Valencia is holding it’s very first German Beerfest – the Oktoberfest. Of course we went and it was bizarre. The tent was put up in the center of the bullfight arena. No German Blasmusik but almost as crazy as the real thing.

I’m German and it’s a shame I never made it to Munich for the Oktoberfest. But it’s kind of cool to get my Oktoberfestvirginity taken at that occasion here in Spain.

More fun photos: Oktoberfest Valencia

-Best Hostel in Valencia / B&B Valencia / Hotels Valencia

Koziol is a famous German company which specializes in designer plastic products for the household.  I recently visited their  headquarters in Odenwald, Germany, and am doing a series of posts about what I saw.  This is the third… if you missed the previous ones click here: Part1, Part2 and Part3.

Products are shipped world-wide from the town of Erbach in Germany’s lovely Odenwald region. So you can be certain that anything you might order is 100% "Made In Germany".

After the products leave the production hall, they’re manually checked for mistakes and some final touches are applied. Then a little Koziol sticker is placed on most products, they’re packed up for storage and then transferred to the storage halls, where they await shipment.

In the next post I’ll be digging up Koziol’s past and writing about their archives, highlighting some neat products from the first company’s first years. Please subscribe to the Random Good Stuff RSS Feed, so you don’t miss it!

- Shop for Koziol products here

Koziol is a famous German company which specializes in designer plastic products for the household.  I recently visited their  headquarters in Odenwald, Germany, and am doing a series of posts about what I saw.  This is the third… if you missed the previous ones click here: Part1 and Part2.

In this post I’ll take you around the production hall where all the plastic magic happens.

The basis of almost everything Koziol produces is recyclable plastic, stored and used in the form of granulates which come in all kind of different colors:

These colorful granulates will be added to the basic (usually white, or clear plastic granulates) material:

Now let’s head over to the production hall:

In the picture above you see the basic white granulate which is mixed with the colored ones, in the next picture:

To produce violet colored cups, for example:

Every plastic ejection machine has sample products so the worker can see how the final item will look like:

Here are some more random images from the production process of Koziol’s fantastic plastic items:

In the next post I’ll blog about their shipping department, so don’t miss it. Please subscribe to the Random Good Stuff RSS Feed.

- Shop for Koziol products here

Koziol is a famous German company which specializes in designer plastic products for the household.  I recently visited their  headquarters in Odenwald, Germany, and am doing a series of posts about what I saw.  This is the second… if you missed the first one, click here.

Every Koziol product is first produced in small scale on a 3D printer before it goes into production.

What I like about Koziol besides their products is their company philosophy. They could easily move production to China to increase profits, but they’ve stayed true to Odenwald, Germany, and have given a lot back to the region which helped them become a successful company.

Most everything is designed and produced in Erbach. Some designers are hired out of house, and they also have given design students a chance to have their work produced.

Here are some images of Koziol’s molding forms:

Koziol stores all their molding forms right next to the production hall. So in the case of a big order, they can run & grab the necessary form without delay.

The forms have recently been cataloged to make finding them faster.

The molding forms which Koziol users are very complex, since they have to produce sometimes very delicate pieces.

The machines which produce these kind of forms:

Once a form has been built it needs to be maintained well, because forms will malfunction after they’ve been in use for a while.

As an example of a malfunction, this little bunny has nasty lines on his sides:

The bunny was created by this molding form:

When something like this happens, the workers have to resolve the issue by hand:

Next, the Koziol production hall — where the magic happens. Don’t miss it! Please subscribe to my RSS Feed.

- Shop for Koziol products here

Most of you probably know that I’m a photographer. But these days I do more blogging than actually taking pictures, so I decided to assign myself a photo documentary about Koziol.

Koziol? Even if you’ve never heard of this company, based in Germany’s lovely Odenwald, you’ve definitely seen their products. For example, the vegetable cleaning brush is a design hit across the globe:

Cute, functional designs of everyday products is what Koziol’s known for. But that’s not the full story… Koziol started out by designing and creating elephant tusk pieces, as you’ll see in some of the images below.

I grew up close to their manufacturing grounds.  As a child, I would fantasize about what the inside of the factory might look like, every time we drove by.

So a couple of months ago I decided to ask Koziol if they would allow me inside their headquarters, for a photo shoot. To my surprise, they agreed!  And the invitation email came directly from their president, Stephan Koziol.

Over the next couple days, I’ll be blogging about my time there. Subscribe to the RSS Feed if you want to make sure that you won’t miss a post.

Here are some of those early Koziol tusk designs:

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Continue Reading: Koziol – Design and Molding Forms

- Shop for Koziol products here

Yawn – I totally agree that most hotels should step up a little or at least offer free wifi but investing money coming up with those rather lame concepts? I don’t know.

More information: Future Hotel Project by Fraunhofer Institut

- Huge Blu Ray Sale / Up to 50% off