In 1959 Alexander Girard was commissioned to design the interior of the New York restaurant La Fonda del Sol, a commission for which Charles and Ray Eames designed the seating. Yet whereas the La Fonda dining chair and La Fonda side chair are well-known, if currently out of production, components of the Eames' canon, what of the La Fonda bar stool....... La Fonda Bar Stool by Charles and Ray Eames Housed on the ground floor of the, then, new Time & Life building on Manhattan's Rockefeller
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Wandering aimlessly through the digital Marcel Breuer Archive one afternoon, we stumbled across a letter dated July 25th 1950 from Peter M Fraser, one of Breuer's employees, to the Eames Office, enquiring about a lighting design by Charles and Ray that Breuer was interested in using in one of his architectural projects, and requesting... ..."a lighting design by Charles and Ray"??? Eames lighting??? Eames furniture ✔ Eames toys ✔ Eames exhibitions ✔ Eames textiles ✔ Eames films ✔ Eames
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Clearly vexed by a critical review in Architectural Forum of his friend Alexander Girard's Santa Fe house, Charles Eames wrote a short letter on December 26th 1956 to the magazine's editor Walter McQuade: "Alexander Girard is interested in the quality of everything and does not hesitate to act on this interest, personally and immediately. Such action could not possibly result in a cliche; and not being cliche demands an explanation. The answer perhaps is in Girard's total involvement in
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"All in the wild March morning I heard the angels call, It was when the moon was setting, and the dark was over all; The trees began to whisper, and the wind began to roll, And in the wild March morning I heard them call: "Stop romanticising and visit a design exhibition!!!!" (The May Queen by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. With apologies) Were Alfred, Lord Tennyson around in March 2016, here’s five new design exhibitions we could recommend..... Alexander Girard. A Designer's Universe at the Vitra
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As all old thesauruans know "April" is merely a synonym for "Milan" And lo despite all promises to the contrary April 2014 once again found us in Lombardy, where, amongst other objects and exhibitions, we were very taken with the Alexander Girard reissues revealed by Vitra, the exhibition of Meisenthal Glassworks at the Institut Francais and the new Rival chair by Konstantin Grcic for Artek. Away from Milan April 214 saw us get to know the work of Pascal Howe at the DMY Design Gallery Berlin,
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As has oft been noted in these pages, the years following the Second World War were years of quick, radical, fundamental social, cultural and economic change. Changes from which the then fledgling furniture design industry greatly benefited: and from which it continues to benefit with many of the popular mass market designs created back then becoming the design classics of today. The design week having not yet been invented and those furniture trade fairs that existed being very much the
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Older readers will remember how last year one of the Vitra Senior Manager's quoted from this blog in his pre-fair pep talk to the assembled Team Vitra. Having reached the zenith of our careers we contemplated retiring. Fortunately we didn't. For at Milan 2014 Vitra have re-issued objects from a collection of Alexander Girard furniture designs that featured in our July 2012 "Lost Furniture Design Classics" post. OK not the furniture pieces we referred to, but objects from the same
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The history of furniture design is strewn with works that briefly graced the public stage before vanishing without the honour of a curtain call. Crawl through the cellar of any major furniture producer and you'll find them; the perfectly mummified remains of genuine design classics that failed to transform their creative majesty into hard cash. Such as the so-called "Girard Group" by Alexander Girard. Although best known for his textile and wallpaper designs Alexander Girard wasn't averse to
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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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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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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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After the strenuous match against Alexander Girard, France decided to rest Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for the match against Eero Saarinen. Their replacement, the enfant terrible of contemporary French design Philippe Starck however failed to match the old Finnish master; too often Philippe Starck strove forward with fairly predictable and poorly considered approaches. Eero Saarinen was able to make use of the gaps produced by Philippe Starck to good effect scoring with his Tulip Chair and a
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We used to love flying. But after Lufthansa's decision to send us on unwanted world tour rather than directly from Frankfurt to Edinburgh we're getting a bit sick of the sight of boarding gates. And so as we flew pointlessly around Northern Europe we found ourselves pinning for Alexander Girard. Although principally remembered as one of the worlds leading authorities on folk art, Alexander Girard was also one of the first "corporate graphic designers"; and undoubtedly his most aesthetic
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As many of you will be aware, the construction of the VitraHaus was not without it's controversy. For all the decision to paint the outer walls black. We at (smow)blog can however exclusively reveal that other options were considered. And below we publish exclusive pictures of the rejected colour schemes. Berlin based, Dutch designer Hella Jongerius has created the Vitra Colour Laboratory to help encourage VitraHaus visitors to be more imaginative and creative in their use of colour. One
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As traditional as roasted chestnuts and corked sherry, gift recommendations are what make Christmas for us. This year, however, we start with a friendly warning. The lead times for many of our suppliers are creeping upwards - and although we have a well stocked and bountiful warehouse; should you want to order something extra special as a gift for a loved one, and we have to order it - it's getting tight. The "traffic light system" in the (smow)shop provides an instant guide to availability;
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On 03.11.1989 the Vitra Design Museum opened. On 09.11.1989 the Berlin Wall "fell". Coincidence? Almost certainly. But while the Vitra Design Museum may not be able to claim responsibility for the end of the DDR, it can look back on a remarkable 20 year history and proudly profess to have helped popularise designer furniture and furniture designers. Initially established as a location where Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum could display his extensive collection of contemporary designer
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It's Dumfries Show on Saturday. That won't mean much to the most people, but for us it is a sure sign. Winter is coming. We know, we know. Barely have we got use to remembering to take our sunglasses to work, buying ice-creams for lunch or waking up at 5 am because we forgot to shut the curtains - again - than the Dumfries Agricultural Society hold their annual show. And after the Dumfries show the evenings get shorter with increasing rapidity and before you know it the ground will be brown
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