berlin

last week I traveled to berlin to see some commercial brand fair and to have a look at the dizajn=design exhibition at the polish Institute. the show deals with polish design and gives you an overview of east european aesthetics.

michael okraj, graphic designer and curator of the show, has selected 10 product designer and 10 graphic designer to fill the space. the fact that you are allowed to touch all the objects in the show, gives the visitor an an additional experience. I am polish by myself and I know that polish people are just not that fussy with their stuff.

michael okraj at dizajn = design exhibition
(meanwhile a malafor trunk is stolen)

futu magazine

ori sto by jakub piotr kalinowski

madonna lamp by beata konarska and pawel konarski

ogryzki by karina marusinska

bolo acoustic man by malafor

london

today is the last day of stuart haygarth’s ‘found’ exhibition at the haunch of venison in london. I met stuart and interviewed him in december 2009, shortly after the opening:

stuart + magoo chandelier 2009, found optical lenses

M are you a designer or artist?
SH I am an artist-designer.
M do you think it is important to categorize?
SH I don’t personally. but I think a lot of people need that. that’s why I would say artist-designer keep both parties happy. my work is quite art-based but then it is mainly very functional as well.
M you are educated as a photographic-illustrator; a quite 2 dimensional work approach. now you dedicate yourself to 3 d work?
SH the illustrations I was doing weren’t totally 2 dimensional. It was very collage based, a lot of printed material, found objects that tell a story. like I do now. using 2d and 3d things and combine them. It was more photography-illustration. What I am doing now is a natural progression from my illustration work. I do sculptural objects. but I still do the same thing; I still collect objects and materials that tell a story.
M can I picture your house being full with stuff?
SH (laughs) my studio is really rammed with labeled boxes filled up with things I find. and I have two big shipping containers in essex, outside of london. I hold things, I collect them.
M was it the same when you were a child or is it something you developed in the last years?
SH I talked about it with my parents the other day, after they saw the show. I think I remember always walking with my head down looking for things. but I collected badges and football cards, normal stuff.
M any favourite collected items?
SH the things I collected at the beach, but just man-made things. nothing natural. at the beach, you never know what you will find. and all is free.
M why just man-made stuff?
SH I think, because the materials you find at the beach have changed the aesthetic because of the sand and the salt.
M changed the value?
SH changed the value, the shape. they get discolored. especially the variety of tops show how much manufacturing and consumerism exists in the world. I like the story of why we produce things and then they end up on the beach at their end of their lives.
M I think it is fascinating that you put found objects together. It doesn’t particularly feel put together. It feels like it has to be.
SH that’s good. (grins)
M for example the chandelier, when you come close you see all the pieces and you know what it is. but from far away it looks like a product, it could be mass-produced. when was the moment you put the found objects together and you’ve realized that it became a whole thing?
SH I don’t really know. I don’t get an idea and then collect the objects. I had a different idea for the tops initially and it changed. I scribble notes, and do sketches. I always sort of sit a while with an idea. then I get back to it and see if it’s any good.
M just to imagine it better: you have couple boxes of tops, for example. and you start putting the objects together. are you sitting on the ground with your glue stick?
SH (laughs) I might do a few tests. but I don’t start making them until I am sure that it works.
M do you do it on your own?
SH I do have assistance by now. but putting together and structuring is always totally me.

mirror ball 2009, crushed car wing mirrors
barnacle (black) 2009, cast polyester resin

lighthouse 2009, found plastic tops

wingmirror (cavalier & black cab) 2009,
resin table smashed mirror glass

pleased stuart

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite object

cologne

german brand alape presented ‘betty blue’ a sink that makes the water disappear in the edges at the imm, furniture fair in cologne, last week. the brand says that ‘a bathroom is an architectural space’. mine isn’t but they have certainly convinced me that it could be. Im not sure why, but I like this washbasin, I stood there for 20 minutes mesmerized by the flowing water.

alape was presented within the cologne-based kap forum,
communication platform for architecture, technology, design

cologne

dutch designer pepe heykoop had his 2nd showdown at the 3d contest exhibition, the young designers competition of the imm furniture fair in cologne, last week.

pepe has won the contest in 2009 with “a restless chairacter’, a wobbly chair whose joints are made of rubber. this year the amsterdam-based designer presented his ‘brickseries’ and was awarded with a special mention. pepe told me that he interpreted a chair in a drawing from the artist james gulliver hancock by using wooden 2nd-hand bricks. the start was the chair. the chandelier was a following step. It was a pure experiment of how big he can go. denmark-based company furnism will take the ‘brickseries’ in production soon. we will see what they make of it.

draw yourself

describe yourself on one word

draw your favourite object

pepe’s new dilapidated house

cologne

german designer robert haslbeck has designed a folding table with the name ‘under-koffer’. unused it has the shape of a flat suitcase. but when you unfold the product it becomes a table that reminds me of an ironing table. robert graduated with this project at the burg giebichenstein hochschule für kunst und design in 2009.

last week the ‘under-koffer’ was part of the 3d contest exhibition, the young designers competition of the imm furniture fair in cologne.

cologne

german designer marc ulm worked 7 years in a bookstore before enjoying the pleasure of becoming really creative. he went to the hfg offenbach where he just completed his pre-degree with ‘trilas’, a dynamic seating for the everyday life.

marc ivited me to sit on one of the chairs. he told me to sit on it as I would sit on a horse. ‘trials’ forces you to sit straight without losing a ‘playfully active feeling’. the ‘elastomer-kugel’ in the centre is normally used for sealing in non-return valves from hydraulic fluid, water and air. In this case it allows more flexibility for marc’s design.

the ‘trilas’ is part of the 3d contest exhibition, the young designers competition of the imm furniture fair in cologne. the show continues today.

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite object

cologne

cologne-based grassland is into grass. absolutly all of their products and installations are made with real grass. when you buy a grassland product you receive a lush green object that transfers naturally into a dry straw-coloured object after a month or two. right now grassland is exhibiting at the designers fair in cologne till tomorrow.

orb – the grass ball

next – the grass subscription

don’t really know the name of this lamp

cologne

MA graduate elisa strozyk graduated from central saint martins college of art and design with her wooden carpet project last year. after developing the idea of the wooden carpet, she needed about 2 weeks to hand and laser cut the geometric pieces before bonding it to a fabric backing. now she needs just 4 days to create one of the pieces.

this week berlin-based elisa is exhibiting her wooden object at the 3d contest, the young designers competition of the imm furniture fair in cologne which continues on sunday. elisa said that she can manipulate the material into several 3d shapes. this is simple, by it’s very nature the material naturally forms itself into geometric patterns and shapes.

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite object

cologne

korean jungyou choi and joonsoo kim from studio joon & jung are presenting their ‘rocking on the beach’ chairs at the d3 contest at the imm furniture fair in cologne till sunday. the chairs are made of plastic pipes filled with sand. while using the chair a seashore sound appears.

joonsoo kim shows how one of the chairs works

cologne

julien renault has won the interior innovation award, which is part of the d3 contest, the young designers competition of the imm furniture fair in cologne. his effort to transfer steel forging to aluminum is called ‘hand forged aluminum series’. he convinced the jury with his combination of handcraft technique and industry standards.

julien has studied at the ecal in lausanne. In 2008 he decided to do an internship at brussels-based designer sylvain willenz. they got along so well that sylvain hired him as his assistent after his graduation last year.

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite object

cologne

the contain gallery has teamed up with veltins to make a special design lounge in the city center of cologne. maastricht-based fabian von spreckelsen and lisboa-based mathias witte were responsible for creating a matching interior for the new veltins image which shall point at a younger target group with a sense of style. yesterday they opened the lounge to the visitors of the interior design week in cologne. It is open till sunday from 11am - 11pm. beer is on veltins!

in the lounge

the gallery after the temporally redesign

fabian von spreckelsen and mathias witte
the designer of the veltins design lounge

ioanna paraskeva from the contain gallery +
markus gogolin from designspotter

milan (last year, 2009)

I’ve realised that I haven’t published all drawn interviews which I collected last year. I am mean, how can I even forget about the nice encounter with one of the bouroullec brothers?!

paris-based ronan was at the established & sons press preview during the milan design week when I asked him whether he has a few minutes time for me. I even interviewed him for designguide.tv but the interview was never published. we just need somebody who would pay us for putting so much work into interviewing people..(yeah, it’s a hint)

erwan and ronan came by for the launch of their quilt sofa for english furniture brand established & sons. the couch looks like a spreaded football made of stretchy fabric. It is probably one of the most comfortable things I ever sat on. however, it was a very quick encounter. we were not the only one who fancied meeting the bouroullecs.

the design world says that erwan and ronan complement one another perfectly. they are considered as ‘most promising industrial designers to have emerged from france since philippe starck in the 1980s’ (quote designmuseum) despite this fame I can tell you that ronan is a low-key person who doesn’t surround his daily grind with his own designs because his wife likes it puristic. luckily he listens more to his brother.

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite object

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the reason why the drawings are smeared: read here
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essen

the thing with office chairs is that they mostly look hideous. but this prestigious red dot design award winner manages to pull it off. the ’silver chair’ designed by architect hedi teherani for Interstuhl. the silver surface reminds me of my bread burner.

maastricht

today opened the ‘we were exuberant and still had hope, ettore sottsass: works from stockholm, 1969′ exhibition at the marres, centre for contemporary culture, in maastricht, netherlands.

the deceased italian designers warderobe from 1968 was the centerpoint of the exhibition. ettore sottsass (1917-2007) was renowned for unorthodox ideas in furniture.

wardrobe (also known as superbox), 1968
made by poltronova (agliana, Italy)
made of wood, plastic laminate

london

tomorrow is the last day of california-based artist john baldessari’s ‘pure beauty’ exhibition at the tate in london.

I went there because a graphic design friend of mine, oliver klimpel, recommended it. I like baldessari’s graphical reflection on the nature of art. he made me grin. click here for more of his work.

everything is purged from this painting, 1966-68
at tate, london

I saw It (edition of 100), 1997

amsterdam

ralph nauta and lonneke gordijn met during their studies at the design academy eindhoven. first they fell in love and then they started their studio in 2006: both worked out well for them. the design duo call themselves drift, definitely by name and not by nature, you can see a clear authentic line in their work.

at the end of last year they left eindhoven for a new life in amsterdam. eindhoven for them had limited possibilities. now they have a new studio, formerly an old chip shop, that was beautifully refurbished into a bright and wide open studio.

when you enter the drift design website you find a world of lighting compounded with technology and nature. jerry goldsmith’s theme for basic Instinct supports the drift design fantasy in the background. an enduring song meets design on the same level.

ralph + lonneke

drawing in the kitchen

dandelight - battery-powered led covered in dandelion seeds

fly light (model) - 160 illuminated glass tubes that reacted to the surroundings and visitors’ movements

their new studio in amsterdam

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite object

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ralph nauta

draw yourself

describe yourself in on word

draw your favourite object

I haven’t seen marcel duchamp’s ‘bottle rack’ in real live. I just saw it in a magazine and took a picture of the page.

the ‘bottle rack’ from 1914 was one of the his first readymades. with the so called readymades the artist and object creator has removed design objects from their context as functional objects and recontextualized them as objects of art.

made of galvanized iron

maastricht

last month dutch designer maurice mentjes opened his exhibition called ‘objects and spaces’ at the centre ceramique library in maastricht. maurice is showing few big designers that inspired him such as ettore sottsass and shiro kuramata. the second part of the show is a an overview of his interior projects. but one object was always my favorite of maastricht-born maurice: the kriklamp from 1998.

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