For thousands of men worldwide November ceased to exist in 2003. Since then its all September, October, Movember. Movember? - MOustache / noVEMBER. By the organisers own admission the idea started as an alcohol induced attempt to re-introduce the moustache - and yes the initiators are Australian - and has now evolved into a global event to raise money and awareness for and about prostate cancer. In 2009 some 255,755 men spent Movember cultivating their top lip and in doing so raised some
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(smow)chair All this looking at, talking about and writing about other people's design, has left us yearning to get on with completing our own furniture project: (smow)chair. As already stated, the basic form and idea were developed in the (smow)warehouse here in Leipzig. The hard work was then done at the Vitra Design Museum Cardboard Furniture Workshop in Weil am Rhein. In conjunction with every exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum a programme of events is organised that aims to expand
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When USM Haller last exhibited at Orgatec we were still in Kindergarten and our only experience with interior design was the wonderful shapes one could create on walls with wax crayons. 12 years later and not only have we discovered that marker pens are much better suited to drawing on walls, but USM Haller have returned to Cologne and Orgatec. One of the real joys of the USM Haller system is that it has remained unchanged over the decades. Units bought 20 years ago can be extended with
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Amongst the plethora of new products launched by Vitra at Orgatec 2010 in Cologne was HAL, a new shell chair series by British designer Jasper Morrison. Over a cup of tea we spoke to Jasper Morrison about HAL, Vitra - and what his own office looks like. (smow)blog: Your presenting your new shell chair series HAL here at Orgatec, how long was the development phase? Jasper Morrison: About three years, with a lot of effort going into the form of the shell and the performance of the shell.
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On the opening day of Orgatec we managed to grab a quick 10 minutes in an Alcove Sofa with Erwan Bouroullec. Aside from not showing us what was in his sketch book, Erwan told us about one of the brother's forthcoming projects. A sail boat. Yeah, yeah we thought, the cheeky Breton is having a bit of fun with the naive (smow)blog crew. A sail boat! However, and despite our doubts, we're professionals and so we sought independent verification. The problem with the secretive world of
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At the 2010 Marianne Brandt Contest, Halle based designer Caspar Huckfeldt won the (smow)/Vitra Special Prize for his "Damensattel" In essence a removable plastic saddle that attaches to the crossbar, Damensattel allows a bike passenger to carried sitting side saddle. Think of the scene with "I'm singing in the rain" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and you've got the idea. In selecting Damensattel the Vitra judges praised the design as being "a real charmer" that draws people
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According to the ever accurate wikipedia Eindhoven has a population of some 214,000. On Sunday's the population of Eindhoven is around 214. Eindhoven on a Sunday morning is a lonely and forbidding place. Gesloten is Dutch for "Closed" The parallels - typographic as well as semantic - with Get Lost are unmistakable. Even the bakers are closed. We can't remember the last time we were in a century, sorry city, where bakers close on a Sunday. Eindhoven on a Sunday morning is not for the faint
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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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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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For reasons that have always escaped us Finn Juhl remains one of the forgotten men of Danish design. Or maybe we just move in the wrong circles. Either way we were delighted when last year Onecollection re-issued Finn Juhl's 1951 "Baker Sofa" and are even more pleased that they have now re-introduced the matching Cocktail coffee table. Because it is just delightful. In addition Onecollection have also re-issued a Finn Juhl desk, Nyhavn; so-called because Juhl used such desks in his office
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Although the Marianne Brandt Contest is on the surface about Marianne Brandt, the awards ceremony in Chemnitz on Friday stood very much under a different star. "Chemnitz - Stadt der Moderne"/ "Chemnitz - The Modernist City" Every single official speech rammed home the message; "Chemnitz - Stadt der Moderne" being repeated ad nauseum ad infinitum in the hope that if one said it often enough it may just come true. "I want a pony !" "I want a pony !" "I want a pony !" "I want a pony !" "I want
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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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Owners/Designers: Alexander Stamminger and Nik Back Established: 2007 Location: Blaufelden, Baden-Württemberg Products: Luca lean Luca stand Ten Line Turn Superemma (smow)blog: Let’s start at the very beginning, where did you meet? maigrau: We both studied Industrial design at the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart, and we have known each other since the first semester – so since 2003 - and we completed our studies in 2008. (smow)blog: And immediately formed maigrau… maigrau: … exactly. In
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Although it is probably fair to say that most people associate USM Haller furniture with offices, not all see it so. Partly fuelled by a desire amongst customers for individual furniture that meets their specific requirements and partly by a rise in the number of people working from home, System USM Haller is increasingly starting to dominate domestic as well as commercial settings. Kitchen units, multi-media cabinets, even baby changing tables - the flexibility of the USM Haller System is
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For one of Denmark's most celebrated designers Verner Panton spent considerably little time in Denmark; and many most of his celebrated works were realised abroad. That said Copenhagen is full of reminders of Verner Panton, his life, his work and his passions. And so during our brief visit to the Danish capital we took the opportunity to meet up with one his Vitra Panton Chairs for a guided tour of Verner Panton's Copenhagen. Our tour began, as did Panton's association with Copenhagen, at
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The motivation for the (smow)chair began with Chairless by Alejandro Aravena for Vitra. Although a truly delightful product we were somewhat irritated by the fact that the design for Chairless wasn't that, well, "chairless" : rather replaces the tensions within a chair with the tensions in the users body. The user becoming the chair and consequently limited in their movement while using Chairless. But because the "chairless" concept so impressed us we decided to take the opportunity
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On the last Sunday of the school summer holidays over 35 production companies in and around Kassel stage an annual collective "Open Day" - Blauer Sonntag. The name may be an extremely complex and over ambitious pun - the idea is however much more agreeable and this year we took the opportunity to visit Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder). For not only was Blauer Sonntag the first "official" event for the new Thonet Wohnshowroom, but visitors also had the rare opportunity to observe the Thonet wood
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When most people get itchy feet they go the podiatrist. We go on tour. For attractive as late summer evenings here in Lower East Plagwitz Village undoubtedly are, they pale against the charms of Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder), CODE 10 in Copenhagen, Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and Vienna Design Week in ... Vienna. Reports, photos, videos - and cake reviews - to follow.
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August 20th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Finnish architect/designer Eero Saarinen. Eero Saarinen had - in all probability - very little career choice other than that of architect: Not only was his father Eliel Saarinen one of Finland's most celebrated architects, but two of his uncles followed the same profession. In addition his mother, Loja Gesellius Saarinen, was a sculptress and textile designer. Eero Saarinen spent his first 13 years in his birthplace, Kirkkonummi on the
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Time was when social networking for businesses meant cocktail parties, tennis clubs and the Freemasons. Time Was. However Time Is and in the modern commercial world social networking means Facebook, Twitter, X-ing et al Not only as a marketing tool but also as an increasingly important instrument for communicating with customers, gathering feedback and handling criticism. In addition a recent survey by Edison Research among twitter users in the USA indicated that for many consumers
read moreFor most people naming Swiss designer furniture producers is as much of a challenge as naming famous Belgians or happily married English footballers. USM Haller being the equivalent of Belgium's Hergé. However the Confoederatio Helvetica has a lot more to offer than Fritz Haller's genial system. And a lot more to offer than modular steel and chrome. One of the greatest contrasts to USM Haller is the cabinet maker Röthlisberger. Founded in 1928 Röthlisberger's first contact with the global
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August 6th marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Italian architect, designer and Kartell co-founder Anna Castelli Ferrieri. Despite initial flirtations with modernism, including a trip to Paris to visit Le Corbusier, the young Anna Castelli Ferrieri was drawn ever more to the Italian neo-rationalism - especially that practiced by Franco Albini. And although Kartell products may not be physically reminiscent of the work of Albini, the ethos behind the company and its approach to
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A recurrent theme, not only here in the (smow)blog but also in general throughout the (smow) global network is the subject of illegal copies of design classics. Or better put when is a design classic a design classic? At the HGB Leipzig Rundgang in February we were confronted with an unexpected and somewhat unusual interpretation of the question in the form of "Eames Lounge Chair" by George Brückmann. And were immediately hooked. And not only we were impressed by Brückmanns work, In
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