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Awards | 24.03.2009

smow offline: Project Vitra and the art of good reading

The snow is back in Leipzig and so whereas the weekend was spent enjoying the warm spring air - the evenings are now being spent enjoying the warm living room and a good book. And so it's just as well we were recently at Leipzig book fair. Among the seemingly endless piles of new historical novels, travel guides - each, naturally, with the best insider tips - and Harry Potter wannabes there was also a few title that appealed to us. "Project Vitra" from Rolf Fehlbaum und Cornel Windlin for

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Designer furniture comes of age: TEFAF, Holland

The (smow) blog has more than once suggested that designer furniture is more than just a comfortable place to sit of an evening or a convenient ledge on which to place your coffee while reading the paper; and that a well constructed piece of quality designer furniture can be a real investment. Proof of this theory, if it were needed, can currently be found at the TEFAF Maastricht - one of the world largest and most important art and antique fairs. For the first time in its 34 year history the

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CeBIT 2009: A furnsihers perspective

Last week the (smow)team made their annual pilgrimage to the CeBIT communications and IT trade fair in Hannover – not as exhibitor but as curious visitors and passionate techies. And while we looked for ways to improve our on-line service and to offer even more features, we found our attention being continually attracted – and occasionally astounded – by the furniture behind and around the stands. And over the course of the visit we had plenty of time and opportunity to draw up a list of our

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Product | 26.02.2009

Wheely good designs: Trolleys for all occassions

The dollop of cream atop the perfect office is a practical, aesthetic and user friendly trolley. In general an office trolley fulfills several roles: As a convenient depository for heavy folders or a pile of uncompleted jobs or occasionally as a bar trolley. smow currently offers five different trolleys, that in addition to providing work-based mobility can also be used as side tables and/or mobile bars: Gastone from Kartell (Design: Antonio Citterio & Oliver Löw) Gastone is an elegant

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Awards | 23.02.2009

Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award: Part 2

Success for Konstantin Grcic. The 43 year old German was today announced as "Category Winner: Furniture" at the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2009 and now goes forward to the grand final. “It is tough creating a design classic, but the MYTO might just have achieved this through its rigorous experimentation and research, resulting in the technically very difficult outcome of a cantilevered plastic chair.” So commented the judges of the 2009 Brit Insurance Design of the Year award their

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Designer | 28.11.2008

Copy or Original?

Among the chairs on offer from smow are two versions of the Panton chair: The „classic“ version from 1959 for 899 Euro and the newer Panton chair version from 1999 for 198 Euro. The classic 1959 version is still produced according to designer Verner Pantons original vision; every chair from one casting. The 1999 model is an affordable, mass market model based on Verner Pantons original design Which of course raises the question: Which stool is the original? Both, only the Panton Chair

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