When asked by the (smow)boss yesterday why we appeared to be doing so little work, quoting Dieter Rams we replied with a tired repetition of one of our favourite design related jokes: "Less, but better" "Good design is honest" replied (smow)boss with an irritating accuracy. "Good design is unobtrusive" we muttered under our breath, before skulking off to the warehouse. This coming weekend the Dieter Rams retrospective "Less and More: Das design ethos von Dieter Rams" opens at the Museum
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We're not in New York for ICFF this year. Last year was just toooooo traumatic... Which is a shame because our inbox is full of the most wonderful shows and products - not least the lamp collection from "the new American lighting company" Roll and Hill. In many ways a vehicle for Brooklyn designer - and our personal highlight from last years ICFF - Jason Miller, Roll and Hill carries a wide range of lighting from contemporary US designers including Lindsey Adams Adelman, Paul Loebach,
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Students. Don't ya just love 'em! Spend years studying and then.... Whereas most sociology, philosophy or art history students eventually end up working in banks, call centres or become King of England; the situation with design students is somewhat more complicated. You don't study design just for the sake of getting a qualification; you study design so that you can work as a designer. Ideally an independent, freelance designer, controlling the entire process and developing your own
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We used to love flying. But after Lufthansa's decision to send us on unwanted world tour rather than directly from Frankfurt to Edinburgh we're getting a bit sick of the sight of boarding gates. And so as we flew pointlessly around Northern Europe we found ourselves pinning for Alexander Girard. Although principally remembered as one of the worlds leading authorities on folk art, Alexander Girard was also one of the first "corporate graphic designers"; and undoubtedly his most aesthetic
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No, we don't handle the PR for Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. We would like to. But we don't. It's just the Brothers are not only among the most assiduous contemporary designers, but they also keep producing work that needs to be presented. For one reason or another. Such as Lianes, a lamp that forms part of their new show at Galerie Kreo in Paris. Galerie Kreo has in a way become a sort of "Haute couture" stomping ground for Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec's first
read moreLast week we vented our spleen on the ridiculous hotel prices in Milan during design week. And against an international design industry that blindly accepts such as part of the annual fun. We owe James Irvine an apology. James Irvine is obviously a man of principle who is prepared to raise his voice against the Milan hotel industry. And so thank you James Irvine! Hopefully the rest of the furniture industry will follow your lead and in a couple of years we can all tweet #Bologna2012 or
read moreWorking as a furniture designer is a lot like working as a musician or an author. You establish a reputation and then hope to attract someone to publish/produce your work. However, whereas authors and musicians tend to work exclusively with one publisher/label for prolonged periods, furniture designers generally develop products for numerous producers simultaneously. Or at least the leading ones do. In Milan we caught up with Ronan Bouroullec and here he briefly decribes what he enjoys about
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While we are in Milan enriching the good and fair minded hoteliers of the north-Italian Metropolis; life here in Germany will continue in its normal, non-bloodsucking, non-money grabbing way. Oh yes, we're bitter. And we don't believe that all the other Milan attendees find the hotel prices fair. Just they are too cowardly to publicly complain. Milan Design Week is a rip off and everybody knows it. Just know one dare speak it..... However, back to the topic in hand. Thursday 15th April
read moreWe don't have to go to Milan to visit Moormann. We can just go to Aschau. But we do enjoy visiting Moormann in Milan, because they always make that little more effort. After Moormann's 2009 Saloni Milano stand with Liesmichl, Strammer Max, Steckling et al, 2010 is looking a little more reserved. That said Else is already promising to be one of the highlights of Milan 2010 for us. Else is not a Moormann employee, lovely as they all are, but a new shelving concept by Werner Gasser. As you
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The undisputed highlight of the Kartell stand at Saloni Milano 2009 was the cat and mouse game with the special forces Kartell had hired to prevent visitors taking photographs. Despite the Kartell stand taking up an area half the size of Lombardy, the highly trained troops proved particularly efficient and we, for example, were forced to camp out overnight in a disused fox hole just to get a quick snap shot of the Dr NOs. Judging by the pre-Saloni press, this year is going to be even more fun.
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Having sold everything, including our kidneys and the neighbours cat, we can finally afford to pay for a hotel in Milan. "Is it really worth it?" ask the pensioners, students and lawyers who gather in front of the (smow)blog flat every March to buy our possessions and so help us finance the life of luxury enjoyed by that special class of bloodsucker that is the Milanese hotelier. "No" answer we. "But what are we to do?" And indeed what are we to do. One need only look at the press photos
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Congratulations to Vial, Patrick Frey and Polymerpark for winning a 2010 iF Matrial Award At the moment we can't actually say any more - because details of exactly what they have won is top secret until the official prize ceremony in Hannover on April 20th. But well done. More details can be found at Nook by Patrick Frey for Vial or at the (smow) Nook page.
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As you know we here at smow(blog) aren't fans of complicated designer furniture. Really aren't. Less is more - so the grand theologian of post-war European design Dieter Rams - and let form follow function. That's us. A side table or bedside unit need, normally, do nothing more than support a cup, glass or magazine. Now you could add numerous extras to your table or you could - as with Müller Möbelfabrikation - bend some steel into the shape you want. In 1926 Mart Stam bent some steel
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Despite the many disadvantages, problems and general chaos budget airlines have brought into our previously well structured and ordered lives, they have brought one clear advantage: The opportunity to visit really remote airports. More through necessity than freewill, thousands of air travellers now find themselves avoiding the likes of Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle or Frankfurt am Main Airport, and instead experiencing the delights of Klagenfurt, Tampere or Altenburg. At least in all modern
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While we are enjoying ourselves at the #VitraHaus preview in Weil am Rhein, the good people of Weimar will be getting their first chance to view the exhibition "In Sand gezeichnet – Entwürfe von Alvar Aalto" (Drawn in Sand - Sketches by Alvar Aalto) at the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar. Featuring over 100 sketches and 18 models of never realised projects, the exhibition promises an interesting insight into the process behind the design of the man who led Scandinavian architecture into
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Following our visit to the #VitraHaus this coming Friday, the (smow)wintertour 2010 then proceeds, by ski, along the alps to Aschau im Chiemgau, Bavaria and a visit to Nils Holger Moormann and the, so-called, Moormann Haus. Constructed in 1859 by the Bavarian star architect/stage designer team of Christian Jank and Eduard Riedel, who later went on to find wider acclaim with the construction of Schloss Neuschwanstein, the Moormann Haus was built to commemorate the presentation by Maximilian
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Zeeland, Michigan, 1969 Ten years ago Charles and Ray Eames revolutionised the world of chair design with their "aluminium Chair" range. And now they hope to do it again. In one of the most eagerly anticipated announcements of the year, Charles and Ray Eames today unveiled their new product range: soft Pad “soft Pad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device” declared a proud Charles Eames as he unveiled the new range to the specially invited journalists in the
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G'day! What with all the excitement about the new iSlate, we missed Australia Day yesterday. And so wanted to use today to write a post involving words like "Sheila", "Sheila", "I can see the pub from here!" and "Sheila" Then we discovered that we'd also missed the announcement of the shortlist for the 2010 Australian International Design Awards. And that seemed a much better subject than lazy international stereotypes. The "Architectural and Interior" products section of the 2010 Awards
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In what is quite possibly the most eagerly anticipated announcement of 2010, Apple Supremo Steve Jobs will unveil the companies latest product in San Francisco on Wednesday. Rumoured the be called iSlate, or possibly iPad or iTablet, the product is expected to combine the functionality of the iPhone with that of the iMac in a flat, transportable, keyboardless computer; thus allowing the user to write, draw and calculate anywhere. In effect a chalkboard for the 21st century. Hence the name.
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Fear not, we've still got a duffel bag full of products and stories from our week in Cologne to bring you. However we feel it only right to quickly review the 2010 IMM Cologne. Elsewhere we've read that there were no trends to be found at IMM. Which for us is positive. Trends have no place in the furniture business. Trends imply that the role of furniture is to meet some pre-ordained assumption on the part of the consumer as to what their furniture should look like, how it should behave
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It's not often a product impresses us so much it causes us to swear; but Becherlicht by Martin Neuhaus had such an affect on us we spent our first four hours at Designers Fair cursing like trawlermen who had just hauled a case of whisky on board. Honestly the looks we got. But it was worth it. Because Becherlicht is already well on its way to being our product of the year. Light shining though a plastic beaker throws a coloured shadow onto a surface. The idea is so simple, yet only works
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There is little doubt as to who the most popular furniture producers with the exhibitors here in Köln are.... Vitra and Kartell. Two producers whom the Messe Köln sadly can't attract to the show in their own right. And that despite the fact that all the snack bars here in Köln Messe use Maarten van Severen's genial .03 On the stands here however we've seen, for example, Panton Chairs being used to augment otherwise tasteless bedroom suites and the classic Vitra DSR by Charles and Ray Eames
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To celebrate their 50th birthday the German furnishings magazine "Schöner Wohnen" have produced a small book entitled "Das Buch der Klassiker“ ("The book of classics") in which the magazine present their 400 furniture and accessory classics. And an exhibition of the selected items forms the basis of the Schöner Wohnen stand here in Cologne. Aside from familiar faces such as Vegetal by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec from Vitra or the Castore lamp by Huub Ubbens und Michele De Lucchi for
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In a previous life Patrick Frey created one of our favourite Moormann products: Kant. And we think he may have done it again with Nook his new stool for vial. Manufactured in a single piece from VarioLine - an injection moulded plastic - the folded form is held together by an aluminium catch in the base. The tension generated in the VarioLine give Nook its stability and durability. In addition, thanks to the nature of the VarioLine Nook is weather and UV resistant and so can be used just
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