Terroir is a biannual travel journal out of Singapore. An incredible labour of love, publisher Benjamin Koh prints each page on his home printer, binding and glueing every issue in a process which magculture estimate at about 10 hours per magazine.  We appreciate their efforts. The look of the magazine is beautiful, as is the photography inside. This issue, no.2,  features Japan in all its technicolour glory, a perfect subject for the Terroir treatment.

“Growing up in safe and sheltered Singapore where everything runs like clockwork, even the slightest bit of haphazardness and spontaneity when exploring foreign lands might seem strangely attractive and romantic. Terroir is a bespoke bi-annual magazine that seeks to collaborate with and showcase Singaporean perspectives on travel and what various places meant to them” You’ll have to part with $125 dollars for a copy but rest assured it has been made with care and craft. Find it here.

A nice bit of stop motion action. Designer Sarah Illenberger hails from Munich and studied her craft at Chelsea College of Art and Central St Martin’s in London. Her medium is just about anything she can get her hands on; embroidery, food, light…the running theme however is a sense of humour and a refusal to take design seriously. With clients such as Audi, Hermes and COS (for whom Sarah created a Selectism window), a light-hearted touch has obviously paid off. In this short video series we see classic midcentury chairs from Eames, Herman Miller, Eero Saarinen throw some moves. More at Ignant.

This series of prints from graphic designer Michael Cina marks the latest release in an ongoing exploration of the connection between music and visual art, and has us thinking “sprinkle donut minus the donut.” Still, “This is what I feel and see when listening to music,” the artist persists, so we put on some music and look deeper. Dude might have a point, as a good song can feel like a complete circle with its very own depth, dimension and attraction—or, in other words, like a donut.

For more on Cina’s approach, you can read an interview with him over at Ghostly, where you can also buy the prints.

More looks in our gallery…

C77 points us at one of the best iPhone cases we have seen in some time. The look is of pure simplicity, but the function and “impact” of the product will protect your iPhone way not imagined with traditional cases. Baseone Labs, makers of shotgun recoil pads, use the same tech inside their  GunnerCase which is no bigger than the phone itself. Packes inside the Gunnercase are “Air Cells” that purported do a helluva job is saving your iPhone from a fall. “When GunnerCase is dropped, the sidewalls are designed to collapse and distribute the force around the case. This saves your iPhone while keeping the case thin and effective.” The Gunnercase arrives this March for an easy $40.

More looks in our gallery…

It is Saturday afternoon here on the East Coast and we’re wasting the day by tidying up the office. In the process we found a few more sets of our Titelmedia drink coasters (in case you did not know, Titelmedia is Highsnobiety, Snobette, Radcollector, Lilsnob, and us).

They make a perfect addition to your coffee table, bar, or just about anywhere you want to lay down your beverage. For the letterpress nerds: each coaster was hand stamped and printed by Repeat Press.

There are two ways to win a set of the coasters:

1. head over to Facebook and LIKE the Selectism page and this contest post.
2. or follow SELECTISM on Instagram for even better odds of winning.

Good luck all.

Fubiz helped set out eyes on this beautiful motor yacht. The Wally Ace Yacht is an exceptional machine with wide open spaces that would make any owner envious. While our wallets may not be able to touch this one, the Wally Ace offers some pretty interesting features for those in the market “A huge onboard garage stores a six metre tender plus all the usual toys and an unusually spacious galley and crew quarters mean that you and your guests can be pampered in the greatest style.” A very quiet engine helps the full package as well. The Wally Ace Yacht is available in various colors.

More looks in our gallery…

Interesting pairing of items from Sweden’s DFTS Factory: an ashtray and a ladies bracelet. We’re showing you both because, at first, we took the bracelet for the ashtray. Impressive construction on the piece of jewelry, which is built from 2,208 individual plastic links—a process that takes four hours and yields the feel of a textile.

As for the ashtray, it is a stunner, though we certainly will not be taking up smoking to accommodate it. Pity though, the piece is designed to let an average cigarette “rest safely in its recesses … four pits, sculpted so that ash will not be easily scooped up and scattered by gusts of wind.” Happily, the designer, Richard Hutten, wholly approves of using it to present sauces, spices or mixed nuts.

More looks in our gallery…

Blankets have been getting a lot of attention in the past couple of years. Hudson Bay, Pendleton and all manner of Woolen Mills have offered us a new option in the world of accessories and we have succumbed. But you know the Welsh have been happily  weaving their own throws for years now. Something a little different from the Point blanket or Native inspired prints.

These Carthern blankets as they’re known, are a riot of colour and pattern, vary according to weaver, mill and location and wrap themselves around these Eadie armchairs.  Donna Wilson, winner of The British Design Awards 2010 designer of the year award, makes object that could rightly be described as whimsical. Don’t let that word put you off, she’s got skills. These armchairs are manufactured by interior dons SCP in the UK and come with a host of eco credentials. Go Welsh over at the store.

While there is a lot of Fashion Week and trade show business in the air, it is important not to forget about the little things. We’re fans of interior bit’s n’ pieces, a category these Varpunen Sacks fit into perfectly. A product designed by a husband and wife team from Helsinki, Jussi runs a print company and Susanna is a design journalist, they combined their respective skills to create this decorative storage solution. Made of PVC-laminated white polyester, available in small and large, they’re sturdier than they appear and can take a bit of a splash in your bathroom/kitchen situation. This is mostly about looks though, Geometric patterns in perfectly chosen shades, each design a winner. Polkadot tells us more. Find them here.

Click for images.

Not sure how we missed these on release but a heads up from Arkitip was most welcome. Peter Mendelsund designed editions of classic Franz Kafka works. Mendelsund, art director at Pantheon Books, part of Knopf Publishing, had always hoped to design covers for Kafka novels and talks extensively on his website about the ideas and decisions behind the bold imagery he carries through the set. Under the Schocken Books header, another Knopf off-shoot, he manages to distill key themes running through the son of Prague’s work, into beautiful, deceptively simple designs.

“Whenever I’m asked (and I’m asked with some frequency) which authors I’d most like to design jackets for, I always say Kafka ..There’s just something about Kafka- and this something is so very hard to pin down.” Find them at Amazon.