previously did I still had left over pieces of mdf which were lasercut in the shape of a necklace, as I used the negative as a mold to create a prototype. I had saved the pieces with the plan of using them later, so using them to make a present was the perfect occasion.

I painted the mdf white and added tiny triangles to create an aztec-like pattern. The backside I left white so the necklace can be worn both sides. With some silver wire I attatched a silver necklace with a clasp.

I loved the result and so did my friend who was kind enough to send me some pictures of her wearing it, all the way in Sweden! :)

DIY paint swatch portrait

A long time ago I posted my favorite DIY projects and one of them was this modern wall art with paint swatches. When buying paint for my room a while ago I stocked up on quite a few paint swatches myself.
I really liked these since they were bigger (which made it a little less time consuming) and had cool names on them. I used an old frame which I had lying around and spray painted it white.

Then it was time to position the swatches which took quite a while as I wanted the perfect color combinations (ofcourse I did..). To make them fit I cut them a little. I used double sided tape to stick them on the piece of cardboard which came with the frame. Finally I put the frame around it and I was done!
I really like the result. It is a nice pop of color on my white wall.