Italy A Peninsula; A Commonwealth; A Context Striding out into the Mediterranean Sea the contemporary commonwealth of Italy, for all its apparent unity, and for all its superficially stable, pastoral, political landscape, is very much a volatile, fervid synthesis of innumerable independent Stati and Popoli; independent Stati and Popoli whose individual characters and perspectives helped form not only the contemporary Italy, but together define the (hi)story of furniture design in the
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Artemide A Phaesporia; A bringer of light. Arising in Milan at a time of great darkness in the Kingdom of Lombardy, Artemide's original form, its Alfa form, was bequeathed to it by a man recorded as Sergio Mazza, and it was this Mazza, together with a young compagno bearing the name Ernesto Gismondi, who charged Artemide with the spreading of that Alfa light throughout the still dark domestic, commercial and civic spaces of the known worlds. Although renowned, and celebrated, for its
read moreIn our design calender post on the inaugural Memphis Exhibition in Milan we noted that although important for the development of design and architecture, the Memphis group was never that successful commercially. Which is not to say that Memphis furniture wasn't bought and used to furnish homes. According to Artemide co-founder Ernesto Gismondi, who also served as Managing Director of the Memphis trading company, there are, or at least were, two homes furnished exclusively with Memphis. And
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Much as we tend to shy away from "Designer of the Year" awards, the presentation of German architecture and design magazine A&W's Designer of the Year award is always an early highpoint of the Passagen Cologne Design Week. Principally because it invariably results in a compact yet informative exhibition from and about the selected designer. An exhibition that is perhaps never independent nor critical, but which always provides an accessible overview of the designers oeuvre. Following on from
read moreAside from the ability to accurately focus light, Richard Sapper had a further motivation in designing his Tizio lamp: "Another problem was that I am a very disorganised person. On my desk there is no space to place a lamp, or at best one is forced to place it on the very edge, the rest of the table being covered with things that I probably don't need, but which I can only store on my desk. In such a situation one needs a lamp with a long boom arm. To effortlessly move such a lamp one has the
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With the winter solstice behind us and the days growing noticeably longer, the Vitra Design Museum exhibition Lightopia draws slowly towards its natural end. But before the lights finally go out on March 9th there are still a few genuine highlights in the Fringe programme to be enjoyed, including on Thursday January 23rd a talk with and about the Milan based designer Richard Sapper. Born in Munich in 1932 Richard Sapper has worked with and for companies as varied as Daimler-Benz, Kartell,
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The biggest April fool is.... us, for always going to Milan! That said, as ever, we did find a few gems amongst the senseless corporate trash..... And after Milan we had the joy of viewing the latest addition to the Vitra Campus, the Factory Building by SANAA......
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As it was our first event of Milan Design Week 2013, we're honouring Artemide with the first post from Milan Design Week 2013. And in specific Empatia by Carlotta de Bevilacqua and Paola di Arianello, for us the stand out object in the Artemide 2013 collection. It will sound like damning Carlotta and Paola with faint praise when we say that the overwhelming majority of the new Artemide products are architectural lighting - all technically very interesting, just architectural lighting - and
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As any one who has celebrated as many birthday's as us knows - there comes a point in every life where you're just not prepared to compromise on quality any more. Be it your car, your choice of airline, your hair cut. Or your office chair. When starting out in life the vast majority of us put up with cheap, uncomfortable office chairs because its easier. We know the quality isn't brilliant. But we're compromising The same can be said for desks, desk lamps and filing cabinets. Those days
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Luddites! Not a phrase normally associated with (smow) To the best of our knowledge no (smow)employee has ever smashed an iPad or capped a WiFi service in protest at the creeping and increasingly obsessive proliferation of technology into our lives. Despite that, the early summer weeks in the (smow)HQ were dominated by the preparation and production of the very first (smow)catalogue. That's print catalogue. So on paper. With ink. Luddites? Au contraire nos amis! Not only is the
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Last summer we spent our annual holiday weekend in a small museum in the north of England discussing the life of a man who had hung himself 30 years previous. And folk say we don't know how to relax. The town was Macclesfield and the subject was Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Unquestionably one of the truly iconic figures in music history, the cult around Curtis is based to a large extent on a combination of his early death and the photos of the band. One of the speakers at the conference
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