Its a real Milan feeling in the (smow)blog team at the moment; as we face an impossible number of parallel exhibitions and events. With Eindhoven and Qubique already running Designers' Open Leipzig 2011 opened it's doors to the public this morning. Although to be fair, it is very nice to be able to get back to the office to type. The top story is that the move to the Baumwollspinnerei is, at least from a visitors perspective, a full success. Halle 14 has just a wonderful ambiance that
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Pretty much half-way between Piet Hein Eek's design wonderland and Sectie C, with among other tenants Nacho Carbonell, is Atelierdorp. Based in an old office block near the middle of town, Atelierdorp is both a workspace for designers and platform for contemporary design and research. With a wonderful view over, but sadly not into, the PSV Eindhoven stadium Under the title "In Between" Atelierdorp's exhibition during Dutch Design Week 2011 explored the relationship between the fluid state of
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During Dutch Design Week the Eindhoven based design platform Onomatopee is hosting an exhibition looking at ways of adding cultural value to raw materials. In a time when raw materials are becoming rarer and our economic prosperity ever more dependent on the fluctuating prices of such, how can we disengage from this cycle and give these economic materials a cultural value? Or, put another way, how can we use raw materials in an alternative fashion, that removes them from the economic cycle
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During Dutch Design Week 2011 Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, opened an exhibition in the Designhuis Eindhoven that both celebrates Dutch Design Week's 10th anniversary and honours 15 Dutch designers who got their break and/or made their name in Eindhoven. Rather than simply present the 15 in isolation, curator Miriam van der Lubbe presents them in the context of a young designer they admire and of someone who inspired them. And so, for example, Richard Hutton is
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Keynote speaker at the Norm=Form Symposium that took place in Leipzig in early September was the Dutch design historian Timo de Rijk. Timo also curated the exhibition Norm=Form, and co-edited the accompanying book. In the course of a highly entertaining and thought provoking speech Timo tracked the story of standardisation over the centuries and presented his opinions on why we have standards. Including a hilarious comparison between the Chinese Communist Party and industrial designers.
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On November 1st we'll be in Zurich for Switzerland's biggest designer furniture fair Neue Räume, and hope to use the trip to research the current state of the industry in Switzerland. More interestingly, from October 14th - 16th the collective behind Depot Basel are offering interested parties the chance to get to know a few practitioners from the creative scene in Switzerland, and so get a feel for what is currently happening in the land. Featuring the industrial designers Dimitri Bähler and
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One of the most original, and entertaining, exhibitions at Vienna Design Week 2011 was kidsroomZOOM. Curated by Paola Noè from Gallery Unduetrestella Milan and Thomas Maitz from Austrian kids furniture producer Perludi, kidsroomZOOM was a delightful, turn of the century, downtown Vienna flat furnished especially for kids. Adults were allowed in; but hadn't been considered in the planning of the exhibition. Featuring works by producers and designers as varied as Thorsten van Elten, Rijada or
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There is nothing a newspaper sub-editor loves more than photos of an ice sculpting contest: blue sky, shimmering ice, chainsaws. And indeed nothing the manager of a 5 star hotel restaurant loves more than a well sculpted block of ice to crown an obviously over-priced buffet. However, ice isn't just chipped for the sculptural; it is popular as decorative bar furniture in winter climes and could arguably also be used for public furniture in those parts of the world where the winter temperatures
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We traditionally start our Vienna Design Week Passionswege tour at J. & L. Lobmeyr. And it is always an appointment that fills us with trepidation. Not because we fear J. or indeed L. Lobmeyr. Put it this way. A shop. Full of exquisite bone china. Full of exquisite crystal. Us. What could possibly go wrong ? And so maybe Philippe Malouin had us in mind when developing his project for Vienna Design Week 2011. And incorporated wood into his hourglasses. "Time is a quality that makes
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At Fuori Salone Milano 2011 we helped Moormann construct their stand. And of course took the opportunity to chew the fat a little with company founder and eponym Nils Holger Moormann. Variously described as being an autodidact, pioneer or provocateur, for us Nils Holger Moormann is simply pleasant company and the guarantee of well considered and soundly opinionated discussion. In the course of the Milan interview we covered the new products, the current state of the furniture industry and,
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We've long since accepted that there are more design weeks in a year than actual weeks. But we still can't accept the poor coordination between the various festivals. June, July, August.Basically nothing. September, October. Every day Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Budapest, Istanbul, Vienna, Eindhoven, Leipzig, Lodz, Zürich.... Every 2 years Orgatec in Cologne. And in the midst of all this Berlin sprouts Qubique. Hallo! We however have no choice. Or at least little choice. Our October
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Last August we made an ill-fated trip to Copenhagen and CODE 10. A trip that caused us to ponder the question if Danish furniture design is still relevant. To help us explore this point a little further we decided to speak to two young Danish designers and ask them for their views and opinions on the current state of furniture design in Denmark. Monique Engelund and Jonas Pedersen both studied architecture in Aarhus, graduating with a degree in furniture design. And no they didn't change
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Once a month we visit a trade fair. We don't always want to - but we always have to. We look at furniture. We think up some cheap jokes. We take some out of focus photos. We come home. But what is actually involved in organising a trade fair stand? How important are trade fair stands? Is our weak humour and poor photography disrespectful? In an attempt to try to answer these and similar questions we helped Moormann with the construction of their stand at Milan 2011 Although "helped" is
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Much as we'd all like to believe product and furniture design is only about aesthetics and "form follows function". There's also a bit of dull old bureaucracy involved. Why do office swivel chairs have a five-foot base and not a four-foot base? Why do all aircraft seat belts have the same fastening system? Why can you plug your headphones into any portable device? The answer is Norms, or Standards - guidelines that define how things should be constructed and tested. Norms aren't,
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Until August 27th Galerie dieschönestadt in Halle is presenting an exhibition of works by Burg Giebichenstein students/graduates. Featuring works from Jan Bernstein, Caspar Huckfeldt, Sebastian Müllauer, Hiroko Oda, David Oelschlägel, Stephan Schulz and Katharina Schwarze, "Addicited to Love" is a delightful mix of what product design is and can be. Regardless if a multi-plug that you want to show the world, a shelving system that you can take with you when you leave a room, a lounge chair
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Following our visits to the Bauhaus University Weimar, Fachhochschule Potsdam, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee and Universität der Künste Berlin the final stage of our 2011 summer tour was Burg Giebichenstein Halle. It may just be us, but we are firmly of the belief that Burg Giebichenstein students complete more, and more varied, seminars than students at any of the other schools we visit. At least based on the presentations at their end of year show. Be it designing record sleeves,
read moreAs already mentioned one of the projects that most appealed to us at the Universität der Künste Berlin Rundgang 2011 was Scolyt from Marco Merkel. The modern world being what its is - Marco's iPad presentation is available on vimeo. Because it explains everything much better than we ever could, we post it here. And recommend it heartily. (From about 1 min 30 onwards you can see the technique(s) employed by Marco)
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A quick tram and S-Bahn ride from Rundgang at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee brought us to Rundgang at Universität der Künste Berlin. Similar concept. Different worlds. Whereas Weißensee exudes an almost parochial innocence, the UdK feels like The New York School of the Performing Arts in the early 1980s. At any minute a nimble framed, leotard and leg-warmer attired youth could leap down the stairs and complain about Mr. Shorofsky not understanding the modern world before pirouetting
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Returning to Berlin from Einblick at the Fachhochschule Potsdam the next stage on our 2011 summer tour was Rundgang 2011 at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. The 2011 Product Design Graduate Show was staged in a former supermarket under the title "Kaufhalle wird Kunsthalle" - a name which translates as "A Supermarket becomes an art gallery" and which for us was a very fitting title because although there were a couple of projects that we enjoyed looking at, there was nothing that we would
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Following on from Summaery at the Bauhaus University Weimar our summer tour 2011 took us on to Einblick at the Fachhochschule Potsdam. Or FHP:-) to give it its formal title. One of Germany's newest design schools - the first communication design course at the FHP:-) began in 1992, product design joining in 1993 - the college has quickly built up a strong reputation for the quality of its teaching and research. But not for its logo. Or FHP;-) as witticisms are presumably supposed to be
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Among the most innovative exhibition concepts we saw at DMY 2011 was that from the Holland based Portuguese design platform Made out Portugal. They showed their works in the back of a truck. Or at least they did at the beginning - the combination of location and weather meaning that they did eventually have move indoors. But that's not to distract from the concept itself. Beloved by governments and state institutions looking to increase "participation", or indeed health service providers
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Many of you will no doubt remember our summer tour 2010. We'll it's that time of year again. Our 2011 summer tour kicks of on July 7th with the semester show at the HTW Dresden - the first time we've visited their show. We don't know why, we just feel we should go. Then on July 14th we'll be in Thüringen for the opening of Summaery 2011 at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Friday July 15th is Potsdam and the annual end of year show at the Fachhochschule. Then, as ever, its gets complicated.
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Last week we, finally, made our first visit to Design Miami Basel. Featuring 43 international design galleries, Design Miami Basel is a curious mix of those featuring "old" objects and those featuring new contemporary designs. Those galleries who concentrate on new contemporary design generally make their money in that they organise limited editions of concept pieces by designers - which they then sell. Or they buy up "first editions" of pieces of new works that may, they hope, eventually go
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Among the projects at Design Miami Basel 2011 that most appealed to us was without question Cloud by London architect Asif Khan. Conceived within Asif's tenure as one of the 2011 W Hotels Designers of the Future Award winners, Cloud can, at the most primitive level, probably be best described as floating foam. But as with all good design Cloud hides its true genius behind a facade of primitive simplicity. Cloud employs a mixture of Helium, soap and water to create irregular forms that rise
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