Designer Skills
APOKALYPS LABOTEK
 Petra & Jenny |
 Apokalyps Labotek |
Meeting with the founders of Apokalyps Labotek, Jenny Nordberg and Petra Lilja, is meeting with alchemists. They practise the art of fusing their exceptional creativity with age old methods to produce fantastic design product out of our waste. For Petra and Jenny “waste” equals opportunity.
They approach their designs with a concept titled Past Present Future. The entire product life cycle is taken into account: what it was, what it is and what it will become. “We look at waste as materials with a history and with a potential new life as a new product”, says Jenny Nordberg. It may sound like a simple idea, which essentially it is, however their day to day work includes extensive research, applying technology and chemistry and of course design, and then ensuring that the product gets to market with the smallest possible footprint. The results are award winning, thought stimulating every day products that will make their way into your home and heart.
Apokalyps Labotek has a special message for all the fresh talent entering this year’s Eco Design Initiative:
We are honored to be invited to the Eco Design Initiative 2010! The profession of the designer is very important since we have the choice of designing for a better world. It’s a great challenge since the industry does not always see this as profitable, but together we can show that these times of change is a great opportunity to focus on sustainable design. We are happy to share our experiences with you and we are very much looking forward to visit your country and take part of the workshop!
RIGHTEOUS FASHION
Righteous Fashion
Paula & Kajsa
Fashion without compromise: that’s what you get when two passionate Human Rights lawyers “give up their day jobs” to live their dream. They make dreams come true for many others too, especially for the people of India, Nepal, Mauritius and Uganda working in textile production units.
For the founders of Righteous Fashion, Paula Kermfors and Kajsa Cappelen Holst, design, fairness and environment are equally important. They are living, working proof that doing good business is profitable. They pursue the best for everyone involved in their fashion’s lifecycle. This is achieved without undermining the quality, luxury or desirability of their garments. In fact, Righteous Fashion’s conscious approach to design really ups the feel good factor.
And of that feel good factor, there is plenty to go round! Righteous Fashion’s lifestyle wardrobe for women is made from the finest, fairest materials they could find: certified organic and fair trade cotton from India and organic cashmere from the wool of sheep that graze along the slopes of Nepal. These textiles are treated with vegetable dyes and the garments are embellished with hand crafted bone buttons. The range is comfortable, practical and very stylish. The Righteous Fashion range has graced the runways of Berlin, New York, London, Warsaw and Sweden, taking with it the voice for clean fair design in the fashion industry.
For their incredible contribution to sustainable style, Kajsa and Paula have recently received the recognition they deserve. They are the winners of the Terre de Femme Environmental Prize as well as the Business Rookies of the Year (Årets Näringsliv Rookies 2009).
These elegant activists are signed up as ambassadors and facilitators of the Fresh Talent Workshop to be staged in Cape Town in September this year. As part of the Eco Design Initiative 2010, the workshop will host 25 talented South African emerging designers and 5 from Sweden in a collaborative learning and culture exchange.
SWEDISH NINJA
The Swedish Ninja
Forest in New Form
Swedish Ninja’s goal is to avoid the current disposability trends of our culture by creating unique and timeless furniture and pieces that are desirable enough to be passed on from generation to generation.
Swedish Ninja is located in Malmö. The company was founded in spring 2007 by Maria Gustavsson. As a design engineer, her experience includes working in one of Sweden’s biggest product manufacturers, Volvo. As an entrepreneur, Maria is really appreciates her relationships with smaller, family run service producers. She values the input these groups have one the eventual products.
The selection of materials used to produce the Swedish Ninja fun design range is carefully selected based on environmental standards and the materials’ ability to surprise and seduce the end user.
What is clear is that this ninja from the forests of Småland (south of Sweden) is on a mission to show that functional design is the best remedy against throw-awayism.