The shortlist for the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award 2009 have been announced; and among the high caliber field one finds designers and producers listed by smow. German designer Konstantin Grcic has been shortlisted for his MYTO chair for Italian producer PLANK, the Italian siblings Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for their Steelwood Family for Magis and Arik Levey for his Workit, work station for Vitra. In addition the graphic designers Cornel Windlin, Rebecca Stephany, Marco Müller
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Occasionally, just occasionally a curious glance at the price of a piece of designer furniture is enough to take your breath away. Chairs, lamps and sideboards from Fritz Haller, Philippe Starck, Nils Holger Moormann et al are not always something that can simply be casually paid for out of the “housekeeping“. However, once one recovers from the initial shock one has time to reflect that a high quality piece of designer furniture is not to be understood only as a luxury accessory to
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The first snow of the years has fallen, the Christmas window displays are finished and the nervous hunt for the “perfect” Christmas gift is well underway. And so sometimes the best decision is simply to relax in front of the Internet and choose extravagant, amusing or simply, simple gifts for your nearest and dearest. In a small pre-Christmas series we the smow blog team will present a few ideas and treasures from the (smow)catalogue, which will hopefully ease you search and bring a smile to
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Panton Chair Classic (Vitra) Among the chairs on offer from smow are two versions of the Panton chair: The „classic“ version from 1959 for 899 Euro and the newer Panton chair version from 1999 for 198 Euro. The classic 1959 version is still produced according to designer Verner Pantons original vision; every chair from one casting. The 1999 model is an affordable, mass market model based on Verner Pantons original design Which of course raises the question: Which stool is the original? Both,
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On our search for the future of office furniture smow spent last week at the Orgatec office furniture trade fair in Cologne. Under the motto „Better Office Greater Success“ 673 companies from 39 countries presented their concepts for the office of the future. If we are honest we have been to better trade fairs, and one noticed the absence of important industry giants such as USM Haller. That said the show was not without it's moments. Among the bravest exhibits was the new
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„… a huge compliment for the fresh, and refreshing, yet very professional organization of the DO08” With these words of praise the Swiss design-label Thismade, one of the exhibitors at the Designers’ Open 2008 in Leipzig, summed up the mood among exhibitors and visitors. Now it its fourth year Leipzigs "alternative" design exhibition, attracted circa 150 designers to the, lets say, "unusual" exhibition halls: Abandoned blocks of flats near Leipzig main station. The 2008 Designers Open once
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At the Museum der Dinge in Berlin a noteworthy exhibition/installation from Berlin based artist Carolina Kecskemethy is approaching it’s end. Until November the 10th visitors have the opportunity to view “Mobilien. 1000 Möbel auf 80 Quadratmetern” (MOVABLES. 1000 PIECES OF FURNITURE ON 80 SQUAREMETERS). Which is pretty much what it is. Using her, possibly scary : certainly unique, collection of dolls house furniture, Carolina Kecskemethy has created a tribute to the
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Welcome to the (smow)blog. Why are we blogging? For us at smow this blog is an opportunity to present new information, exchange ideas and experiences and to offer an informed, behind the scenes view of us, our suppliers and designers. Many of our designer furniture pieces are established classics with which their owners have grown-up, matured, loved, lost and loved again. At the same time the dynamic in the designer furniture market is such that new products are continuously being presented
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