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 Chair by Klauser and Carpenter for Established and Sons, Duct Tape Chair is also a wonderfully constructed, wonderfully considered and wonderfully aesthetic piece. In the course of the ICFF we spent a lot of time in Duct Tape Chair and are certain that one could spend an enjoyable evening in it - preferably with a Brooklyn Lager, a bagel and the company of your favourite friendly, back-chatting, big suit wearing pimp.
Much like Manhattans lower east side Millers Modular Chandelier at first appears as an overbearingly garish and impractical construction; until you experience it en persona. Then you quickly see and appreciate the true functionality, beauty and charm of the lamp. Or the inner-city district. Called "modular" because one can configure and re-configure it as required, the work oozes Tom Dixon, yet isn't, and can't be. There is, simply put, too much happening in one product for it to be European. Modular Chandelier is not yet available, but should be on the market later this year. We are already on the waiting list.
What, however, first attracted our attention to Miller was his Tint tables. And that independent of our problems here at ICFF. In Milan one of the products that made us stop and smile was the Trattoria Chairs by Jasper Morrison for Magis. And we saw similar genius in Millers Tables. Whereas Morrison's chairs wonderfully play on the traditional image of the the woven Trattoria chair, Millers tables recreate late 1970's low-paid, inner city New York interior styling. We've seen the movies, we know what we're talking about. The bonbon plexi-glass and the beautifully, deceptively crafted wooden legs convey cheap; a closer inspection and a couple of questions on the production process, however, reveal the real quality and value of the product. We were not only greatly impressed by Tints, but also over-joyed to find such a excellent, fresh and thoughtful product.
All in all Millers collection left us with a positive feeling, for all through the craftsmanship, talent and freshness of the work.
The first thing we Europeans brought to America was a twisted form of Christianity, a distaste for all exuberance and a culinary preference for root vegetables. The Americans sent us backa twisted belief in the value of brands, a distaste for the long-term and a culinary preference for lightly fried industrial meat products. Jason Miller's work is the evidence that amongst designers a similar exchange process is continually occuring, and that such an exchange can also bring positive benefits for all.
