Have you ever wondered why you often find your headphones entangled with your keys or earphones of your mobile phone or even with itself? Designer Mikael Schelin has the answer to it and it is that it has much more to do with science than with any love affair that these objects might have.

According to mathematicians, this is a phenomenon which has a close relation to the so-called ‘tangle theory’, which in turn is a subcategory of Focal theory, and apparently also related to chaos theory. Something that sounds very likely, even if you have experienced a wire which loops itself and the difficult it is to unravel it.

The solution to all the sophisticated theories is fortunately very simple and reads * cordctrl, an invention that is really targeted to make your life easier by completely avoiding this annoying phenomenon. All you have to do is wrap your wires around a * cordctrl and secure both ends of the wire by slideing them into the tracks that are set in * cordctrl.

Hamonoya ApS in Dyssegård presents * cordctrl at Formland Autumn 2009, 14 to 17. August, that takes place at Fairs MCH Herning. The innovation fits all iPod / iPhone headphones and all other headphones and cables of the same dimensions, which means the vast majority of headphones for MP3 and cell phones.

* cordctrl series is invented and developed by Swedish designer Mikael Schelin and is produced in Sweden. It is made of a special quality silicone, which is distinguished by its durability and strength, and therefore includes uses for surgery for example, artificial heart valves.

* cordctrl is available in white, black and red, costs 99 kroner in the indicative retail price and can be purchased at art and design museums, the leading interior, handicraft and hardware stores and at www.stormagasinet.dk and www.cordctrl.dk

Of these, 48 exhibitors come from abroad – more than half of them from Sweden – while the others are distributed between Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, and Spain. Formland is offering six trend zones with the latest trends, a new area entitled FASHION, and the large hardware hall with leading suppliers such as Rosendahl, Royal Copenhagen, and Eva Denmark.

“Formland Spring 2008 is the trade fair where visitors can see the latest trends and meet exhibitors from Denmark and abroad. One of the hottest themes in the retail trade right now is hybrid shops, and this can be seen among Formland’s exhibitors who will bring along a host of innovations in the fields of applied art, interiors, jewellery, handbags, and furniture,” relates Project Manager Lars Jespersen from MCH Messecenter Herning Kongrescenter.

Growing trends at Formland
Scandinavian design is flourishing at the trend zone HOThouse in Hall D under the influence of global cultures and local design. The trend bureau Eckmann Alive is in charge of the zone with a series of current Hot Spot themes – among them recycling, ecology, and ethical responsibility – themes that are illustrated through such means as exhibitors’ innovations and products. Another Formland trend zone is villAlive in Hall C. The house of the future was designed by TechnologyDenmark and can best be described as an experiment in lifestyle. The house breaks out of the square framework because it comprises two staggered ellipses one on top of the other. This offers families new options so they can spread out through five rooms. villAlive will be equipped with modern interiors during the Formland Fair.

The other trend zones at Formland Spring 2008 are the trend cafés: A World of Colours, Diva Lounge, and Aqua Lounge, as well as Wellness Lounge where visitors can take a break in the central corridor of Hall M.

Familiar brands in new FASHION area
FASHION is the latest step taken at Formland. The focus of the area is fashion and it offers popular brand-name products and collections in shoes, clothes, handbags, and jewellery, and much more. There are more than 50 companies in the FASHION area and among the exhibitors attending for the first time are Adax / Maanii by Adax, Balschmidt Agentur ApS, and Boasko A/S. The latter is the Danish agent for the well-known British shoe brand, Fly London.
“We have also previously had fashion exhibitors. We have now gathered them in a new, joint FASHION area. We have found that visitors are increasingly looking for fashion products. This makes it a natural development for Formland to expand with new exhibitors and product groups,” emphasises Lars Jespersen, MCH.

Trade fair centre with a new name
From 1 January 2008 the group behind Messecenter Herning changed names to MCH. This is part of the group’s vision and plan to become Scandinavia’s leading arranger of trade fairs, cultural arrangements and events. MCH comprises MCH Messecenter Herning, MCH Herning Kongrescenter and MCH SAS Arena.

- Quite often only the environmental issues are brought forward in the discussion about sustainable design. At this years Designboost event we would like to broaden the view. We think it is important to turn things upside down. Sometimes left is actually right, says David Carlson, one of the founders behind Designboost.

- We believe in knowledge exchange. The more you give, the more you get. Our goal is that Designboost will be characterised by new insight, new thoughts and preferably laughter, or as we put it; right, aha, haha, says Peer Eriksson, one of the Designboost founders.
The ten last speakers are:

Jody Turner http://www.cultureoffuture.com/ Culture of Future provides visually flavourful conversation, inspirational POV and leading edge trend language encompassing tech to retail, generations to culture and design to sustainability.  Founder and CEO, Jody Turner, is a “Trend Hunter” or “Meaning Hunter” and travels globally to present ideas on the future of culture and design.

Sean Pillot de Chenecey http://www.captaincrikey.com/ Sean Pillot de Chenecey works with research and brand development. He injects vitality and creativity into consumer insight and brand positioning. Before starting the company Sean spent ten years with cutting-edge agencies. He is often quoted on brand/consumer issues by the media and writes for a range of business and consumer publications.

Tim Power http://www.tim-power.com/
Tim Power, architect and designer based in Milan. For the past decade the office of Tim Power has worked on a variety of projects including furniture, lighting, interiors and architecture for a large international client base. Recently, with the participation of Slow Food and Boffi, he has conducted a program at the I.E.D. on researching and designing self sufficient kitchen units.

Olof Kolte http://www.olofkoltedesign.com/ Civil Engineer KTH, Stockholm 1990, Master of Art RCA, London 1998, has worked as Civil Engineer in France, Mexico, and Latvia, own design practice in London 1998-2000 and in Malmö, Sweden since 2000, part time lecturer at Industrial Design LTH since 2001 Kevin Low http://www.small-projects.com/ Kevin Low runs smallprojects which is a company that conceptualizes, designs and builds things; primarily architecture and utility design. Kevin studied closely with the Aga Khan Foundation and over various periods, has been professionally involved in writing, environmental sculpture, illustration, teaching and copyrighting.

Oliver Ike http://www.ikebranco.ch/
Oliver Ike founded Ikepod Watch company in 1986 and worked as its CEO until 2003. Today manager & contributing writer of Ikebranco productions, a company operating in the field of interior and architecture photography and publishing. He has various consulting mandates in the watch business and as well new projects in the pipeline in the field of watches.

Jonas Bylund http://www.syntes-studio.com Jonas Bylund is the co-founder and Creative Director of Syntes Studio, a product design and branding agency based in Stockholm. Syntes Studios work spans from strategy, product design, packaging and graphic design and the client list include British mobile communications leader O2, H&M, L’oreal and Estee Lauder. He is regularly lecturing at various conferences around the world.

Mårten Claesson http://www.claesson-koivisto-rune.se/
Mårten Claesson is one of the designers and architects of Claesson Koivisto Rune. They have been working with everything from interiors, culture house in Japan to products and furniture design. Their assigners include Asplund, Offecct, Boffi and Cappellini. Mårten Claesson is a regular lecturer and has spoken all around the world.

Ewa Kumlin + Kerstin Sylwan http://www.svenskform.se/, http://www.kerstinsylwan.se/ Ewa Kumlin is managing director at Svensk Form which is missioned by the Governement to promote Swedish Design in Sweden and abroad and to run the official meeting place for design in Sweden. Kerstin Sylwan works as a designer with a deep interest for sustainable development. She is also founder of the project “Saving the planet in style.
The other fifteen speakers that have been announced earlier are: Satyendra Pakhale, Jennifer Leonard, Eero Koivisto, Kristina Dryza, Brent Richards, Stephen Burks, Mathilda Tham, Ilkka Suppanen, Katarina Graffman + Ida Hult, Kristina Börjesson, Jens Martin Skibsted, Nina Jobs, John-Michael Ekeblad, Björn Jeffery and Thomas Sandell.

The lecture part of Designboost will take place Thursday October 18th at Europaporten conference centre in Malmö, Sweden.

- We are very proud of our roundup for the lecture part of Designboost on October 18th. We have formed an interesting group of people consisting of everything from designers and architects to web strategists and ethnographers, says David Carlson.

The ten new speakers are:

Stephen Burks
Stephen Burks is one of the most successful designers in his generation. He is working with everything from shop interiors and packaging to to furniture and home accessories. One of his latest projects was the design of the bottle for the new Calvin Klein perfume CK IN2U.

Mathilda Tham
The work of Mathilda Tham includes trend forecasting, fashion and sustainable issues. Mathilda has also been working with design, pr and marketing. Mathilda works as professor at Beckmans college of design in Stockholm and teaches about eco-design at Goldsmith college in England.

Ilkka Suppanen
Ilkka Suppanen once belonged to the successful Snowcrash design community and his creativity often leads him forward towards new materials and technologies. He is both preserving and developing the innovative and functional Scandinavian heritage.

Katarina Graffman
Katarina Graffman works as an ethnographer. Her tools are simple but the practice is complex. It consists of digging for something with unknown shape, colour and size. The research take place wherever, whenever as reality is her lab. The experiments are conducted in cars, homes, stores, workplaces and parks.

Kristina Börjesson
Kristina has for most part of her professional life as a projects manager and managing director worked for an altered attitude to marketing. Kristina lives since 1996 in London and has written a Master thesis on designers as the link between culture and meaning as also a PhD thesis on the affective sustainability of objects.

Jens Martin Skibsted
Through is company Skibsted Ideation Jens Martin Skibsted develops innovative products that are brand carriers, drive numbers and massively boost PR. He applies the thinking of branding, fashion and music to the world of industrial design. Jens Martin Skibsted is the founder of Biomega – the luxury urban mobility brand.

Nina Jobs
Nina Jobs is an internationally recognized and awarded designer. With a background as graphic designer she holds a master degree in product-design from ENSAD-Paris. Her designs includes works within products, furniture and textile design. Nina also make speeches world wide.
John-Michael Ekeblad
John-Michael Ekeblad runs Daytime Projects Inc which is a strategic design consultancy based in New York City that creates magic out of rationality. John-Michael´s philosophy is about convergence of design culture with deep consumerism and artistic movement that creates a platform of Commercial Aesthetics.

Björn Jeffery
Björn Jeffery works as CEO and Internet Strategist at the Swedish communication agency Good Old. As co-founder of the company, his main focus is the implementation of current and future web trends to large publishing houses. Björn is also the founder of two of Swedens largest blogs, Discobelle.net and Manolo.se.

Olof Kolte
Civil Engineer KTH, Stockholm 1990, Master of Art RCA, London 1998, has worked as Civil Engineer in France, Mexico, and Latvia, own design practice in London 1998-2000 and in Malmö, Sweden since 2000, part time lecturer at Industrial Design LTH since 2001.

- It´s important to look upon things from a new perspective and be given a push forward, which is exactly what the word boost means. When it comes to sustainable design it´s likely that things need to be questioned. Since the world is constantly changing and the maps rewritten it´s impossible to sit around and wait, says Peer Eriksson.

The five speakers that we have already presented is Jennifer Leonard, Eero Koivisto, Kristina Dryza, Brent Richards and Satyendra Pakhale.

Further info about Designboost at: http://www.designboost.se

In recognition of the award, Front will present an on-site installation of their cutting-edge work that will feature prototypes of a new collection, Magical, commissioned exclusively for Design Miami/Basel.

150 major designers were asked to submit candidates for the second annual Designer of the Future Award. The Selection Committee, made up of influential members of the international design community, chose Front from the top seven candidates. The Designer of the Future Award complements the Designer of the Year award given at Design Miami/Basel in December. The award gives the recipient the unique opportunity to exhibit alongside the most reputable designers and design galleries in the world – giving them high visibility and immediate access to the most influential members of the international design community.

Design Miami/Basel will take place in the Markthalle, Basel, Switzerland. The Markthalle is the third largest dome in Europe and a local landmark with almost 6,000 m2 of floor space.