Every year the Vienna Design Week places a special focus on one district of Vienna. This year it was Hernals. The industry and agriculture that once dominated Hernals have long since vanished and the streets of Hernals are dominated by telephone card shops, fruit shops and those curious businesses with the red curtains that dominate what politicians call "problem areas". Hernals of course isn't a problem area. As with all similar inner-city districts it is an area with infrastructure
read moreThere are some design blogs who simply retype press releases, resize press photos and abracadabra - a blog post. Our standards are a little higher. Which is why we visit design fairs, design weeks, design competitions and design exhibitions. Because only by talking to designers, talking to producers and by actually testing the products can you decide if the PR hype is justified. The minus is of course that design fairs being the new film festivals - our schedule is an absolute nightmare.
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" .... says Erwin Perzy III. He is the third generation of family snow globe makers. His grandfather invented the snow globe" The grandson of the man who invented the snow globe! As we read the Vienna Design Week programme introduction to "Wunderliche Kugelkammer" by Julia Landsiedl @ Erwin Perzys Original Wiener Schneekugeln we knew that there was no way we could miss it. The grandson of the man who invented the snow globe!! Somewhat amusingly we did then very nearly forget to go, thanks
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Timely to the end of our rantings against the current state of Danish design - the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen recently hosted the Danish Design Prize awards 2010/11 In his introduction the Danish Design Centre CEO Christian Scherfig asks " ... what is good design in the 21st century ?" The DDCs answer is 11 prize winners from 17 nominations in 4 categories. Whereas most would have also been good design in the 20th century, and a couple even in the 19th, all of the featured designs
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The first station on the 2010 Vienna Design Week Passionswege was "Reichtum. Wasser + Glas" by Berlin designer Mark Braun and the Viennese crystal producer J & L Lobmeyr. Established in 1863 J & L Lobmeyr were one of the key players in the Wiener Werkstätte movement and so also in the development of Art Deco, working with designers such as Josef Hoffman, Adolf Loos or Carl Witzmann. In addition J & L Lobmeyr are one of the true stalwarts of the Passionswege series and participate every year.
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As any football fan or star-crossed lover knows only too well: passion means suffering. In Christian theology "The Passion" is specifically the suffering of Jesus in the moments leading up to and including his crucifixion. Passionswege - can therefore be seen as equivalent to the 14 stations of the cross. The Passionswege at Vienna Design Week has only very little with the morbid brutality of Jesus' walk to Calvary and has much more related to the modern definition of passion; affection,
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Although trained as a sculpture Henning Koppel is probably best remembered for his work as a silversmith; be it designing jewelry, cutlery services or other table and household wares. Henning Koppel also designed lamps, and Pandul have now re-issued his 1972 creation Bubi. Originally produced in brass by Louis Poulsen, the 2010 Pandul re-issue comes in chrome, an aesthetic nod towards Koppel's mastery with silver. What we particularly like about Bubi is that you can use it as a pendant
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Ask most people to name a Danish furniture designer and they will probably reply Verner Panton or Arne Jacobsen. Ask them to name a Swedish furniture designer and the answer will probably have four letters - three of which are vowels. Flat pack furniture is in itself no bad thing, but it is a little bit sad when a country that has so much furniture design talent to offer, is represented in the public consciousness by a universal brand. Sweden are the partner country at this year's Vienna
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We didn't make it to SaloneSatellite at this years Milan furniture fair. We we're, somewhat ironically, to busy getting wound up at the fact that Milan is now so big and expensive it's all but impossible to find anything. Fortunately Thomas Geisler from the Vienna Design Week organising team doesn't let such things annoy him and did go to SaloneSatellite. Where he saw Antoinette Bader and her LacesLamp. With whom he spoke. Who then applied for a space on the Carte Blanche programme at
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For us the Wiener Palais Liechtenstein is a building with almost religious meaning. For it was, in many ways, the place where Michael Thonet got his first big break - and so the point from where the Thonet story starts to turn and to become a success story. Some have Mecca, others Bethlehem - and we have a 17th century garden residence in north Vienna. All of which speaks volumes for the quality of our social lives. For the Vienna Design Week, in contrast, the Liechtenstein Museum is the
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"What, another design week?!" While the rest of the (smow)HQ tried to work out which city we hadn't been to this year; we quietly packed our cameras for yes, another design week. And certainly design weeks are the new film festival - every self-respecting city has to have one. Which is fine by us. And this week it's Vienna Design Week. The 2010 Vienna Design Week programme features - in addition to the usual array of exhibitions - a series of workshops, installations and talks with and
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Awards ceremonies are all well and good - but much more important is the exhibition to accompany the contest. And until October 10th the Industrial Museum Chemnitz is hosting the International Marianne Brandt Contest 2010 exhibition. We had planned to write a long text - changed our mind and instead present here a few impressions of our pick of the exhibits. We can however strongly recommend the exhibition; not only for those interested in art and design - but also for all those who are open
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When we heard that the 2010 International Marianne Brandt Contest exhibition was going to be held in the Industrial Museum, Chemnitz, our first thought was: that's a bit harsh. We know the city's fortunes haven't been the best since the end of the DDR - but to label the whole city as nothing more than a tourist attraction dedicated to artificially maintaining happier memories of times long since past.... Hardly fair. It turns out that the Industrial Museum Chemnitz is actually a Museum in
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As already stated our visit to Copenhagen and CORE 10 was without question one of our more disappointing trips. Largely because of the complete lack of imagination, innovation or indeed quality that we found. It's certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life. What do you mean? Well, at one point, you've got it, then you lose it. And it's gone forever. All walks of life. Georgie Best, for example, had it, lost it. Or David Bowie or Danish design. Danish design. Some of their modern stuff's
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On account of other commitments we sadly had to cancel our trip to Karlsruhe, and so the (smow)summer tour 2010 started at Bauhaus University Weimar. Or better put start on a wonderful summers evening at Bauhaus University Weimar. Over the years and the trade shows Bauhaus University has always been the university that has left us feeling a little bit under-nourished: the few tasty morsels on display whetting an appetite that couldn't be satisfied by the remaining works. For all the "My
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The (smow)blog team outing to the cardboard furniture workshop was coupled with a visit to the current Vitra Design Museum Exhibition: The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction. We must admit to finding it more than a little ironic that an exhibition on "Design and the Art of Reduction" should be taking place in a building designed by Frank Gehry, especially when Tadao Ando's Conference Pavilion is only some 10m away. And after the long journey to Weil am Rhein this thought
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For some July is all about relaxing, enjoying the sun and drinking G+Ts under a Droog Shadylace parasol. For the (smow)blog team July means art and design college annual exhibitions. However for reasons unfathomable to us most Germanic colleges insist on holding their exhibitions on the same weekend. Obviously Germany design schools can develop everything: except a joined-up, national student exhibition plan. Fortuitously amongst the shows that have caught our attention this year there is a
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The nominees for the DMY Awards 2010 have been announced. In addition to old (smow) favourites such as Rui Alves from Portugal and ETH Zürich the 2010 DMY Awards nominees include some interesting designers we haven't yet come across. The nominee that particularly caught our attention being the intriguing looking Daphna Isaacs & Laurens Manders from Eindhoven, Holland. The winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony on Friday 11th June. 2010 DMY Berlin Awards Nominees: ETH Zürich for FIDU
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Although in the course of his career Verner Panton worked with numerous designer furniture producers, his name is undoubtedly most closely associated with Vitra. Not least because of his seminal Panton Chair. The exhibition "Panton by Vitra" at Wasserschloss Klaffenbach in Chemnitz offers visitors an insight into the life and work of one of the most important and influential post-war European designers. While still a student Verner Panton worked in Arne Jacobsen's Copenhagen office and
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Because our article on the new London bus has been delayed by a broken water main at Tooting Bec, we've decided instead to do an impression of a typical London bus user. "Typical, wait ages and then two come along at once! I blame Ken Livingstone!" Ahead of the opening of the Dieter Rams retrospective "Less and More: Das design ethos von Dieter Rams", yesterday saw the opening of a second exhibition dedicated to the life and work of a former Braun designer. The Werkbund Archive Berlin's
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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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On Thursday April 29th the exhibition "gute aussichten - junge deutsche fotografie 2009/2010" opens at the Haus der Photographie, Hamburg. Established in 2004 as a platform for supporting young, talented photographers gute aussichten has developed into one of Germany's most important and respected contemporary photography prizes. This years exhibition features the work of the 8 artists - Georg Brückmann (HGB Leipzig); Philipp Dorl, (FH Bielefeld); Sonja Kälberer, (HGB Leipzig); Ute Klein,
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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
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On Saturday 20.03.2010 the latest Vitra Design Museum exhibition "The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction" officially opens. An exhibition very much after our own hearts. "The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction" explores the logic that "it is in the nature of human beings to seek the simplest solution" Although admittedly this is a logic that - despite its logic - all too many designers somehow manage to ignore, there are thankfully enough examples of good,
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