Design trip.

Tord Boontje is an inspiring designer I came to love. This post is for Mike who was riding with me as we headed back to the office one day we passed a lighting store and I could remember it being in a different location when I moved to the area and for the life of me I was trying to tell him about the Boontje designs that had once been sold there, but the name escaped me. Well here you go M and others....*from Design Museum.
Working on the cusp of design and craft, TORD BOONTJE, the Dutch-born, London-based product designer combines advanced technologies with artisanal techniques to create exquisite glassware, lighting and furniture.
From his early projects like the tranSglass series of recycled green bottles, to ambitious recent work such as the sumptuous replica of a bough of Blossom that he created as a Swarovski crystal chandelier, Tord Boontje has sought to imbue his products with a magic and romance that transcends their function.
Born in Enschede in the Netherlands in 1968, Boontje studied industrial design first at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and then the Royal College of Art in London, where he now teaches. As well as making limited edition pieces, such as his continuing collection of Swarovski chandeliers and the Inflorescence project of computer-generated floral drawings he is developing with the digital artist Andrew Shoben and computer programmer Andrew Allenson, Boontje is developing designs for mass-production.
He has adapted the Wednesday collection of lights he made in a batch edition in 2001 into a less expensive, mass-manufactured light to be sold in Habitat. Boontje is also continuing work on a collection of glassware for Dartington Crystal and to develop new products, such as eyewear, for the fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
Amazing, urban, modern and eclectic!