Modular lighting is a seldom encountered genre, and when it is encountered, then invariably in a very technical form, a form that implies the computer software has taken a greater role in the creative process than the designers understanding of form-giving, There are however exceptions..... 304 by Nick Beens, as seen at Dutch Design Week Eindhoven 2017 Although we saw the 304 collection by Nick Beens' at the 2017 Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Exhibition, it's inclusion here should in
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The German designer and silversmith Christian Dell is arguably best known for the numerous lighting designs he realised during the 1920s and 1930s. Christian Dell was however also one of the pioneers of plastic design. If all too briefly. Christian Dell (1893 - 1974) Born in Offenbach am Main on February 24th 1893 Christian Dell initially completed a silversmith apprenticeship before studying at the Königlichen Zeichenakademie Hanau and subsequently serving as a journeyman silversmith,
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Being principally an office furniture fair NeoCon doesn't really attract "fringe events" the way home furnishing focussed trade fairs do; office furniture, allegedly, lacking much of the flair, emotion and excitement of its domestic relatives. In the past however the so-called Guerrilla Truck Show did attempt to provide an alternative, more independent, take on design, than the sanitised corporate vision presented at NeoCon. Staged during NeoCon week in Chicago's Fulton Market district the
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The question as to what "home" means has never been an easy one to answer, and in our global age of networked, anonymous, communities, our age of refugees and migrant workers, our age of abstract "Homeland Security" agencies, the question has in many ways become even more complicated. The Lamp Heimat (Homeland) by Berlin based designers Birgit Severin and Guillaume Neu-Rinaudo is an attempt to approach an answer. Birgit Severin and Guillaume Neu-Rinaudo met while studying at Design Academy
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As the name implies the Light + Building Trade Fair in Frankfurt is largely about architectural lighting rather than domestic lighting or office lighting; were it largely about the later it would be called "Light + Living" or "Light + Working" It's called Light + Building. And as such the biggest stands belong to company's you will never have never heard of unless you spend your days planning the construction of hotels, hospitals, shopping centres et al and searching for appropriate
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In his Letter of Reference for Christian Dell on the occasion of his departure from the Kunsthochschule Frankfurt, the school's Director Fritz Wichert wrote: "...highly distinguished as college lecturer, silversmith and as an inventor and designer for the lighting industry. His technical ability, his sense for structure and the beauty of materials and his noble, uncluttered forms make him in my opinion the leading figure in this field in Germany."1 A perfect demonstration of what Fritz Wichert
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In the famous Thonet Card Catalogue from 1930/31 the image of the B 9 side table and B 25 lounge chair is augmented by a small lamp atop the B 9. Whereas the Thonet B 25 and Thonet B 9 are credited to Marcel Breuer, there is no credit for the lamp. But then it isn't a Thonet lamp. Thonet don't do lamps. Thonet do tables, chairs, shelving and other furniture. Thonet don't do lamps. Or at least didn't. In 2010 Thonet released the LUM reading lamp by Ulf Möller as a floor version, adding a desk
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At Bratislava Design Week 2014 Jakub Pollág and Václav Mlynář a.k.a. Studio deFORM re-premièred their Transmission light family; "re-premièred" because although initially created in 2012 for Prague based Kavalierglass, since earlier this year the lamp family have been part of the portfolio of another Czech glass manufacturer, Lasvit. Constructed from a series of concentric glass structures which become ever more elongated as their diameter shrinks, the Transmission lamps present an
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For some 200 years Wiener Silber Manufactur have produced the finest silverware. Exquisite cutlery, table services, coffee pots and sugar bowls designed by both the firm's own craftsman and also developed in co-operation with external designers: works by leading protagonists of the Wiener Werkstätte such as Josef Hoffmann or Kolo Moser being joined over the decades by designs from and by the likes of Oswald Haerdtl, Otto Prutscher, Gregor Eichinger or Claesson Koivisto Rune. Yet regardless of
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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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"In a best case scenario, and when the technology is advanced enough, the opaque cover can be replaced by an OLED and so become the light source itself."1 We admit to having wondered when we saw Ionna Vautrin's Binic lamp on the "Light for tomorrow" table at the Vitra Design Museum's Lightopia exhibition. "Nice lamp", we thought, "but not exactly revolutionary." First upon reading in the catalogue did we understand. Inspired by ships funnels Binic is formally very reminiscent of Vico
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Although, according to our strict definition of "design" the work of Leipzig ceramicist Claudia Biehne must be considered handwork, we're delighted Porcelain Studio Biehne & Passig are taking part in the Designers' Open 2013 Spots. When we dropped by the studio Stefan Passig asked how we first got to know the studio's work, and unlike the romance of a casual meeting under an escalator in a former department store, with Studio Biehne & Passig we really can't recall. Suspect however it was at
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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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The Top 5 Lamps from the smow design spring. In no particular order. Kete by David Turnbridge. One of the first lamps we saw in Milan, and probably that which left the greatest impression on us. And not merely on account of its size. For us the principle beauty of Kete is the atmosphere it can create in a room with it 7W LED element. And despite their overproprtionality Kete doesn't domiante the room. Honest. Kete. Anything but dull. moooi. Beach Ball Lamps by TOBYhouse. When we first
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