Recently in fairs Category
Among this year's installations my favourite one was Veil, by British designer Paul Cocksedge. 1440 crystals created a particular four meters high curtain that hide a secret, only by looking into a mirror placed in its back the viewer could see the iconic image of Mona Lisa.
Swedish design group Front experimented with crystals and blown glass, creating Random, a series of vases and lights that are always unique. In fact the liquid glass is contaminated with crystals that determine the final shape of the object.
Marcel Wanders brought together Bisazza and Swarovski, designing a mosaic encrusted with crystal tiles. Zaha Hadid presented a striking advanced chandelier and Studio Job proposed an enormous globe completely covered with Swarovski crystals.
Marcel Wanders and Bisazza
Zaha Hadid
Studio JobArne Quinze showed some strange looking sculptural lamps; Piero Lissoni explored the depth of light and crystals creating a scenic chandelier; Tokujin Yoshioka embedded an out of scale Swarovski crystal into an acrylic cube, the result was not as emotional as I would have expected from his celebrated installations; artist Marcus Tremonto explored the magic of electro luminescent wire and Fredrikson Stallard created a series of monolithic furniture perforated with crystal covered caverns.
Arne Quinze
Piero Lissoni
Tokujin Yoshioka
Marcus Tremonto
Fredrikson StallardThe Italian manufacturer presented nearly 20 new products: the typical transparent plastic, the accustomed outstanding high quality, a set of new beautiful colours and the usual team of star designers with a new entry, Tokujin Yoshioka.
Philippe Starck remains the company's favourite designer. His Hi Cut chair, designed with Eugeni Quitllet, has essential lines and a characteristic top piece in the backrest that plays with shiny fluorescent colours and a vertical texture.
Mr.
Impossible is a beautiful shell chair named after the huge challenge
that meant for the company the use of the laser technology applied to
plastics, by the perfect welding of two semi-spheres and the use of
different colours the chair has a rich deepness effect and the seat
appears to be floating in the air.
Dr. Yes is a characteristic chair devised for outdoors and contract, a pure example of Starck's aesthetical sensibility. Lou Lou Ghost is the baby version of the very famous Louis Ghost chair, available in brilliant colours including the new trendy green and orange fluorescent colour, children have never been happier.
Misses
Flower Power is a giant polycarbonate vase obtained with rotational
moulding, a technology that has never been used before with this
material and that allows to obtain a one piece product; the imperfect
surface creates an interesting vintage look.
Patricia Urquiola
signs the Frilly chair, inspired in the wavy texture created by pliseè
fabrics the chair has an interesting surface and visual effect, but it
feels a bit weighty. Presented in a beautiful colour palette that
includes fuchsia, orange, turquoise, pink, violet and amber.
Alberto Meda
presented the production version of his Honeycomb chair, a light,
functional and elegant foldable chair that reflects the characteristics
of its creator.
Alberto Meda and Ross Lovegrove discuss Meda's new Honeycomb chair.Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec sign one of my favorite pieces of this Salone, the Papyrus armchair impeccably conjugates simplicity, memory and grace.
Tokujin Yoshioka,
one of the most prolific designers of the show (he also signed new
pieces for Moroso, Driade, Cassina and Swarovski) in his first
collaboration with Kartell creates
Ami Ami, a chair and a table inspired in the art of weaving. The
interlaced effect is interesting but I'm not sure the result is worthy
the complex manufacturing procedure needed for reproducing it.
Spoon is the name of the foldable table designed by Antonio Citterio that has a peculiar toy look.
Japanese design studio Nendo is quite a new entry in the italian design scene, but in only a few years they've managed to design pieces for big names, among this year's novelties they sign the Rokumaru coat hanger for De Padova and the table extremely light Bambi table for Cappellini. Both products reflect the elegant, subtle style that distinguishes the japanese group.
Nendo's coat hanger for De Padova
Totally upholstered and covered in fine Italian leather, the new Manta chair adds on its great personality to the Manta family produced by Poliform and designed by Rodrigo Torres.
Giovannoni for Magis
Table football has never been so beautiful. GRO design and Tim modelmakers have developed together the showcase project 11 The Beautiful Game, that will be exhibited during the Milan Design Week in Via Forcella 8.
Is a one off but I'd love to have one at home, it would make Milan's winter days much more livable.
Kartell will show among other novelties the Papyrus chair designed by the Bouroullec brothers and the Frilly chair by Patricia Urquiola, made of polycarbonate. Both pieces look interesting in the photos, I'll be touching and holding and reporting back to you soon (via designboom)
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kartell
Patricia Urquiola for KartellTokujin Yoshioka signs for Moroso the Bouquet chair, composed of fabric squares sewn one by one to fully cover the inside of a snug, curving, egg-shaped shell. Young swiss designer Philippe Bestenheider signs for the italian company the Nanook collection, inspired by Inuit tribal rituals reinterpreted using digital tools. We're looking forward to see what else Moroso, which is usually one of the more prolific companies during the fair, has developed for Milan's Design Week.
Tokujin Yoshioka for Moroso
Philippe Bestenheider for MorosoMyto is the new cantilever chair developed by Konstantin Grcic for Plank with the collaboration of BASF. The chair is made of Ultradur® High Speed and was born after a long research on the material's potentials; it will be on display at the fairground but also at Triennale.
konstantin Grcic for PlankFrancisco Gomez Paz continues his collaboration with Danese designing Comodoro, a complete shelving system. The traditional milanese company will be presenting also new projects, in the images the Itka lighting series designed by Naoto Fukasawa and the Orione lamps that become transparent when turned on created by Carlotta de Bevilacqua.
Francisco Gomez Paz for Danese
Naoto Fukasawa for Danese
Carlotta de Bevilacqua for DaneseThe Sofa Lamp designed by CuldeSac and Hector Serrano for Moooi intrigues us lots, is a lampshade with quilted upholstery inspired by the iconic chester sofa; it looks quite well in the render and we can't wait to see it live. (via dezeen)
Cul de Sac and Hector Serrano for MoooiIndustreal presents Overture, an exhibition of the porcelain work of french designers Guillaume Delvigne and Ionna Vautrin (a young designer you should keep and eye on, she's got talent)
Iona Vautrin and Guillaume Delvigne for IndustrealUK's best-known design event has just closed its doors and we are ready to weigh up what we have seen. With this edition being bigger and better structured than before, it welcomed the 100%Light and 100%Details areas, the show seems to be consolidating as a the leading showcase for design vanguard. Even if the show is small compared with Milan's Salone del Mobile or Cologne's IMM, the quality of the exhibition in terms of creative productivity was very good; populated by new generation designers, young talents and small companies challenging and trying to seduce the industry.
What I appreciated most was finding more ideas than mere aesthetical exercises, the intelligent experiments with latest materials and technologies but also with ordinary materials, the redesign of used products and the potential of self manufacturing and small series.
100% Design is a fresh explosion of creative energy, not to mention it takes place in one of the liveliest cities of the world.
All our pics here
Expressionist, geometrical and with an eastern touch, these are the words that Tom Dixon uses for describing his new collection. Ornamentation is an internal urge in humans and he embraces this philosophy for emotive sake.The new patterns are inspired by the underlying structure of things: woven textiles, chain-mail, microscopic cell construction, and have a protagonist role in the Plane tables, the Tall chairs and last year's Soft System.
Wired steel structures characterise the Link armchair and the new Cage light available in two different sizes.
One of my favourites pieces was the Fat Spot, I loved the prismatic polycarbonate shade internally coated with copper and the hand beaten brass lamps Beat Light. The Diamond Light is a large-scale pendant light in folded aluminium with anodised finish.
All the images after the jump.
Italian company Diamantini&Domeniconi has changed its image in the last years thanks to talented art director Pascal Tarabay and a young team of international designers. Among the new products they presented Data, a metal coffee table and magazine holder, the Basic chair and Hi!, a clothes stand in plywood designed by Pascal Tarabay. Lorenzo Bustillos signs the storage unit Pits and together with Juan Carlos Viso the original coat stand I Pali.
Magic company Materialise.MGX has suceeded again in surprising the audience. At Milan's Superstudio Piu they presented the new series pieces along with breathtaking prototypes.
Dan Yeffet from JellyLab designed the Hidden vase, a beautiful piece of Rapid Prototyping nature and the geometrical Polyvase available in a beautiful grass green.
All pics after the jump!
Aluminium is the absolute protagonist of Driade Store novelties. Matteo Thun presented the Isu series of chair, armchair and stool in anodized aluminium treated to produce both a particular luminosity and a pleasant touch. Philippe Starck signs the Cafe' series of chairs and tables, classic styled pieces in sandblasted anodized aluminium. Francisco Gomez Paz presented his original magazine holder Omero, Christophe Pillet designed the Paris Bar stool, a minimalist shape obtained thanks to elaborate production technology in mirror finished aluminium.
Ron Arad signs for Driade Aleph an intriguing stool, Screw is adjustable in height by a screwing movement, the result is a strange shape not very appealing to me and I guess quite complicated to produce. Tokujin Toshioka designed a low armchair with mirror polished steel structure and leather strips. Patricia Urquiola does it again with her Pavo and Pavo Real chairs, the talented spanish designer continues her exploration of craftmanship production and past languages with outstanding results.
All pics after the jump!
The historical italian brand Danese was present at Milan with many novelties, beautifully expressed in the outstanding images of photographer Miro Zagnoli. DANESE N.E.W.S. (North-East-West-South) is the concept behind the new generation of products, merging cultures and environments in a dynamic and adaptable collection. Yves Behar signs the multifunctional Kada, ready to transform itself into a stool, a seater, a low table, a tray or even a hub; and also the chair and newspaper holder Farallon.
Japanese star designer Naoto Fukasawa created the Amila chair. James Irvine paid tribute to Italy with his Belvedere mirror.
Carlota de Bevilacqua presented TET TAN, the evolution of last years's lihts TET, a nice combination of textures and languages gives a wide range of possibilities. Last year's Bincan series by Fukasawa was expanded and Ovidio table by Francisco Gomez Paz was presented in the final production version.
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