New plans for 'G Plan'....70's icon in retail reorganisation

Spotted on Design week online...by Emily Pacey

Manchester-based consultancy The Market Creative is designing a retail concept for furniture manufacturer G Plan’s shop-in-shops.

G Plan appointed The Market Creative in June, after the consultancy approached it with ‘observational and experiential research that showed that G Plan was not optimising the shopping experience’, according to The Market Creative managing director Sue Benson.

‘The biggest thing that G Plan has missed is getting people to sit down on its products,’ she adds.

This observation forms the core of the permanent point-of-sale campaign that will launch in three weeks at an independent furniture store in Bristol.

‘We have taken the values of the brand, which are comfort, quality, heritage and craftsmanship, and tried to communicate them, which G Plan wasn’t doing before,’ says Benson.

The new retail concept will roll out to G Plan concessions in about 400 UK stores throughout 2010.'

Wired over from Germany ...light and airy table from Ismail Özalbayrak...

New work seen on Contemporist...

German designer Ismail Özalbayrak has sent us photos of the Wireframe table he has created.The frame is made of steel and the table top is made of medium density fiberboard. Ismail is currently searching for a manufacturer to produce the table.

Light and airy design , although would need to be tested to assess stability...How do those stools stay up??

Any thoughts?...

NIce Curves from across the channel.....new funiture launched by Victor Boëda....

As seen on Contemporist...

French designer Victor Boëda has created the Lilium sofa and chair for the Paris based furniture manufacturer Steiner.

'From the designer:
Lilium is a soft couch with a floral line. An assemblage of three sheets, one per function: seat, kidney-level support & back-rest.'

 
Nice curves here not unlike my own Airya chair I am working on at moment, although I would have probably treates the leg design dirfferently especially at the front where they give the impression of tipping forward and perhaps a little unstability....
 
What do you think?

New range from U.K based furniture designer Stueart Padwick.....

Seen on Contemporist blog

British designer Steuart Padwick has launched his own brand of furniture and lighting. For his new company, he has created a variety of new designs, which are featured below.

See more at Stueart Padwicks web site

Back to the furniture...1970's pieces to appear in Ecopod holiday homes...

Spotted on Design week online....

'Designers Anonymous has branded, worked on interiors and created a website for a new luxury geodesic dome retreat in Scotland.

Once complete, Ecopod Boutique Retreat, located on the west coast of Scotland near Loch Linnhe, will comprise up to five geodesic domes, supplied by German manufacturer Zendome.

The 100 per cent recycled domes, second-hand furniture and use of sustainable materials are intended to earn the retreat Green credentials. ‘I honestly believe we will have the lowest carbon footprint out of any self-catering hotel in the UK,’ says Ecopod’s co-owner Jim Milligan.

Ecopod appointed Designers Anonymous in early summer on the strength of a recommendation.

At first, the brief ran to creating a website for the retreat. However, the remit rapidly expanded to include rebranding as well.

‘The first logo was brand new, but it was like clip art and very poor considering the retreat is going to be aimed at the Wallpaper [magazine] end of the market,’ says a consultancy spokesman. ‘The client just trusted us to step back and take a look at the whole project.’

Designers Anonymous has created a visual identity (pictured above right) and designed vehicle livery already, and will create marketing materials and advertising for the company as the opening date of next spring approaches.

Milligan says the retreat will be marketed at luxury travellers, retirees, honeymooners and affluent gay couples.

Designers Anonymous, which has no completed interiors projects under its belt to date, also took on interior design for elements of the domes, including creating a camouflage print for the shells (pictured).

Each dome will feature an open-plan kitchen handmade by German furniture company Stadtnomaden, and a standalone, barrel-shaped bathroom pod clad in cedar pine. ‘The domes were looking very clean, but this softens the look a bit,’ says Milligan.

Milligan aims to have two domes in place by April. Located in a National Scenic Area, their removable nature helped to win planning approval for the project.

‘Initially, we were planning on marketing the retreat as 100 per cent carbon neutral, but soon realised that such a concept is impossible, and we didn’t want to be caught out,’ says Milligan.

ECOPOD BOUTIQUE RETREAT

- Will consist of five geodesic domes, each with a 10m radius

- Stadtnomaden is supplying free-standing, handmade kitchens

- Roger Wilde is making free-standing bathroom pods

- Furniture will be 1970s second-hand designer pieces

- Guests will use electric golf buggies to get around the site'

Objeti of desire?...versatile range of furniture from the U.S.A...

Seen on Contemporist blog

Objeti, a Cleveland, Ohio based furniture design and manufacturing company, have sent us their Aerialist Series of coffee tables that can convert into seating. With the turn of a lever, the surface of the table top transforms to reveal an upholstered cushion.

Not sure about the name for this range of pieces but i can appreciate its veratility and use of colour. Reminds me a little of my own Opposed frame range of tables and contemporary furniture.

See more at Objeti web site

Holon to your seats....New Israeli design museum by Ron Arad...

Seen On Design Week online by Angus Montgomery

'The Design Museum Holon in Israel, designed by Ron Arad Architects, is set to open in January.

The building, which has been under construction for four years, is opening as part of a programme to transform the town of Holon, in central Israel, into a culture and education centre.

The museum will be constructed from five bands of varying shades of Cor-ten steel and will accommodate two main galleries and a number of diverse exhibition and education spaces in-between.

Ron Arad says, ‘We created a hierarchy of outdoor spaces so you walk in under the building into a semi-covered yard, where you have a choice to take the air-conditioned route or one exposed to the elements. The building envelope is not just a pretty space – it’s also a structure.’'

Escher...Escher...bless you a new versatile coffee table from Toby Howes

Seen on Contemporist blog new table by designer Toby Howes

'As the name suggests, the design was inspired by one of Escher’s bird & fish tessellation sketches & proved every bit as difficult as it looks to perfect all the angles! I wanted to create a modern design piece that combined my usual simplicity of style with a real edge & this is the result. I’m a strong believer in William Morris’s design philosophy “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” & I hope the Escher table fits the bill on both counts.

Each of the three walnut inlaid arcs slide out to become side tables in their own right, leaving the central zebrano piece to become more & more sculptural as each arc is removed. The zebrano wraps around the inside of the funnels of each ‘arm’ of the central piece to form a funnel, rather like that of an old-fashioned gramapohone, that draws the eye in through the centre. This is especially effective if light is streaming through one of the funnels & I have been working on a version with a light actually built into the heart of the table to achieve exactly this effect. The flashes of red on the sides are completely hidden whilst the table is whole & are only revealed as the arcs are removed.

Dimensions 450mm high 800mm wide and deep
Materials Walnut and Zebrano'

More to see at Toby Howes web pages

Chinese manufacturer branches out?...Shrub table prototypes seen on web..

Spooted on Contemporist, a new way of Chinese manufacturing?....Chinese designer Zhili Liu has created the Shrub Tables.

'Chinese manufacturing is usually famous for large quantity, low quality and very limited new material and technology. So for Chinese designers, creating low quantity products with high quality in both design and manufacturing has always been a tougher task than it is in most other places. I have been trying to create high specification products with typical Chinese industrial materials and basic technics, through unusual design and engineering, and these tables are the first prototypes in this direction – which I believe could be another route for “Chinese design” aside from reinterpreting the traditional decorative elements.

The exposed sunken screws bolt together the table top with all the “branches” of table legs, forming dozens of stable triangles, which make the table top part of the frame to share the stress in the legs, thus material needed to make a table is minimized. the 2-metre dining table has a top with 6mm even thickness, from edge to centre, without any space technology or exotic material, just thin steel rods, aluminium sheet and a roadside workshop, and the randomnly spreaded fastening screws also become the decorative elements here. Cut, bent, welded and powder coated.'

See more at Zhili Liu' s web site..  Nice work but not sure about the Cornflake packet welding mask though...

Can't wait to see the rest of the train.....Cellulose meeting Pods by Paul Coudamy

As seen on Contemporist blog

French architect and designer Paul Coudamy has created the Cellulose meeting pods.

I'm living in a box..I'm living in a cardboard box.....by 80's pop group  'Living in a Box ' 1987, probably not quite what they had in mind.....

Any other Business?...lets sit on it...Skandinavian chairs up for show

Spotted on Contemporist blog...

Dialogue – A Chair That Is Up For Negotiation, is an exhibition on now until January 31, 2010, that is put on by the Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition, an association of Danish furniture manufactures and designers, who’s purpose is to develop and stage an annual exhibition of new and experimental furniture types with strong practical and artistic qualities and excellent craftsmanship.

Worth a look at the Danish Cabinet makers website

New look for classic art furniture website...Fornasetti gets make over

As seen on design week online...

'Micha Weidmann Studio is working on a new website for Italian design house Fornasetti.

Fornasetti was founded by Milan-based artist Piero Fornasetti, who designed the company’s products himself, and also collaborated with architect Gio Ponti. Following Fornasetti’s death in 1988, the company was taken over by his son, Barnaba.

Pictorial desk by Fornasetti

Micha Weidmann Studio was appointed to develop the website in July, according to creative director Micha Weidmann, who says the consultancy had been in talks with Fornasetti for about two years to collaborate on projects. It started work on the site in September. Weidmann says, ‘Barnaba has spent a long time repositioning the business in the right way, and this website is one of the first steps in establishing Fornasetti online. It comes with a look that respects and showcases the company’s design.’

He adds, ‘We didn’t want to create crazy new branding, we wanted to take what was there and make it work.’ The website opens with a woman’s face, over which hovers the cursor, which has turned into a bee (pictured). ‘Immediately, you enter the surreal world of Fornasetti,’ says Wiedmann. The screen also references a portrait of opera singer Lina Cavalieri, which appears repeatedly in Fornasetti’s designs.

Kiss cabinet by Barnaba Fornasetti

The website then splits into three sections, says Weidmann: story, creations, and shop and visit. The story section covers biographies of Piero and Barnaba Fornasetti, and tells the story of the company itself.

Weidmann says, ‘There is also a bee buzzing around on the screen, and if you click on it you get images of the cat at the Fornasetti house, or Piero’s erotic sketches.’ The creations section will provide a comprehensive round-up of the products on offer, while shop and visit will provide details of how to buy the products, and potentially an e-commerce site. Weidmann says, ‘Fornasetti is interested in timeless design - it’s not interested in what’s modern or trendy.

The company takes its time and does things right. The new website is set to launch in early December.

THE FORNASETTI STORY

1913 - Piero Fornasetti born in Milan
1935 - exhibits at Milan Triennale
1940 - works with Gio Ponti for the first time
1988 - Fornasetti dies, his son Barnaba takes over the company
2009 - reworks website with Micha Weidmann Studio'

Modern Mexican chique meets Mid Century Modern...Charlotte Perriand is on the guest list...

Another High quality article from Contemporist...

'Distrito Capital Hotel by Joseph Dirand

Surprising interiors, dazzling panoramic views and double-height ceilings are a few of the eye-catching highlights of Distrito Capital. Located in the highest area of Mexico City – the skyscraper district of Santa Fe – this hotel is a testament to how cool Mexico’s capital has become in recent years.

Designed around the idea of creative minimalism, the 30 well-appointed guestrooms and suites look more like chic art spaces than hotel rooms. Any visitor will be simultaneously awed by impeccable design touches and excited by personal service flourishes. Fashionable without being zeitgeist-y, the inviting décor allows visitors to truly kick back and relax.

The hotel is punctuated by vintage furnishings by Charlotte Perriand and other famous mid-century designers. And Parisian interior designer Joseph Dirand has also successfully created thought-provoking social spaces within the property, such as a lounge-friendly pool area, several spectacular terraces and a film projection room. In fact, the Enrique Olvera-curated restaurant on the fifth floor is one of Mexico City’s newest hotspots. Guests will feel like they’ve stepped into their dream apartment.

Visit the Distrito Capital Hotel’s website – here.

Park to breathe new life into iconic Mumbai interior...

Seen on Design Week website 12th november...

'The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, a luxury Mumbai hotel known globally since it suffered a devastating terrorist attack last November, will soon unveil new interiors by James Park Associates and others.

JPA claims that it was appointed just two weeks after the 60-hour siege, which killed more than 150 people, on the strength of its previous work for hotel group Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces. The group reports it was initially briefed to advise on the rapid reopening of the Taj’s least damaged building, the Tower wing. However, the remit soon expanded to include revamping and refurbishing most of the hotel, claims JPA.

‘The Tower wing was not that badly damaged, but the older heritage wing required a lot more work,’ says David Edwards, managing director of JPA’s Singapore office.
During the attack, fire ripped through the fifth and sixth floors of the hotel, destroying its dome. The core of the hotel was devastated by grenade explosions and many areas were peppered with bullet holes.

Although much of the damage was not structural, its extensive nature has given JPA an opportunity to strip away some late 20th-century design interventions ‘to take the interiors closer to how we feel the hotel would have been originally’, says Edwards.
The consultancy claims it renovated 280 rooms with 40 different configurations, which Edwards describes as ‘very challenging’. JPA has created five new colour schemes for the guest rooms.
‘Although the colours are more vibrant than those the hotel previously had, they are very Indian,’ says Edwards. The public areas will feature four further schemes.

JPA is also designing four of 16 themed suites, including one called Ravi Shankar. The suite, says Edwards, will not follow the ‘predictable’ 1960s theming he believes most would expect. ‘It is a fairly classical design, in keeping with the building, reflecting the diversity and number of generations Shankar has influenced’. The rooms will feature one of the musician’s sitars.
Other themed suites and some food and beverage offers are being designed by US-based architect and interiors consultancies Rockwell Group and Bamo, Singaporebased Lim Teo & Wilkes Design Works and Italian group Lissoni Associati, says Edwards.
A phased opening from now until February will unveil JPA’s redesigned guest rooms and executive suites, lobby and reception, grand staircase and central dome, poolside lounge, palace lounge and main lobby.

TAJ MAHAL PALACE IN MUMBAI

1903 - The Taj Mahal Palace hotel resort opens, built in Indo- Saracenic style. The hotel features a dome allegedly made with the same steel as was used in the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Taj claims it was the first hotel in India to feature a steam elevator

1973 - Tower wing constructed as a separate building 26 November 2008 - terrorist attacks damage the hotel. The owner vows to renovate it at an estimated cost of INR5bn (£65m)'

Design Britain award ...finalists announced...

Designers of the future discovered at interiors 2010

Featuring this year’s hottest young design talent in furnishing, lighting, soft furnishing and accessories, interiors 2010 will be hosting this year’s New Design Britain finalists.
The New Design Britain competition is open to graduates and postgraduates and has two main categories in the competition: Made in Britain and Designed in Britain. Each of these has three subsections: Furniture, Accessories and Surface Coverings and Fabrics.
The finalists will be displayed at the show with the winners being judged and announced at interiors 2010 on Monday 25th January 2010.

The finalists are as follows:

Furniture:
Phil Crooks, Yu-Hun Kim, Tim Harrison & Lorna Wilby
Highly commended: Alec Macmaster & Francesca Mancini

Accessories:
James Cadogan, Helena Karelson, Allesandro Foglia & Celia Choryn

Surface Coverings and Fabrics:
Kate Simcoe, Lynsey Jean Henderson, Vaishali Patel, Tamar Balakjian, Polly Bell & Jennifer Jones

Judging the entries will take place by:

John Jenkins – Heals
Sally Bendelow – Marks & Spencer
Damien Walton – House of Fraser
Gareth Griffiths – Stuart Jones ltd
Martin Grierson – Worshipful Company Furniture Makers
Barbara Chandler – Freelance journalist and photographer

Previous winners of New Design Britain include Jason Heap, Rob Scarlet and Naomi Dean – all have gone on to have success within the interiors industry. To read more about their success stories click here.

Nice to see some of my old boys, Jason Heap and Alex Macmaster mentioned here...well done to both of them!

Get in Formation ...to see Joe Walsh's new work

Spotted on Contemporist....Furniture by Irish designer Joe Walsh...

He states....

'In this new work I will create a series of pieces that, while continuing to possess many of the values of my work to date, go on to explore form in a sensitive way. Through this work, I am seeking to emulate nature’s forms with a timeless presence as though they have evolved like a formation or erosion. The resulting composition of form, material and colour creates a sense of wholeness in each complete work.'

See more of this amazing collection at the Joseph Walsh website.

Design Museum moves, moving closer....

Spotted on Design Week online...by Angus Montgomery

'The Design Museum has launched an international search for an architect to work on the Commonwealth Institute building in west London, which is set to become the new home of the museum


The practice appointed would work alongside Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’ practice OMA, which is developing plans for residential buildings around the CI building, now renamed the Parabola.
The Design Museum is seeking a design team, led by an architect and also comprising a structural engineer, an mechanical and electrical engineer, a construction design and management co-ordinator and a catering consultant to work on the museum fit-out within the Grade II*-listed building.
This work will include creating temporary and permanent exhibition spaces, education, event, catering and retail spaces, an auditorium and associated office storage, circulation, back-of-house areas, plant, and plant-related services.
The deadline for submissions of interest is 4 December, and a design team is expected to be announced in February, ahead of the Design Museum’s move from its Shad Thames home, which could take place in 2013.
Plans for the Design Museum’s move to Kensington were approved by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and English Heritage in September.'

Were wishing on a...Toby Howes new laminated chair design

Spotted on Contemporist Blog an elegant rocking chair design 'Wishbone'  by designer Toby Howes who talks about his new piece below....

'I like to use different materials when designing new pieces, to give me an alternate view on shapes & textures, & this one started life as a couple of pipecleaners! It’s all about the lines &, from the side, you can see every curve mirrors the others to give an unusual silhouette for a rocking chair. Originally, it was constructed completely out of maple but, by adding the walnut into the supporting curves, the two-tone now draws the eye through the chair’s lines.

The shorter than usual rockers mean it doesn’t take up as much floor space & the design can be ‘au naturel’ or upholstered to your taste. Although the design is contemporary, the woods used can be changed to fit in with a more traditionally furnished home as well &, I’m told, the wishbone is especially comfortable for nursing mothers.'

Dimensions 900mm high 550mm wide and 1100mm long. Materials: Maple and Walnut...

Whatever floats your boat ......what a corker of a seat...

Seen on Seeking designers website

Designer Daniel Michalik of DMFD discovered the natural flexibility of cork allows it to form fantastic, complex shapes no other material can match. At over 72 inches long, Cortiça is a full-size chaise longue with a place for head, heels, and everything in between. The pliability of the material allows the user of this lounge to rock gently from side to side or on her back with a great degree of stability. The result is a sensation of floating, weightlessness and total support. And the best part? The Cortiça also floats like a boat.

Starck reality ? ......Design week's Adrian Shaugnessy comments on the recent T.V show

Spotted design week online November 2009...

Philippe Starck’s recent TV show has been the subject of derision in the design world, but there was wisdom among the buffoonery, says Adrian Shaughnessy


'Philippe Starck is a bona fide genius, and his BBC Two show - Philippe Starck’s School of Design - was a brilliant ad for design. There, I’ve said it, and it feels good. Of course, I realise this is heresy. In Design Land it has become obligatory to savage the show. Stephen Bayley said it shared the same genetic code as Opportunity Knocks. And in the civilised pages of Design Week, Starck has been called ‘an idiot’ and the ‘worst type of stereotypical designer’ (Letters, DW 15 October).

Designers will debate the merits and demerits of Starck until the cows come home tinkling their Starck-designed bells. Yet despite occasional bouts of buffoonery, the great Frenchman emerges from the show as a well-formed receptacle of good sense and design wisdom, and I can’t help wondering how many of his critics could survive the scrutiny of a TV crew and ratings-hungry producers.

It’s true that a great deal of what Starck stands for today - ‘democratic design’ and his insistence on products having a ‘reason to exist’ - is contradicted by his past. I’m thinking of luxury yachts and his beautiful, yet surely inessential, Perspex ‘ghost chairs’. But designers are allowed to change their views, and beneath the Asterix-like bluster and the infelicities with the English language, Starck makes some razor-sharp points about sustainability and the importance of ‘generosity’ when designing a product.

His decision in the opening episode to send his ‘pupils’ on a shopping trip to choose essential and non-essential items was smart. Nearly all 12 candidates failed this simple test, proving at a stroke their unpreparedness for the bigger task of actually designing something worthwhile. If some of them had listened to what Starck told them at this point, they might have lasted longer.

But reality shows rarely have anything to do with reality. They are entertainment, just like any Saturday ratings smash. And it was here, in the game-show aspect of the series, that Starck’s attempt to award a six-month internship to a young UK product designer was at its most vulnerable to criticism and ridicule.
Yet the fault clearly lay not with Starck, but with the programme-makers and the vapid conventions of reality TV. It’s obligatory in these shows to manipulate the action shamelessly to create tension and phoney drama. Starck’s candidates were prompted to parrot the usual insincerities about self-belief and the will to win, and simple tasks that would hardly tax a foundation-year design student were ramped up into TV melodrama.
The show wasn’t helped by the inability of the candidates to explain their thinking. With the exception of one individual (the eventual winner), the wannabe Starckers were woefully inarticulate. But unlike the show-offs and fame junkies that clog up The Apprentice, each of Starck’s candidates seemed genuine in their desire to be a designer - even if some of them are going to have to reconsider their career goals.
In the end, I watched the show for Starck. His moralistic approach to design was refreshing and unexpected. Mercifully, he isn’t the sort of identikit designer with a white board and a fondness for the findings of focus groups. Starck is a visionary - and with that comes a lot of messy baggage and an industrial-grade ego. But he’s not an idiot, and nor - thank God - is he a stereotypical designer. Although I can see a bit of Hughie Green in him.'

Interesting comments but it seems when anybody is put under the spotlight of television the desires of the creation of watchable t.v rather than actual reality must always prevail???

What do you think?

Roll up...Roll up...building bridges with design

Spotted on design week website by Angus Montgomery...exciting bridge design to star at show


'A scale model of Heatherwick Studio’s Rolling Bridge at London’s Paddington Basin will feature at the Lord Mayor’s Show.

The scale model, made from laser-cut aluminium and timber, will comprise 40 moving segments which will roll and unroll dozens of times during the procession on 14 November.

The project is being led by community engagement organisation the Building Exploratory, and involves pupils from Sebright Primary School in Hackney. It has been commissioned by the City Bridge Trust.
Thomas Heatherwick, founder of Heatherwick Studio, says, ‘The City Bridge Trust and the Building Exploratory have introduced us to a new generation of potential bridge builders and engineers in the guise of pupils from Sebright Primary School.
‘We had an incredible response from the children, and it’s been exciting to see this large mechanical bridge taking shape in our workshop.’

look forward to seeing this..

Keep an eye out for this one...Dieter Rams at Design Museum London..from 18th November

Spotted on Iconeye website  by Johanna Agerman, upcoming exibition by Dieter Rams one of the most highly influential designers of last century.

'DIETER RAMS: LESS IS MORE

18 NOVEMBER – 7 MARCH

As head of design at Braun for almost 30 years, Dieter Rams is one of the most influential designers of the 20th century. Before Rams, electric razors were bulky and radios didn’t need a second look, but Rams made electronic products works of art, albeit practical and minimal works of art. Now the Design Museum is holding a retrospective, so that you can take a closer look at pieces such as the SK2 radio and the 606 shelving system for Vitsoe. '

Design Museum, London

Desk by Dieter Rams

Phono Super by Dieter Rams

Design Museum  Dieter Rams exhibition press release

Photos courtesy of VADS

All about Me!....Spotted down under...

Spotted on Kanchi magazine web site you source for the best in contemporary design and fashion from Australia and beyond some fantastic comments about yours truly.....

Entitled...'In the Chair'...

'Sticking to a philosophy of using “minimal materials to create maximum impact” is what makes the contemporary furniture created by designer Kevin Hallsworth so ingenious.

Aptly named Industryindesign; his brand showcases his keen interest in the study of; modern industrial architecture and its related environments.

His designs reflect this industrial inspiration; as he creates high-end bespoke pieces for individual and corporate clients; to suit both the domestic and commercial environments.

These elegant pieces are ergonomic and made in Lincoln, United Kingdom; with carefully selected materials and a heavy dose of beautiful detailing. '

Didnt realise I was so good! .......cheers Kanchi