There are some design blogs who simply retype press releases, resize press photos and abracadabra - a blog post. Our standards are a little higher. Which is why we visit design fairs, design weeks, design competitions and design exhibitions. Because only by talking to designers, talking to producers and by actually testing the products can you decide if the PR hype is justified. The minus is of course that design fairs being the new film festivals - our schedule is an absolute nightmare.
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Name: Eva Marguerre Alma mater: 2004-2010 Product design/Exhibition design Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe Internships: 2005 Luigi Colani, Karlsruhe 2006 Magazine "Brigitte", Living Section, Hamburg 2008 Designbüro Stefan Diez, Munich Products: Tagträume Nido MOA (smow)blog: Why Product Design? Eva Marguerre: That all started relatively early. For example, as a child I was interested in furniture and interiors and used to steal my mother’s magazines and cut out the things I liked.
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" .... says Erwin Perzy III. He is the third generation of family snow globe makers. His grandfather invented the snow globe" The grandson of the man who invented the snow globe! As we read the Vienna Design Week programme introduction to "Wunderliche Kugelkammer" by Julia Landsiedl @ Erwin Perzys Original Wiener Schneekugeln we knew that there was no way we could miss it. The grandson of the man who invented the snow globe!! Somewhat amusingly we did then very nearly forget to go, thanks
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Timely to the end of our rantings against the current state of Danish design - the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen recently hosted the Danish Design Prize awards 2010/11 In his introduction the Danish Design Centre CEO Christian Scherfig asks " ... what is good design in the 21st century ?" The DDCs answer is 11 prize winners from 17 nominations in 4 categories. Whereas most would have also been good design in the 20th century, and a couple even in the 19th, all of the featured designs
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The first station on the 2010 Vienna Design Week Passionswege was "Reichtum. Wasser + Glas" by Berlin designer Mark Braun and the Viennese crystal producer J & L Lobmeyr. Established in 1863 J & L Lobmeyr were one of the key players in the Wiener Werkstätte movement and so also in the development of Art Deco, working with designers such as Josef Hoffman, Adolf Loos or Carl Witzmann. In addition J & L Lobmeyr are one of the true stalwarts of the Passionswege series and participate every year.
read moreAs the Beatles almost wrote: When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed any cake in anyway But now those days are indeed gone and there is nothing the (smow)blog crew enjoy more than a nice bit of cake. And fortunately as we tour the designer furniture museums of this world we always find just that: a nice bit of cake. And so we've decided to start a photo gallery in order to present the baked gems we find on our travels. First up a Strawberry Cake from the Vitra
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As any football fan or star-crossed lover knows only too well: passion means suffering. In Christian theology "The Passion" is specifically the suffering of Jesus in the moments leading up to and including his crucifixion. Passionswege - can therefore be seen as equivalent to the 14 stations of the cross. The Passionswege at Vienna Design Week has only very little with the morbid brutality of Jesus' walk to Calvary and has much more related to the modern definition of passion; affection,
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Although trained as a sculpture Henning Koppel is probably best remembered for his work as a silversmith; be it designing jewelry, cutlery services or other table and household wares. Henning Koppel also designed lamps, and Pandul have now re-issued his 1972 creation Bubi. Originally produced in brass by Louis Poulsen, the 2010 Pandul re-issue comes in chrome, an aesthetic nod towards Koppel's mastery with silver. What we particularly like about Bubi is that you can use it as a pendant
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Ask most people to name a Danish furniture designer and they will probably reply Verner Panton or Arne Jacobsen. Ask them to name a Swedish furniture designer and the answer will probably have four letters - three of which are vowels. Flat pack furniture is in itself no bad thing, but it is a little bit sad when a country that has so much furniture design talent to offer, is represented in the public consciousness by a universal brand. Sweden are the partner country at this year's Vienna
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We didn't make it to SaloneSatellite at this years Milan furniture fair. We we're, somewhat ironically, to busy getting wound up at the fact that Milan is now so big and expensive it's all but impossible to find anything. Fortunately Thomas Geisler from the Vienna Design Week organising team doesn't let such things annoy him and did go to SaloneSatellite. Where he saw Antoinette Bader and her LacesLamp. With whom he spoke. Who then applied for a space on the Carte Blanche programme at
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For us the Wiener Palais Liechtenstein is a building with almost religious meaning. For it was, in many ways, the place where Michael Thonet got his first big break - and so the point from where the Thonet story starts to turn and to become a success story. Some have Mecca, others Bethlehem - and we have a 17th century garden residence in north Vienna. All of which speaks volumes for the quality of our social lives. For the Vienna Design Week, in contrast, the Liechtenstein Museum is the
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"What, another design week?!" While the rest of the (smow)HQ tried to work out which city we hadn't been to this year; we quietly packed our cameras for yes, another design week. And certainly design weeks are the new film festival - every self-respecting city has to have one. Which is fine by us. And this week it's Vienna Design Week. The 2010 Vienna Design Week programme features - in addition to the usual array of exhibitions - a series of workshops, installations and talks with and
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For reasons that have always escaped us Finn Juhl remains one of the forgotten men of Danish design. Or maybe we just move in the wrong circles. Either way we were delighted when last year Onecollection re-issued Finn Juhl's 1951 "Baker Sofa" and are even more pleased that they have now re-introduced the matching Cocktail coffee table. Because it is just delightful. In addition Onecollection have also re-issued a Finn Juhl desk, Nyhavn; so-called because Juhl used such desks in his office
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Awards ceremonies are all well and good - but much more important is the exhibition to accompany the contest. And until October 10th the Industrial Museum Chemnitz is hosting the International Marianne Brandt Contest 2010 exhibition. We had planned to write a long text - changed our mind and instead present here a few impressions of our pick of the exhibits. We can however strongly recommend the exhibition; not only for those interested in art and design - but also for all those who are open
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Although the Marianne Brandt Contest is on the surface about Marianne Brandt, the awards ceremony in Chemnitz on Friday stood very much under a different star. "Chemnitz - Stadt der Moderne"/ "Chemnitz - The Modernist City" Every single official speech rammed home the message; "Chemnitz - Stadt der Moderne" being repeated ad nauseum ad infinitum in the hope that if one said it often enough it may just come true. "I want a pony !" "I want a pony !" "I want a pony !" "I want a pony !" "I want
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Owner/Designer: Rui Alves Established: 2001 Location: Paços de Ferreira, Portugal Products: Hold on Sample MIU Fiss family Welcome to the Jungle Avô (smow)blog: Why did you decide for a career in industrial design? Rui Alves: It was more or less a natural decision; I grew up, and indeed am still, surrounded by family members who work with wood. And so I’ve always been surrounded by materials and tools and thinking about making things with my fathers and grandfathers tools. In addition
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When we heard that the 2010 International Marianne Brandt Contest exhibition was going to be held in the Industrial Museum, Chemnitz, our first thought was: that's a bit harsh. We know the city's fortunes haven't been the best since the end of the DDR - but to label the whole city as nothing more than a tourist attraction dedicated to artificially maintaining happier memories of times long since past.... Hardly fair. It turns out that the Industrial Museum Chemnitz is actually a Museum in
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We don't want to take anything away from Erik Wester's work; but it's saying something when one of the best new products we found at CORE 10 was from a Norwegian who studied in London and now lives and works in Amsterdam. Standing Task Light by Erik Wester In principle the idea isn't new. One of the major problems with lighting, and in particular with standard lamps, is achieving a useful, directable illumination. Your granny's standard lamp shone downwards - the light emitted was perhaps
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As already stated our visit to Copenhagen and CORE 10 was without question one of our more disappointing trips. Largely because of the complete lack of imagination, innovation or indeed quality that we found. It's certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life. What do you mean? Well, at one point, you've got it, then you lose it. And it's gone forever. All walks of life. Georgie Best, for example, had it, lost it. Or David Bowie or Danish design. Danish design. Some of their modern stuff's
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On September 14th the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin opened an exhibition devoted to Hajo Rose. "Hajo Rose"? Now we have to admit that when we first read the Bauhaus Archiv press release announcing the exhibition we were at a loss. "Hajo Rose"?? Even Wikipedia could only offer us a couple of sentences in Dutch. Worse still, the catalogue at the Deutsche Bucherei - an institution that possess one copy of every book ever published in Germany ever since the beginning of time ever - offered us 2
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While the border between inspiration are plagiarism can be as fine as that between genius and madness or English footballers girlfriends and ... no, we'll leave that comparison there. There are also those that are so obvious one has to celebrate them. And every year the German society "Action Plagiarius" present the Plagiarius Awards to do just that. Nominations for this years awards can be made until November the 2nd. Full details and a list of last years winners can be found at
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Owners/Designers: Alexander Stamminger and Nik Back Established: 2007 Location: Blaufelden, Baden-Württemberg Products: Luca lean Luca stand Ten Line Turn Superemma (smow)blog: Let’s start at the very beginning, where did you meet? maigrau: We both studied Industrial design at the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart, and we have known each other since the first semester – so since 2003 - and we completed our studies in 2008. (smow)blog: And immediately formed maigrau… maigrau: … exactly. In
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Although it is probably fair to say that most people associate USM Haller furniture with offices, not all see it so. Partly fuelled by a desire amongst customers for individual furniture that meets their specific requirements and partly by a rise in the number of people working from home, System USM Haller is increasingly starting to dominate domestic as well as commercial settings. Kitchen units, multi-media cabinets, even baby changing tables - the flexibility of the USM Haller System is
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For one of Denmark's most celebrated designers Verner Panton spent considerably little time in Denmark; and many most of his celebrated works were realised abroad. That said Copenhagen is full of reminders of Verner Panton, his life, his work and his passions. And so during our brief visit to the Danish capital we took the opportunity to meet up with one his Vitra Panton Chairs for a guided tour of Verner Panton's Copenhagen. Our tour began, as did Panton's association with Copenhagen, at
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