Obsessions Privee,  curated by Elizabeth Le Riche, looked at the way we transform all manner of objects into precious collections. The accumulation of material no matter how precious, weird, or banal can take on emotional value when they have been accumulated together. We can become curators in our own home – appropriating material to find our own expression. Its an idea the works as well in the home as it does for visually merchandising product in store. The household brushes pictured above seem so much more interesting and appealing laid out in multicoloured glory in the display cabinet.

My favourites in this section came from Emanuela Crotti’s presentation. In her space Crotti  gathered together work by artists and designers who’d created unique handmade collections some  from found objects.

Schwarm by RaR for Thomas Eyck, was born out of a fascination for the diversity in natural fauna. 

Pictured below Butterflies Serise by Joseph Warren at Image Surgery. Created from vintage street plans,atlas sheets and maps.

Klaas Kuiken Collection Bottles. Klaas drew inspiration from mass production bottles and developed  his own glass blowing techniques to create irregularities in an item that is ordinarily uniform.

Couplicite by Vincent Gregoire and Nellyrodi looked at how the coupled life has become the aspirational lifestyle. An antidote to a individualistic me myself and I way of life. Couples are seen as balancing harmonizing and a stabilizing force in an unstable world. By couples they’re not just talking about wedded bliss! Creative couples might be brothers such as the Bouroullec’s or life partners such as Gilbert & George. Vincent & Nellyrodi quote sums it up nicely “Happiness is found in coupledom and not only in love emotions. Creativity is increasingly important to pairs working as units of design and production. In all creative fields, there are innumerable works created by duos for whom by combination of talents, the complementarity of views and a sense of cultural diversity give rise to innovative gestures.”

The products in here focused on togetherness, they may have been mergerd together like a love seat to become one or they’re a complementary pairing.

Bench Chair by Thomas Schnur.

Foret Illuminee by Ionna Vautrin

Anyway this is just a taste of the inspiration areas at Maison – there will be more in other posts on the product trends from across the halls.

Jaime Hayon’s Multileg Table for BD Barcelona Four different wonderfully weighty wood turned legs made of Alderwood.

Boca Do Lobo’s Royal Dining Table transforms from  traditional  chippendale legs at one end then blasted into a vectorised future at the other. The vector pattern continues across the table top mixing old and new pattern with very high traditional quality.

As you can imagine there were plenty of fabulous legs at Milan this year.

Floris Schoonderbeek’s Axechair Chair uses a traditional axe handle from Swedish axe maker Gränsfors as its legs.  Set into a cast iron chair base it  maintains the connection with the axe.

Thomas Schnur Rubber Table is inspired by the humble sink plunger and made entirely of rubber. You could stick the whole table onto the wall… but then it wouldn’t really be a table. It might me of more use outside on an uneven surface as each of the rubbery legs are bendable.

The final set of super legs from Milan I’ve shown before but are worth looking at again and were from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

I’m looking forward to seeing the final set of legs in the flesh at next months London Design Festival

Bambi Table by Norwegian designer Caroline Olsson is an adjustable two-height table with legs that fold back underneath, the joints inspired by the movement of the knee joint. The table will debut at 100% Design as part of the 100% Norway stand from September 22 to 25, 2011.
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Stacking Table by Mia Hamborg To create your own table you stack the lathe turned wooden pieces in your own way. And if you get tired of it and fancy a change you can re-configure it. I’m sure someone with a mathematical mind could say how many unique combinations there are, unfortunately I can’t!

Daisuke Motogi’s Lost in Sofa Invites you to put into the sofa all those little bits and pieces you’d usually loose. The sofa can be a rich source of lost items, loose change (other peoples/yours), tv remote, pens books etc, etc. so why not make them a part of the sofa. The sections of padding are pockets for you to store those troublesome items.

Growing Up Chair by Jenna Postma

I find it rather charming that the inspiration for this chair came from a messy teenagers bedroom; but then most of us do tend to dump our clothes at the end of the day. “Almost everyone has a chair in their bedroom to put their clothes on, but the more clothes there are – the more useless it gets as a chair. The Growing Up Chair is the other way around, it needs the mess to create the seating and to be functional.” I guess you could also use it as a place to stash old clothes of weave in some amazing fabric – the choice is yours.

Todd Laundry Stool by Llot Llov also reqiures you to finish the piece by dumping your laundry onto it to create the cushion.

Marijn Van Der Poll ’s  Do Hit Chair for Droog probably requires the maximum input and is the oldest of this collection. Created in 1999 the chair comes with a sledge hammer for you to provide maximum input. It could be quite theraputic bashing  a lump of metal into the right size for your rear. And at least you have somewhere to collapse into once you’ve finished!

DickVan Hoff has emphasised the use of joints in his The Beams series comprising a chair (pictured here) and sideboard. I have to profess a particular love for this incredibly comfortable chair having sat in it rather a lot during the London Design Festival. I was a little wary at first;  its quite a sturdy statement. Having sat on it, walked around it, prodded and stroked it, I love it.   Its rather ironic that having enjoyed the chair I should read this statement on his work.  “Vanhoffontwerpen keenly focus on how a product works, the intuitive movements of the user and the enjoyment of use. Functionality, quality and the relationship between the product and the user are of paramount importance. A chair will always sit well when it is Vanhoffontwerpen. Functionality is more important than aesthetics, but that does not mean form follows function. The designs are icons that capture your heart, often robust in shape, yet reflecting subtle detailing. . .”

Keel Furniture by Oscar Narud has broken with conventional furniture typologies. Using detachable legs inspired by the drop down keels used for small sailing boats.The piece continues a series of furniture Narud has developed recently, inspired by the simple construction of traditional Norwegian furniture. The addition of the keel motif, taken from boat building, refreshes the tradition. Again like Van Hoff’s work these are sturdy pieces, the application of the joinery emphasis this.  Despite their sturdy features they are relatively easy to disassemble, to move or (should you ever need to)repair.

1-2-3 Sit by Thinkk Studio is a flat pack, easy as to assemble stool – as easy as 123 hence the name!  The steel seat has a dovetail joint that neatly slides into the Oak legs. The use of the different materials is high lighted by contrast in colour, the light Oak and the sheen of the black powder coated steel.

Chunky Joinery by Mathias Hahn (like OscarNarud another member of Okay Studio) and shown at their London Design Festival Presentation. Each designer produced a piece exploring the concept of the ‘Visitor’ . Mathias a set of occasional furniture that can be used in different situations. His sturdy piece can be used as a stool, side table, foot rest, I guess you could use it as a step it looks sturdy enough to take a fair bit of weight! 

Idyll by Johan Lindsten His chairs shown in both Stockholm and at Designersblock in Milan “These stitches and dreams are for most people forgotten and thrown away to an eternal lost never to been appreciated. This furniture’s destiny is to elevate and promote these neglected pieces of art, bring back a long lost sentimental value and mix it with contemporary aesthetic”

Stitch by Pepe Heykoop is a range of items salvaged from skips or secondhand shops and given a new hand stitched fabric skin. The skin is then stuffed with soft fibres. I’m sure traditional upholsterers would dispair at the obvious lumps and bumps and the visible stitching; but that would be missing the point. They have been brought back to life and given a character by this treatment. The lamp is particularly animated and looks like he could jump about, reminding me of Pixar’s Luxo Jr 

  Under Construction #2 by Anila Rubiku for Plusdesign(pictured above & below)  is a beautifully stitched lamp constructed from paper with an LED light. Anila’s works offers a contemporary perspective to the traditional craft of embroidery with her chioce of subject matter and use of material. Using scenes from contemporary life, drawn and hand stitched onto the paper houses Anila’s work illuminates an everyday domesticity that we would all recognise.  

Urban Embroidery by Melissa French for Puff & Flock (detail picture below) This is another example of taking embroidery and applying the technique to an alternative material. Melissa has used an old bench and applied her own design (with the help of a drill) to plot the pattern across the surface.

Saved Handkerchief by Studio Makkink & Bey for Droog This limited edition range produced by Droog for Salone del Mobile 2010 was a response to the ongoing economic crisis. Droog purchased various items from companies that had gone into liquidation and invited designers to create something desirable from the unwanted. Studio Makkink & Bey were given 900 handkerchiefs to play with. They created an embroidery kit; with news reports from different newspapers printed over 30 days in March and screenprinted onto the handkerchief. They also provided a skein of embroidery thread and a needle. I have to say i,t requires a bit of skill from the purchasers (or should I say collector) but its an interesting challenge. I nabbed one, and you can spot a slightly confused looking me over on the Droog blog. You can also have a look at all the other products designers came up with in the range. 

Stool bySuperfolkThis Irish design studio produce products that are a tribute to Ireland’s traditional skills. The stools have been made using locally sourced Oak and Ash from sustainable forests. They can be linked together with  a series of cross stitches running through the holes drilling into the seat. If you don’t want to link them together the cord can be stored by doing a quick running stitch round the seat. 

Using a strap to tie things together is not a new idea and interestingly many of the products featured in this post have their roots in traditional crafts techniques and ideas. Just strapping a few bits and bobs together this ain’t. Its partly about learning from the past but also out of necessity and practicality, applying a simple device to create a useful functional ethical product.

Simon Hasan has used leather straps to hold integral parts of his work together. The welded box of the cabinet is held onto the oak stand and the cushion on the stool is held in place by the use of leather straps that have been boiled to give them strength.

His work was inspired by reading about the technique of boiling leather (cuir bouilli) that turns soft mallable leather into a much harder material without the use of any resin or other chemical treatments. The strength and durability of the leather is such that this medieval process was used for amour and drinking vessels. Simon has combined this process with another ancient crafting skill that is wood cleaving.

Chairless byAlejandro Aravena for Vitra. Again taking inspiration from the ancient , Alejandro’s strap is an idea developed from the Ayoreo Indians of South America. Aimed at the “modern nomad” its very light and easy to pack down and is meant to by used when chairs are in short supply.The strap takes the strain and relieves the back and legs, and keeps your hands free for reading, eating, tinkering on you laptop etc. I’m sure this will be hugely copied, anyone going to a music festival in the next year will suddenly see them everywhere. They do take a bit of practice so it could be entertaining watching people getting tangled, rolling around…..

Bungee straps, those super strong stretchy bands loved by the camping and trekking fraternity to attach all manner of necessities to the car or bike have also been appropriated by designers .

Blow Sofa by Malafor.  It is an environmental product; made from 100% recyclable dunnage bags, the inflateable bags sit on a frame held together by bungee straps. It looks a little precarious to sit on, but as long as its not over inflated its rather comfy. The bags are paper covered so you could add your own doodled design to them.

 Lukas Franciszkiewicz’ Stool FRNKWZ* also uses a steel frame as its base with a black bungee strap to hold the square cushion in place. The sense of instability from the straps is offset by the structure of the pyramid steel frame – theres a bit of give in it but its not going to slip off.

Mugrosita by Liliana Ovalle took inspiration for her work from the way street vendors in Mexico City held their stalls and tangled bags of merchandise together by straps and knots. The wooden frame of the couch is overlaid with a serise of beanbags secured by ropes.

Autarky by Studio Formafantasma shown in Milan at Spazio Rossana Orlandi follows on from their work mentioned in my Earth post.

Again using natural materials to create the vessels the strap is used to hold things that accompany the meal either spoons, bread or biscuits.

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.

Shown at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2010 Paul Smith has taken a series of wood frame chairs and recovered them with stunning floral digital prints. We’re used to seeing this kind of “brown” furniture upholstered in floral damasks of different eras. The fabric not necessarily matching the era of the furniture. They’re the inherited pieces passed down or sold on for the next owner to recover in their own way. Smith has just done exactly this, but in an exaggerated form. Detailed, close shot, naturalistic images with saturated colour as opposed to the stylised rather more dainty fabrics of old. 

Reglo by Sophie Hedderwick. Having majored in both weave and experimental textiles Hedderwick’s work  reinvents traditional pieces by combining ancient techniques of weaving with sophisticated new material.  “it is an ancient art that can be endlessly re-invented and interpreted to produce new and exciting forms, although a 2D craft it can be rendered as almost sculptural in form depending on the materials used.  My work is now a fusion of the 2 disciplines. In the last 5 years I developed this experimentation further using wire with lights which adds another dimension to the weave. Also in this project I am weaving off-loom which is a challenge for any weaver. The idea was to produce a new weave structure that was strong enough to sit on without using a traditional woven seat style” .Using reclaimed vintage chairs Hedderwick has  re-woven the seat base with bright electo-luminescent wires that light up for 5,000 hours. New work currently in development will be shown in Milan this year at Designersblock at Zona Isola  

Richard Hutten -Playing with tradition for I+I Milanshown at Object Rotterdam 2010. Richard has taken a complex Persian rug design and stretched the pattern out. Prior to computers we’d find this quite a shocking treatment of the design.  Now we’re all used to whizzing down a web page and dragging the pixels along with us, it doesn’t seem peculiar at all.  

“For already many years I had the idea to do something with traditional oriental carpets. I have an antique Persian carpet at my home, which I still find the best carpets to have. The idea behind the carpet was to build a bridge between the old and the new, east meets west. From this starting point I looked at various ways to give a reinterpretation.

In my previous work I also used existing forms which I than reinterpret. For the carpet I did research in the various patterns available. Than I came up with the idea to stretch the carpet a certain point. I found out it’s very important where to start the stretching. On the traditional side I kept the fringes, on the contemporary side I made a clear cut.”

Portmanteau After Thonet by  Mathieu Lehanneur. Mathieu has taken a familiar coat stand and gone a little wild with the hangers. I’m  guessing but the advantage over the original may be that it can hold a little more. I seem to remember my parents old fashioned version was always so completely covered,you wouldn’t know what was under the mass of coats. Its certainly a witty remake of a familiar piece and I hope it will go into production. Apologies for the photo, I think I was a little phased out by Maison Objet at this point and as it is a proto-type I can’t find better images at the moment.

Reworking traditional familiar shapes, or complex designs made possible by technology, the common thread in these designs are the little tricks they play with us. The optical illusions from their transparencey; and they appear to be so delicate but actually have immense strength. Most here use coated steel wire whereas the Nido stool above uses fibre glass. 

Nido by Eva Marguerre for Masson. Made from fibreglass and reinforced plastic this range of stools and side table look incredibly delicate, but they are much tougher than they look.  Over on the Nido website you can see Eva jumping on them, flinging them in the air letting them crash to the ground without damage. They’re also very light, she can be seen cycling around with an impressive number of the on the back of her bike.

Kilian Schindler Monoblock chair. The plastic Monoblock chair; an unloved design – I guess we’re imune to its charms, its just too familiar. Its also prone to collapse when you least expect it. Kilian has reworked the design in a more durable coated steel.  

 Tio by Chris Martin & Magnus Elebäck forMassproductions“The design for “Tio” was the end result of a few months of thinking, sketching and sculpting. My point of departure was to arrange a fan of wires into a comfortable seat and then connect them in a straightforward and logical frame, which minimized the amount of steel used. So really the appeal comes from pragmatic thinking, executed within the restraints of the materials characteristics and according to an industrial production process. Sounds clinical, but the result is something I find very pleasing. For those who find steel wires too hard, we have developed an upholstered cushion to give extra comfort during long dining sessions.” – says Chris Martin

Oooms Wire Frame Chair The Wire-frame collection came into existence because of a great fascination of the wire-frame structures in the 3D modelling phase of the design process. This chair is designed by computer using 3D software and after that its handmade in real steel wire.
 

Autoban’s Wire King. Turkish design duo, Seyhan Ozdemir and Sefer Caglar updated their own King lamp base in steel with either a  brass plate or painted  finish. The original wooden version was inspired by the Baroque curves of chess pieces - hence the “King” name.

Something from Nothing Wire Lamp. A simple functional lamp of 3 parts. The shade, frame and electrical cord.

I can’t help thinking that if you went a bit crazy with wire, your home may look a little like the set from Tron…but thats just me being a bit silly.

This post has nothing to do with post holiday blues and the dullness of those long dark winter days - no really. This is an appreciation of Blue and how designers have used this incredible colour in its various shades and hues. Blue has long been associated with quality work. Far back into the Middle Ages the cost of  Ultramarine led to its use sparingly for the finest works, and so our association of Blue with quality began. 

Whether a luminous iridescent or a flat matt pigment designers have chosen a variety of shades to launch and promote new products in the past year. Starting from the lighter brighter blue from a spring morning (its January - I’m feeling hopeful!) down to a deeper day-into-night shade  

At the beginning of the year in Stockholm Ineke Hans chose to exhibit her Fly Chair  in a beautiful matt sky blue. Produced by Arco  its simple oak frame has been matt lacquered, allowing the form of the chair to been seen in varying shades.

At the same show Ligne & Roset displayed Confluences by Philippe Nigro seen here in a range of tonal blues.   Launched at IMM Cologne the interlocking yin yang design not only allows different arrangements but also posture settings for the different users.   

Quilt by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec was launched by Established & Son at Salone del Mobile Milan. Using a shade of blue that expresses the moment that day turns to night . Appropriately enough, the day I got to see this the chair had been taken over by a lady in her twilight years who just wouldn’t move. For anyone.

At Design Miami/Basel 2009 designer Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny of Studio Libertiny  The Bic Blue Cabinet. As the name suggests  Tomáš has used the ink from the ubiquitous Bic pen to colour his cabinet  not for him the finest most expensive natural pigment! That said though he hasn’t just coloured in an MDF cabinet and whacked on a bit of varnish. For 26,000 you get a handmade American Walnut cabinet, coated with Bic ink and hand-finished with French Polish; layer upon layer applied as you would to antique furniture. The combination of ink and polish give the cabinet an iridescence; a reminder of why this colour has been inspiring and intriguing artists for centuries. The finishing touches of gold plated hinges and Libertiny logo are hidden inside, there is no handle, it is a push to open system.

At the London Design Festival Benjamin Hubert chose blue for Splay his Coat stand for De La Espada. Seen here with all the other products this prolific new designer has launched in the last year.

And if you wanted to completely immerse yourself in blue, you could have visited the magical art installation Seizure by Roger Hiorns. Created by pumping 75,000 litres of copper sulphate into an abandoned council flat at letting the evaporating liquid form incredible blue crystals. It must have been quite some moment cracking open the seal to see if it had actually worked. Thankfully it had. Sadly the block and its crystal contents will be demolished – but then they said that last year… http://www.artangel.org.uk/