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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The motivation for the (smow)chair began with Chairless by Alejandro Aravena for Vitra. Although a truly delightful product we were somewhat irritated by the fact that the design for Chairless wasn't that, well, "chairless" : rather replaces the tensions within a chair with the tensions in the users body. The user becoming the chair and consequently limited in their movement while using Chairless. But because the "chairless" concept so impressed us we decided to take the opportunity
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While others amused themselves at Tendence in Frankfurt, we headed of to Copenhagen and CODE 10. We're not saying that was a mistake; but we're equally unconvinced that it was the best idea we've ever had. And we've had some really poor ideas. "You're not getting any younger, Denmark. The world is changing, design is changing, even materials are changing. You can't stay in here all day dreaming about bent plastic and Arnold Jacobsen." "It's Arne Jacobsen" Despite the promises in advance that
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On the last Sunday of the school summer holidays over 35 production companies in and around Kassel stage an annual collective "Open Day" - Blauer Sonntag. The name may be an extremely complex and over ambitious pun - the idea is however much more agreeable and this year we took the opportunity to visit Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder). For not only was Blauer Sonntag the first "official" event for the new Thonet Wohnshowroom, but visitors also had the rare opportunity to observe the Thonet wood
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When most people get itchy feet they go the podiatrist. We go on tour. For attractive as late summer evenings here in Lower East Plagwitz Village undoubtedly are, they pale against the charms of Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder), CODE 10 in Copenhagen, Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and Vienna Design Week in ... Vienna. Reports, photos, videos - and cake reviews - to follow.
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August 20th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Finnish architect/designer Eero Saarinen. Eero Saarinen had - in all probability - very little career choice other than that of architect: Not only was his father Eliel Saarinen one of Finland's most celebrated architects, but two of his uncles followed the same profession. In addition his mother, Loja Gesellius Saarinen, was a sculptress and textile designer. Eero Saarinen spent his first 13 years in his birthplace, Kirkkonummi on the
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Time was when social networking for businesses meant cocktail parties, tennis clubs and the Freemasons. Time Was. However Time Is and in the modern commercial world social networking means Facebook, Twitter, X-ing et al Not only as a marketing tool but also as an increasingly important instrument for communicating with customers, gathering feedback and handling criticism. In addition a recent survey by Edison Research among twitter users in the USA indicated that for many consumers
read moreFor most people naming Swiss designer furniture producers is as much of a challenge as naming famous Belgians or happily married English footballers. USM Haller being the equivalent of Belgium's Hergé. However the Confoederatio Helvetica has a lot more to offer than Fritz Haller's genial system. And a lot more to offer than modular steel and chrome. One of the greatest contrasts to USM Haller is the cabinet maker Röthlisberger. Founded in 1928 Röthlisberger's first contact with the global
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August 6th marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Italian architect, designer and Kartell co-founder Anna Castelli Ferrieri. Despite initial flirtations with modernism, including a trip to Paris to visit Le Corbusier, the young Anna Castelli Ferrieri was drawn ever more to the Italian neo-rationalism - especially that practiced by Franco Albini. And although Kartell products may not be physically reminiscent of the work of Albini, the ethos behind the company and its approach to
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A recurrent theme, not only here in the (smow)blog but also in general throughout the (smow) global network is the subject of illegal copies of design classics. Or better put when is a design classic a design classic? At the HGB Leipzig Rundgang in February we were confronted with an unexpected and somewhat unusual interpretation of the question in the form of "Eames Lounge Chair" by George Brückmann. And were immediately hooked. And not only we were impressed by Brückmanns work, In
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Fritz Haller against Egon Eiermann. While ahead of the 2010 (smow) designer furniture world cup final many bemoaned the decision of both Switzerland and Germany to play safe with their more technical formations; the match itself was one for connoisseurs. Certainly a Nils Holger Moormann for Germany or a Susi and Ueli Berger for Switzerland could have brought a little more imagination and colour to the match. But what the two old masters lacked in flamboyancy they more than compensated for
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Although very short the (smow)summer tour 2010 was certainly worth the effort. Its always worth the effort to visit an annual exhibition at a design school. Our primary focus was, logically, the product and industrial design work, but we did also take the opportunity to visit the other departments. And wherever one goes and whatever one views, you will always find something that strikes a chord or otherwise inspires you. Often in the most unexpected departments. Which is why we can always
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The last stage of the (smow)summer tour 2010 took us across Berlin to the Kunsthochschule Weißensee. Established in 1946 the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee was without question the youngest design school on our tour - and was also the location where the most English was spoken. Every corridor, every landing, every exhibition room straining to the tones of American and other non-native English. Combined with the preferred clothing order the impression was much more Berlin-Mitte than
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Following the disappointment of Burg Giebichenstein it seemed that Urðr, Shai and Nortia had once again collectively abandoned us as we strove northwards through the rain and thunder towards Berlin. Alone the fact that we were unwittingly party to that age old eastern Germanic ritual of the summer migration to the Baltic Sea keeping our mood high. From Berlin Hbf the transient throng continued on to Rostock, Warnemünde and the other traditional Sachsen summer feeding grounds on the Baltic
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Ten years ago Berlin/Leipzig based design studio Delphin Design developed the S 360 conference and auditorium chair for Thonet. In 2006 followed the slimmer S 260, which not only featured a folding version but much more importantly could be interlocked with the S 360, thus allowing users the opportunity to expand their seating options without having to replace their complete stock. And now Delphin Design and Thonet have launched the S 160. We presume the S 60 will be available in 2016
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