At the 2011 Milan Furniture Fair Vitra are presenting a range of new products from designers including Konstantin Grcic, Antonio Citterio and Barber & Osgerby. Ahead of the official launch we caught up with Vitra Chief Design Officer Eckart Maise to discuss the new products and the Vitra Home Collection in general. (smow): Herr Maise, before we discuss the new products, and maybe as a little helpful background. How does a company like Vitra develop a collection? Do you go to a designer and
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Last month we posed the question "Is Milan design Week still relevant?" And Antje was kind enough to join our debate. Thank you! We assume everyone else found the question so obviously correct that you didn't feel the need to answer. And yes, of course we are going this year. As our old nan used to say - "It's like an away match in Zwickau on a fine November evening. Not going is not an option!" In addition to perusing the newest products, ideas and concepts we have a top series of
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One of the most famous - and arguably professionally relevant - phases in Verner Panton's life was his journeys through Europe. Following his graduation from Copenhagen Art school Verner Panton gave up his position with Arne Jaobsen, converted his VW bus to a basic mobile studio and set off on a series of tours throughout Europe during which he made contact with numerous designers and producers. While its probably fair to say that this experience alone didn't shape his future work - the
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Bo Bech is a baker in Copenhagen. Bo Bech bakes one kind of bread. It's available in one size. At one price. Bo Bech bakes one batch and when that batch is sold out he closes the shop. As a business concept it could not be simpler. Just try explaining it to an average German who has heart failure if presented with a choice of less than 17 types of bread. A baker ? With one type of bread ? How does it survive !?!? Which, to paraphrase the late Rabbi Lionel Blue, is a lot like USM Haller.
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Last summer we spent our annual holiday weekend in a small museum in the north of England discussing the life of a man who had hung himself 30 years previous. And folk say we don't know how to relax. The town was Macclesfield and the subject was Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Unquestionably one of the truly iconic figures in music history, the cult around Curtis is based to a large extent on a combination of his early death and the photos of the band. One of the speakers at the conference
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Last Friday we spent a highly enjoyable - and successful - day at and with Vitra. Texts to follow. We were just a little irritated by two demarcation issues. Like an analogy for the anthropogenic absurdity that are national borders, Basel Airport sits in both France and Switzerland. And has two passenger exits: One into France, one into Switzerland. We left through the Swiss exit. Our driver was waiting in France. Between us in the terminal building a glass wall. Outside a fence. What
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Despite the fact the everyone knows that the Eurovision Song Contest hasn't been any good since Bucks Fizz got all pseudo-erotic in Dublin in 1981: the carcass of the dream is still flogged remorselessly every spring. Last year Germany won and so on May 14th Dusseldorf will host European broadcasting's biggest gannet fest. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the whole tawdry spectacle is that amid the drive to appeal to the lowest common denominator of European taste, the identity and
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Vitrastanden på Orgatec 2010 var domineret af især to tegnestuers arbejde: Antonio Citterio og Ronan og Erwan Bouroullec. Udover at præsentere nye variationer af deres Alcove Sofa og Playns 'workstation', løftede Vitra også sløret for Bouroullecs nye 'Communal Cells' - modulære skillevægge/indretningsarkitektur-systemer og deres 'High Meeting Table'. Foruden at diskutere de to brødres kommende yacht-projekt, talte vi også om de nye Vitraprodukter, om hvordan brødrernes eget kontor ser
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In a past life we earned our living from grapes - we grew them and others turned them into wine. Back then our year had a comforting cadence and seasons that meant something. Then came our wild period in the international designer furniture world - days and months merging, senselessly, into one another. Thankfully, older and wiser our year once again follows the peaceful, pastoral, pattern of old. January IMM Cologne February Stockholm Design Week March Leipzig Buchmesse etc etc etc
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We're fairly certain we posed this question last year - but proudly do so again. Is Milan Design Week still relevant - or is it just a big waste of time, money and resources? The question raises its head because we are currently sitting here planning firstly if we're going to go and secondly if so in what sort of numbers and with what aims. Last year we collected a few opinions on the purpose and function of Milan Design Week and Salone Milano- and among other comments Ronan Bouroullec mused
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Name: Christoffer Martens Born: Bremen, 1975 Alma mater: Product Design, University of Applied Science, Potsdam Internships: Alfredo Häberli, Zürich Products: Siebenschläfer for Nils Holger Moormann, Aschau im Chiemgau Spross for Nils Holger Moormann, Aschau im Chiemgau Obstrutsche for emform, Bockhorn Buchhalter Potbase (smow)blog: How did you arrive at product design? Christoffer Martens: I initially trained as a graphic designer and then worked in a media agency for a few years.
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We don't suppose it will come as any real surprise that we were taken by Axel Bjurström's Dolly Table. Part Gangsta Lean, part Collecteur, part Liesmichl, part inspired genius - we really couldn't not like it. A graduate of Konstfack, Stockholm's renowned design university, Axel Bjurström established his own studio Bjurström Design in 2004. Although much of his work until now has been interior design Axel also creates his own pieces. And that with a wonderfully light yet self-confident
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It's fair to say that for us the real shock of IMM Cologne 2011 was the number of senseless sofa combinations and truly, truly, hideous leather cantilever dining chairs on show. And that despite that fact we were expecting such. It of course wasn't all cheap pointless tat, there were also some wonderful young designers on show and one or two brave producers with genuinely interesting, innovative and aesthetically coherent product ranges. They were sadly in the minority - and we fear that in
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Name: Erik Wester Born: Oslo, Norway Alma mater: Furniture and product design, Kingston University London Products: Standing Task Light Tartan Modular (smow)blog: Why the decision to become a product designer? Erik Wester: That’s what I like doing! Since I was small I’ve been interested in drawing and building and was searching for what I could use my skills for and arrived at product and furniture design. (smow)blog: And why the decision to study Product and Furniture Design at
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Ida Engholm, forskningslektor ved Dansk Center for Designforskning er kurator for den akutuelle Pantonudstilling på den danske ambassade i Berlin. Forud for åbningen talte vi med Ida Engholm om Verner Pantons karriere og indflydelse, og om Verner Panton ville have taget digital design til sig. (smow)blog: Det indlysende første spørgsmål er, hvor starter man når man skal kuratere en udstilling om en designer som Verner Panton? Ida Engholm: Udgangspunktet for denne udstilling var en ung tysk
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At the risk of repeating ourselves - one of the main reasons to visit a design week is the chance it offers to visit locations that one otherwise probably wouldn't. And we've had some truly wonderful experiences: but only a few that top 20 designers at BIOLOGISKA. Officially Biologiska is a natural history museum. Officially. Based on the form of traditional Norwegian stave churches the quaint if unassuming exterior cannot, simply cannot, prepare the visitor for what is inside. Climbing
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As part of Stockholm Design Week 2011 Kartell presented the magazine rack Front Page by Stockholm design studio Front. Clever word play and all..... Although formally launched at Milan 2010 Front Page is only now making it's way into the shops and as such presented a wonderful excuse for a Front "home gig". Having already worked with producers such as Moroso, Established & Sons or moooi, Front Page is Front's first product for and with Kartell. At the product launch in the Stockholm
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Anyone who understands our biography will appreciate that a German who spent some time studying in Edinburgh and now lives in Helsinki will be of interest to us. But it wasn't Florian Ganter's biography that drew us to him and to his tool-free adjustable shelf system Air. Or at least not directly. Displayed on the Aalto University School of Design stand we initially thought - in a very lazy fashion - there's a nice bit of Finnish design. And then - considering it a little more seriously -
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Guest of Honour at the Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011 is the Israel born / Paris based designer Arik Levy. In addition to being the public face of the the furniture fair, Arik Levy is also responsible for designing the lounge area and will hold an hour long lecture and question/answer session. Ahead of his opening speech we spoke to Arik Levy about his decision to come to Stockholm, Swedish design and the all pervasive secrecy in the design world. (smow)blog: Why have you agreed to be
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The similarities between Vienna and Stockholm are not limited to the architecture per se. But also to the architects who open the Design Weeks. At least for us! For just as at Vienna Design Week, so was our first Stockholm Design Week vernissage Vindobona by Claesson Koivisto Rune. It may not have been in quite so splendorous a setting as the Palais Liechtenstein; however the showrooms of Stockholm art dealer Åmells were a more than fitting location for Claesson Koivisto Rune's entrancing
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I 1962 mødtes Verner Panton og Marianne Pherson Oertenheim under en ferie på Tenerife, og to år senere blev parret gift i Basel. Udover at være Verner Pantons kone, var Marianne Panton også hans de facto-direktør, og hun arbejdede tæt sammen med sin mand i alle aspekter af hans arbejde. Forud for udstillingen på den danske ambassade talte vi med Marianne Panton om Verner Pantons arbejde, og om hvad der i sin tid havde indflydelse på dette - og om hvordan hun blev den første fotomodel for
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The first thing to say about Designers Fair 2011 is that it was smaller than last year. The second point to say is that the location was a lot poorer than last. The first point is in itself no bad thing - the second is. Now you know us. For us one of the genuine joys of a design week is the chance it offers to explore a city and to visit those areas that one otherwise wouldn't see. And the 2011 Designers Fair location in Ehrenfeld was in that sense good as it provided a focal point for our
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Hej Danmark! På grund af antallet af læsere fra Danmark besluttede vi at det var på tide at tilbyde (smow)blogtekster på dansk. De danske tekster vil ikke blive udgivet hver dag, og heller ikke nødvendigvis hver uge, men vi vil regelmæssigt offentliggøre et udvalg af vores blogtekster på dansk. Alle tekster bliver arkiveret her: https://www.smow.com/blog/smow-pa-dansk Mange tak til det danske oversætterhold - hvis du har nogen spørgsmål eller forslag så tøv ikke med at kontakte os via
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Just as Hannibal always loved it when a plan came together - so for us it is always a moment of extreme satisfaction when a product really is as good as we thought it probably would be. We first saw SuperSputnik by Stuttgart based designer Ahmet Sismanoglu a.k.a Sisman at DMY Berlin 2010 However owing to an, as ever, over-filled schedule never got round to more than admiring it from afar. And so at Designers Fair in Cologne we briefly ignored our schedule to grab a few words with Ahmet and
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