For 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
read moreFor 26 years James Irvine has been quietly and unassumingly influencing European industrial design. Immediately after graduating from the London Royal College of Art in 1984 James Irvine moved to Milan to take up a position with the Olivetti design studio. And has pretty much been in the north Italian metropolis ever since. In 1992 James Irvine left Olivetti and since then has worked with companies as varied as Artemide, B&B Italia, Whirlpool, Magis and WMF. Among his most public projects is
read moreLast week we vented our spleen on the ridiculous hotel prices in Milan during design week. And against an international design industry that blindly accepts such as part of the annual fun. We owe James Irvine an apology. James Irvine is obviously a man of principle who is prepared to raise his voice against the Milan hotel industry. And so thank you James Irvine! Hopefully the rest of the furniture industry will follow your lead and in a couple of years we can all tweet #Bologna2012 or
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Because the design world is incredibly vain, supercilious and conceited, Milan is a often a lot more about showing off than showing new products. And this year if you don’t have an iPhone with all the latest Milan design week Apps, you might as well stay at home. We don’t posses anything made by Apple, nor can we imagine a time when we will, we are however not immune to the vagaries of the design world and so over the course of the next few days will introduce you to the most important iPhone
read moreWorking as a furniture designer is a lot like working as a musician or an author. You establish a reputation and then hope to attract someone to publish/produce your work. However, whereas authors and musicians tend to work exclusively with one publisher/label for prolonged periods, furniture designers generally develop products for numerous producers simultaneously. Or at least the leading ones do. In Milan we caught up with Ronan Bouroullec and here he briefly decribes what he enjoys about
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Because the design world is incredibly vain, supercilious and conceited, Milan is a often a lot more about showing off than showing new products. And this year if you don't have an iPhone with all the latest Milan design week Apps, you might as well stay at home. We don't posses anything made by Apple, nor can we imagine a time when we will, we are however not immune to the vagaries of the design world and so over the course of the next few days will introduce you to the most important iPhone
read moreWe don't have to go to Milan to visit Moormann. We can just go to Aschau. But we do enjoy visiting Moormann in Milan, because they always make that little more effort. After Moormann's 2009 Saloni Milano stand with Liesmichl, Strammer Max, Steckling et al, 2010 is looking a little more reserved. That said Else is already promising to be one of the highlights of Milan 2010 for us. Else is not a Moormann employee, lovely as they all are, but a new shelving concept by Werner Gasser. As you
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The undisputed highlight of the Kartell stand at Saloni Milano 2009 was the cat and mouse game with the special forces Kartell had hired to prevent visitors taking photographs. Despite the Kartell stand taking up an area half the size of Lombardy, the highly trained troops proved particularly efficient and we, for example, were forced to camp out overnight in a disused fox hole just to get a quick snap shot of the Dr NOs. Judging by the pre-Saloni press, this year is going to be even more fun.
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For us one of the true highlights of Saloni Milano 2009 was the kkaarrlls showcase from students at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. Not least because in comparison to many of the student shows at Milan 2009, the kkaarrlls show displayed some real potential. And talent. And so excellent to see the project rolling on again for Milan 2010. As ever we'll have to wait until we've actually seen the items before deciding. However from the photos we like the look of "Screw
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Having sold everything, including our kidneys and the neighbours cat, we can finally afford to pay for a hotel in Milan. "Is it really worth it?" ask the pensioners, students and lawyers who gather in front of the (smow)blog flat every March to buy our possessions and so help us finance the life of luxury enjoyed by that special class of bloodsucker that is the Milanese hotelier. "No" answer we. "But what are we to do?" And indeed what are we to do. One need only look at the press photos
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One of the real joys of spring is that two of our favourite worlds nearly, but very nearly, collide - books (Leipzig Buchmesse) and designer furniture (Saloni Milano) On April 10th in Milan they will collide with the opening of the exhibition to the new Moleskine edition "Hand of the Designer". Containing 462 hand drawn sketches from 150 designers - including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius, Antonio Citterio or Alberto Meda - Hand of the Designer is intended as an intimate look
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As all who work in a small office, or perhaps more importantly from home, know, noise is one of the biggest contributors to stress and non-productivity. And we don't mean the radio that you want to hear, but rather the unwanted, background noise generated by others. A little physics tells us that noise travels in waves, and that the most important factor in sustaining and amplifying noise in a room is reverberation and reflection from walls. Ergo, stop the reverberation and reflection and
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In the course of the past three months we at smow have experienced more than our fair share of nonsense be it at design fairs and trade shows in Milan, New York and Berlin or during our visits to USM Haller and Vitra. We now want to look back and analyse a little some of the trends, products and impressions that the experience has left us. And wheel out a few gems that until now we have been selfishly keeping to ourselves. One of the truly outstanding products at Superstudio Piu in Milan was
read moreOne of the principle advantages of trade fairs such as Salone or ICFF is the unrivalled access to producers, products and for all designers. Whereas furniture producers like to strut around, boldly announcing news of their latest coups; designers are generally typified by a preference for quiet isolated studios, and a reluctance to leave their natural habitat. At trade fairs, however, the designers appear, blinking and staring into the spotlight. And are generally remarkably friendly and
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We sadly didn't meet the colleagues from Stylepark, but had we - a day ticket for Milan costs €3 and a return ticket to the exhibition centre costs €4. There's meant to be a global recession
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As already written, every year the London based producer Established & Sons take over a former municipal sports hall in the Via Palermo for their Salone "installation". The theme this year appeared to be Robinson Crusoe. We'd been really looking forward to the Established and Sons show since seeing the pre-show releases; and while the show was well worth the trip, we couldn't help coming away with the feeling that in many of the pieces the design had been taken priority over practicality.
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Despite Lufthansa's best effort we made it back to Leipzig yesterday evening. We only hope our luggage will arrive this evening. And despite the joy at being back in our green oasis with our wonderful view over the romantic historical ruins of East Plagwitz, Milan remains very much in our thoughts and we will continue to intersperse the blog with news and updates. As we never tire of telling anyone who will listen to us, furniture needn't be complicated. The design process can be
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It's almost time. The exhibition halls are half-empty, the beer fridge in the press room half-full and the hold of our Lufthansa plane back to Leipzig is being waterproofed on account of the 6 kilos Italian rainwater we are now carrying with us. It's been a fun week - and a heart-felt thanks from us to all who made it possible and who made it what it was, both here at the exhibition centre, but also Superstudio, Zona Tortona and all the off-site shows and exhibitions. But although we are
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They say that in every life a little rain must fall. The amount that has fallen in Milan in the past 24 hour is however ridiculous. And unjust. We don't know what the Milanese did to annoy Tlaloc, BUT WE WEREN'T THERE!!!! And had we been, and had we seen what the Milanese were doing we would have tried to stop them. As it is, however, we were forced to flee our tent at 3.15 this morning - enjoyable as the water bed effect through the tent floor was, we have an awful lot of state of the art
read moreIn our entry on the designersblock showcase we mentioned a foldable cardboard chair that had caught our attention. Now we know as well as everyone else that are our heads are readily turned by free beer and bagpipes (thanks Calum) - and if you throw in some dub and finest Italian ska and we would lie for you in court. And so we thought we had better wait a day or two before saying anything more about Stuart Miller's fine folding cardboard chair. In case we found something better. We thought we
read moreMake up your own joke... we like: "Apparently, he had heard that there are some classics here that never go out of fashion - and wanted some tips" "Lets go to Kartell, they're also 100% plastic" We can't promise a prize for the best suggestion, but send your "entries" to blog@smow.de and who
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What the war on terror being won and everything, it appears Barack Obama has turned to his Secret Service to help save the American economy. We know its a weak joke, but they sadly didn't seem to understand what we meant when we asked what the delivery time is for
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As our old snowboard buddy used to say "Beaten tracks are for beaten men". And as everyone who deliberately strays from the conventional path knows sometimes you push it too far, take too many risks, lose control, break several limbs, are out of action for months and must begin all over again. Or if you know what you are doing, the conditions are right, you have the talent and just that pinch of luck you might just have the ride of your life - a ride that leaves you longing for the same,
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At the kkaarrllss showcase we couldn't help noticing that the students were using a copy of "Das Kunstwerk" [The work of art...] by Walter Benjamin to support the lamp. A subtle critic on Benjamin's Marxist ramblings, a rejection of modernism or just typical student forgetfulness. Fascinating
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