ReFound is a Belfast-based artistic collective who turn found, donated and otherwise unloved furniture into one-off works of art.

And building on this idea of reusing and reimagining things, they’ve also taken a stab at reusing and reimagining urban spaces with a four-day pop-up shop event.

“Using unwanted and past-its-prime furniture as the canvas, the ReFound artists transform reclaimed pieces into unique, functional artworks.”

Site: www.refoundonline.com

The image above is a concept drawing for a pair of motorised shoes, called Treadways, which have been entered into the annual James Dyson Awards.

Of course the inventor Peter Treadway (yes, that’s his real name) has gone one better and actually built them – well prototypes at least. If successful you could be seeing these on sale.

And if Heelys are anything to go by, they’ll no doubt be accompanied by plenty of killjoy signs in malls and shopping centres saying ‘no treadways allowed’.

You can see the various iterations of the idea in the video below.

Unilever have unveiled a new ice cream vending machine dubbed ‘Share Happy’ which dishes out free ice creams to people with big smiles.

The machine prompts passersby to smile – the bigger their grin, the higher the ‘smile-o-meter’ goes, before finally dispensing a free treat to those with the biggest smiles. The facial recognition tech also gauges info like gender and age, and users have the option of uploading their photo directly to Facebook.

Via: PSFK

Being spaces feed the growing demand for flexible, communal, social spaces for freelancers, digital nomads, bedouin business types and anyone else who feels like showing up. It’s a concept described well by Trendwatching in this article.

At the same time, there is an undeniable DIY culture emerging in everything from clothing to electronics to media.

So what happens when you smash the two together and create flexible spaces for people who want to get their hands dirty, create something or hack the world around them?

Well, knitting together (imprecise pun intentional) these themes, Sweat Shop Paris offer workstations complete with sewing machine and free teas and coffees for €6 an hour or €25 a day. There’s an obvious attraction for infrequent sewing dabblers who wouldn’t fork out for their own machines – but the real attraction is the social element.

California-based TechShop takes a similar approach to manufacturing and electronics:

TechShop is a 15,000 square-foot membership-based workshop that provides members with access to tools and equipment, instruction, and a community of creative and supportive people so they can build the things they have always wanted to make.

Slightly less casual, TechShop works on a monthly membership model with access costing around $125 a month. Both businesses offer courses and workshop alongside their space.

The common denominator is finding a community of people who want to make and do, and then providing a well-equipped, social setting in which they can. It’s a well-trodden path when it comes to spaces for knowledge workers but as these two examples show, there’s no reason you can’t do the same with other niches too.

How about a communal kitchen space for cooks and bakers? Or cafe-like spaces for visual artists?

Site: www.sweatshopparis.com

Site: www.techshop.ws

Sometimes innovation is less about coming up with new products and services and more about using simple ideas to differentiate your business from the pack.

Case in point, in addition to all the usual rental agency bits and bobs, Manchester-based YourShack is growing a community of renters, sharers and Facebook fans that make it a unique offering in the eyes of landlords.

Community members can find the perfect pad, find others to share with, receive discounts throughout the Manchester area via a YourShack City card and participate in social events and adventure weekends.

It also looks like a great, relatively low-cost way for YourShack to differentiate itself in the eyes of both renters and landlords – who like the idea of quicker lettings and the likelihood that tenants engaged in the local community will stay around longer.

Site: www.yourshack.co.uk

In poorer areas of the world, many people own MP3 players but have little access to the Internet. Brazilian company Funstation Entertainment have an answer, digital kiosks where you can download music, videos and audiobooks to your mobile or MP3 player.

Could there be a similar market in your neck of the woods, serving markets where users want downloads on the go (train stations, airports, festivals?), don’t have credit cards to buy online (kids?) or don’t have internet access?

Site: www.funstation.com.br

The experience economy has become big business. Companies like Red Letter Days and Virgin Experiences will happily sell you anything from adrenaline filled weekend breaks to cookery lessons to pampering spa days.

At the other end of the scale, small companies and passionate individuals (often supported by sites like Ooh.com) are laying on interesting events and activities based on their own expertise and interests.

Which can lead to some pretty cool, fun, bizarre, original, esoteric, creative, funky stuff.

Case in point, Chaos Thaoghaire (pronounced like theory) is described as  ‘a night of games, storytelling, posturing, judge-bribing, one-upmanship and cursing’.

Each monthly event is based on a different theme and features personal tales from invited guests mixed in with team games.

“It’s as if the Golden Girls were running a bingo night in a mental asylum where everybody had the wrong medication.”

The first sell-out event took place in October 2009 and the nights have quickly become, as one commentator describes, ‘the Studio 54 of the good-looking Dublin arts & letters scene’.

If you can build a successful event around something like storytelling and parlour games, how could you put a little creativity to use in producing a fun event around your own passions?

Site: chaosthaoghaire.com

Society6 got a bit of a mention last week in our piece on selling art online but, as promised, I figured it deserved a plug of its own.

They describe themselves as: “a platform for the world’s artists and creatives to promote their work and connect with unique opportunities.”

The first half of that description is fair enough. Artsists can upload their work into a personal gallery, promote the work of others and sell high-quality prints via the site.

But it’s the second part of the statement that makes Society6 stand out.

Connecting with unique opportunities means they actively seek out collaborations with brands like Good Magazine, MTV, Urban Outfitters, VANS and video game maker EA (as well as smaller businesses and projects).

Actively engagement between artists and brands makes a ton of sense for everyone involved: brands get to stay fresh and unique, artists get their work seen and make money.

I wonder if they’d be interested in collaborating on some cover art for our upcoming Iddictive Guides series?

Site: www.society6.com