Advances in LED’s have allowed lights to slim right down; lighting design is no longer dominated by the shape of a bulb and the bulky electrics. The softer light emitted has taken away the need for a shade. LED’s embedded in the piece allow for more fluid and sculptural forms.Yes there will still be a need for our old bulbs  (see an earlier post Lightbulb on beautiful alternatives) but within new homes and commercial projects lights will become subliminal, glowing in whatever colour to suit our mood and environment.

Japanese company Kaneka’s light installation “Pieces of Light “ demonstrates the next generation of LED the OLED (organic light emitting diode) One of the innovators; they invited artists and designers to use their new generation of LED to create a Japanese Saki Bar. The effect was soft dappled wave of light that gently changed from red to orange and white diodes like petals of cherry blossom.  The piece may have been an art installation and incredibly beautiful but it also demonstated the practical commercial application – if the development in manufacture can bring the price down.

OLED may be a little way off into the future but LEDs are now, with  Flos displaying some amazing examples at Euroluce this year.

Wall Rupture by Thierry Dreyfus for the Soft Architecture Collection is a dramatic demonstration of the versatility of the LED. A huge rock fissure breaks open the wall creating a visual trick, golden volcanic light pouring out.

Ron Gilad’s Wall Piercing Lamp  (seen above in the background) slowly changes colour going through the entire spectrum. His sculptural 2620 Chandelier has been added to his range for Flos this year.

Royal College of Art graduate Hanhsi Chen combines LED technology with the ancient use of shadows to tell the time. A poetic use of light and shadow this small wall lamp is easily integrated into interior decoration.

Artist Dan Flavin made the unloved fluorescent tube into beautiful works of art but with the work of these designers they haven’t left that much space for the artists to explore.
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Marcel Wanders Monster chair for Moooi.

Launched at Salone this year the  monster’s face is a little more subtle on the finished product than from the image here; well just a little. And despite his appearance and name he is probably the softest of the group I have here, being made from soft quilted leather. Considering who he had in mind for the chair soft and comfy is entirely appropriate.  If you’d like to wander through Marcel’s mind and find out the inspiration behind this chair you must have a read of his press release over on Dezeen. It is brilliantly funny.   

 Fury! Chair by Roel-Jan Elsinga Made from a wood and metal frame and covered in felt he’s alot softer than his spikes make him appear. He also has a secret life as Roel-Jan explains hes “a fearless little chair, that barks but doesn’t bite. Fury! is a lively and visually noisy little fellow.
But he means well. At night he walks around your space, blowing off steam, cursing a bit.
But the cheeky little f**ker has a heart of gold and is actually really really sweet, and he loves being petted…”

Jon Burgerman’s Doodle Chair for Deadgood. Jon has put his distinctive doodle scrawls to many things, this time he has been commissioned by Deadgood to produce a totally doodled version of their Form chair.  With his dynamic  use of colour, and a unique graphic energy, Burgerman’s doodles  have been screen printed and encapsulated within a resin impregnated craft core, overlaid with melamine and subsequently pressed at high temperatures to create a highly durable surfacing material. So just in case someone should ever think of trying to wipe them off (which would be crazy) they won’t come off. Which is good if the owner suddenly found they were living with an obsessive compulsive.

If you’d like a mural to accompany the chairs Jon can also do this for you. For more of Jon’s work pop over to his website

 HuskMitNavnis an artist from Denmark working mainly with street art, painting and illustration. His characters are often political, sometimes controversial but always express his humorous take on life.  His limited edition illustrations on Englebrech’s classic Chairik chair feature some slightly worried looking individuals, well a I guess you’d be worried if someone was about to sit on your face….     

Even that old veteran mouse has got in on the act. In a joint venture between Cappelliniand Walt Disney, Cappellini have produced a range of furniture for adults not for kids. The designs are based around the iconic ears of Mickey, on the stools they act as a back rest. On Patrick Norguet’s Rive Droite chair they’ve been worked into a repeat pattern; taken away from the rest of the range you’d could quite easily miss them as Mickey’s ears.

Artist Yinka Shonibare covered walls, furniture and created clothes from traditional ‘African’ fabrics bought from Brixton market.  Although the fabrics look African,they are in fact Dutch and English. The designs appeal to African taste with colours and symbols of Africa mixed in with objects of life, for example mobile phones, and pictured above game consoles .  As Yinka says “They prove to have a crossbred cultural background quite of their own. And it’s the fallacy of that signification that I like. It’s the way I view culture—it’s an artificial construct.” 

I suppose with this in mind its ironic that Italian firm Moroso should create M’Afrique installation by American Stephen Burks and  SpaniardPatricia Urquiola.

“We wanted to showcase the creativity of a few of the great artists and exponents of contemporary African culture,” explains Patrizia Moroso, who devised the event, “because looking at Africa through the eyes of contemporary art, photography, architecture and design is perhaps the most appropriate way of approaching this vast, powerful continent, so creatively rich and diverse that today it is still one of the greatest sources of inspiration for modern design”.

Mixing recycling with traditional craft techniques is what we have come to regard as “African design” But companies like Moroso are now looking at using these skills, born out of necessity, to produce marketable products.

Seen below right is a design by Ayse Birsel & Bibi Sek being produced for the show. With traditional weaving skills which have previously been used on recycled cable, the artisans were set to work with new supplies to create products for the high end furniture market.

 And should you have your own idea or project that you would like to develop, Link Africa based in South Africa can help you get in touch with fair trade programmes who can produce your project.

http://www.linkafricahome.co.za/whatwedo.html

I’ve previously mentioned Philippe Bestenheider in my patchwork post but its worth showing his Binta chairs again “Binta was inspired by Africa. Its sculptural shape evokes African wood carvings, but its polyurethane rubber forms are softer. Like a baobab tree, Binta anchors itself firmly to the ground with thick, trunk-like feet whose elegant forms bring to mind the weighty baobab.” Gathered together they do look like a group of Yinka’s characters.

Building on his links in Africa and again using their traditional skills Philippe has gone on to produce his Kente range through Varaschin.

Traditional Kente woven cloth is produced in Ghana with each colour having a symbolic meaning. I’m not sure if Philippe’s colour selection is based on the symbolic meaning or purely on aesthetics , but heres a list of the symbolic meanings anyway, judge for yourself.

Illustration on paper products and t-shirts we’re used to, doodling on pieces in your home  is something we expect from a naughty toddler, but despite this association a number of women artists and designers have created a series of products and interiors that are beautiful and inspirational.

Danish designer Louise Campbell had the challenge to create a temporary meeting room for G1 Strand and came up with this rather witty response. The room is within a listed 1750’s building so Louise has created a series of Blah posters that line the walls but can be removed. The tables, chairs,  light fittings and decorations have also had the blah treatment.  Keeping it simple in black and white the room has a serenity that the introduction of colour just wouldn’t achieve – and in a meeting room with the potential for many a verbal battle it has a calming effect.  ”It is the sports arena of verbal power struggles, where words are hurled back and forth across the table and bounce off the walls as everyone strives to take the upper hand – or upper word so to speak”  

Blah Blah Blah by Louise Campbell  http://www.louisecampbell.com/  

 Artist Anna James reworked antique furniture using images of graffiti taken from an archway in Verona. The graffiti is little messages of love left by those visiting the supposed house of Juliet  of Romeo and Juliet fame. Anna has taken digital images that  have been transposed onto a variety of prepared period pieces. Each piece captures a moment in time – the wall constantly changes with new declarations added daily.

www.loveannajames.com

Artist Charlotte Mann originally worked in fashion design, styling and illustration before switching to over to focus on her artwork. From working on a hand draw back drop for fashion designer Peter Jensen shes has taken commissions for both private as well as commercial clients. Using marker pens she draws onto the prepared wall  incorporating objects the client has chosen to create a personal and unique work.

www.charlottemann.co.uk

 Esther Coombs works with vintage ceramics that shes found in flea markets, charity shops and carboot fairs. Working with the aesthetics of the piece she hand draws images of the urban environment creating unique works from what are essentially unloved mass produced pots of yesteryear. She reinvents and gives new life to items that are other peoples cast off. I love the juxtapositions between the dainty flowers and the and the tower blocks. I guess the irony is that many of the ceramics would have come from homes such as these, and there is the romance of the work, its rather fun to imagine their previous homes. For more examples  http://www.esthercoombs.com/

There is always something fascinating about the use of geometric construction in design. The extrapolation of a simple pattern into a more complex one tweaks the senses into looking more closely, trying to understand where the pattern begins and ends. As Karim Rashid said “It’s a way to move the eye and break up surfaces to bring illusion or entropy , to embellish and give richness to surfaces materials and objects. It can add emotion and meaning to the flat dull world”Islamic design has employed the mathematics of geometry to dramatic effect for centuries.  Here’s a few examples of how designer and artists have stripped back the ornamentation and used colour and geometry.

Above is the work of Matt W Moore the painter designer and illustrator. His work is inspired by sacred geometry, asymmetry and optical illusions. His Vectorfunk series uses a vivid colour palette.  “its about adding and refining layers to the point where I’ve got a well balanced, unique, powerful composition.          

www.mattwmoore.com

Coming up for AW09  Basso & Brooke Collection features their signature digital prints but this time with a distinctly geometric feel.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 Swatch by Hella Jongerius  Identical in shape, sections of coloured tiles are set in walnut marquetry on a simple low table. The coloured sections are made of individually cast polyurethane. Within each colour, different hues can be seen, orange within red, blue greys within white. Light can flow through some sections but not others. The piece holds with Hella’s vision of design offering options and possibilities.   www.jongeriuslab.com 

 Above is Pentagon by Thomas Tritsch   Inspired by medieval fortresses it demonstrates the innumerous possibilties of geometry. Each of the elements can be slotted together to suit the space or your mood! You can create curves, circles, straight lines.

http://www2.quinzeandmilan.tv/#/en/home/

Of course geometry isn’t just about the creation of flat tesselated patterns. Messing about with the angles and you suddenly have a chair – oh it sounds so simple! Thomas Feichtner’s FX10 Lounge chair pictured below is an example. Invert an angle or two and you have a chiseled chunk of a chair. The designer likens it to the angles cut to make igloos, and although it does look rather hard edged, the soft upholstery doesn’t make the sitter feel their on a block of ice! It does look really cool though…. yeah bad joke

Clouds by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec is a 3 dimensional installation that you construct yourself to create your own unique cloud. Using tiles that can be bent on the crease lines and elastic bands to join the tiles together the installation can either be hung from the wall or ceiling. You can rearrange your cloud or add to it create a multicoloured cloud. Its up to you how you use the pieces.

www.kvadratclouds.com

 And should you wish to have a play with geometry you can’t go wrong with David Sutton’s beautiful little book Islamic Design  A genius for Geometry. Available through Wooden Books  www.woodenbooks.com

Happy Easter!

Heres a great pic courtesy of the Wooster Collective

http://www.woostercollective.com/