eco-chic design

keeping it clean in Swedish

Ren's Clean Bio Active Skincare looks as clean as it is with its simple modern packaging. The company was founded in England named after the Swedish word for clean. The two partners Robert Calcraft and Antony Buck came up with the business idea as Antony’s wife became pregnant and developed allergic reactions to most other products. Hence the skin care line is free of synthetics, sulfates, and parabens. Instead it only contains clean, plant-derived ingredients. All packaging and filling materials are 100 percent recyclable.

The company vacuum packages their products, which has the benefits that fewer preservatives are needed plus it helps to preserve the fragrances. My personal favorite is the neroli & grapefruit body wash, which smells amazing and is perfect for the upcoming memorial day weekend.

green comes in all shapes and sizes

On my annual trips to Germany I always bought these short wine glasses made out of 100% recycled glass. I use them for water as well as wine. Over the years I've been breaking all of them except one, so that I was incredibly glad to see that Elle magazine featured them in the green issue last month.

I finally found out that the glasses are from the Campanillo stemware collection manufactured by the award-winning company La Mediterranea in Spain. The company was founded in 1975 in Valencia with the specific goal to turn recycled glass into beautiful objects. I always loved the understated simplicity and well balanced design of these glasses. The collection is part of the Vidreco product line, which is more practical in nature as opposed to their more decorative product line La Mediterranea. For a more colorful take on recycled glass check out the oslets collection which comes in five different colors.

happy mother earth day

In honor of mother’s day and last minute gift wrapping I wanted to feature rifferaff, a company that designs hand silkscreened wrapping paper. Of course it would still be more eco-friendly to not use any paper at all, but I personally like the surprise factor.

Every piece at rifferaff is handpulled, trimmed and packaged by Shanon Riffe. Her patterns are modern and clean ranging from jigsaw bead patterns to a dot patterns in bubblegum pink and all inks are water based. All papers contain 100% recycled content printed by french paper, a family-run paper mill that uses hydroelectric power. I was delighted to see that she’s selling gift cards and journals as well.

trash it in green style

I always love when two parties come together to create something truly unique like these chic Artala trash cans that are biodegradable.

Umbra was founded in 1979 dedicated to design and manufacture contemporary and affordable objects for the home. For this project the company teamed up with the New York based artist Joshua Davis to create three designs in collaboration with the designer David Quan. The resulting Artala cans come in red, kiwi or ocean and carry the artist’s signature style of patterns that combine computer art and technology yet feel very poetic. To me they look like Jackson Pollack-meets-Emilio Pucci with their bold, brightly colored graphics that seem slightly psychedelic. It’s another example that eco-friendly design doesn’t need to be boring.

barking up the right tree

Having grown up with two dachshunds I was instantly attracted to this sustainable dachshund family designed by Imagiplay. The family consists of the bright blue mama dog and four colorful puppies.

This fun puzzle is part of the colorific earth puzzle collection that features pretty much any animal on this planet ranging from iguanas to penguins. What I love most are the fun scenarios like monkeys sitting in a tree or counting the arms of an octopus to learn about numbers. They are all handcrafted and hand painted with child-safe paints and made from plantation-grown rubberwood, an environmentally-friendly hardwood. I like how these toys are not only made from eco-friendly materials but also show how nature and humans interconnect. It’s really smart conceptual design. These are not only fun for children. And best of all they are splinter-free.

amenity includes: organic bedding

Since I love any type of design that brings the outdoor into your home in a modern way I inevitably had to feature amenity based in downtown LA.

The company was founded in 2004 by the two graphic designers Nicole Chiala and Kristina de Corpo. Both are passionate about nature and modern design. It’s great to see a company that draws its inspiration from nature commit to preserving it with their new 2008 spring collection which is completely organic. I love the bold modern take on nature in their silhouette designs combined with sophisticated colors that range from earth tones to metallic.

Even that the company was committed to conscientious manufacturing from the beginning they now offer their entire line including organic bedding, hemp/linen pillows and flat prints exclusively in organic or sustainable materials. My favorite is the cove cream and cocoa organic duvet cover printed with non-toxic, water-based, eco-friendly dyes. Amenity or necessity? You decide.

modern tea leaves reading

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea, that in some cultures people practice reading tea leaves to predict their future.

Joey Roth's Sorapot has a new take on looking at tea leaves by letting the viewer watch their unfurling in the glass cylinder while water is turned into tea. This is quite beautiful to watch and I’m not even a tea drinker. It’s no surprise that Joey Roth wanted to be a storyteller before becoming an industrial designer.

The actual design of Sorapot looks more like a sculpture than a pot and its glass and metal parts are fully recyclable. This high-tech looking product stands in a stark contrast to the low-tech packaging, which is made out of post-consumer recycled cardboard and molded pulp. That’s the same material being used for egg cartons. This juxtaposition makes me appreciate the product even more. Who knows, Sorapot might be a peek into the future of modern tea making after all.

clean earth day

Thanks to earth day I’ve been bombarded with earth-friendly products all day long. I get my daily fix on chic through daily candy and I was delighted to see that their newsletter offered a discount on Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, which will coincide perfectly with my spring cleaning this weekend.

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day offers environmentally friendly, biodegradable cleaning products that are aromatherapeutic. The line includes general household cleaners, pet products, and laundry detergents. What I love most is that you can shop these products by fragrance on their website ranging from basil, lavender, lemon verbena, rhubarb, and geranium to baby blossom. Once you look up basil, which is supposed to give you an extra burst of energy several products will come up ranging from dish soap to laundry detergent. What a great concept!

The packaging was designed by werner design werks in Minneapolis and feels retro-modern. It reflects the same no-nonsense attitude as the actual products, which are affordable and hardworking. Just like the founder’s mother who raised nine children and is of course the original Mrs. Meyers.

green greetings

I’m glad I finally discovered the company behind these lovely greeting cards, since I’ve been buying them for years at a store on the Upper West Side without noticing that they were actually printed on recycled paper. Instead I simply loved the modern design inspired by nature with their fun and whimsical greetings.

Anna Cote is the designer and owner of Modern Printed Matter, which is a stationary and graphic arts studio based in Rhode Island. Her designs are inspired by nature, color and modern design of all genres. Unfortunately not all her printed materials are eco-friendly but I love the cards that are entitled thanks a bunch, hugs hugs + more hugs, you’re amazing, congratulations, good luck, or simply hello which pretty much cover me for all occasions in my life. These cards are gocco/screen printed by hand on 100% recycled paper and paired with a 100% recycled brown kraft envelope. Once you visit her designs on etsy please make sure to check out her coasters that are made out of cork and inspired by modern furniture design.

design uncorked

Last week I watched The Green on the Sundance Channel for the first time even that the series is already in its second season. I was really impressed by the Brooklyn based designer Daniel Michalik in the episode big ideas for a small planet.

He’s a self-proclaimed ‘cork dork’ and transforms leftovers from the wine stopper industry into beautiful furniture that’s renewable, recyclable and waterproof like his Cortiça Chaise Lounge. I didn’t know until this show that a wine stopper is simply a little piece of tree bark which will grow back eventually.

During the episode it was fun to watch the designer unwrap his first mass manufactured cork bowl out of a cardboard box at Amorim Industrial Solutions, which helped him to develop his cork bowls in a responsible way. It’s great to see how eco-chic design is able to go mass which means more people will have access to it.