Mr. Ito, the Japanese architect whose team won a Golden Lion Award at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale for its concepts for new housing after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, recently designed flatware called Mu. Introduced in Paris by the Italian company Alessi, the pattern complements Ku, the delicate porcelain service Mr. Ito created for Alessi in 2006. — nytimes.com

Architect and Product Designer Michael Graves talks about his long standing partnership with Acme Studios. This short promo video, filmed and produced in his Princeton studio, highlights popular Acme products by Graves that are currently available. — youtube.com

One winner and two runners-up have today been announced at this year's edition of the James Dyson Awards, an international student design award running in 18 countries. The first prize went to the entry 'SafetyNet - Escape Rings' from the UK. The two runners-up were the design concepts 'The BETH Project' from the United States and 'Revival Vest' from New Zealand. — bustler.net

A curving, fluid-seeming container made of ombré charcoal glass, Hadid’s design makes for a shape that is distinctly sexy. “The bottle’s dark, translucent qualities offer a sense of mystery that awakens our curiosity,” the Pritzker Prize winner explains. The vessel, whose sensuous lines echo the bottle that Karan’s late husband, sculptor Stephan Weiss, designed for her 1994 scent Cashmere Mist, is sure to awaken many. — architecturaldigest.com

Recently, Herman Miller selected six out of 16 original seating and workstation concepts, designed by students in Cranbrook’s 3-D Design Department, and helped turn them into full-scale prototypes for an exhibit at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York. The concepts are aimed at encouraging “rest and concentration in the workplace” [...]. — fastcodesign.com

We were thrilled when our friend Drew Seskunas, one of the founders of the fledgling design studio The Principals- based out of Brooklyn, shared their latest project with us. The "Cosmic Quilt" is an awesome exploration of interactive architecture being created for May's New York Design Week. Check out their video above, and their Kickstarter profile here to contribute to the advancement of design, architecture and a promising young studio. — Made by Originals

-- asked what bugged him most. “Ninety-nine percent of all cars,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of all sneakers. Ninety-nine percent of all cellphones. Ninety-nine percent of all door handles.” — New York Times

Eva Zeisel, a ceramic artist whose elegant, eccentric designs for dinnerware in the 1940s and ’50s helped to revolutionize the way Americans set their tables, died on Friday in New City, N.Y. She was 105. — nytimes.com

Architects, your lesson is simple: you have nothing to lose. But don’t expect to gain much on the royalty end unless you’re a one-in-a-million talent or a household name. In any case, get as big an up-front payment as you can for your ideas. — smartplanet.com

Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer who trained and worked as an architect for a few years until he joined the electronic devices manufacturer Braun. Within a few years he became their chief of design, a position he held for almost 35 years. During his tenure, he and his team designed many iconic devices ranging from record players to furniture to storage systems. — Life of an Architect