Visitors to the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig have long been able to rest on Jasper Morrison's Vitra Bench, an object liberally distributed throughout the museum complex. With the exhibition Thingness the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig offers visitors a deeper insight into Jasper Morrison's oeuvre, and creative processes. Jasper Morrison - Thingness @ Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig Born in London in 1959 and a graduate of both Kingston Polytechnic and the Royal
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As any fule kno, an echo requires a surface off which to reflect. Otherwise it is just shouting into the void. With the exhibition Echoes - 100 Years in Finnish Design and Architecture at the Felleshus, Berlin, that reflective surface is the traditions, cultures and landscapes of north-east Europe. Echoes - 100 Years in Finnish Design and Architecture @ Felleshus, The Nordic Embassies, Berlin On December 6th 1917 the Finnish Republic declared its independence from Russia, an event that
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When we spoke with designer Patrick Frey in context of our #campustour, the plan was quite simply to discuss contemporary design education; however, the natural flow of the conversation took us in a raft of interesting directions, including his experiences as a freelance designer, the question of development payments in the furniture industry and the background to his and Markus Boge's joint diploma project, a project in many regards personified by the tables Kant and Marketing. Kant by
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Modular lighting is a seldom encountered genre, and when it is encountered, then invariably in a very technical form, a form that implies the computer software has taken a greater role in the creative process than the designers understanding of form-giving, There are however exceptions..... 304 by Nick Beens, as seen at Dutch Design Week Eindhoven 2017 Although we saw the 304 collection by Nick Beens' at the 2017 Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Exhibition, it's inclusion here should in
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While figuratively "blowing the roof off" is arguably an aim of every design festival; physically having your roof blown off is not. Sadly that is what happened to Designblok Prague 2017; Storm Herwart, when not completely de-roofing the Art Deco Palace of Industry which hosted the event, causing damage sufficient to force organisers the cancel the last two days of the five day festival. A situation not only unfortunate and irksome for the organisers and exhibitors, but disappointing all
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Although as an event Dutch Design Week has always had a focus on presenting design in context, design in practice, our feeling is that of late that focus has intensified, something we thoroughly approve of as it helps make tangible that design is, can be, more than pretty objects; does however mean that you increasingly need to take more time with you to Eindhoven. Or accept that you are going to miss a lot of, potentially, interesting and thought provoking presentations. Necessity meant that
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Like gardens mottled with the vibrant leaves of autumn, so too is November 2017 bestrewn with a multicoloured carpet of new design and architecture exhibitions. We could have published three such lists, seriously considered it .... have however instead taken the opportunity to bring our monthly recommendations average up to where it should be. Five. Back in August we only had four new recommendations, and so to compensate summer's shortfall, here we present six, technically seven. Although it
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"Marcel Breuer seeing a pair of bicycle handle-bars decided to make chairs using the same industrial process", notes Jasper Morrison in his text, The Poet will not Polish, "the new world constructor seeing a pair of bicycle handle-bars decides to use them as they are and save himself the trouble and expense of bending the tube."* On seeing an aluminium tube, Eindhoven based studio OS ∆ OOS followed, in many respects, a similar logic. The result is the Tunnel collection. OS ∆ OOS @ Dutch
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Algorithms as dance, a tactile architecture guide and a future-proof flat sharing platform. On Thursday October 26th the winners of the 2017 Kölner Design Preis were unveiled at a ceremony in the city's Museum für Angewandte Kunst, MAKK; and where until Sunday November 19th the three winning, and all nominated, projects, can be viewed in a specially conceived Kölner Design Preis 2017 exhibition. Kölner Design Preis 2017 exhibition at Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, MAKK Celebrating its
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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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"The problem of the construction of affordable housing for the lowest earning sections of the population is currently a primary concern in almost all civilized countries." Thus invited the Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne to their second congress, a three day event which opened on Thursday October 24th 1929 in the Palmengarten Frankfurt am Main, and which saw some of the leading protagonists of inter-war architecture discuss potential solutions for that most primary of concerns.
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The Ecole Cantonale d'art de Lausanne, ECAL, isn't actually in Lausanne, but the community of Renens on the western edge of Lausanne. Édith Piaf famously opined that, je ne regrette rien, but how many of this year ECAL graduates would be singing, je regrette Renens? Or perhaps better put, how many of this year's graduates would Renens regrette? To gauge the mood, we anchored on the shores of Lac Léman to visit the 2017 ECAL Graduation Show......... Ecole Cantonale d'art de Lausanne ECAL
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As regular readers will be well aware, here at smow blog HQ we're very much of the opinion that fashion isn't design. Never was. Never will be. Design, and without wanting to wade too deep into the definition quagmire, arose from applied craft/applied art, fashion is applied craft/applied art. And so while unquestionably a creative discipline, isn't design. Neither is Graphic. Design can however inspire and influence fashion, past decades recalling numerous occasions of fashion houses being
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Ukrainian designers haven't featured often in these pages. Arguably never. And may never have, had it not been for the exhibition Transformation staged at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre during Paris Design Week 2017 The installation Pulse of Life by Nikolay Kabluka & decoruznetsov studio, as seen at Transformation, Ukrainian Cultural Centre, Paris Design Week 2017 Embassy and Cultural Centre presentations are a regular feature of design weeks, and as a general rule are awful. As in truly
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Aachen is famous for its Cathedral, its Rathaus, as a sedes regia, Royal seat, and coronation location of Germanic monarchs for 600 years, and its confectionery. But for its design? The network Designmetropole Aachen aim to change that, through both promoting the work of Aachen based designers in exhibitions and events, and also through being a network, a variagted structure in which local creatives support local creatives. Among Designmetropole Aachen's current projects is as co-curators of
read moreJust as the Eamsien adage proclaims that "the details are not the details; they make the product", so too are a design school's teaching staff not the teaching staff, they make the school. Consequently, it follows that to better understand not only an individual institution, but also both the wider contemporary condition, and possible future directions, of design education, it is important to talk to, and understand, design school teaching staff; both those full-time Professors, and also those
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Whereas most design schools stage their annual exhibition at the end of the summer semester, there are exceptions, such as the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen, who present theirs just before the start of the winter semester. And so nigh on three months after all others have ended. Because, one wonders, they fear its brilliant glow would place all other schools in its shade, and they want to remain fair to their colleagues elsewhere? Because they have something to hide, and hope by
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"October is the month of painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight" ‡ Before Henry David Thoreau's twilight comes, our five painted leaves, flashing their rich glow round the world from Nürnberg, Lausanne, Hamburg, Eindhoven and Barcelona. "On the art of building a teahouse" at the Neues Museum Nürnberg,
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As regular readers will be aware, for us there is little more elegant and logical than the modular shelving system. And in the variety of systems developed, little which better illustrates both the multitude of options available for the seemingly most simple of functionalities, and thereby the talent required, or perhaps function, of the designer in developing something meaningful, interesting and, ideally, attractive. Of late we have seen several interesting new modular shelving
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Having grown up near Quimper, Brittany, Ronan Bouroullec moved to Paris in 1989 to study industrial design; since when the French capital has not only witnessed him complete his studies, but establish a studio, achieve his first commercial success and together with his brother Erwan develop projects for a roster of international clients including, and amongst many others, Vitra, Magis, Flos, Kvadrat and Samsung, in addition to realising numerous collaborations with Galerie kreo. We met up with
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Paris Design Week is largely about brand in-store and similar PR driven presentations. An extension if you will of Maison et Objet into the city, and thus predictably prosaic. Largely. Not exclusively. Throughout the city there are/were stimulating and challenging presentations to be found and interesting designers and manufacturers to be discovered and enjoyed. Among the new discoveries we made at Paris Design Week 2017 was Paris based studio woodmade. Mali à bascule by woodmade, as seen
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Back in June 2016 we included the Stedelijk Museum ’s-Hertogenbosch's exhibition Nacho Carbonell – On the Origin of Pieces amongst our five new architecture and design exhibition recommendations, noting that, for us, the exhibition appeared to offer "an excellent opportunity to, finally, get to know the man and his work. And for all to understand his cocoon constructions, works which terrify us as much as they fascinate us." We sadly never did make it to On the Origin of Pieces; however, the
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Designers are prone to spending inordinate amounts of time shaving a millimetre of a surface thickness. Or trying to increase the distance between two points by a couple of millimetres. Occupations which to the uninitiated can appear just a tick obsessive. In how far however relatively small changes of scale, differences of a few millimetres, can alter not only the physical appearance of a product, but the very character of a product, was elegantly explained by Danish manufacturer Houe at
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Whereas other cities get by with a design week, Brussels has a whole month: which shouldn't be taken as an indication Brussels is four times more design than say Milan, Eindhoven or Vienna. It isn't. It just takes its time. Doesn't rush. It is Belgium after all ...... For Brussels Design September 2017 MAD Brussels is hosting Belgitude & The New Belgians, two exhibitions of contemporary product design curated by the federal platform Belgium is Design. Belgitude @ MAD Brussels MAD Brussels
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