hansandfranz are 2 students of interior design at the academy of visual arts in munich. they meet at uni and decided to work together. and they do it since 2006. to be honest, I never heard about them before. but when I visited the [d3] design talents exhibiton at the imm in cologne I passed their stand. konstantin was sitting their, next to the lights, being dreamy. next to the stand was a board. the word ’supercool’ grabbed my attention - the name of the light. and I decided to talk to this guy without knowing anything about him and his work. he was surprised but did everything I wanted him to do. and when finally his fellow horst came along the hansandfranz team was complete.

when you google ‘hans and franz’ the first hit is a wikipedia entry about 2 characters from a sketch comedy tv show. I read the article and was more than surprised when I found this under ‘cultural references’: ‘two designers from germany, konstantin landuris and horst wittmann, work under the name of “hansandfranz”, inspired by the “snl” (saturday night live) namegiving.’ - they are young designers and they are already mentioned at wikipedia - that makes them megacool. find some more reasons here (onoffice magazine)

konstantin landuris and horst wittmann alias hansandfranz

konstantin is ready to draw

the ‘troja’ arc lamp received a special award at satellite 2007, milano

plastic and aluminium ‘three’ tripod lamp

a line of individual led’s - ’supercool’ lamp

’supercool’ lamp

konstantin landuris:

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word - ineloquent

draw your favourite product -
toio lamp by italian designer achille castiglioni

horst wittmann:

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word - chaotic

draw your favourite product

german design student anika engelbrecht has designed a series of vases called swell. these ceramic vases have huge holes. so normally, if you poured some water in them, these vases would leak. so in a way they loose their function by having these holes. balloons fill this holes and the vases retain their function of fl using a balloon as water storage.

I do not maintain that dutch designer els woldhek is running off the pictured chair design from 1981. this is just the perfect example of how form or shape is celebrating a comeback in design. again and again.

bastard chair by els woldhek at [d3] design talents, cologne

front cover domus magazine, 1981

kilian schindler graduated in 2008 at the state university of media arts and design (they do not have an english version of their website) in karlsruhe, germany.

he describes the project he was showing at the imm, cologne furniture fair, as follows: ..’extracting well-know elements from their usual context..’ - basically he reduced the well known plastic chair into outlines. the plastic chair is designer’s favourite right now:

berlin-based jerzy seymour has done a redesign for magis, 2004.
see here

the swedish girls from front design covered it in leather, 2008.
see here

dutch designer maarten baas designed a version made of wood, 2008. see here.

robert andriessen from designguide.tv asked me to do an interview for him. I am talking to english designer terence woodgate who is one of the creators of the surface table, a collaboration of furniture design and car design, for manufacturer established & sons. I am constantly nodding and blinking like a strobe light. It was the first time that I was filmed while I talk to a designer. anyway it was a pleasure to talk to terence and we just stopped because we had to. so, watch the extract of the extensive interview:

Interview Terence Woodgate at Magazin, Cologne, Germany from robertanderson on Vimeo.

robert andriessen from designguide.tv is making shots of the surface table while a guy is polishing it (he was constantly doing so)

terence and me

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

parachute - terence is an adrenalin hunter ;-)

philippe malouin is 26 and traveled the world of design. he is canadian and did the Industrial design program at the university of montreal, visited the ecole nationale de création Industrielle in paris for 6 months and graduated at the design academy eindhoven in the man and living department. on top of this comes the fact that he was a lucky intern at amsterdam-based designer frank tjepkema’s studio and at the tom dixon studio in london. tom dixon offered him a job at his studio. but instead of working full time for him he decided to do part time and to work also on his own projects.

philippe received the second prize at the [d3] design talents awards in cologne for his inflatable table called ‘grace’. he admires the capacity of inflatable furniture. so talking to phillippe was fun. he is open and talkative and always on the run. pretty hard to get him for an interview. we were once appointed in london and than we talked about meeting in eindhoven. but we finally made it in cologne. just by accident! so he thinks that he can’t draw. at least that’s what people tell him. but he as enough experience to compensated that by his other skills. philippe and I have the same favourite pub in london, the george and dragon in shoreditch. a place of eccentric décor and a wired audience. the right place to celebrate an award! (I celebrated my last birthday there)

grace by phillipe malouin - inflatable table

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

clothes-peg

I’ve met dan ziglam and elliot brook at the imm cologne, international furniture fair, this week. the uk-based directors of deadgood, a furniture company of young design, started their business after meeting in university. they run their ‘baby’ with a lot of passion and love. ;-)

belgian designer raphale charles designed a carpet of mousse PE and felt pieces. the elements of the carpet look like black coal. thrown together the soft pieces exist as a rug.

20/30 tapis 2008
diameter: 240 cm
material: mousse PE, felt

unfortunatly I didn’t take a picture of the whole carpet

pepe heykoop graduated last year from the living department at design academy eindhoven. I have seen his chair at the graduation show and filmed it. now he has won the [d3] design talents award in cologne. basically its a simple shaped chair with flexible rubber joints.

‘a restless chairacter’ - flexible chair by pepe heykoop
model: derya inanici from designguild san francisco

london-based industrial designer ross lovegrove visited cologne last night to present his istanbul bathroom collection for turkish brand vitra (I know what you think.. ‘doesn’t that name belong to the manufacturer of designer furniture? THE vitra‘)

during his speech the socalled captian organic described the range as ‘digital organic islamic’. what a description. but again he is using a nature based design language. so I really wanted to talk to ross but unfortunately he was so busy with talking to different people that I didn’t get the chance. what a pity..

ross lovegrove (continue…)

I will be in cologne the next days.

check the furniture fair called imm and the other events around. they are presented in context with the passagen cologne. lalala

lutz caesar is a photographer. he is the one who took the picture of me above. lutz parents were on a trip in south america in 1981. they bought this sweater with the lama theme. and now, 28 years ago, lutz felt that its his time to wear it. (I want one with horses or with armadillos)

rest area - highway 40 between bochum and essen, germany

it might not look great, but there is a great intention behind it. this is the xoxo laptop by industrial designer yves béhar. the laptop is part of the ‘one laptop per child‘ project and is manufactured by quanta computer. basically it means that by producing a basic device they ensure that every child from the developing world has access to a personal computer.

the xo is not new, they even brought the xoxo on the market, a version which is half the original size of the xo. and it has also won many design awards. but my friend anna pors, who is doing her internship at eggfilm in south africa, send me 3 links to some videos which are produced by the company she is working for right now.

the $100 laptop at the red dot design museum in essen, germany

olpc mission, part 1: principles and child empowerment

olpc : zimi’s story full

english designer jasper morrison and japanese designer naoto fukasawa are making ’super normal’ objects visible for us. its the amazing plastic bag, the fascinating paper clip and the nifty vegetable peeler. discover it in super normal - sensations of the ordinary.

(continue…)

the miele products are winner of the red dot design award 2007 and are ‘produced for the north american market’. I wonder if the people in north america are bigger than in europe?!..

miele t9800 tumble dryer - me - w4800 washing machine

moss pencil by bangkok-based I’m curio,
red dot award winner 2008

I’m curio’s product description:
‘the fluffy green jacket plays wit its haptic appeal. curiously, the viewer immediately takes this pencil into his hands’.

and here we have the chocolate pencil by me.
I think I deserve the red dot improvisation award 2009

matylda’s product description:
‘the temptation make you pick up the pencil and put the chocolate in your mouth. curiously, the user can use the pencil afterwards.’

everything is said in the headline. is that necessary? does anybody want flower ornaments in their bathtub?

so, the tub is called igloo I-crylic bathtub by bangkog-based bathroom design team (what an innovative name). It won the red dot product design award in 2008 and the product description says that the flashing leds have a therapeutic and aesthetic value. (it makes me nervous) I get the concept and the fact that they used a special translucent acrylic sheet and integrated led’s at the surface. but if designers do so, please think about simplicity.

(continue…)

today I have been at the red dot design museum in essen, germany. I totally like the idea of a secure usb stick but this product is an overkill. the 007 usb flash drive by taichung-based duck image is waterproof, the product description promises 3 security levels and while looking on the picture I’ve started to think about the bike lock I still need to buy. the stick has won a red dot award in 2006. maybe in 2009 someone wins an award for a data storage with voice identification?! wouldn’t that be great?

concrete - the trusted construction material. my academy in maastricht is a concrete building. maybe one of the reasons why I feel so comfortable there. I like the hard and massive appearance of concrete buildings.

the southbank centre london, europe’s largest centre for the arts is one of my other favourites. next to the barbican. (see my previous post here) the southbank centre consists of the royal festival hall, the hayward, queen elizabeth hall and the saison poetry library. the entire complex is build in the 50ies and located at the thames in southbank. It’s close to the tate modern, which openend in 2000 and is another cultural enrichment in bankside, at the thames.

(continue…)

beautiful 1950s Ivory bakelite telephone - a classic. more black telephones were produced in the 50ies. bakelite is the first plastic in the world invented by belgian-born chemist leo baekeland in 1907.