For its 13th edition the DMY Berlin International Design Festival will be staged in a new venue and under the auspices of a new organiser. Neither change coming particularly voluntarily. The former festival organiser DMY Berlin GmbH & Co. KG filled for insolvency in October 2014, and the process was formally opened on January 1st 2015. Given the nature of their business DMY Berlin GmbH was, though committed to the cause, never the most profitable of companies, and ever increasing financial
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We can't rule out that our interest in the project zTuA by Hochschule Rosenheim students Marko Steininger, Martin Winkler and Fabian Steiner is a direct consequence of the current situation in the (smow) blog HQ. That our professional opinions are being influenced by personal circumstances. We hope they aren't. But can't rule it out. zTuA is an acronym of "zwischen Tür und Angel" - "between door and hinge" - a nice German idiom that refers either to a necessary urgency, to being in the
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As our more loyal readers will be aware, for us the future is analogue. As ever more aspects of our daily routine are taken over by digital technology, the more time we have to concentrate on the things that matter. And they are all analogue. All. Parallel, open design and open processes will become more important as we all lose the need to be part of a stylised mass and finally comprehend that contemporary industrial production and distribution networks are no longer ecologically or
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Those of you who followed our sadly demised Posterous account - Why Twitter? Why? - will recall our joy at seeing the Bravais Desk by Canadian born, Rotterdam based designer Dana Cannam at the "Thoughts of Home" showcase during Dutch Design Week 2011. A wonderfully charismatic product Bravais impressed/impresses with its obvious functionality and effortlessly reduced form. Equally as effortlessly reduced is the modular tableware system "All of a Piece" developed by Dana Cannam in cooperation
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When in our DMY Berlin 2014 Award preview post we asked "When is a wardrobe not a wardrobe?", the question was a little inaccurate. Technically the correct question should have been, when is a laptop case not a laptop case? The answer however remains the same: When it’s a collapsible linen wardrobe by Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Den Haag graduate Renate Nederpel. While developing a laptop case project Renate Nederpel decided to see what happened when she scaled up the dimensions "a
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We recently attended a very interesting talk from Munich based designer Stefan Diez at the Vitra Design Museum in which, amongst other subjects, he briefly queried why design journalists are happy to write about furniture and accessories, but no one writes about, for example, safety helmets....... Ranger by Joe Engelhard and Michael Schuler for German manufacturer ENHA is, according to the designers, the first ever safety helmet to incorporate a double wall construction principle; thus
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At DMY Berlin 2014 fifteen students from the Fachhochschule Potsdam are presenting the results of the seminar "formHOLZ" Run under the supervision of Professor Hermann Weizenegger formHOLZ explored new possibilities with moulded, formed and otherwise shaped wood and the exhibition at DMY Berlin presents a series of prototypes which demonstrate new possibilities with one of the oldest, and most researched, materials/processes in industrial product design. And ably demonstrates that regardless
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One doesn't have to understand why designers or design institutions do the things they do. You don't always have to be able to follow the logic. Sometimes all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Such an occasion, at least for us, is the project Lost & Found by Vitra from the Bratislava based design platform Flowers for Slovakia. Essentially the project asked 15 young Slovakian designers to combine forlorn items of traditional Slovakian folk furniture with elements from the Vitra
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As older readers will be aware one of our all-time favourite products is the table family Tints by Jason Miller. Although officially inspired by aviator sunglasses what initially attracted us to Tints, and still holds our famously fluctuant attention, is their unmissable reference to candy. They look like big boiled sweets suspended in a maple frame. Our fascination with the Tint tables isn't however the reason for writing about the lamp Godis by Lund University student Nestor Campos. Even
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"I want to create models for a different society, for a way of producing and living differently", announces Enzo Mari in one of several quotes presented in the exhibition "Who is Mari? at KPM Berlin World. A wonderful example of what can be achieved can currently be explored at DMY Berlin in context of the Berlin based organisation CUCULA. Established in 2013 CUCULA is, as the organisation's full name implies, a craft and design company run by refugees. Or at least all going to plan it
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Events such as Berlin Design Week naturally provide an attractive platform for countries and regions to present themselves and their creatives. Some shows do that very well. Some less so. The exhibition Reset Design - New working models currently showing at the Spanish Embassy Berlin belongs to the first category. Curated by Marcelo Leslabay Reset Design presents ten young Spanish companies, companies all founded in the last three years by designers looking for new ways to produce, market
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With DMY Berlin 2014 up and running the field is open for the 2014 DMY Award. An award that this year has a little extra value given that the trophies have been designed by last years "Young Talent" winner Philipp Weber. And made in Berlin by Berlin Glas e.V. As ever ten nominees have been selected from all exhibitors at this years DMY festival: and from the ten the international jury will select three winners. One of whom will be Dutch. That's not part of the competition rules. Just a
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Since the late 1950s Bavarian porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal has cooperated with an impressive roster of international designers to create new objects and product families, notable cooperations including those with Raymond Loewy, Walter Gropius, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Jasper Morrison or Patricia Urquiola. One of the firms most recent collaborations is and was with Offenbach am Main based Sebastian Herkner. A graduate of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main, Sebastian Herkner
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Established in 1751 by Wilhelm Caspar Wegely and taken under royal control by Prussia's King Frederick II in 1763, the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin - the Berlin Royal Porcelain Factory - is not only Berlin's oldest handwork business but an undeniable symbol of Prussian pride and the unrestrained luxury of the fabled "white gold" And as such not the sort of place one would expect to find an old agitator such as the Italian designer, designer theorist and general design disdainer Enzo
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At the risk of being accused of wilful and negligent generalisation, contemporary industrial design arose from traditional crafts, driven by a desire to make the products of the artisan available to a wider public and at a more affordable price. Yet despite this desire to separate itself from crafts, design keeps looking to craft for inspiration. Almost as if it doesn't fully trust itself to break free. Scared of its independence. Or as we noted in context of the exhibition Le Feu Sacré at
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SOX is, in all probability, Berlin's smallest gallery. SOX is a circa 2m by 3m window. An oversized display cabinet in the heart of Berlin Kreuzberg. During Berlin Design Week 2014 SOX is hosting 4+1, the latest project from Berlin designer Mark Braun. A shelving/storage element constructed from pear, oak, ash and walnut the individual 4+1 units are accessible from both front and back and can be stacked on top of/next to one another to create the desired landscape. Each unit houses an
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If we’re honest we’re not entirely sure where or when we first saw the work of Gosia & Tomek Rygalik a.k.a Studio Rygalik, but it was certainly before their near legendary Baguette Table project at Vienna Design Week 2011 – yes, tables made from bread – and long before they shot their delightful short film celebrating 20 years of the Vitra Design Museum miniatures collection. What we are sure about is that the logical, uncomplicated nature of the products they create, the pairs commitment to
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Following the pains and tribulations of Milan, June is a time to relax. To enjoy design once again. This year we did that at DMY Berlin, Design Miami Basel at with the new Vitra(mini)Haus in Weil am Rhein....
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Anyone familiar with the roads in Leipzig's Lower East Plagwitz Village District will be aware that to call them roads is to do a great disservice to the memory of John McAdam and Edgar Purnell Hooley. In a biblical sense a road is composed of tarmac. In a Plagwitz sense a road is composed of potholes, loosely linked by random slithers of tarmac. Over the years we've given up getting annoyed about the state of the roads and... no, we've not. That's a lie. We get cross about it every single
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Normally we don't pay any heed to design contest exhibitions at design fairs. It just doesn't feel right, looking at them being in our jaundiced minds akin to reading those appalling advertorial "special supplements" that the print industry have fallen back on for survival. However at DMY Berlin 2013 something drew our attention to the exhibition for the adream 2012 competition. A pink brick to be precise. And we're mighty glad it did. Although "adream 2012" sounds like some truly horrendous
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It's about ten minutes since we mentioned Belgium. And we know that one or the other of you are getting nervous. Fearing we may have forgotten the magical, if not mythical, Kingdom. Fear no more. Belgium is back. At DMY Berlin 2013 students from the Thomas More University College Mechelen presented examples of their work in a group exhibition. We believe the VOMO in the exhibition name is the post-graduate furniture course in Mechelen, we are however a little confused and so may have got
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As part of DMY Berlin 2013 the Belgian design critic, curator, journalist and lecturer Max Borka organised the exhibition "Refugium. Berlin as a Design Principle" in collaboration and cooperation with students from his d- SOAP course at the FH Potsdam. Presenting works by some 50 Berlin based designers Refugium not only presents works by the selected designers but also seeks/sought to explore what characterises the Berlin design community and what makes the Berlin design scene relevant and
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Design arithmetic is very simple: June + Berlin = DMY And since Wednesday evening DMY Berlin 2013 is in full swing. In addition to the Central Exhibition at Tempelhof Airport and the numerous satellite events scattered throughout the city this year's programme also features a series of events dedicated to 3D printing. Something we fear certain sections of the media will grasp onto as being evidence of a "t****", oblivious to the fact that it is a subject that has been feature of DMY Berlin
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Green Lamp by Zuzanna Malinowska is essentially a plant pot with an integrated growing frame. Clearly intended for climbing plants, the beauty of the growing frame is that it is a lamp shade. And below the lamp shade is, naturally enough, a bulb. The plant grows, takes on the form of the growing frame and before you know it you have a lamp formed from a plant. Now we are assuming that Zuzanna has checked and the plant can't get burned by the bulb; or indeed catch fire. And if she has, then
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