Welcome to the Liv Design blog, an eclectic mix of great design and quirky finds

As we plough on through 'Festival season' (ie anytime except Winter these days) more and more gadgets are being aimed at Festival goers to improve their quality of life whilst trapped in a wet cow field for the weekend. One of many 'trends' this year is the disposable loo. Can't stand the thought of a portaloo or hedgerow? Why not take your own cardboard box (or Sh!t box and they lovingly call it). Yes, really... You couldn't make it up. And all for the 'bargain' price of sixteen quid. Possible one of the worst ideas ever and so badly marketed it's laughable (and not in an intentional way). The website has more poo puns than an infant school playground featuring classics like 'a solid corporation' and 'bog standard'. See www.thebrowncorporation.com an cringe (see, told you).

Another great product from Wayne et al at Hemmingway Design, this is a cool and simple answer to urban living. As part of their collaborations with the housing industry the bike was originally designed to be given away by housebuilders to new residents as a part of a 'sustainable' solution to both space and pollution. With car parking space increasingly restricted and more apartments being built, it makes sense to incentivise new would-be purchasers and create a new lifestyle in addition to a new home. Created at under £100 the HD Roadrunner is (as they put it) "simply a cool looking, affordable, old school fold-up bike". You can't knock that. Unfortunately it's not available to the general public at present but if you order 250 or more you can have your own branding on the frame!... Nice website too.

We love this! Nicely designed, practical AND fun. Everything a well designed piece of work should be. We take our hats off to Chris (and maybe hang them on this!). It's made by Devon based metalworker Chris Pepler from laser-cut steel. Check out his website for more great bespoke one-offs and small run pieces at chrispepler.co.uk

Every designer knows about Pantone colours. It's an industry wide standard for colour and inks used for design and print, ensuring exact colour matching. A couple of years ago the clever little marketing people created the Pantone Mugs – a set of (expensive) colourful mugs in the easily recognisable style of the Pantone Swatch colours. Then came the Coffee cups and saucers, followed by a set of mugs in Tea/Coffee colours (finally catching up with the over-used standing studio joke about colour matching tea to people's taste!). Now they're branching into the über-cool-designer-city-accessory market with a range of bags that shout 'look at me, I'm a designer and I know all about cool and trendy'. Or maybe it's just another lap-top styled bag for taking your sandwiches and pens to work in... Either way, we love it. Available in four colours: black, green, blue and pink and around £45.00