Dutch Design (42): Phat Knits by Bauke Knottnerus



What’s in a name? Bauke “Knot”tnerus (knotting is a variant on knitting isn’t it?) proves again what I’ve said and will repeat once more: The Future is: Back to Knitting:

dutch designer bauke knottnerus designed the ‘phat knit’ series in 2008. the series of oversized furniture
pieces each resemble knitting in a variety of scales. one piece features a series of multi coloured strings
that can be tied or woven together, while another consists of a single giant knot. the knitted pieces are
actually made using giant knitting needles. these needles and the over-sized strings can be used to
produce a variety of object from carpets to seats.

Via Designboom bauke knottnerus: phat knits

Beauty and the Bath: Milo

The bathtub is a traditionally private and intimate space; a cocoon enveloping your body. The MILO glass bathtub presents a stunning albeit unconventional adaptation of this space.

Via the discontinued Cribcandy

Quote of the Day (14): Welcome to our OOL

Welcome to our OOL There is no “P” in it and we like to keep that way

Vibeagent drops mask: Hotelicopter – I feel Fooled

helicopter-crash
Helicopter Crash. Photo by Tidewatermuse

In a Press Release dated April 9, 2009 Hotelicopter is presented as a “New” Totally Awesome Hotel Search Engine after “The Hotelicopter had attracted wide media coverage with its April Fools Prank”

Almost everybody in Bloggistan loves the way Hotelicopter was launched as an April Fools prank and then turns out as a hotel booking engine. “Good marketing” they say. I beg to differ.

Although I can appreciate a good joke or to be fooled and certainly can laugh about myself, I feel fooled by Vibe Agent in another way:

First the search engine is not at all new. Basically it is the same search engine as it was three days ago under the name VibeAgent.

Secondly I have been involved as a very active “beta tester” in the building of VibeAgent. I’ve posted two posts about it here and here and referred to it in many other posts.

I wrote:

It is meant to be a community that shares hotel reviews on the one hand and combines that with best price searching on the other hand.

The members are called Agents. They write the reviews. They are unpaid.

VibeAgent has teamed up with an impressive list of travel and hotel portals at the back end, like Price Line, Booking.com and many others.

So: It started out as a community driven hotel search engine. As a sort of mini Tripadvisor, but a bit more advanced. In the meantime Tripadvisor has overhauled its website entirely and became part of Expedia.

Now with this repackaging of the site as Hotelicopter VibeAgent has wiped away its entire own community.

Where are your approximately 5,000 plus Agents, Adam?

Was that part of the deal with TripAdvisor? You being able to show Tripadvisor reviews provided you did away with your own base of hotel reviews?

I’m not amused and I believe many with me.

Update April 9 16.00 hr (04.00PM) local time:

Again this is a matter of lack of communication: See the comments below. Feeling a bit better now.