Tuesday, June 1, 2010

I'm gonna be Black + Blum


Black + Blum is an Anglo-Swiss partnership who joined forces in 1998 and are based in London. As a design consultants, they advise companies on any  and every creative aspect. This accumulating insight into different markets catalysed the decision to develop their own range of products. It has since become a vehicle to fully explore and enjoy their own creativity. Black + Blum's designs have won numerous awards and are sold through selected stores all over the world.

From a manufacturing background, Dan grew up discussing products and design with his family from an early age. His passion and skill for design was recognised in a first class honours degree from the respected Design for Industry course at the University of Northumbria (Newcastle). Dan gained further professional foresight working at IDEO (London). Frog Design (California) and under Julian Brown at Studio Brown (Bath). Dan completed successful group projects with his friend Martin Blum whilst studying in Newcastle, sparking the idea for the creative partnership that is now black + blum.


Martin was born and raised in Switzerland. An early apprenticeship as a commercial clerk with a product design company provided his first insight on the development and distribution of products. He then gained an industrial design degree from the highly respected course at the University of Northumbria (Newcastle). Martin’s cultural and design reference is a juxtaposition of his Swiss youth and enduring love affair for all things British.

Black + Blum are driven by the opportunity to give each design
 its own unique character and soul. Their philosophy is to create
 functional products that will charm and entertain. They are
passionate about design and realise that a true black + blum
product is always a joint input of Dan and Martin’s personalities.
 Hopefully you will get as much enjoyment from black + blum
 products as they get from designing them.

Here are just a few of their great designs, but you can check out more at www.black-blum.com

A hand crafted fruit bowl made from a single piece of free
flowing steel wire. It will add a piece of sculpture to any
table and is ideal for holding fruit.




A contemporary and highly functional dishrack inspired by architecture.
 The sculptural shape folds down to a flat compact shape for
easy storage. The wave of spikes can be used to hold even
your most delicate champagne glasses upright. There is a drainage
 tray which has an ingenious flip up spout so that you can chose
 to drain or not, depending on your kitchen set up.



A revolutionary new lunch box. More like a ceramic bowl than
your standard food container and with better functionality.
The ‘glass like’ lid locks to the body for a water tight seal
and has an ingenious sauce dipping area (good for sushi lovers).
A sauce pot is ideal for salad dressing (or ketchup), so you can
dress your salad just before you eat it. An inner dish allows you
 to split different foods so you can microwave a hot dish,
but keep other foods cold. We have also included a
fork / knife for easy one handed eating.


A simple yet beautiful magazine rack. It can be used individually
 or be interlinked to create a cluster. Loop is inspired by the
Fibonacci curve that is seen throughout nature and looks
 correct and balanced to the human eye. Loop is an ever changing
 radius made from steel.

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