On his 2009 album "Waxing Gibbous" Falkirk balladeer Malcolm Middleton included the song "Red Travellin' Socks" a jaunty - if for us touch too obvious - ode to his love/hate relationship with, well his Red Travellin' Socks. Wearing his socks he's reminded of the freedom of the open road that is currently helping him fulfilling his primitive desires - until such time as the romantic myth of the endless highways explodes and he begins to long for home. The red socks symbolising his frustration
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After a year that took us from Plagwitz to Cologne and then over Stockholm to Milan, Zurich and beyond - we're taking a couple of days well earned rest over the Christmas period. But preparations are already well advanced for the (smow)blog design year 2012 - and even if we do say so ourselves, first 3 months are looking pretty bombastic! We hope you'll join us for the journey! Merry Christmas!
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On December 17th 1961 the New Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche in Berlin was officially consecrated. Designed by Egon Eiermann the new church was and is a very self-confident, modern replacement for the Old Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche; a building that to the regret of many Berlin residents fell victim to an allied bombing raid in 1943. In keeping with all his projects up to that period Egon Eiermann didn't just create the building but also designed the furniture and fittings for the new
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Away from the race track a real highlight of "Die Hölle von Aschau" was the Concours d'Élégance. Ahead of the event Moormann sent out miniature Bookinist kits to their clients, partners and chums with the request that they be "pimped" and returned. If we're honest we don't think that they expected to get that many back. And so they were genuinely all the more impressed with not only the response but the very high quality of the responses. From a Gingerbread Bookinist over Popemobiles and
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Following on from our interview with Nikolas Kerl - a designer/producer at the very start of his career, we continue our exploration into the current state of the Swiss designer furniture industry with a producer who have "a little more" experience. Born out of a family carpentry and shop fitting business, Röthlsberger Kollektion effectively began producing their own collections in the late 1970s through collaborations with Swiss designers such Trix and Robert Haussmann, Susi and Ueli Berger
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As many of you know we don't do trends. Never have. Never will. But others do. And back in 1964 the trend in West Germany was leather furniture. At least according to Der Spiegel. In "Haut und Haare", a delightful article, that admittedly probably shouldn't be read by anyone planning buying a Barcelona Chair for Christmas, the unnamed Spiegel author not only explains just how much of a trend leather had become in the West German living rooms of the day, but exhibits a wonderfully casual
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Part of our motivation for visiting Neue Räume Zurich 2011 was to try to gauge and get a feel for the current state of the designer furniture industry in Switzerland. Hidden as it is behind its Alpine shroud, it's all to easy to assume everything is always rosy in Confoederatio Helvetica, and that it's furniture designers and producers have little to do all day but count their cash and try to avoid losing their fillings to chewy, pointy, chocolate. However as the Swiss Franc rose skyward like
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After bringing you things you have to be in Paris to see. We bring you something you'll have to be in Stockholm to see. Helpful as we are. We first saw Spiral Shelf by Stockholm based Argue Design at DMY Berlin 2010. And fell in love with it pretty much straight away. We then met up with Matilda Nordgård from Argue Design at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011, where we conducted a very interesting and entertaining interview with her. An interview we really must get round to writing up sometime
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As reported last week we sadly couldn't make it to the opening of Cirkel by Daphna Laurens at Galerie Gosserez in Paris. Because we were at the opening of Kibbutz and Bauhaus in Dessau. However Daphna and Laurens were kind enough to send us a few photos of the works. As older readers will know we are always very wary about judging articles on the strength of photos alone; that said, the Cirkel collection does look very promising. For us the highlight is probably "Leaning Lamp". Resembling
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As we all know life isn't fair. But imagine, just for a minute, it was. Over the past 12 months we've found numerous items that in a fair and just world we would find under our tree on Christmas morning..... Endless by Jason Miller for Roll & Hill Spotted at Roll & Hill's Milan debut back in April Endless by Jason Miller is a modular lighting system that can not only be extended and shaped to fit any space... but positively cries out to be allowed to do just that. In the Roll & Hill shop
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"...I will never forget how shocked I was the first time I arrived in Degania A, one of the old kwuzoth. It was almost a textbook example of bad planning. The wind hit the dung heaps first, bringing flies and the stench initially to the stables and then to the kitchen, picking up the odours there and then carrying the whole mix to the dining halls and living quarters."1 In his all to vivid description of the conditions at Degania A, Israeli architect Richard Kaufmann beautifully alludes to the
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If purple is the second colour of mourning; then citrus colours are unquestionably the second colour(s) of Christmas. Be it the orange of an orange, the lemon of a lemon or the dark lime of a Vitra Panton Chair. Launched by Vitra in July as a special summer 2011 edition the Dark Lime Panton Chair was released as a strictly limited edition piece. And the (smow)warehouse is down to the last few examples...... And just like mince pies - when they're gone. They're gone! Unlike mince pies
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Very occasionally we see something that makes us stop in our tracks. At Neue Räume Zurich that something was the Milanese producer Plinio il Giovane. We know we moan a lot about Italy's over-rated position at the top of Mount Design. But just as they seem to have an unending reserve of corrupt politicians, so do they also seem able to produce quality designer furniture producers out of thin air. Handmade from oak the Plinio il Giovane collection not only looks fantastic; but many of the
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When is a lounge chair not a lounge chair? When it is a loving eulogy to the noble art of sailing. Designed by Linda Steen and Lena Axelsson and produced in Norway by Hødnebø, the Spinnaker Chair wonderfully mixes the classic form language of the lounge chair with upcycled sail canvas. Held on a powder varnished spring steel frame the canvas is stretched over three carbon ribs to provide maximum support and comfort. Foam and cospoflex cushions is a range of fabrics provide that final touch
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One of our favourite projects during Vienna Design Week was the Passionswege project "The Swing" by Warsaw based Beza Projekt at Atelier Telliez. Philippe Telliez is a "tapessier" - a profession that can only be truly described in paragraphs, but essentially is an upholsterer who primarily works with wall hangings, tapestries and the like. Anna Łoskiewicz and Zofia Strumiłło-Sukiennik from Beza Projekt combined this "hanging" aspect with the materials Atelier Telliez's use on a daily basis
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Janne Kyttänen never intended to be a light designer. Fate meant that he became known as one. Fortunately Janne Kyttänen understands the art of 3D printing better than most practitioners and in the past decade has created a truly unique collection of illumination objects that grace the permanent collections of all the most important design museums. And with versions for wall, floor or ceiling the Freedom of Creation lighting collection offers a design classic for everyone. Among the many
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Launched in 2002 with just one product, Fatboy has grown to become not only one of the most instantly recognizable designer furniture brands on the market; but has expanded to become home to a whole range of objects created with one aim: Making relaxing and unwinding even easier and more enjoyable. And so what could be more desirable gift for the festive season, than an oasis of calm and comfort. Fatboy - The Original As the name implies, "The Original" is the product that started the whole
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What would Christmas be without mince pies, sloe gin and repeats of much loved family classics. Such as "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..." by (smow)blog. With its impeccable sense of meter and rhythm, the series has captured the imaginations and hearts of generations of (smow)blog readers. To be honest we did consider replacing it this year; but that would be somewhat churlish given the place the feature has captured in the pantheon of design journalism. And because the
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As any one who has celebrated as many birthday's as us knows - there comes a point in every life where you're just not prepared to compromise on quality any more. Be it your car, your choice of airline, your hair cut. Or your office chair. When starting out in life the vast majority of us put up with cheap, uncomfortable office chairs because its easier. We know the quality isn't brilliant. But we're compromising The same can be said for desks, desk lamps and filing cabinets. Those days
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Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Commissioned to undertake a Vienna Design Week Passionswege project with Viennese hat maker Mühlbauer Hutmanufaktur, Slovakian designer Tomas Kral focused on the visual - and in many languages linguistic - closeness of a lamp shade and cap visor to create a delightful series of hat themed table lamps. All the lamps have a ceramic base; and the shades are created from "normal" hat making materials using "normal" hat making processes A real fun
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Although we beef a lot about the amount of time we have to spend travelling to ensure that the (smow)blog remains Europe's premier product design blog, there are a lot of nice things on the European design circuit. Stockholm on a crisp February evening. The vegetarian catering at Neue Räume Zürich. Daphna and Laurens. Two of the nicest people you can meet. As they once again proved when we bumped into them in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week. And you've got the chance to meet them as
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Back in the summer we ran a highly entertaining "Summertime in Dark Lime" Panton Chair Cocktail competition. The judging was certainly highly entertaining. The winner was Italian designer Alessandro Barison aka abitudinicreative Chatting with Alessandro after his cocktail “Spritz Upgrade” was selected the winner, we discovered that while he was a student at the Scuola Italiana Design (SID) he had taken part in a workshop cum competition that involved redesigning - or better put - extending
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Every year at Dutch Design Week we always take time out to escape the design circus and visit Area 51 Skate Park. Because even if it does make us feel really old; Area 51 probably has more to do with design than a lot of what we see at most designer furniture trade fairs throughout the year. Established in 2002 - so one year after Dutch Design Week - Area 51 is 3000 sqm metres of landscaped wood inside an old industrial building on the former Philips estate where youngsters can skate and
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We must start this post with a small admission. We lied to Illuminartis managing director Thomas Germann. It was however a very necessary lie. In short, Thomas asked us what we thought of their lamps; and we said we weren't really lamp people. The truth is that after two weeks of non-stop design shows our collective cache was full and we were simply unable to process new information at any sort of useful rate. Our brains were full. But we didn't want to bore the poor man with our lives.
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