Before we start slowing down and head outdoors to enjoy the summer we want to take the opportunity over the next couple of weeks to look back on the smow design spring; namely our trips to Milan, New York, Brühl, Basel and Berlin ... as well as to start looking forward to the forthcoming smow design autumn. And no we won't just be re-visiting old ground, we have saved a few treats from USM Haller, Vitra, ICFF, DMY Berlin and Salone for those long summer evenings on the balcony with a good
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It must be a summer thing. Not only are our newspapers and magazines full of authors recommending their chums books, but first design observer portrayed their reading tips and then design sojourn brought out their "30 Essential Books for Industrial Designers" Obviously the design world is planning downing tools and spending the long hot summer that awaits us reading. Which is fine by us. For, in addition to supplying designer furniture, we at smow also stock a wide range of books on and
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Sometimes we really do ask why we invest so much time and effort travelling to design shows, when all we need to do is sit in front of our computer with a good Brooklyn Lager and bag of crisps. Saves money, saves the environment and potentially saves us from drowning. Such questions mainly arise when we find products such as Gangsta Lean by Matt Braun. As we will never tire of saying, for us an important element of good design is does the phrase: Took a problem, analysed it, solved it
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To celebrate the 150th birthday of Michael Thonet's "chair of all chairs" Thonet are running a photo competition: 214x214. The rules are ridiculously simple; whoever submits the best photo of a Thonet 214 wins a 3 day trip to New York. For the second best there is a trip to Thonet in Frankenberg and the chance to build your own 214. If you don't own 214, you could always buy one - or more - from smow. Alternatively, keep your eyes open when your out and about, 214's crop up a lot more often
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About a 100 years ago we mentioned Platform 21and their Repair Manifesto. Inspired by yesterdays rant against designers who find using PET bottles a suitable demonstration of how design can help save the planet, we revisited our previous post on Platform 21 and subsequently their Repair Manifesto And still love what they are doing. Especially the Repair Hub where you can exchange addresses of skilled craftsmen and women. If you should be in or near Amsterdam you can drop by and repair
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Every month Jasper Morrison sends a photo to the Vitra Magazine. And every month Vitra publish it. Every month we send a photo to the Vitra magazine. And every month they don't. Whereas the good Jaspers photos are always entertaining, this months entry was a lot more thoughtful and thought provoking. Taken in Indian Pondicherry the photo shows a chandelier made from old PET bottles and Christmas lights. "If this was an exhibit at the Salone del Mobile in Milan I wouldn’t give it a second
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The International Design Festival Berlin is over, but the pleasing afterglow remains. In particular through joys such as that presented by Portugese designer My Own Super Studio. At designer furniture shows one sees a lot of furniture, but not much that genuinely excites on account of its genuine innovation. Fiss Family by my own super studio is one of the rarities. Fiss Family is essentially a set of 4 colour coded - Big Blue, Small Yellow, Long Green and Fat Orange - lamps. Or better put
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Berlin didn't become the pulsating metropolis its is by blithely doing what everyone else does. Oh no, Berlin became Berlin because it was Berlin. And now so that we all can bathe in wonder of what "Berlin" means, the city marketing authorities have started an education programme, "be Berlin", in which they instruct us all how we too can be like them. And in conjunction with the DMY design festival, (smow)blog can exclusively reveal a few secrets as to how you too can "be Berlin" be Berlin
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What first attracted us to the work of Jason Miller at ICFF was the fact it was dirty. Obviously not pysically grubby, but dirty. As in a get down, funky, sort of dirty. Downtown Manhattan circa 1976 dirty. And we liked that. A lot. A similar emmotion grabbed us here at DMY Berlin as we walked past the stand from Design Apparat. The furniture was filthy. Again not in a grubby, don't sit down you'll ruin your jacket sort of way; rather in a "did you find that in Warsaw Pact appartment
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Berlin didn't become the pulsating metropolis its is by blithely doing what everyone else does. Oh no, Berlin became Berlin because it was Berlin. And now so that we all can bathe in wonder of what "Berlin" means, the city marketing authorities have started an education programme, "be Berlin", in which they instruct us all how we too can be like them. And in conjunction with the DMY design festival, (smow)blog can exclusively reveal a few secrets as to how you too can "be Berlin" be Berlin
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As a Europe-wide active business we at smow take Europe very seriously. We must, it is our home. And naturally for us the European elections are an important event for which we are more than happy to sacrifice a couple of hours of our time in which to go voting. But don't you also agree that polling stations are frightfully dull locations? We're not snobs, but, you know, one could at least try to, you know, make a little effort. So smow spoke to the responsible authorities in Leipzig and
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Berlin didn't become the pulsating metropolis its is by blithely doing what everyone else does. Oh no, Berlin became Berlin because it was Berlin. And now so that we all can bathe in wonder of what "Berlin" means, the city marketing authorities have started an education programme, "be Berlin", in which they instruct us all how we too can be like them. And in conjunction with the DMY design festival, (smow)blog can exclusively reveal a few secrets as to how you too can "be Berlin" be Berlin
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In the past few months we've had the privilege and misfortune of viewing several student showcases. These have ranged from the wonderful, such as the kkrraalls show in Milan from the students of the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, over the disappointing (Cranbrook College in New York) and not especially good (Weimar Uni. Milan and Berlin) onto the outright pointless - in particular we think on the show in Milan by a nameless north European-based college. The show from the
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While the "big name" designers show their wares at the IMA Village, the future stars are grouped together as DMY:Youngsters in the Treptower Park Arena Admittedly the classification is based on the organisers own perception and marketing concept - why, for example should the students from Bauhaus Uni Weimar be considered "Allstars" while those from Burg Giebichenstein in Halle are classed as "youngsters"? It makes no sense. Especially given that the Burg Giebichenstein show considerably
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Berlin didn't become the pulsating metropolis its is by blithely doing what everyone else does. Oh no, Berlin became Berlin because it was Berlin. And now so that we all can bathe in wonder of what "Berlin" means, the city marketing authorities have started an education programme, "be Berlin", in which they instruct us all how we too can be like them. And in conjunction with the DMY design festival, (smow)blog can exclusively reveal a few secrets as to how you too can "be Berlin" be Berlin
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The good news is that there are plenty of tables in the press room. And some excellent stuff on show from ETH Zürich, Fischerundfritze and Design Apparat, among others. More information and photos will follow soon. And Bauhaus University Weimar are here again with their "my bauhaus is better than yours" exhibition. It still isn't, but "their birdhaus maybe better than yours"
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Dioscuri Tavolo by Huub Ubbens und Michele De Lucchi for Artemide Although we'll probably always have problems with design and branding Awards, we do appreciate the value and importance that many of them represent. And so congratulations from us to Italian lighting designer and (smow)partner Artemide for first place in the category "Design Brand Home and Living" at the 2009 German "best brand" awards. The "best brand" awards assess not only the market position of a brand but much more the
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In the world of designer furniture the word "individual" is regularly used; with everyone conveniently forgetting that if we all buy the same furniture, nothing is individual. Unless that is we all furnish our homes and offices with products from Danish producer, and smow partner, Montana. According to the good folks over there at Montana there are 5 billion possible combinations of their products - we've not counted, and we're not going to count, but you can check for yourself in the
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When not jetting off around the world, sharpening our sarcasm at international designer furniture trade fairs, the (smow)blog team undertake other, non(smow), contracts. To help us relax and unwind. Some of us design graffiti templates, some translate classic music manuscripts and others undertake copy-editing and proofreading jobs. Varied as they are, all these tasks are related in that sometimes you want to sit, sometimes you want to stand and regardless of whether sitting or standing
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Good news for all of you in Copenhagen, or who are planning visiting the Danish capital. Perpetual smow favourites Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec were recently commissioned to design the new Kvadrat showroom in Copenhagen, and the result of the work has now been unveiled. It may not look like they have done very much for their opulent fee; but ain't that the secret in good design ;) But what they undoubtedly have created, is a space that allows the wonderful Kvadrat fabrics to shine and take
read moreyoutube contains a lot more than trampolining bears, illegal music videos and "ooh so clever" advertising virals. It can also be useful and informative. Honest. Among the youtube channels we like - and one of the few we actively follow - is that from Vitra. Recently a new film appeared on the Vitra youtube channel; a short review and history of the Aluminium Chairs by Charles and Ray Eames. Not only is the film a wonderful introduction to the Aluminium Chairs, but also allows a rare
read moreAmericans, no sense of humour (or humor as they would have it...... )
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For us one of the discoveries of the ICFF was Brooklyn based designer Jason Miller. Miller's design contains undeniable elements of contemporary European design, albeit effortlessly combined with, for our opinion, classic European stereotypes of retro-NYC style. We promised a text on post-colonialism in US design ... and like all at smow we always keep our promises. Miller's Duct Tape Chair, for example, is more than a wonderfully comfortable armchair. Reminiscent in many ways of Easy
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We came, we saw, we sat on the floor... But it needn't have been so..... Once again the Europeans show the Americans how it should be done. One of the largest stands in New York was that from the Saloni Milano -a mix of the finest Italian designers: And they brought their own press room. No electricity, no Internet...but tables. And coffee. How fondly we look back on April.... Although greatly impressed by the typewriter, we also liked Desk 51 by American producer bludot as a desk.
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