Maarten Baas is a young Dutch designer that creatively reinvents furniture and everyday common objects. You can be sure that once Mr. Baas gets a hold of an idea, the last thing an object would turn out to be is common. Best known for having designed a collection of furniture called ‘Smoke’ – Mr. Baas takes classic furniture pieces, burns them black, and finishes them by sealing them with epoxy. Another collection called “Clay” is a large group of colorful & squishy hand-formed furniture pieces individually made by molding clay over wire frames for stability.

This year he released part of his most recent project called “Real Time” in the app store of all places. For just .99 cents you can download his very clever Analog/Digital clock app. The screen at first glance appears to be a simple digital clock – but it actually turns out to be a giant size display where a (recorded) live person paints the actual time in minute by minute. It looks like you have a tiny man trapped inside your iPhone painting the current time one dash at a time!

Other examples of his ‘Real Time’ project consist of a “Grandfather Clock” where time is told by a man writing in the hands manually…

Another is the “Sweepers Clock” that consists of an aerial view of a clock face where sweepers push garbage around a clock face all day long…

Many of the pieces that Maarten Baas designs are available for purchase here in the U.S., visit Moss Online to see a large selection.

Filed under: Art & Culture, Style by Stephen : No Comments »