my internship at dezeen, design and architecture magazine, is over since yesterday. all the fun of reading about design and designers, resizing images, copying, pasting, putting a story together is over - a quoting of my colleague (ok, ex colleague) rose etherington. she thinks that I won’t miss this at all (that was her british humor). but I already do.

3 months of good and various experiences are lying behind me. I’ve meet a lot of people, spend a lot of time at marcus fairs and rupinder boghal’s house, meet their beautiful children (I wanna marry jordi, his son. but I have to wait 14 years. he is just 4 right now!) and learned how it is to be a part of the design circus. thanks for everything and especially for giving me the chance to be a part of your work.

see my previous story about the dezeen office

tonight I have been at the opening of the ‘balke’ bar at the hohe strasse in dortmund, germany. another project of the guys from muto (phillip winterkamp, jan moeller, falk bocker and robin thon).

once again oliver klimpel from buro international london is responsible for the corporate identity. but this time he consulted me about the lighting in the bar. I suggested my favourite torch lamp from sylvain willenz (see my previous entry about the designer). check the result..

the floor - inspired by a scancode

2 loos for the girls - most of them go together anyway

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and after all questions in life we need a new one.

roy orbit is roy orbit, a dj with the love for jocoseness. I’ve met him at lucky strike ‘white colours’ event in hotel shanghai, essen, germany. we know each other for years and he still has the competency to choose the right tshirt for the right event. he even makes his own. check doozy.

always surrounded by his fans

brussels was great but now I am in germany for a while.

what a surprise - sylvain willenz became a designer because he likes to make things. don’t get me wrong - it’s not the first time that I hear that from a creative. but sylvain convinced me. it’s the way he starts to grin when he talks about his rubber prototypes and how beautiful he thinks the delivered colour sample is. he couldn’t imagine doing something else.

sylvain loves to collect stuff and gets inspiration from the flea markets he loves to go to. but he still needs to go to london once every month. he lived there for a while and graduated from the royal college from art in 2003. that’s why he speaks perfect english - very untypical for a french speaking belgian who is born in brussels. he told me that he has never been the admirer of industrial design but he is starting to like it a lot. he is currently working on a design for a chair (every designer wants to make a chair!) on the basis of what I saw in his studio I can tell you that it’s gonna be a chair you like to sit on: uncomplicated, straight and joyful - like sylvain.

sylvain

torch light for established & sons by sylvain willenz

freecom hd/ xxs freecom hd designed by sylvain willenz

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

his new samsung mobile phone - after buying it, he found out that it is a design by jasper morrison

the brussels biennial had their showdown this year: the first art exhibition in belgiums capital. it got bad reviews and even the people I know in brussels had not many positive things to tell about the the event.

I havent seen the whole biennial but I went to location a, the old post sorting center at the gare midi (train station). great building with a good view at the rail traffic industry. here is my favourite: my beloved vhs and mounir fatmi’s brutal statement to architects. ‘fuck architects’ is the title of his exhibited work. (people tend to be very dramatic these days). the biennial continues at 4 January 2009.

corporate identity brussels biennial by base design brussels

skyline by mounir fatmi, 2007

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I am not the biggest fan of ikea. ok, I like the cheap hotdogs there but I basically do not like the idea that everybody could have the same furnishing at home. so, I am here, still in brussels and my friend marco gabriele lorusso wanted to go to the ikea tonight. I’ve joined him and found this mask in the kids department. I fell in love, put it on and 4 hours later I am still wearing it. the woman at the hot-dog stand asked me if carnival started earlier this year.

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arne quinze, belgian designer, has done another wooden installation called the sequence in the center of brussels. I’ve been at the opening last sunday. it looks basically like the one he did a while ago. also in bruxelles. it is called city scape and was opened last summer. the difference between both is that he added some red painted wood to the new installation crossing the parliament with the house of flemish representatives. not just plain wood, like he did the first time. basically an installation of timber wood. something that looks like a floating forest of mikado sticks. I guess its very hip to do random designs right now. besides the red light associated a red light district to some of the visitors …is that bruxelles chance to become the new amsterdam?! haha.. sorry for my sarcasm

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so, I am doing a little stopover in bruxelles, the capital of belgium. visiting friends, enjoying various surroundings and still working for dezeen. so why not traveling as long as I can.. in fact I am here since saturday night - (I’ve spend that night in the ‘famous’ cafe central). but there was no scanner around to make my current stay official. and I still had some meetings with designers from london to post.

matali crasset is a french designer. I came across her name because she was on the cover of the icon magazine. (what other people have with hollywood celebrities, design interested students have with designers. haha)

I meet matali last thursday evening when I went to the opening of her ‘another logic of…’ exhibition at the rabih hage gallery. she is a philippe starck protégé. its something you (talking about myself!) don’t see in her work. at least in her latest designs. the form is flawless. fanciful. I felt like in a space station. matali is this woman who radiates this inner peace: a calm person who is confident and obviously want to share experiences with others. when I asked her to describe herself in one word, she immediately wrotes ‘a mother’. from her facial expression you can tell she has found her role in life with the creation of her daughter.

exhibition at gallery rabih hage in south kensington, london

matali crasset - her hair is her trademark

chandelier by matali crasset - interactive light. the light changes the colour to the colour of the food

matali demonstrating the chandelier, 2008

interior element by matali crasset, 2008

spring city video installation by matali crasset, 2008

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

It was like a natural decision to meet matthew plummer fernandez. first I saw his sound chair and then I was fascinated by his window installation at selfridges department store in london - another project for designersblock (rory, you really boost this kid).

matthew is born in colombia but raised in england. his name is a symbiosis of his cultural background. he studied mechanical engineering and graphic design and will graduate at the royal college next year, where he is doing his ma in design products. he calls himself multidisciplinary designer. he can do that! before he came to the rca, he was working for rolf sachs studio, julia lohmann and had a part time job in catering - he was working more than a doctor. matthew was talking with sebastien noel from troika, his tutor, when I popped into the rca. he was discussing his ideas for his current assignment which could become his graduation work. matthew reads books from the back because he is left-handed and he thinks that things have to beautiful in the beginning and reach a meaning level when you look closer. that sounds almost romantic.

‘oh..’

‘helou..’

he likes his sneakers. yes, he does.

at his desk at the royal college of art

first sketches/ideas of his graduation work

concept for an installation for designersblock which will be shown at covent garden next week - a project with vahakn matossian

sound chair - photo from matthew’s flickr

the apifera, window installation at selfridges for designersblock - during london design festival 2008 - photo from matthew’s flickr

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

‘the brave one’

draw your favourite product

how nice - a kebab lover

unfortunately I do not have a scanner here. I had to take a picture of the drawings. that explains why they look so weird.

comme des garçons, the avantgard of fashion, created a collection for hm, the mass market of fashion. today was the official launch of the work of rei kawakabu, the japanese designer of iconic status. also here in london. hm is selling its clothes in 32 countries. a huge chain of 1600 stores. commes des garcons have no stores. some guerilla stores ( see my previous story about the los angeles guerilla store which I’ve visited in may 2008 - greetings to brett westfall, co-owner of the store) their collection is hard to get and over the edge. so opposites attracht.

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another ‘I need to mention it’ design from the london design festival… the design weeks and festivals just have so much content to show… the first piet hein eek pop-up store was launched at the rabih hage gallery in south kensington, london. it was the biggest solo showcase the dutch designer ever had. piet became famous through his furniture built from recycled wood.

the new trend - the pop-up shop: not so long ago people called it guerilla store. a temporary showroom

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there is an exhibition with the title ‘cold war modern’ at the v&a museum, london right now. yesterday I was there and took some illegal pictures, forgot to switch off my flash and was almost kicked out. it was thrilling.

installation view oasis 7 by hans-rucker-co at documenta 5, kassel, 1972

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I saw esther stocker’s work at the liftoff, (location was the office of buro philip van den hurk financial consultants) at the dutch design week in eindhoven, which ended last month. the title of the exhibition was ‘the truth of basics, resetting the history of living between four walls’ and different artists and designers were presenting artwork or designs in a room.

one of my teachers at my academy, academy maastricht, use to say to me: matylda, I really wanna know where your black and white obsession is coming from. I didn’t find an answer yet but I do know that it’s true. what I like about esther stocker’s installations: they are black and white and geometrically well thought out (like a system she wants you to be in).

lift 2008

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oliver klimpel is a graphic designer. he was born in germany. after studying at the royal college of art he decided to stay in london. maybe because he thinks that german tv sucks and that the english tv programs are much better. it’s not the real reason. it’s my theory. in 2000 he set up a project called ‘büro international’ with the intention of work with 2 colleagues who are based in berlin and copenhagen. it was fine in the beginning but now they run the business separately.

the first time I saw him he was wearing blue sneakers, which reminded me of smurf feet. I met him because he was doing the corporate identity for a friend’s club, bosch bobby, in dortmund. he also did it for another project, called stranddeck. so it was the second time that I was confronted with his work. oliver was also an associate lecturer at central st martins college london and kensington & chelsea college. he has now been appointed professor for system-design / graphic design at the academy of visual arts leipzig. I give you one advise about oliver: do never ever play german schlager (like rex gildo or marianne rosenberg) when he is around. that doesn’t cut any ice with him.

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

rice boiler

another post from the saatchi gallery (the current exhibition ‘the revolution continues’ about chinese art is worth to visit!) here is the ‘old persons home’ installation by sun yuan and peng yu. they are renown for working with extreme materials such as human fat tissue, live animals, and baby cadavers to deal with issues of perception, death, and the human condition.

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I am in london since friday, had a great halloween evening at the no. 5 cavendish square hotel, get to know the cold and rainy british weather and didnt see anything designish worth to post. but I present ‘the diet chip’, an invention of stephan siepermann during the dutch design week.

Erdnussflips — a light brown, peanut-flavored corn snack in the shape of a small pellet

call me crazy or scream at me because I cant stay somewhere for long. but I feel home in different places. sometimes I just think that it is just nicer somewhere else. you learn a lot while traveling and meeting people. that’s what I do. london was good - london wants me back. here I come. lalala