Blurb:
The idea is a simple and effective one. Working with the element of surprise, Designerbox brings original, playful and affordable design to the home.
1-month subscription €39 p/m; 6-month subscription €33 p/m; 12-month subscription €29 p/m + shipping from €3.90
As well as subscribing you can also buy individual items direct from their website.
Further details here.
Designerbox is a French company, though their website and emails also come in English. Just as well, my French is very rusty.
This is an interesting subscription to try out. Firstly, it is very different from anything else I’ve received; and secondly, their items are both beautiful and unusual. Our home is full of all manner of eclectic stuff, and both my husband Big C and I appreciate design.
DesignerBox works with designers from all over Europe to produce unique and aesthetically pleasing items for the home.
I absolutely loved last month’s beautiful cushion, so I was eager to see what was on offer this month.
This month’s Designerbox contains two items. They are the result of a recent competition by Designerbox to choose a object for their monthly box. The participating designers are all from Fabrica, a communications research centre founded by Luciano Benetton. Yes, that Benetton.
The winning designer was Chan Wai Hon.
The box also includes the monthly magazine, Iconic news.
This is a beautifully produced magazine. The text is in both French and English.
It contains information about the item, or rather items, enclosed, as well as details about this month’s artist/craftsman. There is content relating to design in general, and also lists the other ten shortlisted items in the competition.
The first item out was a canvas tote bag.
The graphic pattern reflects the design of the main item, and the text is meant to remind us that ‘behind every apparently trivial thing hides something greater…’.
As always, everything is beautifully presented.
The box contained separately wrapped pieces. First of all a glass tube and a painted metal stand. It was easy to see how they fitted together.
It looks like a bud vase.
Then the twist. A pad of paper, shaped like the stand.
It’s approximately A5 size, minus the corner, and there are alternating bands of pale blue and green sheets.
From the magazine:
‘A Piece of a Vase is an object that invites you to take time: just like a zen garden that is endlessly reinvented, choose a seasonal flower each week or a bough from the market or nature, then the colour of paper that matches it best. Scribble a Haiku, inspiring phrase, simple image or word on the sheet of paper. Each composition will embody your connection to nature and will bring poetry to your interior with a multitude of possible combinations, as the seasons and your desires change.’
I have to say I’m not quite sure about this.
First of all, the stand is, I’m afraid, beige.
Now, I know there is hypothetically nothing wrong with beige. But it always reminds me of computer monitors from the eighties.
I don’t think the colours of the paper and the colour of the stand work together particularly well. The paper colours are cool, and beige is, well, not cool.
The idea is to choose the paper to match the flower, but I think I would have much preferred plain white paper which would go with anything.
As you might have observed, I raided the herb garden for greenery. The garden is slightly limited at this time of year, but I tried a few different plant options and more than one of them, including a magnificent pink geranium, did not work at all.
Additionally, because the tube does not fit snugly in the stand, anything which is moderately heavy (such as the rose I tried) tips the tube to one side.
Any movement of the paper has the same effect, and I don’t think I want water anywhere near paper I wish to write upon. The tube also has a faintly clinical appearance.
The size is good, but you do need sufficient clear surface to place it, and that’s in short supply in our home.
If you have a beautiful credenza by your front door, which needs a simple yet (sort of) practical accessory, this might work. We don’t have a credenza, or indeed any flat surface other than the floor. We do have a pile of shoes and the deliciously funky Eames Hang-It-All coat rack.
I think it’s an interesting idea, to have a bud vase and a notepad combined, but I don’t think the execution is up to scratch. Realistically, I don’t have time to scribble much of anything except shopping lists.
That being said, I did try a Haiku:
School run through green fields
Sheep remind me of lamb chops
Must go to Waitrose
What do you think?
On the subject of shopping, I love the tote bag.
I have happily embraced the ‘no plastic bags’ principle, so use tote bags all the time. This one is fantastic. It’s nice thick cotton canvas, really roomy, and both the graphic and the text look wonderful. I really like the idea behind the text, that something smaller can contain something bigger. It’s thought-provoking without being pretentious.
I did actually take it to Waitrose (no lamb chops though) and it holds a really impressive quantity of groceries. It’s also very comfortable to carry, even when full.
As I’ve said before, I love beautiful things that are practical. I realise that the bud vase/notebook could be useful, but again, I think form has definitely taken precedent over function. The last two Designerbox items, the bowl and the cushion, were so spectacular that it would be difficult to make three for three overall. But of course I love the bag, so there is a partial but definite success.
So rather a mixed bag this month. I don’t like the main item, but the accessory is fantastic. It’s attractive and useful, and it will be added to my beloved and regularly-used collection of shopping bags.
A different version of this review first appeared on allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk.
