The Bayerischer Staatspreis für Nachwuchsdesigner is one of the more interesting international design prizes. Not only because it is biennial and thus steadfastly refuses to play with the "every year new" ethos of the contemporary design industry, nor only because it is exclusively for young designers, but also because in addition to the "usual" categories it also recognises Design Research and Applied Crafts. And thus promotes a pleasingly healthy and positive understanding of the term
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The winners and nominated projects from the 2016 International Marianne Brandt Contest can be viewed in an exhibition in Chemnitz. International Marianne Brandt Contest 2016 Exhibition, Chemnitz Museum of Industry Time was we couldn't write about Chemnitz without making a cynical comment, an alleged joke. Time was. These days we not only travel voluntarily, and regularly, to Chemnitz but have begun to understand aspects of the town's character, aspects which on account of our previous
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For reasons known only to the IMM 2016 organisers the numerous segments composing the "Talents" section - that section of IMM Cologne devoted to younger designers and design students - have been scattered thought the exhibition halls. In past years they were, generally, all collated in one hall, which was all very pleasant, convenient and social. This year it is a bit here, a bit there, bit over there. And even when they do appear in the same exhibition hall then in a completely unrelated,
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2016 sees the 20th anniversary of German architecture and design magazine A&W's "Designer of the Year Award." Following on from previous recipients including Achille Castiglioni in 1997, Paola Navone in 2000, Gaetano Pesce in 2006 and more recently Werner Aisslinger in 2014 and Michele De Lucchi in 2015 the 20th recipient is Jasper Morrison. And that, joyously, means a Jasper Morrison exhibition during the 2016 Passagen Cologne interior design week. A&W Designer of the Year 2016 - Jasper
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Since 2014 the Room + Style "lifestyle" fair in Dresden has been extended, if not enhanced, through the presentation of the Staged Design Award exhibition. Organised by the Dresden based creative agency Paulsberg, Staged is open to young designers from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic and seeks to not only reward outstanding creativity but also explain contemporary design and creativity to a wider public and thus attempt to increase an understanding and acceptance of what contemporary
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Since 2000 the International Marianne Brandt Contest has been searching for the Poetry of the Functional in art and design. That the triennial competition is still running doesn't mean they have yet to find it, rather underscores both the variety of interpretations inherent in the phrase and also the evolving nature of poetry, functionality and the relationship between the two: there is no definitive answer just an irregular array of contemporary, potentially fleeting, best fits. And over the
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On Thursday October 29th the winners of the Kölner DESIGN Preis 2015 were announced in a ceremony at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, MAKK. Open to students from Cologne's seven creative colleges and their international partner institutions the 8th edition of Germany's highest endowed prize for student diploma projects carried a total prize money of €15,000 and saw 29 projects nominated, projects ranging from products, to concepts and onto more fundamental research. For us the use of
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As we noted in our post on the 2015 Garden Unique Youngstars competition winner "snak" by Gunnar Søren Petersen, the contemporary outdoor furniture market is largely a forgotten world as far as quality design is concerned. But, and as we also noted, it needn't be. The 2015 edition of the Garden Unique Youngstars competition staged as part of the spoga+gafa garden fair in Cologne presented 15 projects by young designers which showed that "design for outdoors" is no contradiction. We're not
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It is a fact, if not a universally known fact, that the New York Museum of Modern Art's 1940 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition included a category “Furniture for Outdoor Living”. While much of what that now legendary competition instigated remains as relevant and contemporary as ever, the design of outdoor furniture has, regrettably, fallen somewhat by the wayside. A state of affairs ably demonstrated at the catchy titled "spoga+gafa garden fair 2015" in Cologne. Featuring hall
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On the evening of Wednesday June 24th the winners of the 2015 aed neuland young designer competition were announced in a ceremony in Stuttgart. Organised by the design/architecture/engineering association aed Stuttgart, neuland is a biennial international competition open to students or recent graduates under the age of 28 and according to the organisers the 2015 competition attracted some 330 entries across the five categories. An exhibition featuring all 23 nominated and prize winning
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As we've often noted in these pages the eastern German town of Chemnitz markets itself as the "City of Modernism", which as we've equally often noted in these pages is a bit of an over optimistic claim. For just as a swallow doesn't make a summer so being the birthplace of Marianne Brandt and possessing an Erich Mendelsohn department store building doesn't make you a "city of modernism" Which isn't to say that Chemnitz isn't without its cultural relevance: historically through works such as,
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Among the regional German design awards the Bavarian Design Award is particularly notable being as it is an award exclusively for young design talents. Inaugurated in 1987 the Bayerischer Staatspreis für Nachwuchsdesigner is in addition, and as far as we are aware, the only design award anywhere to also include a category dedicated to Gestaltendes Handwerk - Applied Crafts. The inclusion of the category is invariably a subtle nod to not only the strength of traditional crafts in Bavaria but
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Following on from the relative inactivity of August September saw us wind back up towards the 2014 autumn design festival season. But before everything kicked of in Vienna, we enjoyed the exhibitions Okolo Offline Two – Collecting at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, Useful Exhibition by Sanghyeok Lee at the DMY Design Gallery Berlin, Alvar Aalto – Second Nature at the Vitra Design Museum and enjoyed a lovely chat with architect Eberhard Lange on the restoration of Egon Eiermann's Wohnhaus
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On Friday October 24th the winners of the Saxony Design Award 2014 - the Sächsischer Staatspreis für Design 2014 - were announced at a, no doubt, suitably grand ceremony in Leipzig. Ran under the motto "Mehr Wert durch Design" - "More value through design" - the 2014 edition of the biennial contest looked for projects which help illustrate the potential of design in our modern post-industrial industrial economy. And which we suspect, although it wasn't explicitly stated, was intended to
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As is becoming customary Design Miami Basel 2014 provided the backdrop for the presentation of the Swiss Design Award. And an exhibition of all nominated projects. Inaugurated in 1918 the Swiss Design Award is organised by the Swiss Federal Culture Agency - the Bundesamt für Kultur - and seeks to reward and recognise particularly outstanding contemporary design by both Swiss designers and Swiss based international designers. The 2014 edition attracted 252 entries for the four competition
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Back in November the winners of the 2013 German Federal Ecodesign Award - the Bundespreis Ecodesign - were announced at a slightly less than glittering ceremony in Berlin. In February 2014 an exhibition featuring the 12 winners and further 19 nominated projects opened in Ludwigsburg. Following a brief stop at the designforum in Vienna the Bundespreis Ecodesign 2013 exhibition is currently being presented at the headquarters of the Umweltbundesamt - the German Federal Environment Agency - in
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As part of the build up to this year's Kortrijk Design Biennale the winners of the Interieur Awards 2014 were announced in Brussels at the end of May. Organised since 1974 the Interieur Award is an inter-disciplinary, international design award open to young designers. Past winners include Jurgen Bey (1990), Maarten Van Severen (1992) and Florian Kallus (2010) For the 2014 edition the Interieur Award was run in two categories "Spaces" and "Objects" The Spaces category called for submissions
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On the evening of Tuesday June 3rd the winners of the 2014 Designpreis Halle were announced at a ceremony in the town's historic Stadtbad public bath. Premièred in 2007 the Designpreis Halle is an international tri-annual design competition which in every edition asks designers to submit entries related to a particular theme. Following on from "Electricity" in 2007 and "Travel" in 2010 the 2014 theme was.... Water. A subject that in the juries opinion was best handled by Cologne based
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We recently attended a very interesting talk from Munich based designer Stefan Diez at the Vitra Design Museum in which, amongst other subjects, he briefly queried why design journalists are happy to write about furniture and accessories, but no one writes about, for example, safety helmets....... Ranger by Joe Engelhard and Michael Schuler for German manufacturer ENHA is, according to the designers, the first ever safety helmet to incorporate a double wall construction principle; thus
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With DMY Berlin 2014 up and running the field is open for the 2014 DMY Award. An award that this year has a little extra value given that the trophies have been designed by last years "Young Talent" winner Philipp Weber. And made in Berlin by Berlin Glas e.V. As ever ten nominees have been selected from all exhibitors at this years DMY festival: and from the ten the international jury will select three winners. One of whom will be Dutch. That's not part of the competition rules. Just a
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On Thursday February 13th the 2014 Designpreis Halle jury met to peruse the entries submitted for this years competition. And select the winners. Initiated in 2007 the Designpreis Halle is an international, inter-disciplinary design competition staged every three(-ish) years. Following the theme "Electricity" in 2007 and "Travel" in 2010, entrants for the 2014 Designpreis Halle were set the challenge of "Water". How who approached the topic and why wont however be unveiled until the awards
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What would IMM Cologne week be without the official enthronement of the A&W Designer of the Year? One day shorter and one exhibition poorer say we. Following on from Patricia Urquiola in 2012 and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec in 2013 the 2014 A&W Designer of the Year is Werner Aisslinger. And as tradition demands his work is currently being celebrated in an exhibition in the Kölner Kunstverein. In summer 2013 the Berlin gallery Haus am Waldsee presented a Werner Aisslinger solo exhibition under
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That furniture often has a cultural background can probably be best observed in chairs: the cultural background often defining, for example, the height, number and position of legs. That wall hooks can also have a cultural basis is new to us. But in the case of the North American Shaker community they would appear to. Traditionally Shaker homes have a wooden bar that runs round a room onto which at regular intervals hooks are attached. Meaning you're never more than a couple of metres from a
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For us one of the stand-out projects submitted to the 2013 International Marianne Brandt Contest was without question 2tables by Chemnitz born, Dresden University of Applied Sciences educated, Berlin based, designer Anna Albertine Baronius. And no, we're not just saying that because it won the (smow)/USM Haller/Vitra Special Award, that decision was made by forces much wiser than us. We do our thing independently. However just occasionally we all arrive at the same conclusions. As the name
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