Or indeed any side table from Moormann. Based in a remote alpine valley hard on the Germany/Austria border it is hard to imagine a designer furniture producer who better fit into our modern White Christmas romantic than Nils Holger Moormann. Especially given the elven-esque Moormänner who assist Nils Holger with the construction and distribution of his products. And so a few suggestions from Haus Moormann for those of you looking for wood based Christmas presents a la days of yore: Mini
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Name: Stephan Schulz Born: Schwerin, 1983 Alma mater: 2003-2009 Industrial Design, Burg Giebichenstein, Halle 2007-2008 Erasmus studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven Internships: 2008 Bellini Design Studio, Milan Products: Stellvertreter for Nils Holger Moormann, Aschau im Chiemgau Concrete bowl series "frisch ausgeschalt" for Betoniu, Leipzig (smow)blog: Why Industrial Design? Stephan Schulz: It sort of just developed. I've always built things and experimented with different
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You know how it is. You arrive early in the office..... Make a coffee..... Turn the computer on........ Check out the tabloid press websites..... And break gently into the day with stories as irrelevant and vacuous as they are compelling. It's just a comfortable and familiar way to start the day. This morning was different. The story had all the makings of normal tabloid nonsense: a pop star, a footballer's wife and a party guest list that you suspect had been thrown together by a tired and
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The theme of the 2010 Designpreis Halle is and was "travel" For us travelling to Halle has a special meaning as in a previous life we used to regularly travel to Halle, experience all sorts of perverse inhumane horrors and then travel back to Leipzig glad - once again - to have escaped from the banks of the Saale with our lives. That was then. But since then not only has our life changed but we now see and understand Halle in a completely different light. Thanks largely to another tour;
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We're not in New York for ICFF this year. Last year was just toooooo traumatic... Which is a shame because our inbox is full of the most wonderful shows and products - not least the lamp collection from "the new American lighting company" Roll and Hill. In many ways a vehicle for Brooklyn designer - and our personal highlight from last years ICFF - Jason Miller, Roll and Hill carries a wide range of lighting from contemporary US designers including Lindsey Adams Adelman, Paul Loebach,
read moreWe don't have to go to Milan to visit Moormann. We can just go to Aschau. But we do enjoy visiting Moormann in Milan, because they always make that little more effort. After Moormann's 2009 Saloni Milano stand with Liesmichl, Strammer Max, Steckling et al, 2010 is looking a little more reserved. That said Else is already promising to be one of the highlights of Milan 2010 for us. Else is not a Moormann employee, lovely as they all are, but a new shelving concept by Werner Gasser. As you
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For us Switzerland means three things. USM Haller Tax avoidance. Phil Collins. With the evening "Neue Stimmen from Switzerland", organised by SWIPS - Swiss Independent Publishers - and supported by Pro Helvetia, the (smow)room in Leipzig hosted the second (smow)liest event during the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse. And proved that the Alpine Republic, does have more to offer. A lot more. Roman Graf opened proceedings with his debut novel "Herr Blanc". As a young man Herr Blanc left possibly
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It's not easy being German. It really isn't. Fortunately, it can be highly entertaining; as Philipp Kohlhöfer more than eloquently demonstrated to a full house at the opening event of (smow)liest 2010 in the (smow)room in Leipzig. From David Hasselhoff karoake with South-Central LA gangsters to dinner with Nelly Furtado via the moral dilemmas of associating oneself with childless individuals, Philipp Kohlhöfer led the audience through an amusing, and at times highly poetic, evening of
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Following our visit to the #VitraHaus this coming Friday, the (smow)wintertour 2010 then proceeds, by ski, along the alps to Aschau im Chiemgau, Bavaria and a visit to Nils Holger Moormann and the, so-called, Moormann Haus. Constructed in 1859 by the Bavarian star architect/stage designer team of Christian Jank and Eduard Riedel, who later went on to find wider acclaim with the construction of Schloss Neuschwanstein, the Moormann Haus was built to commemorate the presentation by Maximilian
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It all started with "boutique" hotels. which, if one is brutally honest, were simply small hotels. Or guest houses as we used to call them. Back in the day. Then slowly, ever so slowly the term "design hotels" emerged and today - whether used to describe a hotel where each room has it's own "identity" or an establishment furnished with designer furniture - design hotels represent an important part of the accommodation repertoire, and tourist marketing concept, of all major cities. As with so
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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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Students. We love em! But slightly better than students are poor graduates. For just as a man alone in a forest at night must rely on all his wit and inventiveness to find warmth and food, so must a designer taking his first tentative freelance steps rely on all his talents and intuition as a designer not to freeze to death. Or starve. So, or at least similar, is how we like to imagine Eero Aarnio developing probably his most defining design: the Ball Chair Helsinki. 1962. The young Eero
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Back in June we started a campaign to encourage election officials to improve the furnishing of their polling stations. We can't claim a great deal of success, or indeed any, but we remain committed to the cause and so will be using Sundays General Election here in Germany to further promote our demand for more stylish and aesthically pleasing polling stations. However, in comparison to the local election where we made use of the practical Eames Elephant from Vitra as our urn, for the more
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In the next week or so we will be introducing here some of the new products from Thonet that are now available at smow.com. But before we get that far, a small video below that explains something of the story of Thonet furniture and the production process involved in bent wood and bent metal furniture. Narrated by perennial smow favourite Nils Holger Moormann. The text is currently only in German - we are however working on a translation - and so until then sit back and enjoy the pictures.
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There are very few major designer furniture producers who are prepared to risk truly inventive design. The exception, as in so many facets of the industry, is Nils Holger Moormann. Although the basic look and feel of Moormann furniture rarely changes, the functionality and conceptual basis always does. And with Strammer Max, Max Frommeld has helped Moormann, once again, move the borders of what is acceptable in designer furniture. Who else would even consider a design that requires using
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Just in time for the official start of the balcony reading season in Northern Europe, (smow) is proud to announce the arrival of Liesmichl by Nils Holger Moorman. Without a doubt one of the freshest and most inventive reading/side table design of late, Liesmichl is also an expression of Nils Holger Moormann's love affair with the written word. And a rare excursion by the southern German firm away from 100% wood furniture. The genius of Liesmichl is not the wonderful holder on the top where
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Lets get the tricky one out the way first. The Top 5 Tables from the smow design spring. In no particular order. Liesmichl by Nils Holger Moormann for Moormann. If there's one thing Moormann excel at it's producing book friendly furniture. From the outrageous Bookinist over the classically overtoned Bookstabler and onto the book-friendly desk Kant, the Allgauer always seem to have readers at the forefront of their thoughts. And Liesmichl is no exception; space for books your going to read, a
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It must be a summer thing. Not only are our newspapers and magazines full of authors recommending their chums books, but first design observer portrayed their reading tips and then design sojourn brought out their "30 Essential Books for Industrial Designers" Obviously the design world is planning downing tools and spending the long hot summer that awaits us reading. Which is fine by us. For, in addition to supplying designer furniture, we at smow also stock a wide range of books on and
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As a Europe-wide active business we at smow take Europe very seriously. We must, it is our home. And naturally for us the European elections are an important event for which we are more than happy to sacrifice a couple of hours of our time in which to go voting. But don't you also agree that polling stations are frightfully dull locations? We're not snobs, but, you know, one could at least try to, you know, make a little effort. So smow spoke to the responsible authorities in Leipzig and
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As our old snowboard buddy used to say "Beaten tracks are for beaten men". And as everyone who deliberately strays from the conventional path knows sometimes you push it too far, take too many risks, lose control, break several limbs, are out of action for months and must begin all over again. Or if you know what you are doing, the conditions are right, you have the talent and just that pinch of luck you might just have the ride of your life - a ride that leaves you longing for the same,
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Six years ago Nils Holger Moormann, designer and furniture producer, started a process against Ikea - accusing the Swedish company of ,how shall we put it, „borrowing“ one of his companies designs. Despite the pessimism of colleagues and industry insiders, Moormann won at every trial and Ikea were eventually obliged to remove the offending article from sale. The process may have cost Moormann lots of effort and resources, but it also won him a lot of recognition in the industry for his
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Winter in Europe and while the weather outside is at it’s less attractive, it’s good to know that at home one has a functioning, stable and unobtrusive coat hanger. For as long as coats have existed, top designers, and those who aspire to such, have tested their art on the challenge of creating the perfect construction on which to hang said coat. A hook is a hook you think, think again, Knax from loca, is characterised by its unostentatious, functional design. The hooks sit within the
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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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„… 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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