As we believe we've noted before, the joy in that exhibition format in which designers present objects which are important and/or relevant to them, is that no matter how often it is repeated it is always new. Same, same, but different. For their 2017 show Dutch Invertuals are presenting collections of objects from 45 alumni which have an importance to/relevance for them, or which simply represent an object of wonder and inspiration to the relevant designer. And because it's Dutch Invertuals
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It goes without saying that picking a "best of" from an event such as Dutch Design Week is impossible. Too varied are the projects, too wide the scope, too incomparable the works be that classic product design, classic architecture, classic craft, or more conceptual and/or research projects in and across genres. Rarely does urban planning sit so comfortably and naturally alongside pottery, high-tech and politics. While everywhere in Eindhoven one finds people 3D printing with all manner of
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Unbelievably, Eindhoven based design studio Daphna Laurens have never, ever, participated at Salone Satellite, that section of the Milan furniture fair devoted to young design talents. Unbelievably because they are unquestionably talented, and are equally unquestionably young. Even if the works displayed in Milan suggested a maturity beyond their years. Studio Daphna Laurens present Prototipi @ Salone Satellite Milan 2016 Presented under the title Prototipi Daphna Isaacs and Laurens
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To the casual observer selecting five outstanding products from the Milan Furniture Fair is a neigh on impossible task, so great is the number of potential candidates. "How", asks our casual observer, "are you going to select just five?!?!" For the seasoned attendee selecting five outstanding products from the Milan Furniture Fair is a neigh on impossible task, because the vast majority of articles on show are anything but outstanding. And those which are are invariably older, established
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Obviously defining a "Best of" Dutch Design Week, or indeed any design week, is impossible, one can only hope to attempt to collate your personal highlights and thus provide an impression of how you experienced the event: which is exactly what DAD Galerie Berlin are currently doing with a presentation of some their highlights. Our highlight of their highlights is without question the new hanging lamp by Floris Wubben. When we spoke to Floris at his solo Low Tech Crafts exhibition at DAD
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As we noted in our post on the exhibition Open World at Kazerne Eindhoven, for a city that is often cited as the hub of contemporary European creativity, there isn't much on show publicly in downtown Eindhoven. Rather than being the bustling hive of vision and inspiration one may expect, the centre of Eindhoven is in many ways a textbook example of the sort of monochrome, backwater provincial town that could vanish overnight without anybody noticing. Save of course photographers who specialise
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As a general rule, what you don't say is more important than what you do say: your body language famously sending discrete messages to those around you, messages which betray your feelings and intentions more eloquently and honestly than you ever could, or indeed would often dare to. Similarly, an inanimate object's body language also sends discrete messages which eloquently betray its intentions. An object's body language being more commonly referred to as its form and the functionalists
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Throughout 2015 some thirty European museums and cultural institutions will mark the 125th anniversary of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh's death with a series of exhibitions, events and cultural exchanges. As previously noted, just as we have an innate mistrust of "lifetime achievement awards" for the living and lively, so to do we find "celebrating" deaths somewhat macabre. Especially in the case of Vincent van Gogh given the gory and tragic circumstances of his passing. But we famously don't
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We remember very clearly the first time we saw the work of Berlin design studio llot llov: it was at Designers Fair Cologne 2010, back in the day when the exhibition was held in the fading glory of the so-called Rheintriadem. Walking down a corridor, invariably trying to decide what we wanted for lunch, we glanced, more or less unconsciously, into one of the rooms and there hanging in the corner, radiating an unmistakable self-confident grandeur, was the macramé "flower cocoon" Lucille.
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......and continued over Budapest and on to Berlin - where amongst other delights we partook of the exhibitions Sensing the Future: László Moholy-Nagy, die Medien und die Künste at the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin and Schrill Bizarr Brachial. Das Neue Deutsche Design der 80er Jahre at the Bröhan Museum - and onto Cologne for the Orgatec office furniture trade fair.
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August being holiday month our principle focus was board sports: Woody Skateboards for the summer and silbærg snowboards for the coming winter. And when not trying to dislocate our virtual collarbones we found time to bring you an interview with Daphna Laurens and a warning from the colleagues at smow Australia.
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Cohesion is a concept with which we are very familiar. Largely because it is a state we never achieve. Much like the geometry's asymptote never touches its associated curve, so to do our lives approach cohesion, without ever achieving such a condition. It remaining something tantalisingly ahead of us. Infinitely so. And so it was with a particular personal interest we viewed the new 2014 Dutch Invertuals' exhibition: Cohesion. As is traditional with Dutch Invertuals the participating
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The presentation of Dirk Vander Kooij's current collection during Dutch Design Week 2014 took place at Kazerne - the new star in Eindhoven's already well illuminated design sky. Established by designers/curators Annemoon Geurts and Koen Rijnbeek who used run the temporary Eat Drink Design "exhibition restaurant" during Dutch Design Week, Kazerne is their new permanent "exhibition restaurant". They obviously having tired of "popping up" once a year. Featuring a combination restaurant cum
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For us the passion, indeed interest, for living in a shared flat ended approximately 18 months before we moved out of our last shared flat. It ceased to be our thing. We needed our peace. We needed our space. We became anti-social. Some people however remain sociable. Even professionally. Some such as the design studios Daphna Laurens, Studio Mieke Meijer, OS ∆ OOS, Studio Maatwerk and Bogaerts Label who since summer 2014 have shared a space in the so-called TAB Building, somewhat inevitably a
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Back in February the participants of the exhibition "Trading Places. Designers meet the collection" at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden spent two days trawling through the museum's depots looking for objects with which to work. During the tour Daphna Isaacs and Laurens Manders, aka Eindhoven based studio Daphna Laurens, were shown inside a drawer. Walked on. Stopped. Walked back. Looked inside the drawer again and asked Herr Knorr, Head of metal, glass and ceramics at the Kunstgewerbemuseum,
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Strolling through the corridors of the Dresden Museum of Decorative Arts, the Kunstgewerbemuseum, one comes across a presentation called "Thronfolge" - Throne Succession - featuring three 18th century thrones which belonged to successive Sachsen Kings. And a Well Tempered Chair by Ron Arad. A delightful piece of juxtaposition made all the more enjoyable on account of the relative ease with which Arad's uncouth bent steel scoundrel fits in with the gilded and velvet noble decadence of yore. In
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Introducing Tulga Beyerle as the new Director of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, Hartwig Fischer, General Director of the executive Dresden State Art Collections, confidently predicts that with Tulga Beyerle they have "...someone who can help bring the museum into the 21st century." We're not 100% certain if the good folk of Dresden are aware of the force with which they and their, until now, somewhat sleepy applied arts and crafts museum are about to be catapulted into the 21st century......
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Many people, if not peoples, could currently be forgiven for reacting somewhat sceptically to the notion of a “Happy Future”. With their exhibition “Happy Future” Dutch design collective Dutch Invertuals take on this scepticism and aim to show that the basic ingredients for such are there; we just need to identify and use them correctly. Established in 2009 Dutch Invertuals is a loose collective of designers, largely but not exclusively with a Design Academy Eindhoven background, who
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Although as a general rule we don't want to think about Vienna Design Week during Milan Design Week - as it means thinking beyond the summer, and that before we've really felt the warmth of the sun on our milk white skin - the touring exhibition Werkstadt Vienna showing at Ventura Lambrate is a delightful exception. Because it brought back so many memories and ultimately reminded us just why we put ourselves through this. Curated by Sophie Lovell and featuring an exhibition design by Studio
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Cork. At the moment there is simply no getting away from it. A couple of weeks ago Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec unveiled their Cork Desk for Vitra at Orgatec. Back in April we had Cover by Daphna Laurens at Dutch Invertuals in Milan. And last year at Dutch Design Week we marvelled at Tiago Sá da Costa's Corkmatters Lamp exhibited as part of the Made Out Portugal #4 show. Might not sound like much, but given that before Eindhoven 2011 the last serious cork product we can remember seeing was
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Pretty much ever since we first saw Tafelstukken by Daphna Laurens at DMY Berlin 2010 we've had a bit of thing for them. A fact that we are completely unapolgetic about. There is something wonderfully eloquent, dignified and timeless about their work. Something that draws you to them. Their works invariably comprise a mix of materials, a mix of materials which is always central to the objects, yet is understated in the design, almost as if it doesn't want to draw attention to itself. For
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As we've already admitted the first time we saw a Dutch Invertuals exhibition we didn't hang around very long. Since then however we have matured a lot and the show has become a regular feature of our visits to Eindhoven and Milan. Simply put, one always finds something challenging, exciting and beautiful at a Dutch Invertuals show. And invariably something you don't really understand, no matter how often it is explained to you. But that itself is for us reason enough to go. In 2012 Dutch
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As reported last week we sadly couldn't make it to the opening of Cirkel by Daphna Laurens at Galerie Gosserez in Paris. Because we were at the opening of Kibbutz and Bauhaus in Dessau. However Daphna and Laurens were kind enough to send us a few photos of the works. As older readers will know we are always very wary about judging articles on the strength of photos alone; that said, the Cirkel collection does look very promising. For us the highlight is probably "Leaning Lamp". Resembling
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Although we beef a lot about the amount of time we have to spend travelling to ensure that the (smow)blog remains Europe's premier product design blog, there are a lot of nice things on the European design circuit. Stockholm on a crisp February evening. The vegetarian catering at Neue Räume Zürich. Daphna and Laurens. Two of the nicest people you can meet. As they once again proved when we bumped into them in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week. And you've got the chance to meet them as
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