Established & Sons have produced and ombré version of the Bouroullec’s Quilt chair.

At Milan Salone del Mobile Moroso showed a very controlled Ombré sofa that graduated from a light to dark pink. Incredibly confusing for the camera to shot.

Flip Flap Fold by textile designer Margrethe Odgaard. The dye seeps across the folds of the fabric enhancing the effect of the delicate origami folds

Textile designer  Josefine Wiel Fredén produces some beautiful fabric that has less control than the previous examples. The dye is allowed a little more of a free run. Huge patches of indigo and scarlet dyes have been manipulated just enough to create a repeat pattern; but not enough to feel mechanical produced. Each bolt of fabric is unique.

Alexa Lixfeld’s Cashmere throw uses the old method of tying the fabric to prevent the dye taking in those areas.

Underfull Tablecloth by Kristine Bjaadal At first glance the tablecloth appears to be an ordinary damask tablecloth. Its only when the cloth has been used and abused that the pattern really forms. “Some stains , like red wine, are hard to clean, but since they will be formed as figures, the tablecloth will not look stained. The figures will form a pale, shadowy pattern that will grow as the tablecloth is used over time. This creates stories and can contribute to giving the tablecloth a sentimental value.”

Homosapiens by Marie Garnier for Edition Nouveaux Objets is a kitchen tool for sharpening crushing and grinding.Early man would have been very happy with one of these and me too!

The Butcher, The Cook, The Diner by Hadar Snir is a set of knives that you could imagine making light work of skinning any mammal. They’re probably more likely to be used mezzaluna style on herbs  – or maybe that’s just me. I spotted them at Milan this year them and really hope they go into production

Hex Opener by Iacoli & McAlister. A simple chunk of brass to lever off a bottle top. That is all.

I don’t know how many thousands of years man has been making wine but House Wine by Sabine Marcelis is a beautiful way of bringing the process back into the home. All the pieces needed for home brewing are contained in the draw below the bottle.

If beer is more your thing Craft a Brew have created a wonderfully simple no-tech way to make your own beer. I love the way the craft trend has moved onto booze!

Any way I must be off….I’m cultivating my own sourdough..yes primitive bread making.

Inga Sempe’s Ruche bed for Ligne Roset was a last minute change. “I thought this was going to be blue!” she said as she bounced onto the bed shown at  Maison et Objet. A quick change  had been made to a softer feminine nude tone for the room set. As you can see from the image Inga left the bed unmade!

Also at Maison Object the Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec display had their Slow Chair for Magis in brighter ice cream pink.

The theme continued into Milan where any number of chairs appeared in fleshy tones through to deep raspberry.

Bouroullec’s Quilt chair for Established & Son was updated in a faded pink.

Stefan Diez Houdini Chair mixed pink with dark leather.

Floris Schoonderbeek’s Axe chair also has a pink version.

Patricia Urquiola’s Klara Chair for Moroso was amongt many pink pieces on the Moroso stand.

Comet Chair Gunilla Allard for Lammhults comes in a range of pinks from soft light through to raspberry.

Maarten Baas used very fleshy tone of pink for his Clay range at Spazio Rosana Orlandi

Home accessories have also had the pink treatment Established & Son’s new Serve tray is edged in raspberry.

For textiles pink is an accent. Seen here Sebastain Wrong’s Zig Zag rug for Established & Sons, and finally Studio Makkink & Bey for Hay Studio who’s rug also appeared on the Vitra stand.
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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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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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A wonderful tweeted interview by Max Fraser with Guido Cappellini  included the percentage range a designer could expect in royalties from a work in production.  A royalty payout is roughly between 1.5- 5% on the cost or wholesale price of an item, though I would think the bigger the designer the more flexibility there is in the percentage. So for and item that walks out of the shop at £100 the designer would take 60p – £2 using a mark-up on the cost price of 2.5 times. Its not a lot really is it. An anonymous designer complained that his last royalty cheque was for £600 “it won’t even cover half a months rent”  (he obviously lives in London) But if a design takes off you could be gradually raking in the royalties for years and as you establish your name you won’t be relying on 1 or 2 products; some designers must have launched 10-15 products at Milan this year. But to really build up an income will take years of work and  products with a long shelf life.

So is the way to go abandon designing for others and set up on your own? Seen here is Dave Keune’s Standard Primatives Lamp. He’s an example of a designer who’s set up their own. And its certainlyworked for Tom Dixon creator of Etch 100  (1st image above) a design inspired by the logic of pure mathmatics; but only after years of designing for others. Starting out on your own can take some serious money; Benjamin Hubert tweeted that he’d spent £30,000 of wages from day jobs into creating prototypes before he started to make any money. And its not quite so simple to set up on your own – with so many jobs to do running a business; it always helps to have interns. Hmmm yes interns; another sensitive subject thrown up by #milanuncut. They can either be seen and used as slave labour (the bigger the company the worse the experience so it would seem) or  vital to the growth of a new business that otherwise couldn’t progress. Fresh out of study with so much expectation you can’t help thinking students may expect a little too much out of an internship? But then it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that in working for free they do gain something from the experience; even if it may only be to realise that a lot of work isn’t as intellectually stimulating as college life has been!

Philippe Malouin used interns to create the Yachiyo metal rug; and he even named it after one of them and credited everyone who worked on the piece. This really was a team effort and with over 3000 man hours to create; it would have been impossible without his interns. I couldn’t resist the urge to work out what this would have cost to make had he been forced to pay the minimum wage of £5.93 . It actually works at a staggering  £17,790!

Yes ok this doesn’t make this a commercially viable piece to put into production (even if you farmed it out to a $1 a day wage in developing nation!) but  I can’t help feeling that they all got a sense of satisfaction in the creative process, even if they don’t feel the need to repeat it.  You can see them making it over on Dezeen. And from that idea and process and experimentation that having  a group of interns can allow a creative cloud can form and out pops another idea, process etc,etc.

Over at Established & Sons a remarkable similar  Cubiod rug appeared in their new collection. They’re not giving away the name of the designers in this range, but I was assured that they did hire some very talented names from the design field.  I can’t say for definite that Philippe designed this but…..any way it does offer another way for a young designer to use existing ideas for a nice design fee rather than royalties.I am making an assumption  that this is a fee rather than a royalty but it would make commercial sense to do it this way. Say they had an initial production run of 5000 at retailing at £80, that would be a £2400 royalty. I think a one off design fee would be a bit less.

Another direction for the designer can be into that hazy would where art and design collides. Marcus Tremonto produced these Hexalights. Is it art? Is it design? Oh I can’t be bothered to work it out anymore! They are glowingly beautiful either way.

Sadly the final tail of  #milanuncut was that too many students don’t even attend the classes that are aimed at giving them the business knowledge to succeed in a very competitive environment.

So for my final cube spot from Milan is Konnex by Florian Gross for Müller Möbelwerkstätten Great for the frustrated designer who has given up on the design career and is left to redesign their home. The pieces can be added to and slot together to form your own unique layout – that way you can still feel like a designer.

Ron Gilad added to last years Wall Piercing Lamp for Flos (seen below in the background) with his stunning 2620 Chandelier

At Moroso’s Milan showroom  Tokujin Yoshioka created an installation entitled Twilight to display his Moon chair. A mist hung in the air with beams of light shot thorough like moon light.

Volcano by Klaus Haapaniemi & Mia Wallenius for Established & Son reminded everyone of the volcanic cloud that hung over last year festival; when that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano stranded visitors!

Formafantasma presented Botanica a range of vessels created from polymers derived from plants at Spazio Rossana Orlandi. Each had a tag with the name of plant the polymer came from.

Also at Spazio Rossana Orlandi was the School of the Art Institute of Chicago presenting Loaded; works created from iron and sugar. It was also a lesson in looking at not just what is on the table but what is underneath. The table legs created by the students were beautiful.

Andere Monjo at Salone Satellite Milano presented a poetic collection of handcrafted pieces that lie between the boundaries of art design and craft.

Going back to the industrial Studio Job created a cabinet for Lensvelt featuring  a giant brass key.

They also presented their Gothic chair and Firmship Carpet for Moooi

Casamania had a wonderfully woven chair called Loop by Sophie De Vocht -it reminded me of my Knit Loop post of last year.

Jamie Hayon collaborated with traditional Japanese pottery studio Choemon to create Hayon x Choemon Gama. A combination of traditional techniques and Jamie’s graphics.

Thomas Heatherwick UK Pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010. Constructed from 60,000 transparent 7.5m long optical strands, the tip of each containing a seed from the Millenium seed bank. The Pavillion showcased the work  of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and was appropriately called the Seed Cathedral. Inside the interior is a quiet contemplative space, lit by light filtering through the optical rods. The pavilion was awarded the prestigious 2010 RIBA Lubetkin Prize and Thomas Heatherwick was awarded the London Design Medal at the 2010 Design Festival.

Jambox by Jawbone Designed by Yves Behar the Jambox is breakthrough in wireless technology being the first intelligent wireless speaker and speaker phone. The clever little box quickly and easily connects with mobile phones, computers, tablets, iPods or any other Bluetooth device, allowing you to seamlessly stream and share music, movies, games, phone and conference calls anywhere — all wirelessly and in the palm of your hand. Cleverly constructed and unlike any other speaker, the stainless steel construction is hidden behind industrial weight moulded rubber. And aside from the fact that it really does deliver on technical and audio side; it just looks so much better than its clunky rivals. I’m particularly miffed as I bought an ugly little beast a month before the Jambox came out. Its amazing that so many companies producing tech products don’t pay the same attention to detail on the aesthetics as they do to the technology. . Haven’t they learned anything from say… Apple which brings me to my next pick

Apple iPad I have to admit I just thought “hmm just looks like a big iPhone but I can’t make calls what the heck do I need that for?”  But as it gets passed around the kitchen table the kids doodle and play games(educational ones!); I’ll have a flick through a magazine that I’ve saved a huge amount in money and paper weight by switching to digital subscription. Grandparents flick through photos. Its just a magic little book  with all the information you’ll ever need without having to lug your laptop around.

Plumen by Hulgar I think I raved about Plumen on my last post so have a look here. Or… to briefly sum up: its a beautiful alternative to those incredibly ugly low energy light bulbs and its about time somebody had a go at making something so mundane beautiful.

Tom Dixon Flash Factory This was an interesting concept from Tom Dixon; an aim to connect directly with the consumer and show how designers can service world markets in reduced timescales. For this he created a digitally designed limited edition product that can be purchased and constructed on site. The Flash Factory then went on a tour of Europe popping up and offering its wares.Its a concept that we’ve certainly not seen from product designers before – we’re used to fashion designers engaging with their consumer but the world of product design has been a little more aloof and has held back from really getting involved with those who actually buy and use their work.

Scholten & Baijings Butte boxes for Established & Sons. It seems strange to put a small wooden box in my design favourites, but the reason behind this choice is that a simple object can encapsulate many different product trends and desires in one seemingly simple package. Its been made in a traditional way using raw bent beech wood, inside it hold the surprise of a bright shock of colour revealed when you open it. And finally the use of illustration not only decorates but also tells a story. Its just a damn shame that an intelligent and beautiful product costs so much… about  £366  (it sounds less than saying 425 Euros)

So there are my slim pickings from this year. All the best for 2011!

The incandescent bulb is nearing the end of its life. Across the world governments having been passing legislation in favour of more energy conserving alternatives; and here in Europe a ban on selling 100watt bulb has been in place for a year.

We’ve mostly switched to the rather ugly compact tube fluorescent tube (CTF) and the ban on the frosted incandescent so infuriated lighting designer Ingo Maurer he had to come up with the Euro Condom pictured above (not sure if come up was quite the right phrase there!) The opaque condoms fit over clear incandescent bulbs – which are not affected by the guidelines – to give a similar effect to the banned bulbs. Its an amusing poke at European bureaucracy but when you look at the carbon emissions saved by getting rid of the old bulbs never mind the money saved on your electricity bills it makes sense to make the move.

So here are a few lights that have taken a little inspiration from the old bulb but been updated to comply with strict EU guidelines – its quite heartening to think bureaucracy can move design! America take note your Federal bureaucracy is years behind….

I don’t think you could have failed to notice Hulger’s Plumen lightbulb launched this year and billed as the worlds first designer energy saving light bulb. It uses 80% less energy than the traditional incandescent light bulb; and just like its ugly older brother (the compact tube fluorescent) it keeps down electricity bills and lasts around 8 times longer.  Hulger’s work came from the frustrations of the CTF; not only did it look ugly but the kind of light they give off is pretty poor.

“Make the bulb attractive and people will spend a bit more and enjoy a better quality of light and a design they appreciate every day. Glass tubes can be bent is many different shapes so why are there thousands of manufacturers but only three designs? We believe the answer is in the design.” The bulb is available in Europe with plans to launch in the USA early 2011.

Marcus Tremento is an artist who uses light as a  medium to express his work. His highly graphic and illustration based pieces draw inspiration from French Pop comics of the 1960’s his use of simple lines suggest three-dimensional form but in keeping with his source of inspiration he actually uses paper  – of a rather special kind. These lights employ Electroluminescent paper, which consists of an organic material that emit photons (light) when excited by an electric current, sandwiched between two thin layers of plastic. This method of producing light is distinct from standard incandescent lights in that there is no emission of heat. Electroluminescence was first developed in 1960 for use in automotive instrument panel backlighting.

Diamond Light by Eric Therner is a particularly beautiful alternative to the old light bulbs

“I’d like to see them as sculptures, with a function. Diamond Lights play with the concept of the light bulb. Stylewise, the common light bulbs look brilliant. I’m not sure though, if it is the shape, or it’s iconic value that makes it so beautiful.

The fact that it was “a” first, and what it meant to people when it first arrived, has surely played an important role during the years from product to icon. Diamond Lights is not a tribute or an attempt at making a better light bulb than the already existing one. I simply want to offer another choice.”

The result is an environmentally friendly, e-27 halogen lightbulb with a warm 15 watt glow and 2000- lifehours.

Pieke Bergmans Light Bulbs

Pictures at the top of this post the Light Bulbs are a series of crystal lamps, designed by Pieke  in a collaboration with Royal Crystal Leerdam. The lamps are all unique handcrafted crystal pieces, equipped with leds by Solid Lighting Design. They followed on from Pieke’s “Virus” series where she manipulates molten glass over various objects letting them gently ooze in a organic satisfying way.

Art Deco  by comparison to its younger sibling, has been unappreciated; I say sibling but really Art Deco is more of the grand dame of Modernism. I’ve been sitting on this Art Deco piece for months but with the re-opening of a true grand dame of the period the Savoy Hotel,  its seems timely to post this.

So here are a few products that have either been re-issued or have features  reminiscent of  the period.

Lee Broom One Light Only. Launched last month at the London Design Festival the work is inspired by Art Deco jewellery and also decadent 70’s photography. Stylists from the 70’s weren’t averse to referencing the Wiemar years (think of the film Cabaret) so you can see the connection. The use of facets and gold are certainly Art Deco 

Himmeli Chandelier by Paul Loebach  for the new American lighting manufacturer Roll & Hill

The inspiration for the piece actually came from a traditional Finnish craft of making Christmas ornaments but I certainly feel that the geometry, facets and particularly use of the glass lanterns gives a certain Deco-ness to the work even though the intention lay elsewhere. That said; Artek (mentioned below) is a Finnish company and the classic chair uses a traditional bent wood technique  -so there is a connection of sorts!

Two Art Deco classic were dusted down, re-issued and re-worked earlier this year. I doubt they’ve ever been out of production but the were both given the attention they deserve.

Artek re-issued the 1936 Armchair 400 by Alvar Aalto but in a new spectacular Missoni cover. The chair was shown a Spazio Rossana Orlandi amongst the eclectic mix of beautifully designed products that span all eras of design history.

Vanity Fair by Poltrona Frau is a reissued classic from 1930. An original that spawned a thousand copies it seemed appropriare that little minatures were dotted about the stand to emphasis its classic status.

Glas light from  Diesel  and  Foscarini is a work that has a more of an industrial Deco feel. Although personally I prefer the rather wonderful original examples you can find over at Skinflint Design

Finally still on the industrial tip heres Tom Dixon Pressed Glass Light Bead . The glass has been produced in a factory more used to manufacturing industrial glass. It was launched last year as part of the Industry Collection.