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

These are a must for anyone one who rides to work and wants to be practical AND stlylish! The Windrider Bicycle Clip is Liv Design's current top gadget. These cool pair of bicycle clips with its 'wing' design by Gijs Bakker are designed to be worn to keep your trousers out of danger of being caught by a bike chain. The bicycle clips are made from reflective PVC material. Gijs Bakker was born in 1942 and studied industrial design and jewelery in Amsterdam and Stockholm. As a designer, he worked for companies such as: Polaroid, Hema, van Kempen en Begeer and Artifort. Gijs Bakker has been a teacher at the prestigious Design Academy of Eindhoven for over 20 years and in 1993, he created with Renny Ramakers the famous collective Droog Design, where he is still the co-operational and artistic director

This may be a spoof, and we can't speak French so we're not sure what all the spiel is about, but it looks like IKEA is planning something car related. We seriously doubt it's a plat-packed MDF car but what on earth are they up to in France?... Judge for yourself at www.roulez-leko.com

This is a funky little website for Kia's cool new small car, the Kia Soul, aimed at the style conscious. The website fits to full screen and looks like a PC desktop with some really humourous and quirky icons on the left. If you click on the Frying Pan for example a fried egg flips up onto the screen and slides down, and the Rocket flies around the screen before a 'recommend a friend' pop up appears. The emphasis is aimed squarely at fun. Websites should be fun and full of character. After all they are part of the brand. And if you are showcasing a fun and cheeky product, the website can't be a formal template styled affair. The beauty is in the detail and the little quirky touches which make a it appealing to a more youthful target audience that Kia currently doesn't attract. As for the car, we're not too sure about the 'Dragon' edition... a little American for UK tastes?

Rather amazingly the 2010 British Motor Show is to be cancelled due to the current financial climate. After consultation with UK motor industry representatives, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) called off the London show, citing the inability of the car companies to commit to a 2010 exhibition. "The British International Motor Show is the UK's largest consumer exhibition, hugely popular with the public, and has been attracting increasing numbers of visitors over recent years, making the decision to cancel the 2010 Show an extremely difficult one. However, the global credit crunch has placed the automotive sector under unique pressure and has created a level of uncertainty that deters manufacturers from committing to large-scale, international events," said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt. Surely the best thing to do to get the general public to start buying new cars again is not just to advertise them but to let them meet the cars in the flesh, in a...

As keen bikers, two of us from Liv Design will be taking part in the 29th Nottinghamshire Motorcycle Easter Egg Run on Sunday April 5th 2009. It will be hosted for the third consecutive year by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. The run will start at the Forest Recreation Ground (Goose Fair Site) in Nottingham at 9.30am, riding off at 10.00am and finishing at Mansfield Fire Station where eggs and donations will be collected and distributed by Fire Service personnel. The event used to be a police escorted through Nottingham City centre down to the Council House at West Bridgford with over 1500 bikers taking part, donating over 2000 easter eggs for the the elderly and children in care. Unfortunately the police withdrew support and the council decided that delivering eggs to underprivileged children and elderly people in council-run homes around Nottinghamshire created safety issues and stopped it after 25 years. The event carries on organised now by Tim Marston and runs down the A6...

In the 2008 national survey by the Design Council, more than half (54%) of UK businesses are planning to use design to help them survive the credit crunch, and 30% of businesses also regarded design as an integral part of their operations (up from 15% three years ago) according to the DBA. Of the 1,500 UK firms surveyed again over half (53%) regarded design as being critical to achieving business objectives over the next 3 years. It's clear that Design plays an increasingly important role in the success of a business.

It's not often that a website comes along that blows us away. breathingearth.net however is one of those. It's a view of the planet as a 'living creature' in simulated real time (based on 'accurate information'), showing the planet's population, the current births, deaths and CO2 emissions. It's so addictive. You can can sit and watch it for ages. It's such a clever way of getting across the message in such an impactful and simple way. It shows how a good, simple and clear website can be such an essential tool in communicating your message. The Breathing Earth website has received over 1.4 million visitors since it's launch in 2006.

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We attended a series of workshops recently focusing on reducing business costs. One of the additional benefits however is the impact we can all have on the environment. For example, did you know that by reducing your heating by 1 hour per day will reduce your bill by 10% and reduce carbon emissions? Or that 40% of the costs of a company's electricity bill is for lighting alone? Makes you realise how wasteful we all really are. Another 'wasteful' subject was packaging. Did you know that 80% of packaging is used once and then discarded? Supermarkets have already been in the news recently for not doing enough to reduce packaging (see earlier post on this blog). We can actually make a huge difference not only to the effect on the environment but on costs too. It is possible to use creative, smart design to reduce the effects of global warming. Duracel recently changed their packaging to be all card instead of card and plastic. Disposable cameras are actually re-used, they'r...