Those of you who actually read what we write rather than simply enjoying our genre redefining photography * will know that we regularly bemoan the lack of design coverage in the serious print media. All too often it seems "design" is something to be entrusted to blogs featuring sugar sweet hymns to our cuddly, snuggy-wuggy world and all backed-up by Gaussian heavy, focus soft photos. Or worse, instagram photos. And so we raise our hats and our flagons to the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine for
read more
At the risk of upsetting furniture historians, wood is probably the longest serving material in furniture design. It is also one of the most deceptively complex and hard to work materials in furniture design. For all bending, shaping and moulding pieces of solid wood is a process that has long fascinated and infuriated designers and architects in equal measure. From Michael Thonet's ground breaking research in the 19th century, over the efforts of Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer or Charles Eames
read more
Wandering round the Vitra spaceship at Orgatec there was one product that you simply couldn't fail to notice. On every table, in every Workbay, in every Alcove stood a lamp. A Vitra lamp? Not technically. Technically a lamp from Swiss producer Belux. However since 2001 Belux has been part of the Vitra family and at Orgatec 2012 they made good use of their family connections to unveil the latest addition to their portfolio, U-Turn by ECAL Lausanne graduate Michel Charlot. Older readers will
read more
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
read more
In February 1991 the grand doyen of Italian design Ettore Sottsass approached Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum with a suggestion for a joint project looking at the nature and being of life and work in the office. The project wasn't aimed at developing office furniture, simply exploring the microcosmos "Office" in its multifarious facets. Rolf Fehlbaum willingly agreed and together with Michele de Lucchi, Andrea Branzi and James Irvine, Sottsass and Vitra set off an exploratory journey: researching,
read more
As more loyal readers will be aware we like nothing more than attempting to undermine Italy's claim to be the cradle of contemporary European architecture and design. It's all show and deliberate misinformation being our war cry. And so the exhibition L'Italia di Le Corbusier currently showing at the MAXXI in Rome is not the sort of show we really want to see presented. Because it seems to imply that Italy played a significant role in both the development of the young Le Corbusier's
read more
In addition to works by individual designers and artists Grassimesse 2012 also presented the results of the research project "Ü60 Design: Design for Tomorrow" No-one denies that our society is getting older and that in the coming decades an ever greater percentage of the population will be Ü60, so 60+ What is often forgotten is that the future 60+ generations will be different from the current 60+ generations and so the needs in the future are not the same as those at the present. Similar.
read more
Established in 1996 by three friends with a shared passion for classic metal furniture, Müller Möbelfabrikation has grown steadily over the last decade and a half into one of Europe's most interesting contemporary furniture manufacturers. They don't do anything especially revolutionary, and there is certainly no danger of them ever redefining the fabric of furniture design. However, they are currently producing some of the most interesting, brash and accessible furniture on the market, and
read more
Older readers will be well aware of the high esteem in which we hold the Bauhaus educated designer Marianne Brandt. And of the fact that every time we write about her we invariably end up offending half of Saxony. So. Deep breath. Fingers crossed. Here goes..... In 2013 the Chemnitz Art Society Villa Arte will be hosting the 5th International Marianne Brandt Contest. A triannual celebration of international contemporary design the 5th edition of the competition not only continues the search
read more
Before we pack up our Yurt and leave Vienna Design Week 2012 to move on to design pastures new, a quick mention of the "Hartz IV Furniture" Workshop the Berlin designer Van Bo Le-Mentzel hosted at the Wien Museum. Originating in 2010 Van Bo Le-Mentzel's "Hartz IV Furniture" collection is.... well, we've never really been that sure. In essence it is a very good Open Design project, featuring as it does a comprehensive range and mix of objects, all of which can be easily constructed, even by
read more
A few years ago the phrase "food design" suddenly started cropping up a lot. It's the sort of phrase that makes us uneasy. It just sounds like the sort of shallow, self-indulgent thing Guardian readers get excited about and then book weekend courses in Tuscany to learn. We don't trust things like "food design". Fortunately for his Passionswege 2012 project with the Viennese jam and pickle maker Staud’s, London based designer Mathias Hahn chose to ignore the food and concentrate on the
read more
We missed "Croatian Holiday 2012" when it was originally shown in Milan, and so were suitably pleased to find it on the Vienna Design Week programme. Featuring 15 projects inspired by tourism, Croatian Holiday 2012 understands its main aim as stimulating a debate about the role, function and importance of design in tourism. Principally in Croatia, somewhat obviously. The objects presented could, broadly speaking, be split into two groups: those that base themselves on aspects of Croatia's
read more
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
read more
The outer edges of the (smow)blog galaxy recently witnessed some pretty ugly scenes. A new, Windows Seven, laptop was bought. The unfortunate purchaser's printer however wasn't Windows Seven compatible. And the manufacturer had no plans to release the necessary driver. Consequently a functional, reliable printer was rendered useless. And a new machine had to be bought. Manufacturer 1 - Consumer 0 Much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued. But it's not just software alone that is
read more
Do we need to repeat why we are such committed fans of the annual Vienna Design Week Passionswege programme? We hope not. But if we do, Matylda Krzykowski @ Norbert Meier Brushmaker and Petz Horn Manufacturer provides the perfect answer. Norbert Meier has been making brushes of all shapes and functions since 1973. And his workshop looks like it. Not that that is a criticism. It's lovely to see. For Passionswege 2012 the Dutch/German designer/curator/journalist/good egg Matylda Krzykowski
read more
Ask the person next to you to quickly sketch a "Bauhaus Chair" And? What have they drawn? We're guessing the result is relatively quadratic, reduced and, assuming the person next to you is au fait with the works of Mart Stam, Marcel Breuer et al, it will have at least one semi-circular bracket, either on the back or under the seat. And it almost certainly closely resembles the Spaghetti Chair by Giandomenico Belotti for Alias. A chair that, ironically, is born of a tradition at contrast to
read more
There are a thousand good reasons to avoid travelling through Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport. And a couple of very good reasons. The public transport connections, for example, between Israel's only relevant international airport and Israel's only relevant metropolises are so arduous and poorly co-ordinated it makes one long for the days of The Crusades, when reaching Jaffa or Jerusalem from Europe involved little more taxing than travelling for eight weeks by horse and sailing ship. And then
read more
Imagine you spent your entire career researching and developing modular building systems. Imagine you gave the world radical new approaches to construction design and helped introduce the use of computer technology in architecture. And then imagine that most people only know your name in connection with one office furniture system. An office furniture system that you developed once as part of one contract for one company based in one small village in Switzerland. A system that despite its
read more
At the same time as he was developing the Ant Chair, Arne Jacobsen created a one-off range of office furniture that arguably represents the first tangible evidence of his move away from the natural materials and traditional handicrafts of his pre-war furniture and onto the mixed media, industrial products that have ultimately come to define his work. And so can truly be considered great lost furniture design classics. Not least because they really are lost! In 1951/52 - the records are a
read more
You don't have to be a globetrotting design specialist to know that the Danes invented light, uncomplicated wooden furniture with free flowing organic forms. It's just one of those acknowledged truths we can all trot out at cocktail parties. Which makes it all the more surprising that the apparent counter-evidence should be found in the Danish Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen. The Temple to Denmark's design history. While giving full credit to the museum for presenting Børge
read more
Irritating as they are, forgers are rarely daft. You only very occasionally find one purveying, for example, fake Billy Ray Cyrus albums. Or fake Greek State Bonds. They prefer to stick to things they are certain they can sell with ease. Which is why Bauhaus furniture is so highly regarded by professional forging gangs. Not only is everyone familiar with the important pieces, but it all looks so simple. Who can tell the difference? However, aside from the potential safety issues, a copy
read more
Browsing through the catalogue for the exhibition "Der Stuhl" in Stuttgart one item in particular caught our attention: "Der Federdreh by Albert Stoll, Waldshut (Baden)" - and not just because it is a delightful piece of woodworking. Loosely translated as "The Sprung Swivel" Der Federdreh does what it promises - swivels and has spring suspension. Might not sound that interesting, but back then Der Federdreh was the very first chair of its kind. Anywhere. Consequently Der Federdreh is, in
read more
Without wanting to sound too much like Dieter Rams, good design really, really doesn't have to be complicated or otherwise outrageous. One of the best examples of this is without question the coat hook system Knax from LoCa. Created by Thomas Harrit and Nicolai Sørensen the idea couldn't be any simpler nor the effect any more liberating. Through the integration of a series of self-retracting metal hooks in a piece of wood one creates a hanging system that takes up virtually no space, even
read more
Back in January Benjamin Hubert was awarded the A&W Audi Mentorpreis 2012. Presented in conjunction with the A&W Designer of the Year Award the Mentorpreis can in many ways be considered as being the "Young Designer" category. The interesting aspect of the A&W Audi Mentorpreis is that the winner is nominated by that year's A&W Designer of the Year. So in 2012 Patricia Urquiola. After the award ceremony we caught up with Benjamin for a quick chat; however, we very cleverly managed to lose the
read more
