rabih hage is an architect and interior designer. he specialises in contemporary design, furniture and art. he is the gallery owner of the rabih hage gallery - south kensington, london. (see my previous post about the piet hein eek exhibition and the one about matali crasset) creatives like moritz waldemeyer - light designer, jonathan root - photographer, assa ashuach - designer, are some of the lucky beggars who exhibited in his gallery.

besides rabih collaborated with canadian designer gillian russell and with design writer max fraser by launching detank, a platform committed to providing the latest discussions on design, this year during the design week in milan. It is also open for young talent and established designers to submit their recent work to be curated and showcased on the online exhibition space - an idea which a lot people already had but maybe this gonna be different than the rest.

I like people with humour - and when rabih was drawing himself I realized he his a guy with a special humour. he draws himself and 2 mates in a view from the top. all wearing sombreros and peeing against a wall. rabih stands on the left. he is telling a joke. thats why the other 2 guys pee in a wiggly line. rabih, you don’t look mexican though …

draw yourself

‘rabih’

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

a condom and a wine glass

matali crasset is a french designer. one I once heard of because she was on the cover on icon magazine. (what other people have with hollywood celebrities have design interested students 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 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’. on the face of it you could tell that she has found her luck in creating 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.

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

he is a ‘fun-loving designer’ - at least you can read this in articles about him… to be honest, it’s true! jeroen wesselink is a little boy (I don’t want to measure that with his real height) with curly hair and a contagious smile. he graduated at the design academy in 2006 and opened a studio with stephan siepermann afterwards. I was visiting him and the other designers from the laboratory bazaar during the dutch design week at their stand in the strijp-s, eindhoven.

I guess jeroen is mostly known for his my deer chair, a chair in a shape of a deer which you can also hang up like a deer head. or for his floco stool, a seating object with a rubber ball as its seat.

jeroen is a designer who needs to create or design all the time. its more about doing something than about thinking. the process is the way. and when you watch him casting his ‘mini willie magnets’ you noticed that he is doing it with an incredible easiness. even when he is talking to the visitors at the stand it looks like he can give everybody a good feeling about what he does.

jeroen wesselink

the real wesselink and his ‘my deer’ stool

one of his new products

jeroen was making mini willie …

… magnets during the dutch design week at the stand in the strijp-s

the stand at strijp-s of the laboratory bazaar, a collective of designers
stephan siepermann, jeroen wesselink, beerd van stokkum

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

floco + chick

I met jon stam and his curiosity cabinet at the design academy graduation show during the dutch design week. I passed the cabinet without noticing it. at first glance it looks like an ordinary cupboard. but I went back because some people were standing there, starring at it. I found out that there are 2 hidden values in this piece of furniture.

1: 16 drawers store objects and pictures.
2: the other 16 drawers have a RFID reader. if you put one of them on a dock station your computer automatically shows the content which was saved on it. It also connects via an USB port for those who don’t have the RFID reader … the cabinet itself becomes his portfolio of his time at design academy.

jon recieved the rene smeets award 2008 for the cabinet - an award for the best graduated project, handed out by the academy. he told me that he would love to do his master at the royal college in london and that he lives in antwerp right now. he is also doing freelance work for the z33 (art and design centre) in hasselt, a place I use to visit sometime because maastricht isn’t far away. I guess we will hear more from jon stam, the canadian guy who brings together physical objects and digital data in one furniture.

jon stam

take a drawer

put it on the docking station

recognize!

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

london-based mr. bingo is an illustrator and animator. and when I arrived in london 2 months ago, marius claudy, a guy I know from germany highly recommended him for a “meet & greet”. what really made me laugh is the wikipedia entry of mr. bingo. it says for example:”he describes himself as having a “slightly smaller than average” head and “girl’s arms,” plus “the same haircut as his mum”. how many people do you know with such a great self-mockery?

so I popped into his office… he was listening to tv on the radio, made me a tea (surprisingly british) and gave me a little insight in his work. he showed me how he creates his illustration - by drawing them by hand, scanning them and coloring them in photoshop. he worked for different companies like nike, bbc, mtv, the guardian and more. I asked him about his favorite work and he just could not name it. he said that illustrating is the only thing he ever wanted to do and that his hole work is a favorite. it is even his hobby. he could not even think about something else he would do instead.

there is one mysterious thing about mr. bingo - nobody knows his real name. even chris, the guy who is sitting with him in the office was unsure about his name given at birth. mr bingo came into existence through a bingo game years ago, before he became a professional illustrator. It’s his trademark.

yeah

that’s him

one of his favourite pieces, bought in new york

some work in the icon magazine

the boosh t-shirt

mr bingo work: hair portrait’s (in the loo)

his new office

thanks for the pic, mr bingo. the theme is: give me a stupid look

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

dyson - airblade

I don’t even remember when or where I saw the meltdown chair for the first time. but I remember that I liked it on the first sight and that feeling hasn’t changed. since I’ve been in london I’ve been constantly confronted with tom price’s work. I’ve read about him on the internet, saw his new fleece chair at the from now to eternity exhibition at the mother biscuit building (isn’t that a cool name for a building?) in shoreditch and finally run across him at tent, a design event during london design week. I actually just took a picture of his cable tie meltdown chair and the guy at the stand was so kind to put away the label on the chair so I could make a proper picture. shortly after I went away I asked myself if this guy was tom price himself and I went back to find out. yeah, it was him. we had a little chat and he told me that barbara chandler, a famous design journalist, once said that she has never seen a design like his pp tube meltdown chair and that she likes it a lot. I guess these things are the moments when you realize that you are on the right track with what you do. congratulations tom - I want to see more!

happy tom

detail of one of his meltdown chairs

tom is drawing

meltdown chair - pp tube, 2008 (picture from tom price)

meltdown chair - cable tie, 2008

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

when I went to the established & sons breakfast I had the chance to ask jaime hayon, a spanish designer, to draw for me. he studied industrial design and started his individual career in 2004, after working as a researcher in fabrica, benetton’s communication research center in Italy.

jaime was presenting his new book, works by the gestalten verlag, which is like an encyclopaedia of his versatile work. he worked for different companies, like bisazza, metalarte and lladro, and I guess he could work for more.

the main thing why I like what he designs is that he wants to add value to life by creating fun objects. like a little boy who thinks that drawing a rabbit on the livingroom wall would make the people smile. how else could you have the ability to ‘play’ with plain material but with marvellous forms which tend to be giant, sometime. and how else could you publish portraits where you are wearing a pink bunny costume? wanna see? photo by nienke klunder, photographer and jaime’s girlfriend.

jaime, while he is drawing

jaime’s selfdesigned shoes for camper

jaime’s book - jaime hayon works

jaime in a talk with lina from gestalten and minnie from established & sons

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

he said that he is full of energy but sometimes like an old radio which plays the same ’songs’

draw your favourite product

arne jacobsen, stelton ashtray

on my way back from amsterdam I made a little stopover in utrecht (in my opinion the most beautiful city of the netherlands) and visited stephan siepermann in his studio. he studied at the design academy in eindhoven and graduated in 2005. since then he is working on his furniture and his lamps and he would never do something which doesn’t work and make any sense. high scores for functionality! but his designs need to have a link in the name like his duct’ chairs which are made of duct tape. just to make clear what kind of material he used. maybe because people should know what they buy. yes, stephan is as honest as his designs - a laid-back ex-wuppertaler (a city in west germany where he was born) who is satisfied when he gets the chance to go fishing with his fellas and who is all the while playing drums in a band. and for me he is superman because I understood ’superman’ and not ’siepermann’ when he introduced himself on a party in cologne. that’s where we met the first time, at the furniture fair in cologne in the begin of the year.

stephan siepermann

eating pancakes in front of the studio (we know whats good)

inside the studio

ript’ chairs and accicantelly candleholder

‘design is just a hobby’ - a stephan siepermann statement in 2008

draw yourself

stephan use to steal all hammers from a building site at his parents home when he was a kid

describe yourself in one word

‘playful’

draw your favourite product

his boat

his real name is maurits van de grift (so typical dutch) he loves girls and loves to dj. the first time that I heard about him was when I became a fan of strfckr on myspace. the 2 meter man with the long hair (he was brushing his hair 2 times while we were sitting in the meander office) actually wanted to became a fashion designer in his younger days but realized, after 2 years of study, that there is no adequate mission in the fashion world for him. being a dj is what he intends and even his mum is proud of her ‘little’ boy. oslo hilton started with hip hop in the 90ies but now his style is multidisciplinary without minimal (he hates it). amsterdam is his homebase but he would love to travel the world and spin the records everywhere. the strfckr dude is a darling who prepared egg salad sandwiches for me, a passion we have in common, and took me out to the paradiso club where we had some vodka and were dancing to hip hop and pop music. my final words: if life could be a strfckr song I would choose ‘I hate the 80ies‘.

olso hilton

oslo hilton wodka

polaroids on his wall

oslo at his desk in the club meander, this desktop background is the dutch female hockey team

maurits at home

draw yourself

oslo - the falco fan

describe yourself in one word

‘lieferd’ with an f, means ’sweetheart’ in dutch

draw your favourite product

he said: it’s his best-selling product!

for any booking requests contact the thriller agency

these girls have a lot in common - they live together, studied together and graduated together. they know what they want. they are demanding. but they are interested in different disciplines. severine jessen is the fashion designer, her collection was choosen to be 1 of the 20 best graduates at lichting, a talent show in the netherlands. she did her internship at spijkers en spijkers and found out that she wants to make her own fashion. eefje schenk is the product designer but prefers to say that she is occupied with concept design. she wants that single components are coming together in a natural way. things work together when they just happen. in her object, a sofa which seems to be a perspective drawing, she used her personal space, a room and combined it with a drawing. it’s kinda way of thinking she was skilled by jurgen bey in her internship. she could have done her internship abroad but she feels home in dutch design. meyke link is the textile designer. when she started to study at the academy she not even knew that there is a hole department for textile. she was fascinated by the possibilites of combining material, even in a graphic sens. putting elements together and developing new materials are a challenge and if she could choose she would arrange restaurants, hotels and any other spaces with her aesthetic concept. after working for kamer465 she find out that styling is not her will. but a desire is even an exhibition in a gallery.

now they are planning to exhibit at the dutch design week at the strijp-s in october in eindhoven. they want to present their individual work as a independant group and since today they call themself officialy demeisjes, which means ‘the girls’ in dutch.

severine jessen - fashion

;pojmannaja babotschka’ (butterfly caught) - collection, the bag

eefje schenk - product

‘3d>2d>3d’ - concept couch ‘untitled document’

meyke link - textile

‘the one’ - no correct repetition

the girls in front of their house

draw yourself

severine - eefje - meyke

describe/draw yourself in one word

something that has to come out - room - detail

draw your favourite product

signet ring - elements of a room - pencil

last friday I went to the newdesigners. before I checked on the internet if there is anything I shouldnt miss. I subscribed to 2 lectures and one of them was a panel discussion that gives three different perspectives on life after graduation. the presenter was rory dodd, one of the founders of designersblock. he and piers roberts founded the platform 1998 (10th anniversary, isnt it?) in london. the idea was to present innovative design from all over the world. best in an uncommon manner. I remember the big designersblock party in milan, at the salone di mobile, this year - the location was a vacant public swimming pool. rory told me that they not even had a official licence. make it big and nobody will question you. definitely he seems to be somebody who is not afraid of taking risks. kithkin, a creative collective, and associate were the other 2 contents of the lecture. but rory was the godfather of all.

hm.. his shirt matches the interior. is there an intention behind this?

some new perspectives

the main thing is smile

vj rory? I wanted a portrait, he wanted this

new designers theater

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

inside out record
collaboration between Ian atkins and joss debae for kithkin. a negative remix achieved by pouring fast-cast resin straight onto a vinyl record

isn’t that great: you buy a shirt - good price, nice print, best fabric and you get a gold watch extra. yeah!! but it’s not a simple watch - it’s the label of the shirts. actually there is a gold watch printed on the label and you can chop it off and put it on your wrist. everybody will know that you own a cool free gold watch shirt.

matthew henri, born somewhere close the yosemite national park, opened the shop 2 years ago. he and his partner goldstein created the brand in the back of a dry clenars in 2005. matthew moved to san franciso because it was the nearest (and coolest) city. for him, success is that he wakes up and wants to go to his job (doing this since 2 years is a progress, he said - he never sticked to the same job for so long) great that I came across the store and had the chance to celebrate matthews 2 years of service in the shirt industry.

that’s matthew henri. ‘director of vertical plant management’ is wriiten on his buisness card

matthew in front of the store

his ‘watch tattoo’ - just an outline. his only tattoo (he can hide it easily in front of his grandma)

walter - one of the free gold watch employees

one of the customized levi’s

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

the last post about the design week:

maarten baas is the guy everybody in the ‘design world’ is talking about. sometimes he is a genius, sometimes just an innovative designer from eindhoven. I wanted to meet him in his studio but he wrote via mail that it would be better to meet him in milan for the design week. so I went to the garage (an adequate ambiance for his work) which was the showroom for one week and said ‘hello’. he asked me, like a gentleman, if I want to drink anything, and we sat down outside (that was rather my descision) we talked about his smoke collection, the new collection for contrasts gallery and that setting his work in a garage is a way of feeling home while abroad. I asked if there is something else he would like to do, besides designing furniture. making videos was his answer and again there was this complete satisfaction in his face which shows, that when maarten does something, passion is involved. I was slightly suprised because people described him as a shy person but he was really open and I had the feeling that we had a nice talk. furthermore, he betrayed his 3 favourite designers to me and we even have one in common. that’s all I wanna say.

but there is no design piece of maarten baas, after his smoke and treasure furniture, which doesn’t involve bas den herder. bas was also there and I had the chance for a little chat. the clog wearing guy (he is even driving his car with them) is the one who converts maarten’s ideas to reality. they met each other 3 years ago (through friends) and since then they started to work together. bas is the buddy for all technical problems (I want my one!). he and the rest of the team are working on the technical side.

maarten wanted me to take a picture of him next the chankley bore because I not even asked anything about it. it’s great that established & sons said that he can do what he want but it remembers me of the yellow submarine cartoon with the beatles
(I do not feel bad about my statement)

maarten and 2 prototypes of the chankley bore, a new furniture range for established & sons

chair before, burned chair, chair after - how you make a smoke chair. a drawing from a primary school student.

maarten:
draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

that was his first version of a shower - we decided that it’s not clear

finally a shower

that’s bas den herder, the producer & clog guy

bas:
draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

new work for contrasts gallery in shanghai

sitting, talking, having a beer - bas, me and maarten

recollections was the name kiki van eijk and joost van bleiswijk gave their exhibition at the design week in milan this year. both are independent designers with different works. but often they presented their work together. obviously there is a link through aesthetic and craftsmanship. the dutch duo prefers to design in a high-quality manner. they think that people appreciate characteristic things more than cheap and easy manufactured design. in my opinion there is a rising demand of higher levels of quality. and these two designers can be seen as a role model.

joost van bleiswijk and kiki van eijk

joost: wall cabinet, 2008

joost: no screw, no glue - trophy, lantern, candelabrum, 2008

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

kiki: stamped and sealed, vase, teapot, vase, 2008

kiki: stamped and sealed jewels, 2008

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

last year kiki was nominated for the award ‘designer of the future’, given out by design miami. and there were just 7 nominees in the world, which is a great honour. unfortunatly I haven’t asked her how this feels. but I am sure this emotion is great.

for the first time I met arnout visser, a designer from arnhem, at a workshop. it was an event in the context of the entry 2006 (this is the dutch/german website - the original doensn’t exist anymore) in essen, zollverein. the worksop was called:’ a dutch insight into innovation processes’. the, so called, crea-lab. we had to collect stuff which we found on the zollverein area and design new products. it was a good experience and a playful day, which was affected by the man who loves to experiment with everything. thereafter I met him at the droog design lunch in amsterdam. It was a ’self food factory’ where the guests had to prepare their own meal and the new range of tableware, designed by the 5.5 designers, was shown. and again, arnout was a very polite and attentive person, who makes you feel that it’s nice to see you again. I had the same feeling when I saw him on his bike in milan. he recognized me and we sat down and talked about the design week and some design gossip. he is a creative with a very specific humour, which he also shows in his work. I had the impression he enjoyed drawing for me.

smiling arnout visser

arnout in a ’shy boy moment’

I enjoy watching another creative drawing

table tap by arnout visser for droog design
he put this object’s function into a new context

at the crea lab workshop in essen, zollverein - november 2006
tom schreuder, arnout visser, philip bilke, laszlo rozsnoki, eefje schenk, salome kleb

self food factory at the droog design headquater - january 2007

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

crea-lab brochure download

before I went to milan I was browsing through dezeen (online design magazine). I meant no harm by it, but I wrote marcus fairs an email and asked him for an interview in milan during the design week (I was sure that he should be there - he is one of the rainmakers of online design). he replied with the words: ‘I’m sure we can find time to meet up’ and our date was fixed. a few days later I found myself waiting in front of the nhow hotel. I had no clue how this marcus should look like. he was late so I decided to google him. when I went back to our meeting point I heard people talking about him. obviously there were more people waiting for mr. dezeen. after an hour he appeared and was standing in front of our troop. he looked at me and said: ‘you are the lalala girl’ and our interview started.

we sit down in the lobby of the nhow design hotel. marcus told me that he studied furniture design. he was in for his studies but he was always better in writing essays about design than in designing. he was also thinking about becoming an musician but that shouldn’t be either the right choice (another uncertainty of this skills, what makes him more likable). a passoinate writer should write and that’s what he tend to do. in 2003 marcus launched icon (the link belongs to the sister site to icon magazine), the international architecture and design magazine and edited the publication until the end of 2006 (they kicked him out). he was ready for a new ‘baby’. fascinated by internet (’the new medium - accessible by everybody’), he established dezeen in the same month. he started without any expectations. now, in april 2008 (after 1,5 years) he can call his baby ‘world’s most influential and respected design journal’. congratulations to the man who thinks that a lemon is the multifaceted and most exciting object of the world!

marcus fairs - trying to draw a lemon

talking with his camera man, alex

lounging and talking in the nhow hotel reception, alex (the dezeen camera boy), marcus and me

caterina di lorgi (blogosfere) and her collegue interviewing marcus

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product

how would you react if you recieve an email of one of the established advertisers in germany? that actually happend to me. I’ve been cool. we’ve got together in cologne. right now he is enyoing his holidays at his parents who live close-by cologne - what makes him likeable. (how many people do you know love to spend their leisure time with the ones who gave birth to them)

oliver voss is board (one of several) at jung von matt . they work on international clients like mini cooper, ebay and tui. they created the current campagine ‘du bist deutschland‘. (try to convince the germans to become more children. so melancholic that you could cry) the founders of the agency have been once described by news magazine der spiegel as the “pop stars of german advertising”.

oliver started his career as a law school student, but he quit his studies to become copywriter. he worked in new york and in amsterdam for different agencies and attested that he is the creative character who the inscrutable and maniac world of advertising needs. he is one of the archetypes who reached their goals without a study. and after this long way he and his collegue niklas frings-rupp found the miami ad school hamburg in 2003. an advertising school where you learn everything you need within 2 years, professional tutors included. oliver is an average creative. he likes to talk, to explore, to watch people and is curious. he even used a beer mat to note an idea he had. and he even thinks that he is slow, what you would never assume after you had an insight in his work.

that’s oliver

oliver and me in a brewery in cologne (we had no kölsch)

he was just trying to be in a ‘cool’ position - hehe

in the city of cologne, after buying a book

draw yourself

he draws himself smiling like he did the hole time

describe yourself in one word

eclectic

draw your favourite product
carol christian poell shoes

the seyferth bulding was one of the first things I liked about maastricht. I would describe it as a block-shaped wooden box that looks like a fort. since 2,5 years I was wondering who could have build this piece of uncommon architecture and who would live there. now I found out. I visited christoph seyferth at his house. and after I had some cake from his mum, we played four in a row. the ice was broken. we talked about him being an instructor at the tu eindhoven, about various ambassadors of design, abou malls and in general about possibilities of life.

seyferth bulding maastricht (photo:www.seyferth.nl)

the ‘four in a row’ battle (I have to commit that he was better than me)

domestic landscapes (a project from 2001)

some work and exhibition material

christoph and me at the roof of the seyferth building maastricht (sbm)

draw yourself

describe yourself in one word

draw your favourite product