In our post from the exhibition Design Gruppe Pentagon at the Museum Angewandte Kunst Cologne we noted that Gallery Pentagon was laterally based in Cologne's Bismarckstrasse. Bismarckstrasse 50 to be precise, a former cardboard packaging factory which in the 1980s was developed into spaces for creatives of various ilks..... .....Bismarckstrasse 50 is still home to creatives of various ilks, and is still home to a gallery, Galerie Martina Kaiser, where in context of the 2020 Passagen Interior
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In his 5th century BC text "The Art of War", the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu notes: There are roads, not to take. There are armies, not to attack. There are towns, not to besiege. There are terrains, not to contest. There are ruler's orders, not to obey.1 Were Sun Tzu's metier the furniture fair rather than the warfare, we feel certain he would have added: There are objects, not to produce. IMM Cologne 2018 is awash with such. It's not IMM's fault; rather is endemic of an industry
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According to Brigitte Eiermann her late husband, the German architect and designer Egon Eiermann, would work so long on a furniture design project until he could say "Das ist nicht besser zu machen" - "That cannot be improved". It was, so Frau Eiermann, rare that he said such, so great was his striving for perfection. Everything could, somehow, be improved.1 However we imagine Egon Eiermann would be very satisfied with the new table trestle Egon from Stuttgart based manufacturer Richard
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Back at the end of 2014 we mused as to whether or not this might be an apposite moment to quietly remove ourselves from the high octane world of design blogging and seek out pastures new and a calmer, more sedentary, life. The melancholy of those late December days still lingers, yet with the IMM Cologne furniture trade fair and Passage Cologne design festival standing afore us like some bright eyed, white toothed, flaxen haired vision of our famously promising youth, we have no option but to
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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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Fear not, we've still got a duffel bag full of products and stories from our week in Cologne to bring you. However we feel it only right to quickly review the 2010 IMM Cologne. Elsewhere we've read that there were no trends to be found at IMM. Which for us is positive. Trends have no place in the furniture business. Trends imply that the role of furniture is to meet some pre-ordained assumption on the part of the consumer as to what their furniture should look like, how it should behave
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Students. They're a bit like the monsoon rains in Bangladesh. Cause havoc and distress, yet without them out them human life would eventually cease to be. And so we put up with them, because they are the future. Weirdly. Consequently the Cologne exhibition centre cellar, as are all cellars at such trade fairs, is currently rammed full of design students. Under the combined title: [D³] Design Talents the IMM organisers have combined three streams: [D³] Contest- a contest [D³] Professionals
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On Wednesday a tweet fluttered into our (smow)twitter from @imm_cologne with the information that the Munich based producer ClassiCon had decided to return to IMM Cologne. Which in the wake of the shock we received on our first day here in Köln didn't go unnoticed among the thousands of invites to cocktail parties and sumptuous buffets at some of Cologne's finer addresses we're forced to deal with. Established in 1990 from the dying embers of the 1898 established "Vereinigte Werkstätten für
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According to the advertising information "The leaning lamp stresses the relationship between light and architecture by its generous gesture" That as may be, for us luca lean by maigrau is one of those genially executed design concepts that separate the chaff from the rye. Items leaning against walls is no new concept. Alone Moormann could create a category dedicated to furniture items that are supported by architectural supporting structures. But wheels aint new either...what is new is new
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We're not going to pretend we're fans of Carnival. Truth be told, for us Carnival and Oktoberfest belong to a class of cultural events that indicate a nation still struggling to come to terms with the fact that woolly mammoths no longer roam the land. Or that women are allowed to vote. However, we're in Cologne and so we can at least pretend that we find alcohol fuelled violence oh-so amusing. Especially when presented in conjunction with a Papier-mâché model of Angela Merkel with an
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With the Christmas pounds still causing us to sink deeper into the January snow than we find attractive, it is with relief that we look forward to next weeks trip to the IMM in Cologne. Because what with all that running about we wont have time to eat :) In addition to its role as diet-helper,a s the first international furniture trade fair of the year IMM always offers a wonderful opportunity to both reflect on the good and the bad from 2009 as well as to try to size up the coming year. And
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