As any one who has celebrated as many birthday's as us knows - there comes a point in every life where you're just not prepared to compromise on quality any more. Be it your car, your choice of airline, your hair cut. Or your office chair. When starting out in life the vast majority of us put up with cheap, uncomfortable office chairs because its easier. We know the quality isn't brilliant. But we're compromising The same can be said for desks, desk lamps and filing cabinets. Those days
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Back in the summer we ran a highly entertaining "Summertime in Dark Lime" Panton Chair Cocktail competition. The judging was certainly highly entertaining. The winner was Italian designer Alessandro Barison aka abitudinicreative Chatting with Alessandro after his cocktail “Spritz Upgrade” was selected the winner, we discovered that while he was a student at the Scuola Italiana Design (SID) he had taken part in a workshop cum competition that involved redesigning - or better put - extending
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"Wooden spoon for pickled vegetables by John F. Kennedy" ? ? ? John F. Kennedy. Green Mountain Woodcrafters, Vermont. And no relation of Teddy or Robert. Still cheered us up. From March 20th until April 25th 1951 Stuttgart hosted the first post-war exhibition of modern American home furnishings and appliances in Europe. Organised by the New York Museum of Modern Art under the title "Design for Use, USA", the exhibition featured a cross section of American domestic design. And a Who's
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We've long since accepted that there are more design weeks in a year than actual weeks. But we still can't accept the poor coordination between the various festivals. June, July, August.Basically nothing. September, October. Every day Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Budapest, Istanbul, Vienna, Eindhoven, Leipzig, Lodz, Zürich.... Every 2 years Orgatec in Cologne. And in the midst of all this Berlin sprouts Qubique. Hallo! We however have no choice. Or at least little choice. Our October
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The winner the Dark Lime Vitra Panton Chair Summer Cocktail Competition is Alessandro Barison. Congratulations !!! His "Spritz Upgrade" - essentially a classic Spritz with sparkling water and orange juice - or a Bucks Fizz with Aperol as one jury member commented - was the unanimous victor. The principle reason given being that the addition of the orange juice and water lightened the drink, or at least the perception of the drink, making it a wonderful accompaniment to a hot summers
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Tilbage i februar fejrede VitraHaus i Weil am Rhein sin første fødselsdag. Vi talte med Vitras chefdesigner Eckart Maise om VitraHaus og om planerne for fremtiden. (smow)blog: VitraHaus er nu ét år gammelt, er du tilfreds med det første år? Eckart Maise: Ja, VitraHaus har været en stor succes og 'resonansen' har været meget positiv, både med hensyn til antallet af besøgende samt den feedback vi har fået. Eksempelvis er besøgstallene for 'Vitra Campus' nu tredoblet i forhold til tiden før
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London based design studio Barber Osgerby stands as a testament to the fact that high quality work will always win through, with or without the media status "star designer" While its fair to say that many of their contemporaries have been placed on international glossy magazine pedestals, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have remained largely in the shadows, quietly producing consistently high quality work for both international producers and private customers. That is however slowly changing
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Until July 31st we are giving readers the chance to win a limited edition Dark Lime Panton Chair. In effect we are swapping a Dark Lime Panton Chair for a summer cocktail/mixed drink recipe. The best wins! In order to give you some ideas and inspiration we have asked several Vitra VIPs for their favourite recipe. Today Vitra Chief Design Officer Eckart Maise shares his Caipirinha recipe He obvioulsy can't win - but he can share a recipe!!! As the man who commissioned works such as Tip Ton
read moreIf A. C. F. Beales is to be believed, Leopold George Christian Frederick is probably the only person ever to have walked out of the job of King. Only to pick up an equal post some 2 months later. In his article "The Irish king of Greece" (The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 51, 1931 Part 1 pp. 101-105) Beales argues that Leopold accepted the job as King of Greece in February 1830, but then changed his mind in May 1830 following disputes with Britain over loans to help Greece out of its
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Summer. Sun. Cocktails. In order to allow you to enjoy this combination to the full (smow) are giving away a Dark Lime Panton Chair. To be in with chance of winning a limited edition summer 2011 version of Verner Panton's classic cantilever chair, simply tell us your favourite summer cocktail or mixed drink recipe; alcoholic or non-alcoholic. The only rule is that it must contain a slice of lime! And be perfect for a long summers evening in a Vitra Panton Chair! The competition is open
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Luddites! Not a phrase normally associated with (smow) To the best of our knowledge no (smow)employee has ever smashed an iPad or capped a WiFi service in protest at the creeping and increasingly obsessive proliferation of technology into our lives. Despite that, the early summer weeks in the (smow)HQ were dominated by the preparation and production of the very first (smow)catalogue. That's print catalogue. So on paper. With ink. Luddites? Au contraire nos amis! Not only is the
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Da vi for nylig var på en lille rejse fik vi øje på en ægte Eames fiberglasbænk fra Herman Miller i en lufthavn. Tager man stedets ret begrænsede faciliteter i betragning, forekommer betegnelsen 'lufthavn' faktisk noget optimistisk, og vores hektiske fotografering af bænken og Herman Miller-klistermærkerne resulterede også i en del latter fra folk omkring os - altså folk, som bruger deres tid på at fotografere fly!! Herefter, da vi var faldet lidt ned efter den hektiske fotografering,
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For all those looking to make their summer balcony even more exclusive, Vitra are currently offering the Panton Chair in a one-off summer 2011 Dark Lime edition. The offer is strictly limited on a first-come-first-serve basis, and only available online. That said, the dark lime Panton Chair costs the same as all other colours! An "exclusive" product at no extra cost. So to say. As with all Vitra Panton Chairs the „Summertime in dark lime" special edition is constructed from a special UV
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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
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Back in February the VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein celebrated its first birthday. But was it all worth it? To find out more we spoke to Vitra Chief Design Officer Eckart Maise about one year VitraHaus and the plans for the future. (smow)blog: The VitraHaus is now one year old, are you satisfied with the first year? Eckart Maise: Yes, the VitraHaus has been a huge success and the resonance has been very positive both in respect of the number of visitors as well as the feedback. The Vitra Campus
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At the 2011 Milan Furniture Fair Vitra are presenting a range of new products from designers including Konstantin Grcic, Antonio Citterio and Barber & Osgerby. Ahead of the official launch we caught up with Vitra Chief Design Officer Eckart Maise to discuss the new products and the Vitra Home Collection in general. (smow): Herr Maise, before we discuss the new products, and maybe as a little helpful background. How does a company like Vitra develop a collection? Do you go to a designer and
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Last summer we spent our annual holiday weekend in a small museum in the north of England discussing the life of a man who had hung himself 30 years previous. And folk say we don't know how to relax. The town was Macclesfield and the subject was Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Unquestionably one of the truly iconic figures in music history, the cult around Curtis is based to a large extent on a combination of his early death and the photos of the band. One of the speakers at the conference
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Last Friday we spent a highly enjoyable - and successful - day at and with Vitra. Texts to follow. We were just a little irritated by two demarcation issues. Like an analogy for the anthropogenic absurdity that are national borders, Basel Airport sits in both France and Switzerland. And has two passenger exits: One into France, one into Switzerland. We left through the Swiss exit. Our driver was waiting in France. Between us in the terminal building a glass wall. Outside a fence. 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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Ida Engholm, forskningslektor ved Dansk Center for Designforskning er kurator for den akutuelle Pantonudstilling på den danske ambassade i Berlin. Forud for åbningen talte vi med Ida Engholm om Verner Pantons karriere og indflydelse, og om Verner Panton ville have taget digital design til sig. (smow)blog: Det indlysende første spørgsmål er, hvor starter man når man skal kuratere en udstilling om en designer som Verner Panton? Ida Engholm: Udgangspunktet for denne udstilling var en ung tysk
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I 1962 mødtes Verner Panton og Marianne Pherson Oertenheim under en ferie på Tenerife, og to år senere blev parret gift i Basel. Udover at være Verner Pantons kone, var Marianne Panton også hans de facto-direktør, og hun arbejdede tæt sammen med sin mand i alle aspekter af hans arbejde. Forud for udstillingen på den danske ambassade talte vi med Marianne Panton om Verner Pantons arbejde, og om hvad der i sin tid havde indflydelse på dette - og om hvordan hun blev den første fotomodel for
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PANTON in the wonderful Felleshus, Berlin This past Friday the Danish Embassy in Berlin opened an exhibition devoted to the work of Verner Panton - from his early works up to his influence of today's young Danish designers. The first exhibition of Verner Panton's work in Germany for 10 years, PANTON is largely based around the collection of André Barss - a young Berlin Panton collector. A few years ago André was at an exhibition, saw a Panton Chair - and was so irritated by the fact that he
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While critics denounce such as an easy and obvious way to generate content - for us reviewing the past year is an important step in planning our activities for the coming year: where to go, who to talk to, what to sit on and, just as importantly, what to ignore or give up. The only real problem for us is that in preparing such we realise just how much material we haven't had the chance to use - and so receive an impression of how much more material we will acquire in the coming year. Heck!
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Although Alexander Girard worked closely with Herman Miller and designers such as George Nelson or Charles and Ray Eames; Alexander Girard's speciality was not furniture but fabrics, folk art and colour. Born in America and raised in Italy Alexander Girard studied architecture in London before a lack of architectural openings saw him spend several years working as an exhibition and interior designer; most notably in Sweden where he worked in the design department of the Nordiska department
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