Japanese brewery Suntory has been flattening and recycling their defunct whiskey barrels into furniture since the late 90s. In an attempt to expand their product line-up they recently announced that they have commissioned artist and designer Nobuhiro Nakazaki to design the Blend Series, a quite literal interpretation of the blending process used to make fine whiskey.

I applaud their recycling efforts but their new line is a bit too geometric and flat for my taste. I prefer their more rustic Barrel Series, which preserves the form and texture of these ancient artifacts.

via the press release

Related:

• Suntory Oolong Tea Mobile
• Yuji Tokuda for Suntory

I completely forgot to write about this last week but I wanted to highlight the winner of the 2009 id Design Awards. Ryoji Takahashi (who works in the design unit of an unnamed company) created this awesome hand functioning paper shredder that quaintly rests on any desk. One of the reasons that I have never been able to buy a paper shredder is because they are all so big and ugly. With the Paper-Pipe Shredder not only can you save on your electricity bill but it actually looks nice on your desk! The winning design gets commercialized so we can look forward to this one hitting stores in the near future.

Related:

• idsite – a great resource