ZO design studio

This is my (Irene) first post on 2Modern…I am really excited about it…of course I would like to thank Greg Finney for inviting me! Every Friday I will do my best to show you some original designs from my home country the Netherlands. As I am currently living in Kuala Lumpur, I will also show you some beautiful Asian finds now and again, so I guess a Dutch/Asian mix… I thought it might be a nice idea to start by showing you the work of two very young Dutch designers, Tineke Beunders and Nathan Wierink, who are both still studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Together they form the design studio ZO. Tineke and Nathan didn’t want to wait until they were finished studying. They decided it would be more fun starting designing and producing right away. I glad that they did… their designs are original, beautiful and fun! “Something Old Something New” is the name for these blanket handbags. Tineke collects wool blankets, especially the ones that have nice patterns. Her collection became so big that she decided it was time to come up with a new destination for the blankets… so she created these gorgeous handbags…the only new part is the handle.

“Time to Fly” is one of my favorite designs by ZO. ZO swapped the function of a cuckoo clock with that of a birdhouse. The cuckoo clock becomes a birdhouse, and a birdhouse becomes a clock. The cuckoo birdhouse is absolutely fabulous.

These wire chairs are also recent designs by ZO. They refurbished old chairs with phone wires. Such a nice idea!

Finally, I would like to tell you a little bit more about a design called Tallow. Tallow by ZO is based on a great concept: “some products always need each other”. They belong together like a hammer and a nail, bed and blanket and cup and saucer. By melting them together in one material, their relationship is clear …and voila…here it is… the wax-candlestick. I could show you many more designs by ZO, but have a look for yourselves at their well done website, it’s very informative and has beautiful images. I will not be surprised if we will hear and see a lot more from this very talented couple in the next few years! {Thank you Elena!}