Last week we vented our spleen on the ridiculous hotel prices in Milan during design week. And against an international design industry that blindly accepts such as part of the annual fun. We owe James Irvine an apology. James Irvine is obviously a man of principle who is prepared to raise his voice against the Milan hotel industry. And so thank you James Irvine! Hopefully the rest of the furniture industry will follow your lead and in a couple of years we can all tweet #Bologna2012 or
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Because the design world is incredibly vain, supercilious and conceited, Milan is a often a lot more about showing off than showing new products. And this year if you don’t have an iPhone with all the latest Milan design week Apps, you might as well stay at home. We don’t posses anything made by Apple, nor can we imagine a time when we will, we are however not immune to the vagaries of the design world and so over the course of the next few days will introduce you to the most important iPhone
read moreWorking as a furniture designer is a lot like working as a musician or an author. You establish a reputation and then hope to attract someone to publish/produce your work. However, whereas authors and musicians tend to work exclusively with one publisher/label for prolonged periods, furniture designers generally develop products for numerous producers simultaneously. Or at least the leading ones do. In Milan we caught up with Ronan Bouroullec and here he briefly decribes what he enjoys about
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Because the design world is incredibly vain, supercilious and conceited, Milan is a often a lot more about showing off than showing new products. And this year if you don't have an iPhone with all the latest Milan design week Apps, you might as well stay at home. We don't posses anything made by Apple, nor can we imagine a time when we will, we are however not immune to the vagaries of the design world and so over the course of the next few days will introduce you to the most important iPhone
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While we are in Milan enriching the good and fair minded hoteliers of the north-Italian Metropolis; life here in Germany will continue in its normal, non-bloodsucking, non-money grabbing way. Oh yes, we're bitter. And we don't believe that all the other Milan attendees find the hotel prices fair. Just they are too cowardly to publicly complain. Milan Design Week is a rip off and everybody knows it. Just know one dare speak it..... However, back to the topic in hand. Thursday 15th April
read moreWe don't have to go to Milan to visit Moormann. We can just go to Aschau. But we do enjoy visiting Moormann in Milan, because they always make that little more effort. After Moormann's 2009 Saloni Milano stand with Liesmichl, Strammer Max, Steckling et al, 2010 is looking a little more reserved. That said Else is already promising to be one of the highlights of Milan 2010 for us. Else is not a Moormann employee, lovely as they all are, but a new shelving concept by Werner Gasser. As you
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The undisputed highlight of the Kartell stand at Saloni Milano 2009 was the cat and mouse game with the special forces Kartell had hired to prevent visitors taking photographs. Despite the Kartell stand taking up an area half the size of Lombardy, the highly trained troops proved particularly efficient and we, for example, were forced to camp out overnight in a disused fox hole just to get a quick snap shot of the Dr NOs. Judging by the pre-Saloni press, this year is going to be even more fun.
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For us one of the true highlights of Saloni Milano 2009 was the kkaarrlls showcase from students at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. Not least because in comparison to many of the student shows at Milan 2009, the kkaarrlls show displayed some real potential. And talent. And so excellent to see the project rolling on again for Milan 2010. As ever we'll have to wait until we've actually seen the items before deciding. However from the photos we like the look of "Screw
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Having sold everything, including our kidneys and the neighbours cat, we can finally afford to pay for a hotel in Milan. "Is it really worth it?" ask the pensioners, students and lawyers who gather in front of the (smow)blog flat every March to buy our possessions and so help us finance the life of luxury enjoyed by that special class of bloodsucker that is the Milanese hotelier. "No" answer we. "But what are we to do?" And indeed what are we to do. One need only look at the press photos
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Congratulations to Vial, Patrick Frey and Polymerpark for winning a 2010 iF Matrial Award At the moment we can't actually say any more - because details of exactly what they have won is top secret until the official prize ceremony in Hannover on April 20th. But well done. More details can be found at Nook by Patrick Frey for Vial or at the (smow) Nook page.
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For people who spend most of their working lives sat at desks, publishers and authors have a frightening disregard for comfort when it comes to chairs. Or at least they do if the furniture we saw at the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse was a measure of the industry norm. Cheap folding chairs, cheap copies of designer furniture classics being presented as originals and general cheap tat as far as the eye could see. Fortunately one or two of the exhibitors seemed better informed. Below a few snapshots
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A garden is for relaxing in on a summers evening. For growing vegetables. For having a cheeky cigarette when you're supposed to be finishing the accounts. A garden is also a metaphor for growing up, maturing. Getting older. In the final (smow)liest event for the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse, journalist and author Gerhard Matzig presented his own personal tale of the journey from carefree urban youth to responsible suburban middle age. And to a garden. In front of a potentially illegally
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For us Switzerland means three things. USM Haller Tax avoidance. Phil Collins. With the evening "Neue Stimmen from Switzerland", organised by SWIPS - Swiss Independent Publishers - and supported by Pro Helvetia, the (smow)room in Leipzig hosted the second (smow)liest event during the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse. And proved that the Alpine Republic, does have more to offer. A lot more. Roman Graf opened proceedings with his debut novel "Herr Blanc". As a young man Herr Blanc left possibly
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On Saturday 20.03.2010 the latest Vitra Design Museum exhibition "The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction" officially opens. An exhibition very much after our own hearts. "The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction" explores the logic that "it is in the nature of human beings to seek the simplest solution" Although admittedly this is a logic that - despite its logic - all too many designers somehow manage to ignore, there are thankfully enough examples of good,
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It's not easy being German. It really isn't. Fortunately, it can be highly entertaining; as Philipp Kohlhöfer more than eloquently demonstrated to a full house at the opening event of (smow)liest 2010 in the (smow)room in Leipzig. From David Hasselhoff karoake with South-Central LA gangsters to dinner with Nelly Furtado via the moral dilemmas of associating oneself with childless individuals, Philipp Kohlhöfer led the audience through an amusing, and at times highly poetic, evening of
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In the past we have often talked about airports, airport design and airport furniture. And not just because we want to demonstrate how much we travel and how often we are in airports. But because we find it just as important that high-quality furniture is available in public spaces as in the home or office. If you think your office furniture is well used - imagine the stress your average airport chair is put under. From March 23rd until March 25th Europe's largest airport terminal
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One of the real joys of spring is that two of our favourite worlds nearly, but very nearly, collide - books (Leipzig Buchmesse) and designer furniture (Saloni Milano) On April 10th in Milan they will collide with the opening of the exhibition to the new Moleskine edition "Hand of the Designer". Containing 462 hand drawn sketches from 150 designers - including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius, Antonio Citterio or Alberto Meda - Hand of the Designer is intended as an intimate look
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There are people here at (smow)HQ who believe this story is nothing more than PR gag. But they are the same people who don't believe that we have Eames Elephants to help with deliveries. Fools. At the Geneva International Motor Show Thonet, in conjunction with HEICO Sportiv and Volvo today launched a new gear shift knob. Created exclusively for the new Volvo C70 by HEICO Sportiv and the new Volvo S60, the Thonet gear shift lever is crafted from oak, beech or walnut - possibly also a metal
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For us there are many highlights to the (smow) design year, Milan, London, Brussels, Copenhagen.... and of course DMY Berlin. DMY Berlin isn't the biggest design fair, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. And for 2010 the organisers have not only found a new location; but also a new jury structure. Rather than the normal "rotating heads jury" DMY Berlin now features a UN Security Council approach with 3 permanent members and 2 rotating. The three permanent
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As you know we here at smow(blog) aren't fans of complicated designer furniture. Really aren't. Less is more - so the grand theologian of post-war European design Dieter Rams - and let form follow function. That's us. A side table or bedside unit need, normally, do nothing more than support a cup, glass or magazine. Now you could add numerous extras to your table or you could - as with Müller Möbelfabrikation - bend some steel into the shape you want. In 1926 Mart Stam bent some steel
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The snow is finally gone from the streets of Leipzig and that can only mean two things. Dangerously large holes in the roads. And Leipzig Buchmesse. And as in 2009 (smow) is once again taking part in Leipzig Liest - Europes largest public book reading. (smow)liest begins on March 18th with Grillsaison from Philipp Kohlhöfer. Less related to the Cobb Pro, Grillsaison is a humorous, occasionally deeply ironic, journey in search of the real Germany. David Hasselhof included. On March 19
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They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. They, however, have obviously never spent hours, weeks and years sweating over a project until it is perfect. And so whether it is furniture designs, web site concepts or literature, they simply copy. In January the winners of the 2010 Plagiarius Competition for excellence in copying the work of others were announced. Among the happy winners a Chinese imitation of a German ice tray and Polish rip-off of a German toy combine
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As many of you will be aware, the construction of the VitraHaus was not without it's controversy. For all the decision to paint the outer walls black. We at (smow)blog can however exclusively reveal that other options were considered. And below we publish exclusive pictures of the rejected colour schemes. Berlin based, Dutch designer Hella Jongerius has created the Vitra Colour Laboratory to help encourage VitraHaus visitors to be more imaginative and creative in their use of colour. One
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If a picture really does paint a thousand words; a dozen VitraHaus photos here saves us an awful lot of typing. Below a few of our favourite images. And if you have any of your own photos that you would like to share with us, please email them to blog@smow.de Full credit will naturally be given for any photos used.
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