Our best Dutch commercial of the Year 2007

I finally found this on Youtube. It is our most loved Dutch TV commercials of last year. It is about two mobile companies: Orang and T-mobile merge together. The video is sweet and meaningful. Here is the lyric:

I can see wonder
around every turn.
Eyes open wider
live wires that burn.
Shadows and light
soul shining bright.
turning the night into day
the roads that we take
descisions we make
all of it going our way
live wires

The music is very nice, and it is specially written for this commercial called "Guide me home".

Happy roses - a fashion that will last for how long

I have to say that I was amazed by these colorful roses at first sight. Some people call them rainbow roses, which easily let people connecting with something else also famous in this country. The company who developed this call it happy rose, because its unique cheerful color will immediately cheer you up. Has this picture cheered you up?

I came across this first from an online forum. And then I found there were quite a few blog have mentioned about it. There are people in US already successfully bought it (see here): The Roses are created in Amsterdam and then purchased on the flower auction…they are shipped via FedEX to Milwaukee and then Fedex to the Florist.

The Happy Roses are substantially more than a regular rose as the process used to create these magical roses is very labor intensive… however We all agree that the roses are worth every penny. The Average Retail Price of a Rainbow Rose is about $10 a stem.

These roses are truly not natural grown. First, the nicest and finest rose branches of selected rose varieties are purchased and used to make Happy Roses. They are placed in special water. Different substances are dissolved in this water. The rose branch absorbs this water as part of a natural process. This is what changes the color of the petals. What makes Happy Roses unique is that the inventor has managed to color a few petals, for example, yellow, whilst at the same time other petals color differently, for example, blue, orange or lilac.

I don't know why, these roses bring me the feeling of only surprise at the first sight, and nothing more like that. It looks like a bloody show-off fashion that might go away very soon. First I have to admit that i am not a trendy person and don't like to follow trends. We always joke on this that if the whole world population is like us, the world economy will never boom... However, for roses, I have another reason to like or dislike. If it is nature, I like the original nature. It is like a pretty young gilr covered with layers of make-up, not my taste. Roses have been used to express very sincere emotional feelings. People have given different color roses different meanings attaching to them. How can they mix up different feelings? I just can't connect this rainbow roses with happiness, a feeling that you don't find any categories to go with. Nothing more than surprise at the beginning, and slowly hatred.

There was a following comments in J's blog that some people asking how much it would cost if using these roses to decorate a wedding... I really don't want to imagine how the wedding will look like. The world is so different, and I am so different.

Studio Laurens van Wieringen capet design

The Carpet is constructed from many little 'foam-bars' in different colours and heights.
Together these 'foam-bars' show an image of a landscape in color and a relief in height.

Studio Laurens van Wieringen has presented this carpet that used polyurethane foam, using different color and height of cubes to present a landscape. Since it was meant for a carpet, the unevenness of the surface has nothing to do with the color or the real landscape altitude. For me, it might make more sense to treat it as a wall painting, rather than stepping underneath your feet.

What amazed me the most is the designer's thank note to his friends: "Special thanks to all 29 friends for helping with realizing this crazy production." This is totally a design work that out of someone's passion, with his friends' help. It is the worthless friendship.

Why Dutch Design is so Good

Dutch are famous for its achievement in the design field. It's hard to say that the Dutch are modest about their design sensibilities with a book title like "Why Dutch Design Is So Good" but Aaron Betsky and Adam Eeuwens.

Before coming to this place, many people have shown me their appreciation of the dutch design. It is also true that Dutch is quite often connected with: creative, artistic, innovative... After coming here, there was another big finding, Designers in Amsterdam are the best. A little funny? A colleague's husband is an architect, and she has to take an hour train ride to the office every morning. The reason that her husband won't want to move here is because, only architects in Amsterdam are respected as good ones. ho ho...

Thus I am going to start a new theme about Dutch design, things I find, heard, or see in my orange journey. Here comes the first one: a carpet with feeling of falling leaves.

Tord Boontje is an industrial designer who was commissioned by Nani Marquina to create his Little Field of Flowers Rug (2006). Similar to Marquina's Roses Rug, this design uses die-cutting to create the shapes of flowers and leaves. There are six distinct shapes of flower combinations, in three different tonalities, which creates an intriguing composition that's all about movement, texture and color.

A witty approach to a floor covering, Boontje brings the experience of walking through a meadow into an interior space. The rug is hand-loomed using a manually actuated loom, and features both looped and cut pile. Boontje's many awards include 2005 Dutch Designer of the Year, and the 2006 IF Product Design Award. Together with the nonprofit Care & Fair, Nani Marquina is fighting against illegal child labor in the manufacturing of carpets.

6000 dollars for this piece, do you want to order one? I have been wondering the cleaning of this carpet, will vacuum cleaner suck some of the leaves away?