For reasons known only to the IMM 2016 organisers the numerous segments composing the "Talents" section - that section of IMM Cologne devoted to younger designers and design students - have been scattered thought the exhibition halls. In past years they were, generally, all collated in one hall, which was all very pleasant, convenient and social. This year it is a bit here, a bit there, bit over there. And even when they do appear in the same exhibition hall then in a completely unrelated,
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As we noted in our post from the 2015 Garden Unique Youngstars competition, the contemporary outdoor furniture market is a largely forgotten world as far as quality design is concerned. And as we also noted, it needn't be. At IMM Cologne 2016 Thonet are presenting with the new All Seasons collection their alternative vision. Thonet @ IMM Cologne 2016 The (hi)story of Thonet furniture is, as with the wider (hi)story of furniture design, essentially one of indoor furniture. Although not
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2016 sees the 20th anniversary of German architecture and design magazine A&W's "Designer of the Year Award." Following on from previous recipients including Achille Castiglioni in 1997, Paola Navone in 2000, Gaetano Pesce in 2006 and more recently Werner Aisslinger in 2014 and Michele De Lucchi in 2015 the 20th recipient is Jasper Morrison. And that, joyously, means a Jasper Morrison exhibition during the 2016 Passagen Cologne interior design week. A&W Designer of the Year 2016 - Jasper
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There can be little argument that nature is, was and always will be the best designer, the most efficient designer: largely because nature never does anything unnecessary. Louis H. Sullivan, for example, saw the evidence that "form ever follows function" in the fact that "all things in nature have a shape, that is to say, a form, an outward semblance, that tells us what they are ... they are so characteristic, so recognizable, that we say, simply, it is “natural” it should be so"1; for the
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Radio is without question the most universal and democratic of all media, in many ways we are all raised on radio. Who doesn't remember lying in bed with your covers pulled up over your head? Radio playin' so no one can see. And when things haven't gone so well have we not all sat alone and watched its light, our only friend through teenage nights. Over the years, and regardless of at which station on life's highway we've found ourselves, radio has always been there for us, made us laugh, made
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We first became aware of Florian Kallus and Sebastian Schneider a.k.a design studio kaschkasch before they were kaschkasch, when they were just Akademie für Gestaltung Münster students Florian Kallus and Sebastian Schneider. Our first contact with Florian was when we saw his project "Table & Lamp" at DMY Berlin 2010. Nothing more complicated than a table, or technically a desk, with a freely positionable and directable lamp attachment, "Table & Lamp" is and was one of those projects that
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Cologne isn't a city which creativity only visits every January in the form of the IMM Cologne furniture trade fair and the Passagen interior design week, but is a city in which creativity can be experienced all year round: and no we don't mean Carnival! We definitely don't mean Carnival! Rather genuine creativity of the sort that enriches, advances, challenges and entertains. In addition to being home to seven creative colleges, including the Köln International School of Design, KISD, the
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Since 2014 the Room + Style "lifestyle" fair in Dresden has been extended, if not enhanced, through the presentation of the Staged Design Award exhibition. Organised by the Dresden based creative agency Paulsberg, Staged is open to young designers from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic and seeks to not only reward outstanding creativity but also explain contemporary design and creativity to a wider public and thus attempt to increase an understanding and acceptance of what contemporary
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December is famously a half month - no one does anything useful in the second half of the month, unless eating, drinking and stressing can be considered useful! We however managed to more than fill the first half of December 2015 with Berlin based Bora Hong's cosmetic surgery of the Eames LCW, the architecture of Ferdinand Kramer in Frankfurt and a very long chat with Köln International School of Design director, and neuen Deutschen Design protagonist, Wolfgang Laubersheimer. Cosmetic Surgery
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November 2015 was a month of exhibitions, including Konstantin Grcic at the Grassi Museum Leipzig and Anton Corbijn at C/O Berlin, but we did also find time for a very long chat with Budapest designer András Kerékgyártó about life as a contemporary Hungarian designer. The Work Space, as seen at Konstantin Grcic – Panorama, Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig Biela by András Kerékgyártó Moderne in der Werkstatt - 100 Years Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle @ Kunstmuseum
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Normally October is all about design festivals, October 2015 wasn't. On the one hand we weren't at that many this year, and on the other those we were at didn't impress us that much. What did impress us was the new collection by Ateliers J&J. Oh yes! In addition October 2015 saw us consider questions of housing provision at Wohnungsfrage at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, the oeuvre of Charles and Ray Eames at the Barbican Art Gallery in London and Art Nouveau at the Kunst und Gewerbe
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We know. We know. It's January. Everyone just wants to sit at home feeling poor, fat and unloved....... Much more productive, and rewarding, would be a visit to an architecture and design exhibition, here five new exhibitions opening in January 2016 which particularly caught our attention. "The Inhuman Factor" at Falkenberg Museum, Falkenberg, Sweden If we're completely honest we have no idea where Falkenberg is. Or at least didn't. We've checked. It's a little bit south of Gothenburg. On
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The end of design's summer hibernation is traditionally marked by the opening of the Vitra Design Museum's winter exhibition, which for 2015/16 is the fulminate The Bauhaus #itsalldesign Elsewhere September 2015 saw us discuss photographing Le Corbusier with Margret Hoppe, the challenges as young designer in Berlin with Gunnar Søren Petersen, how design can be used for social change with Pepe Heykoop ...... and become completely obsessed with a steel horse from Prague. Vitra Design Museum:
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As we noted in our 5 New Design Exhibitions for August 2015 post "Everyone, but everyone, it would appear is on holiday." We weren't, even if the relatively meagre number of posts tends to imply otherwise. A meagre number of posts which elegantly prove that reduction can lead to higher quality... Eliel Saarinen's entry for the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition Havina by Samuli Helavuo, as seen at Garden Unique Youngstars Cologne 2015 The Shrine by Sigurd
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The older we get the more important July becomes as it allows us to return to college to view design schools end of term exhibitions - a genuine highlight of our year. In addition July 2015 saw us celebrate two of the most important representatives of concrete construction, two completely contrasting representatives of concrete construction: Ulrich Muther und Le Corbusier. Rescue station on Binz Beach, Rügen, Germany by Ulrich Müther (completed 1968) Garderobe7 by Juliane Huhn as seen at
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June 2015 saw the DMY Berlin festival re-launch after the original organiser ran into financial difficulties; a re-launch which we took as a chance to study Berlin design in a little more detail..... Turtleneck Christof Flötotto & Sven Funcke, as seen at Pet Market, Galerie erstererster, Berlin during Berlin Design Week 2015 The Shrinking Office Project by Roy Yin, as seen at DMY Berlin 2015 Structural Skin New material by Jorge Penades, as seen at DMY Berlin 2015 Summus Aqua by Song
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May is traditionally the month in which the furniture design industry starts winding down towards summer.... fortunately, because after Milan all are flat broke. We took the opportunity to speak to Annemoon Geurts from Kazerne Eindhoven,view the Floris Wubben showcase Low Tech Crafts at DAD Galerie Berlin and wish English designer Robin Day a Happy 100th! The Poly side chair by Robin Day for Hille (bottom right), here with its contemporaries from Charles & Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen in the
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Just as January means Cologne, April is Milan. And normally only Milan. In 2015 however we managed to spice things up with an interview with Michael Geldmacher from Neuland Industriedesign on the method by which designers are paid and organising a survey of designers attitudes on how they are paid. Didn't change the world. Made us feel a little better however..... USM Haller Privacy Panels, as seen at Milan Furniture Fair 2015 Michael Geldmacher and Eva Paster a.k.a Neuland Industriedesign
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Browsing in our Pictorial Review archive it appears March 2013 was “a month of travelling: Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Weimar, Dessau….. its amazing we found time to actually write anything…….” And March was 2014 was "....the same. Just replace “Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Weimar, Dessau” with “Frankfurt, Münsingen, Berlin, Weil am Rhein” March 2015 was mainly spent in the office. Did however mean we managed to pen a little more than in previous Marches, including a birthday tribute to Harry Bertoia and
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February 2015 saw us break new ground and make our first visits to Munich Creative Business Week, the magnificently monikered 's-Hertogenbosch in Holland and Ekumfi-Ekrawfo, Ghana. The latter albeit only virtually. Sadly. And Nils Holger Moormann used our pages to call for a revolution......... How We Work, new Dutch Design at the Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch Dry-lacquer vessels by Chung Hae Cho, as seen at Tools for A Break - Korean Crafts and Design, Galerie Rieder Munich during
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January being what it is we spent most of the month in Cologne attending the 2015 IMM Cologne Furniture Fair and the parallel Passagen Design Festival. The undisputed highlight of Passagen 2015 for us was the show case MAD ABOUT LIVING – 24 Designers from Brussels, which introduced us to numerous interesting Belgian creatives, and Ateliers J&J, who we feel certain will crop up a couple of times in the course of our review of 2015. In addition we were very impressed by the Objects in Between
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When is a terminus not an end station? When it is the exhibition Endstation Ubierring 40 - Terminus Ubierring 40 - at the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, Cologne. Endstation Ubierring 40 at the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, Cologne On March 31st 1993 the Art Department at Cologne Fachhochschule, the city's university of applied sciences and arts, closed, the final act in a process which, effectively, began in 1971 with the merging of the Kölner Werkschulen art and craft college with the Fachhochschule.
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Following on from the exploration of Ferdinand Kramer's design work in the exhibition The Kramer Principle: Design for Variable Use at the Frankfurt Museum Angewandte Kunst, the Frankfurt based Deutsches Architekturmuseum is presenting Line Form Function. The Buildings of Ferdinand Kramer, an exhibition dedicated to the German functionalist's architectural output. In many ways the logical follow up. And an excellent extension and completion of The Kramer Principle. So much so it makes you
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Horribly denigrating as the term "Swedish Grace" unquestionably sounds, it is a well meant phrase coined to refer to the classicist art and design movement that developed in Sweden in the 1920s and 30s: a movement which served as a bridge between the Art Nouveau-esque national romanticism of the early 20th century and the approaching functionalism, and which thus in many respects paved the way for the Scandinavian interpretation of international modernism as so magnificently presented at the
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