Curated annually by the German Design Council on behalf of Cologne Trade Fair the [D3] Contest is an international competition for young designers that reaches its conclusion every January with an exhibition and awards ceremony at IMM. The 2014 edition attracted over 600 entries, 22 of which made it onto the short list and so into the Cologne exhibition. And while we retain our well-founded distrust of design competitions, we do know that the [D3] Contest exhibition is a regular haunt of those
read moreAside from the ability to accurately focus light, Richard Sapper had a further motivation in designing his Tizio lamp: "Another problem was that I am a very disorganised person. On my desk there is no space to place a lamp, or at best one is forced to place it on the very edge, the rest of the table being covered with things that I probably don't need, but which I can only store on my desk. In such a situation one needs a lamp with a long boom arm. To effortlessly move such a lamp one has the
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In our post from the 2013 HfG Karlsruhe "Sommerloch" exhibition we wrote "Similarly the spiritedly named “Arbeitstitle” by Marlene Deken and the even more spiritedly unnamed object by Anne-Sophie Oberkrome from the K.O. Furniture class still have a lot of development work ahead of them, and may ultimately not work, but both presented in their design approach interesting solutions for quick and easy tool-less shelf construction." The K.O. Furniture project was run by Stefan Diez and asked the
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A few years ago the (smow) blog telephone rang..... "Good morning is it possible to speak to Philippe Starck please?" enquired the caller. "I'm sorry he's not here at the moment" we replied, truthfully, if not altogether helpfully. "When will it be possible?" came the inevitable follow-up. "We're not really sure, he's not here in Leipzig that often", we responded, truthfully if, again, not altogether helpfully, "you're probably better phoning the Paris office they tend to be better
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Revolutions in design and architecture invariably involve a new material. The oldest examples of this phenomenon being found in the context of metals: the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. And in the 6000 years since man first learnt to mix tin and copper the fascination for and desire to work with metal remains as primordial as ever. To celebrate the variety and durability of metal in design Frankfurt based Trademark Publishing recently released "Objects: Alle Metalle" an homage to classic and
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Every two years designers from the Dutch town of Groningen chum together to present a joint showcase during Cologne Design Week. The fourth "Gronicles" edition is being staged in the former Wohn-bar in Cologne Ehrenfeld and features works by Lotte Douwes, Jack Brandsma, Esther Jongsma, Lambert Kamps and Arend Groosman. Among a mix of product, conceptual and graphic design projects two works particularly caught our attention: Spatial Vase by Lotte Douwes and Bedcrate by Jack Brandsma. Created
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When in our preview of IMM Cologne 2014 we referred to it as marking the opening of the European design circus, we had no idea that it was a circus with a fairground. Sadly the carousel incorporating Zeitraum's Pelle chair seat shells was not there to provide adrenaline rushes. Only visual thrills as part of the 2014 Featured Editions programme. Premièred as a concept at IMM Cologne 2013 and curated by the online portal Stylepark, Featured Editions is a collection of installations in which
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When we spoke with Nik Back and Alexander Stamminger aka maigrau back in 2010 they told us that in the context of developing the, then, fledgling companies collection "...on the one hand as designers we naturally want to continue designing products ourselves, but on the other we can also imagine developing products for maigrau in cooperation with other designers." The new maigrau products being launched at IMM Cologne 2014 perfectly demonstrate this binary approach: two new products from
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When Charlotte Perriand arrived in Japan in 1940 to begin her commission from the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry to investigate the current state of industrial production in Japan and suggest new ways forward, her guide and translator was a young man by the name of Sori Yanagi. Some 15 years later Sori Yanagi created one of the archetypal and most instantly recognised pieces of modern Japanese design: the Butterfly Stool. There are those who can see Ms Perriand's influence on the
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With the winter solstice behind us and the days growing noticeably longer, the Vitra Design Museum exhibition Lightopia draws slowly towards its natural end. But before the lights finally go out on March 9th there are still a few genuine highlights in the Fringe programme to be enjoyed, including on Thursday January 23rd a talk with and about the Milan based designer Richard Sapper. Born in Munich in 1932 Richard Sapper has worked with and for companies as varied as Daimler-Benz, Kartell,
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In 2012 the Berlin based publishers/curators/editors Ilka & Andreas Ruby established BKULT as an online platform for discussing issues in contemporary architecture. Every two weeks a new question is posed and prominent guests are invited to answer "yes", "no" or "jein", and more importantly to justify their position and elucidate their argument. The platform is then opened to all and thus develops a discussion over topics such as "Does architecture need a quota for women?", "Do we need more
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What would IMM Cologne week be without the official enthronement of the A&W Designer of the Year? One day shorter and one exhibition poorer say we. Following on from Patricia Urquiola in 2012 and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec in 2013 the 2014 A&W Designer of the Year is Werner Aisslinger. And as tradition demands his work is currently being celebrated in an exhibition in the Kölner Kunstverein. In summer 2013 the Berlin gallery Haus am Waldsee presented a Werner Aisslinger solo exhibition under
read moreThere are those, charlatans one must say, who claim that design only exists in the here and now, that design is, by definition, new, contemporary and innovative. It isn’t of course. Design in all its facets is a continual progression. In the 1980s Peter and Alison Smithson advanced their theory of three generations, a theory developed for explaining and contextualising the Italian renaissance but which can be freely applied to the progression of most any design movement; in 2005 Steve Jobs
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That furniture often has a cultural background can probably be best observed in chairs: the cultural background often defining, for example, the height, number and position of legs. That wall hooks can also have a cultural basis is new to us. But in the case of the North American Shaker community they would appear to. Traditionally Shaker homes have a wooden bar that runs round a room onto which at regular intervals hooks are attached. Meaning you're never more than a couple of metres from a
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In 1949 the Swedish publishing house Bonniers folkbibliotek organised a competition asking for designs for a bookcase system that was easy to ship, easy to assemble and easily affordable. The background is fairly obvious: the more book storage space your average Swede has, the more books they can buy. In the late 1940s the Swedish Industrial Designer Nils Strinning had enjoyed notable success with plastic coated steel wire designs - first as crockery drying racks and subsequently as storage
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For their now traditional IMM Cologne exhibition Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft is presenting an exhibition devoted to one of the more interesting characters in the story of German furniture design, Stefan Wewerka. Born in Magdeburg on October 27th 1928 Stefan Wewerka studied architecture at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst Berlin under, amongst others, Max Taut and Georg Leowald, left however without formally graduating. Something which in those days was no hindrance to a
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In numerous mythologies heroes are whisked through space and time on a magic carpet. The carpet project that took Alexander Seifried to Afghanistan may or may not have been magic, but it has treated us to one of the most unique, and hardest to ignore, moments at IMM Cologne. The full story is a little long for a compact blog post; however, in brief, researching carpets Alexander Seifried came across North Afghani yurt designs and was suitably inspired to develop his own yurt, the Kargah Tent.
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Following on from last year's highly enjoyable Objects for the Neighbour exhibition Karoline Fesser, Kai Linke and Thomas Schnur are back this year with a new show: Objects and the Factory. Time was when the factory was the aspiration of any industrial designer for their projects. A factory meant that project had become a product, and was an industrial product not a craft product. However over the decades changing social and cultural conditions coupled to numerous caesurae in design have meant
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Given that Cologne is geographically closer to Brussels than Berlin, there probably should be more Belgian designers exhibiting at Cologne Design Week than there actually/normally are. Also because a Belgian Frites seller can be found on near every street corner, thus ensuring no Belgian - or indeed Dutchman, Scot or Australian - need go hungry. Among the Belgians who are here this year are old (smow) blog favourites Tim Baute and Stefaan De Croock aka Atelier Bonk who are presenting their
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Aside from death, taxes and heartbreak, the only other certainty in life is that you will, with an unnerving regularity, need new furniture. Not because the old furniture is damaged or no longer en vogue, but simply because your needs and requirements have changed. A furniture system that can adapt to these changing needs is thus obviously advantageous. Developed in the early 1960s by Fritz Haller and Paul Schärer, System USM Haller is such a system. Composed of a steel tube frame
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For us one of the stand-out projects submitted to the 2013 International Marianne Brandt Contest was without question 2tables by Chemnitz born, Dresden University of Applied Sciences educated, Berlin based, designer Anna Albertine Baronius. And no, we're not just saying that because it won the (smow)/USM Haller/Vitra Special Award, that decision was made by forces much wiser than us. We do our thing independently. However just occasionally we all arrive at the same conclusions. As the name
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On Monday January 13th the European design circus rolls into the new year with the opening of IMM Cologne 2014 and Passagen 2014, and against our natural inclinations we'll be there, or as Ride so nearly put it; "If we've seen it all before, Why's this train taking us back again? If we don't need anymore, Why's this train taking us back again?" Yes, the rent has to be paid. But there are easier ways to earn a living than spending a week in January on the banks of the Rhein questioning your
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What with mince pies to be eaten, Glühwein to get drunk and travel plans to misco-ordinate, December is generally a very quiet month. However despite all other distractions, in December 2013 we still managed to visit the opening the exhibition "Mensch Raum Maschine Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" at Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the far to brief Rethinking The Product – Design “Made in Italy” showcase in Berlin. In addition December 2013 saw the launch of the Vitra Design Museum's book "The
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With autum's algid wind in our faces and the promise of mince pies and Glühwein in our tails we approached November and a design tour through Brandenburg, met Napoleon in Erfurt and discovered that the Eames plastic armchairs and plastic side chairs used to be steel......
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