Back in October one of our highlights at Vienna Design Week 2011 was the exhibition kidsroomZOOM! Essentially a mid-town Vienna apartment kitted out entirely in furniture for children, we were not only impressed by the objects on display, but by the concept. Forget adults! We're doin' it for the kids! Being the message we got. And one we wholeheartedly approved of. kidsroomZOOM! originated in Milan, and so this year we not only visited the new 2012 show, but also spoke to curator Paola Noè to
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The V&A Museum London exhibition "British Design 1948-2012" pretty much does what it says on the tin. It reviews British Design from 1948 to 2012. But how does the future look ? Where is British design going ? What issues are important? Where do the coming generation of designers see their futures ? Answers to these and similar questions can be found in the newly published "21 Designers for twenty-first century Britain" by Gareth Williams. Profiling designers and design studios such as Raw
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At Milan 2011 Moormann presented the prototype of Pressed Chair by Harry Thaler. At Milan 2012 the market ready version was/is being officially unveiled. Last year Nils Holger Moormann enthused at great length about Pressed Chair. And so to complete the story, ahead of Milan 2012 we caught up with Harry Thaler in his London studio to learn more about both him and the background to Pressed Chair. (smow)blog: To begin with maybe a little to your background. If we're correctly informed you
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As we've already admitted the first time we saw a Dutch Invertuals exhibition we didn't hang around very long. Since then however we have matured a lot and the show has become a regular feature of our visits to Eindhoven and Milan. Simply put, one always finds something challenging, exciting and beautiful at a Dutch Invertuals show. And invariably something you don't really understand, no matter how often it is explained to you. But that itself is for us reason enough to go. In 2012 Dutch
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Ostensibly established as a location for presenting and archiving Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum's private collection of designer furniture, the Vitra Design Museum has developed into one of Europe's most important centres for design, design history but for all, for explaining design and making design accessible. A large part of the museum's success can be credited to founding Director Alexander von Vegesack who led the institution from its opening in 1989 until the end of 2010. In January 2011 Marc
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Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are without question two of the most important designers of their generation and are currently being honoured in two shows. The retrospective "Bivouac" currently on show at the Centre Pompidou Metz, and Album, an exhibition of their drawings and sketches that premiered in Bordeaux and is now on show at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery, Weil am Rhein, At the opening of "Album" at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery we spoke to Ronan Bouroullec about drawing, getting
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For a decade and a half the unofficial start to Cologne Furniture Week has been the honouring of the "A&W Designer of the Year" Awarded by the German magazine "A&W Architektur & Wohnen", the prize was inaugurated in 1997 to honour a designer whose work has particular defined the home furnishing style of our time. Previous winners including Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio or Tom Dixon. To name just three from 15. The A&W Designer of the Year 2012 is the Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola.
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Part of our motivation for visiting Neue Räume Zurich 2011 was to try to gauge and get a feel for the current state of the designer furniture industry in Switzerland. Hidden as it is behind its Alpine shroud, it's all to easy to assume everything is always rosy in Confoederatio Helvetica, and that it's furniture designers and producers have little to do all day but count their cash and try to avoid losing their fillings to chewy, pointy, chocolate. However as the Swiss Franc rose skyward like
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Although it has been quiet around Erik Wester of late, it's fair to say he remains our favourite Norwegian designer. However he now officially has competition. At Designers' Open 2011 a group of 10 Norwegian design students presented examples of their work on a joint stand under the title "Look to Norway" Quite possibly, the first ever Norwegian design to be seen at Designers' Open. For us the most interesting pieces were Le Korpusiør by Jørgen Platou Willumsen - a very simple yet endearing
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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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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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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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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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For their 2011 project the Berlin/Milan design group Transalpino chose to explore the "design" tradition that exists between their two cities. The fruits of their research were presented at DMY Berlin 2011under the title "Made in Between". To find out a little more about the project we spoke to Transalpino member Christoffer Martens. (smow)blog: Briefly, what is the background to "Made in Between"? Christoffer Martens: Normally one would only speak of Berlin as a design city or Milan as a
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Among the new Vitra products launched in Milan one of the most eye-catching was Waver by Konstantin Grcic. Following an initial cooperation in the form of a Vitra Edition project, Waver is Konstantin Grcic's first commercial product for Vitra. Created for outdoor use Waver borrows heavily from the visual aesthetics of "lifestyle" sports to create a product that not only goes its own way formally but is also remarkably comfortable. In the second part of our interview with Konstantin Grcic we
read moreOwing to other commitments we have sadly been forced to cancel our trip to Belgrade Design Week. Gutted. Is probably the best description of our emotions at the moment. It was going to be our first visit to Belgrade, and after all the good and positive things we've heard... we were genuinely looking forward to it. Aside from an interesting sounding series of lectures and talks from, amongst others, the likes of Arik Levy, Stefan Diez or Dieter "YELLO" Meier as part of the official design
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Next week the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 begins in Düsseldorf - and we can't remember the last time we saw Lena? Curious. But before the singing starts, Düsseldorf will play host to an equally important attempt at European understanding: EuroDesignExhibition - Sit down please” 40 Stools from 40 Countries" Featuring the work of young designers from across Europe the EuroDesignExhibition is a unique attempt to see if one can define cultures through furniture. Apparently design is an
read moreWe can all describe and define a country in terms of food, music or footballing ability. But can designers define their country through a stool? The exhibition “Sit down please” 40 Stools from 40 Countries" in Düsseldorf will attempt to answer the question? Austria will be represented by Alexander Gufler. How will Alexander handle the challenge? Habsburg excess? Art deco aesthetic? Michael Thonet minimalism? When I received the invitation from Anonym Gestalter I started by thinking about
read moreOn May 6th the inaugural, and quite possibly concluding, EuroDesignExhibition opens in Düsseldorf. Under the title "“Sit down please” 40 Stools from 40 Countries" an array of young international designers have been challenged with describing their country in a stool. Ahead of the opening we spoke to Denmark's representative Monique Engelund about her entry: When I got the brief for the exhibition and read "How do you sit in your country?", "Make a stool that tells a story about your country",
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Among the more interesting co-operations we saw in Milan was the first product from Konstantin Grcic for Azucena. Entre-Deux is a very simple, reserved screen/divider/barricade - but as we say, the interesting point is the cooperation. And so to find out more about how it arose and how it could develop in the future we spoke briefly with Konstantin Grcic. (smow)blog: Starting with the obvious first question, how did the cooperation between yourself and Azucena come about? Konstantin
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As you know we are big fans of Brooklyn designer Jason Miller. And of the from Jason Miller established lighting company Roll and Hill. Launched in January 2010 as a high end manufacturer of contemporary lighting, Roll and Hill currently features the work of 6 design studios and aims to bring an "American perspective" to the international lighting market. In Milan Roll and Hill presented their second collection, or at least the first part of the second collection. A further two pieces will
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Back in snowy Stockholm we met up with Arik Levy and amongst other topics discussed his residency as Stockholm Furniture Fair Guest of Honour. In sunny Milan we briefly caught up with Arik Levy again; principally to follow up on how Stockholm had been for him but also to gather his opinions on the importance of Milan. (smow)blog: Is Milan Design Week still important, is it still relevant? Arik Levy: Milan Design Week isn't the expression I would choose. The fair is very important, what
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Vitrastanden på Orgatec 2010 var domineret af især to tegnestuers arbejde: Antonio Citterio og Ronan og Erwan Bouroullec. Udover at præsentere nye variationer af deres Alcove Sofa og Playns 'workstation', løftede Vitra også sløret for Bouroullecs nye 'Communal Cells' - modulære skillevægge/indretningsarkitektur-systemer og deres 'High Meeting Table'. Foruden at diskutere de to brødres kommende yacht-projekt, talte vi også om de nye Vitraprodukter, om hvordan brødrernes eget kontor ser
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Name: Christoffer Martens Born: Bremen, 1975 Alma mater: Product Design, University of Applied Science, Potsdam Internships: Alfredo Häberli, Zürich Products: Siebenschläfer for Nils Holger Moormann, Aschau im Chiemgau Spross for Nils Holger Moormann, Aschau im Chiemgau Obstrutsche for emform, Bockhorn Buchhalter Potbase (smow)blog: How did you arrive at product design? Christoffer Martens: I initially trained as a graphic designer and then worked in a media agency for a few years.
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