My dream house (today)

I finally watched last? week's Grand Designs episode...I almost erased it from the DVR, because the description was something about a daughter building a house in her mother's garden, sounded kinda weird and we were running out of space. 


Anyway, I am SO glad I watched it, the interior designer/owner/project manager/genius, Kathryn Tyler, is incredible - I want to be her, and I want her house.  If we ever get to build a house for ourselves, either here in Suisse, on our property Upstate or somewhere else tbd, this is it...

and this

and this is my kitchen/dining room

and this is my friend Kevin who comes over for dinner all the time and tells us amazing stories

oh, how I dream...

Copied or Not?

I've been sort of blown away at the amount of (what I see as) some pretty blatant product copy-catting here in Switzerland.  Again, before I arrived here, I thought Switzerland (at least architecturally speaking) was kind of at the forefront of cool design, however, over the course of my time here, I've noticed a lot of "new" products coming out that seem to be exact copies of products I've seen (and loved) in the US.  

Here are a few examples...let me know what you think

Above:  A favorite back home - Izze sparkling fruit drinks (founded c. 2002)

Above:  Mojo fizzy fruit drinks (idea c. 2005 in Switzerland / available 2008)

I've read about how the developer came up with his genius idea while he worked in a Zurich restaurant.  Hmmm. It's not so much the idea of the fizzy fruit drink but the exact replica packaging design (it initially came out in glass bottles too) that bothers me.

Next, here is my beloved VitaminWater in "focus" flavor from the States (now owned by Coca-Cola), next to Swiss FocusWater. 

Notice the bold/regular type, and obvious bottle similarities etc. Interesting.