Although the rumour persists that we only travel to trade fairs and exhibitions so that we can impress people in bars with phrases such as "Last week in New York..." or "For me the real beauty of Milan is...", in truth we do do a little work. And the fruits of that work can be seen, for example, in the ever expanding (smow)collection. And punctually to the start of The Ashes season we can now offer the extended Thonet outdoor range; quite possibly the most stylish furniture for sitting in the
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The Top 5 chairs from the smow design spring. In no particular order. We lie: there is a slight order. First up is our favourite chair from the smow design spring: Stuart Miller's unnamed foldable cardboard chair from the designersblock showcase in Milan. Over the course of the smow design spring we didn't see any thing that even came to close to capturing Stuart's simple, practical and comfortable chair. We've sadly lost sight of the project a little, and lack the requisite degree in
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Just in time for the official start of the balcony reading season in Northern Europe, (smow) is proud to announce the arrival of Liesmichl by Nils Holger Moorman. Without a doubt one of the freshest and most inventive reading/side table design of late, Liesmichl is also an expression of Nils Holger Moormann's love affair with the written word. And a rare excursion by the southern German firm away from 100% wood furniture. The genius of Liesmichl is not the wonderful holder on the top where
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The Top 5 Lamps from the smow design spring. In no particular order. Kete by David Turnbridge. One of the first lamps we saw in Milan, and probably that which left the greatest impression on us. And not merely on account of its size. For us the principle beauty of Kete is the atmosphere it can create in a room with it 7W LED element. And despite their overproprtionality Kete doesn't domiante the room. Honest. Kete. Anything but dull. moooi. Beach Ball Lamps by TOBYhouse. When we first
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Lets get the tricky one out the way first. The Top 5 Tables from the smow design spring. In no particular order. Liesmichl by Nils Holger Moormann for Moormann. If there's one thing Moormann excel at it's producing book friendly furniture. From the outrageous Bookinist over the classically overtoned Bookstabler and onto the book-friendly desk Kant, the Allgauer always seem to have readers at the forefront of their thoughts. And Liesmichl is no exception; space for books your going to read, a
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Sometimes we really do ask why we invest so much time and effort travelling to design shows, when all we need to do is sit in front of our computer with a good Brooklyn Lager and bag of crisps. Saves money, saves the environment and potentially saves us from drowning. Such questions mainly arise when we find products such as Gangsta Lean by Matt Braun. As we will never tire of saying, for us an important element of good design is does the phrase: Took a problem, analysed it, solved it
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To celebrate the 150th birthday of Michael Thonet's "chair of all chairs" Thonet are running a photo competition: 214x214. The rules are ridiculously simple; whoever submits the best photo of a Thonet 214 wins a 3 day trip to New York. For the second best there is a trip to Thonet in Frankenberg and the chance to build your own 214. If you don't own 214, you could always buy one - or more - from smow. Alternatively, keep your eyes open when your out and about, 214's crop up a lot more often
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Over Easter we had hoped to hoped to get to Karlsruhe to have a look at the exhibition: Interface Desk, or against Thinking in Categories. Billed - quite rightly - as possibly the first exhibition in history solely devoted to desks, the exhibition examines the role and function of the "desk" and in doing so possess the question "what is a desk?" But we didn't. Instead we were in Bad Muskau- which was also fantastic. And now we are back at our desks.... and still thinking "what is a desk?"
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Probably not - or at least not yet. However, during the NATO summit on 4 and 5th of April 2009 Barack Obama and the other heads of states and military present were treated to some of the high points of the smow designer furniture collection. During their working dinner in the Baden-Baden Kurhaus Obama and colleagues were supported in their discussions by Antonio Citterio's new chair for Vitra - Skape. With it's high backrest in high-grade leather and generous upholstery Skape is a
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Nice chair...and for free As a general rule we don't pay any attention to our (smow)boss; however, as the news fluttered in that Vitra are giving away 20 Vegetal chairs from Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec even we were forced to listen. The Vegetal chair is the culmination of four years development and follows in the tradition of their Algue room divider by combining synthetic materials with natural forms to create a functional, attractive addition to any home. Weather resistant and specially
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In a recent article wired magazine presented their own take on the evolution of office furnishing. From the introduction of the vast, cattle-shed like offices that characterised early office design through the cubicles and "virtual offices" of the 1980s and 90s and onwards the text makes one thing clear: Too many office workers have suffered through bad office design concepts. But one needn't work from home in order to benefit from the advantages of a convivial and stimulating office
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Shameless self-congratulation – but what the hey! The current German edition of Cosmopolitan (April 2009) contains a wonderful recommendation for the stylish La Bohème -”Vases” by Philippe Starck for Kartell. And we didn’t even pay them. If the Cosmopolitan Germany editors will also recommend the article to their colleagues at Cosmopolitan Denmark, Cosmopolitan Holland or Cosmopolitan UK is not clear, but we at (smow)blog can definitely recommend these humorous and, slightly irritating,
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Fernando the Fish, Talulah the Toucan, Elihu the Elephant and Omar the Owl – four irresistibly cheeky chronological creatures born in 1965 from the imagination of master clock designer George Nelson. The “Zoo Timers” from Vitra not only brighten up any room, but make learning telling the time playful and enjoyable. George Nelson studied architecture and mad his name in furniture design, but was also a highly talented graphic designer. His “Zoo Timer” wall clocks at first attract your
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The bed “Siebenschläfer” from the Moormann (Design: Christoffer Martens, 2007) is beloved for the simplicity with which it can be constructed. The individual frame elements needing only to be slotted into one another. However, what happens when the carpentry firm responsible for cutting the parts holds the plans back to front? – Then one gets an unplanned innovation, albeit one that causes several “Am I being stupid?” moments for smow customers. Those who are quick of the mark, however, can
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The dollop of cream atop the perfect office is a practical, aesthetic and user friendly trolley. In general an office trolley fulfills several roles: As a convenient depository for heavy folders or a pile of uncompleted jobs or occasionally as a bar trolley. smow currently offers five different trolleys, that in addition to providing work-based mobility can also be used as side tables and/or mobile bars: Gastone from Kartell (Design: Antonio Citterio & Oliver Löw) Gastone is an elegant
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For those of you either living near or planning being in the vicinity of Weil am Rhein, the George Nelson exhibition in the Vitra Design Museum runs until 01.03.2009. The exhibition presents not only his famous, humorous designs but also explains Nelson's theoretical approach and presents a selection of his furniture designs, architectural models, clock and graphic designs. The retrospective is part of Vitra’s celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of George Nelson's birth. After studying
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Six years ago Nils Holger Moormann, designer and furniture producer, started a process against Ikea - accusing the Swedish company of ,how shall we put it, „borrowing“ one of his companies designs. Despite the pessimism of colleagues and industry insiders, Moormann won at every trial and Ikea were eventually obliged to remove the offending article from sale. The process may have cost Moormann lots of effort and resources, but it also won him a lot of recognition in the industry for his
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Foster series from helit Norman Foster is not only a lord of the realm and one the worlds most in demand architects, but also one of the leading modern industrial designers. With his agency Foster + Partners, he has completed important architectural projects in six continents including the Vivaldi Tower in Amsterdam, Stansted Airport in England and the Elephant House at Copenhagen Zoo. However, Lord Foster has also turned his attention to smaller-scale object, including a range of desk
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The chairs in the so-called "Aluminium Group" from Vitra are highly versatile and are just as applicable for use in an office environment as in waiting rooms and in private houses. The designs and original construction originate from Ray und Charles Eames (further details on the designer pair can be found in a previous (smow)blog post). The principle optical charm of the Aluminium Group is the simple, transparent design of the chairs that doesn’t try to conceal the frame, rather
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Attractive, practical and child friendly furniture is rare; the new furniture series from Lampert is a welcome exception - not least because the furniture grows with the children. The Egon Eiermann children's desk can be set to a height of 550m (for 5 year olds) and then raised as the child grows. Also the Children's Chair Turtle is height adjustable – being suitable for users between 1,10 and 1,60 m. As companion piece to the desk and chair Lampert also produce the mobile storage container
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There are a range of Bauhaus classics that on account of their form, history or there functionality are universally known and admired. To this group belongs the so-called „Bauhaus Lamp“ from Wilhelm Wagenfeld. The “Bauhaus Lamp”,officially known as WG 25 GL , is protected by copyright and may only be produced by TECNOLUMEN® smow naturally only offer the copyrighted and from Prof. Wagenfeld authorised edition. Wilhelm Wagenfeld designed the „Bauhaus Lamp“ during his time at Bauhaus in Weimar
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For the creative bosses at Vitra the days of the large unified office space are numbered. Not only are the working conditions in such environments not ideal for productivity, but much more each employee and every visitor has a feeling of surveillance, exploitation and treadmill. A more inspiring and positive atmosphere, however, promise Vitra from their playfully named "Net 'n' Nest" concept. Here the connection between individual work and rest areas and the possibilities of communicative
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At the imm in Cologne the German producer "Richard Lampert" once again proved that they can produce more than just the classic, timeless Eiermann Table. With a prototype of “Landed” by Eric Degenhardt the Stuttgart based company almost completed a leap into architecture. Almost. For while in models and sketches one could easily confuse Degenhardt’s creation with a concept building; close up one realizes that it is in fact an exceptional piece of furniture design. “Landed” with its multiple
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Winter in Europe and while the weather outside is at it’s less attractive, it’s good to know that at home one has a functioning, stable and unobtrusive coat hanger. For as long as coats have existed, top designers, and those who aspire to such, have tested their art on the challenge of creating the perfect construction on which to hang said coat. A hook is a hook you think, think again, Knax from loca, is characterised by its unostentatious, functional design. The hooks sit within the
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