The first semi-final of the 2010 (smow) designer furniture World Cup pitted not only two generations against each other but two approaches to design: Fritz Haller the classically trained Swiss linealist and Tom Dixon the warehouse party welder turned doyen of contemporary English design.

As ever Fritz Haller began with his universally acclaimed System USM Haller formation. The international success of Haller’s USM Haller system is largely due to its deceptive flexibility: It looks rigid and firm, but in reality can be quickly altered to meet any demands.

Tom Dixon is however too long in the tooth to be easily taken in by Fritz Haller’s approach, and it was the improbable former Habitat chief designer who made the first serious move with an excellently worked Spin candelabra. Although thrown by the unusual combination of weight and mobility Fritz Haller is a master with metal and he was able to counter with a delightful hanging file / extension door combination.

Switching tactics Dixon produced an ingenious wooden Offcut stool; an article which again seemed to have Haller beaten, the old master however recovering in the last minute to clear with a glass table top.

In the second half England brought on Jasper Morrison in the hope that the change in style would upset Fritz Haller - it didn’t and late in the second half Fritz Haller demonstrated once again why his USM Haller system is so good when he effortlessly converted a lowboard L into a sideboard M for a hard fought victory.

(smow)2010 Overview

For Charles Rennie Mackintosh the 2010 (smow) designer furniture World Cup may have been over; but matches against England always have their own incentive.

With Tom Dixon replacing Jasper Morrison, the English took an early lead with the Dixon Bronze Copper Shade and moved further ahead with a beautifully worked Off Cut stool.

In the second half Charles Rennie Mackintosh narrowed the gap with his Hill House chair; however Tom Dixon responded with a quick Wingback Chair and Spin candelabra combination for a deserved 4:1 victory.

The Group C table and all Group C results can be found here.

Despite the rumours flying around ahead of this match, England stuck with Jasper Morrison rather than pitting Tom Dixon against Ron Arad.

Whereas many would have relished the opportunity to have witnessed the two masters of “real” industrial design going head to head the Morrison/Arad encounter was every bit as entertaining.

Unmoved by Ron Arad’s Bookworm, Jasper Morrison concentrated on his chair work and took the lead with his Basel chair for Vitra; a simple move that produced the deserved result.

Ron Arad responded with a Vitra Tom Vac, but it was too little to late and a quick Trattoria chair for Magis and a Monopod chair for Vitra sealed another runaway success for Jasper Morrison.

The Group C table and all Group C results can be found here.

Vitra Design Museum: The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction

The (smow)blog team outing to the cardboard furniture workshop was coupled with a visit to the current Vitra Design Museum Exhibition: The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction.

We must admit to finding it more than a little ironic that an exhibition on “Design and the Art of Reduction” should be taking place in a building designed by Frank Gehry, especially when Tadao Ando’s Conference Pavilion is only some 10m away.

And after the long journey to Weil am Rhein this thought honestly kept us amused for about 4 hours.

The exhibition itself is divided into 12 thematic sections each of which deals with a different aspect of “reduction”; be it elements that the end customer is aware of, for example, geometry or lightness or those that remain hidden from the customer, for example reduction in logistics.

Stephan Schulz: Concrete Bowl

Some 160 objects illustrate the various themes ranging from design classics such as Michael Thonet’s Chair No. 14 or the Ant Chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen onto objects that are less well known - if every bit as interesting - such as Stephan Schulz’s concrete bowl or Marcel Wanders‘ Knotted Chair for Capellini.

Good design needn’t be complicated, less but more, form follows function - the number of design theories that encapsulate the practice of “reduction” are as numerous as they are legendary: yet at design show after design show we are confronted with products that attempt to win us over though their complexity and extravagance.

We also don’t know why that should be, but we suspect it has a lot to do with a saturated market and the associated increasing role that the internet plays in ensuring that your - probably completely superfluous - work is seen.

Which design blog is going to feature Jasper Morrison’s Ply-Chair when they have photo of a bookcase that looks like to two paradise birds engaging in a mating ritual atop Carmen Miranda?

Ok we would. But not many others.

For us the true art of reduction in design is when the designer reduces the volume of the product down to the absolute minimum - be it through the use of a new material, innovative joining of the individual elements or through reducing the exterior measurements.

.03 by Maarten Van Severen

One particular example that occurs to us being Maarten van Severen’s’ .03 with its integrated compound spring supports that give the chair its comfort and stability without unduly adding to the weight, volume or outer dimensions.

However as the exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” ably demonstrates  reduction can involve other processes.

Joe Colombo’s No 281 lamp, Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s tea service or Donald Judd’s Chair 84 proving nice examples of what can be achieved with the necessary talent and motivation.

On the negative side we must add that for our taste the exhibition highlighted the work of Charles and Ray Eames a little too heavily - specifically the dedication of the complete section “development” to their work looks suspiciously like a bit of editorial shoe-horning on the curators part.

That aside, for all interested in the design process, and especially where the difference between “designer” furniture - i.e. those furniture pieces where a targeted design process occurs- and cheaper, generic products lies, the Vitra Design Museum exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction.” is definitely worth the trip.
The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction at the Vitra Design Museum runs until September 19th 2010. More details can be found at http://www.design-museum.de

You know how it is.

You arrive early in the office….. Make a coffee….. Turn the computer on…….. Check out the tabloid press websites….. And break gently into the day with stories as irrelevant and vacuous as they are compelling.

It’s just a comfortable and familiar way to start the day.

This morning was different.

The story had all the makings of normal tabloid nonsense: a pop star, a footballer’s wife and a party guest list that you suspect had been thrown together by a tired and bored PR company who distribute invites by clicking “resend” .

“The popstar wife of footballer David Beckham, who has her own fashion label, revealed that she has been asked to design the interior of the new X Y Z - extending the ever-expanding ‘Brand Beckham’ into the world of motoring.”

“On her new role as car designer, she said: ‘I am incredibly excited to be collaborating with X Y. I like to take on a challenge and I’m ready for it.’”

Vehicles by designers aren’t new.

The Interior of James Irvine's bus. Roomier than what Mrs Beckham has to work with.

In cooperation with the Expo 2000 exhibition James Irvine and Jasper Morrison designed trams and buses for the cities of Hanover and Leipzig; London Transport recently unveiled their new routemaster bus from the pen of Thomas Heatherwick; Thonet have developed a delightful gear shift knob in collaboration with Volvo.

Aschau im Chiemgau design legend Nils Holger Moormann has as even designed a complete range of vehicles for nomadic bibliophiles; the Bookinist and Easy Reader.

But “car designer” Victoria Beckham?

Is that really “design”?

Or just an obvious and cheap PR gag from a company whose tradition and customer list would tend to imply that they really don’t need to resort to tired PR gags?

We go with the later. But know that in doing so we’re opening a large can of worms.

The delightful Volvo gear shift knob by Thonet

Is every new Philippe Starck product really necessary? When company A, B or C hire Patricia Urquiola to design a new sideboard - do they really need the sideboard, or Patricia Urquiola as a designer in their portfolio? In a saturated media market are “star” designers being increasingly abused as “blog fodder”? A quick look in our twitter and RSS feeds would tend to imply yes.

Ronan Bouroullec certainly provided a fairly broad hint in that direction during his conversation with us in Milan.

But also did little more than confirm what we all know.

A lot of the products that are launched at design shows are superfluous.

Completely.

They are superfluous because they are not necessary, because they exist only as marketing vehicles for the company; but principally because everyone can see that the designer has given practically no thought as to what they are doing or why.

Consequently, many of the products in Milan might as well have been “designed” by Victoria Beckham.

Which is why we’re not going to Milan 2011: Too irrelevant.

Bookinst by Nils Holger Moormann - a real designer car

Clearly Mrs Beckham isn’t “designing” the interior of the new X Y Z; she’s choosing the fabric.
And it will probably be black leather.

And as such we shouldn’t get so wound-up.

But it does get our goat when something as involved and creative as “design” is reduced to nothing more than a marketeers line in a press release designed to ensure media coverage and thus sell a product or brand.

A marketeers line that is then gleefully repeated ad captandum vulgus by the international press.

Just as it gets our goat when designers who we know are blessed with talents far beyond the normal turn out pointless tat that no one really needs in order to make a quick buck. A little more self-control would be nice; from the designers as well as from the click hungry blog community who give the producers the oxygen they crave - yet often don’t deserve.

“Car designer” Victoria Beckham.

We’d love to be a fly on the wall as Victoria Beckham “designs” the X Y Z interior.

The first meeting between Jasper Morrison and Isamu Noguchi proved to be a truly one-sided affair; a result that although deserved, seemed unfair on the old master of Japanese design.
Despite a few brave forays with his coffee table or rocking stools, Isamu Noguchi was unable to get away from his Akari Lamp stereotype.
Jasper Morrison was more than able to profit from Noguchi’s alleged monotypology and through some clever chair and crockery combinations was soon leading 4:0.
Towards the end of the contest Jasper Morrison picked up a deserved yellow card for some nasty work for Established and Sons, his victory however was never in doubt.

The Group C table and all Group C results can be found here.

Dieter Rams

When asked by the (smow)boss yesterday why we appeared to be doing so little work, quoting Dieter Rams we replied with a tired repetition of one of our favourite design related jokes:

“Less, but better”

“Good design is honest” replied (smow)boss with an irritating accuracy.

“Good design is unobtrusive” we muttered under our breath, before skulking off to the warehouse.

This coming weekend the Dieter Rams retrospective “Less and More: Das design ethos von Dieter Rams” opens at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt.

Showing over 500 items from 5 decades of Dieter Rams, the retrospective is a more than fitting tribute to a man who is not only one of the true legends of German design but who was in many ways the world’s first Industrial Designer.

Braun SK 61by Dieter Rams and Hans Gugelot

Having qualified as an architect Dieter Rams was taken on as such by the German electronic goods producer Braun. Relatively quickly, however, Dieter Rams was reassigned to the design department: a department that was in essence Dieter Rams.

Industrial designers and product designers not existing in 1955.

Over the next four decades Dieter Rams not only helped make Braun a by-word for design excellence, but he also laid the ground stones for much of today’s allegedly cutting edge, contemporary design.

Without Dieter Rams, Apple products would never have reached the iconic status they have.

Braun Sixtant SM2 by Dieter Rams

Aside from working for Braun, Dieter Rams also created the 606 Universal Shelving System for London based producer Vitsœ and taught as Professor of Industrial design at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg.

Although the occasional voice is raised which questions in how far Dieter Rams’ work has stood up to the test of time, there is universal agreement on the importance of his work and his design philosophy.

Or as Jasper Morrison put it, “I have thought a lot about this statement [less, but more] and come to the conclusion that this straightforward sentence is truer than any long-winded design discussion”

“Less and More: Das design ethos von Dieter Rams” at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt runs until September 5th

Full details can be found at www.angewandtekunst-frankfurt.de

606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsoe

On Saturday 20.03.2010 the latest Vitra Design Museum exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” officially opens.
An exhibition very much after our own hearts.

“The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” explores the logic that “it is in the nature of human beings to seek the simplest solution” Although admittedly this is a logic that - despite its logic -  all too many designers somehow manage to ignore, there are thankfully enough examples of good, reduced, design to prove that simple really is best.

The exhibition features works from, for example,  Michael Thonet, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Jasper Morrison and naturally the doyen of “less is more” Dieter Rams.

In addition to featuring items dating from a Stone Age stone axe, over the  Thonet Chair No. 14 and up to the iPod, the designer furniture is complemented by photos from the fields of architecture, fashion and art.

“The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” runs at the Vitra Design Museum until 19.09.

Our tip: visit in April, combine it with a trip to the VitraHaus and enjoy the wonderful cherry blossom in the orchard between the VitraHaus and the Vitra Design Museum.

"The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction": A stone axe, good, simple, design (foto: Andreas Sütterlin, copyright Vitra Design Museum)

"The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction": Eames Chairs good, simple, design (foto: Copyright Vitra)

"The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction": Panton Chair good, simple, design (foto: Andreas Sütterlin, copyright Panton Design, Basel)

We’re indebted to Dave Report for drawing our attention to the forthcoming Jasper Morrison exhibition in Stockholm.

Organised by the Hallwyl Museum in conjunction with Forum, (the magazine for Scandinavian Architecture, Interiors and Design), the exhibition features jugs, jars and pitchers selected by Morrison.

Which might not sound like the most fascinating of exhibitions; but just as with “Take a seat!” exhibition at Museum Les Arts décoratifs in Paris the exhibition offers visitors a chance to learn a little more about Morrisons view on design, aesthetic and the interplay of form and function.
And in doing so maybe learn to appreciate one or the other Morriosn designa little better.

For Morrison himself: “Jugs, Jars & Pitchers is an exhibition on the age old theme of containers and pourers, showing a variety of examples in glassware, ceramic, plastic and stainless steel. The intention is to explore the essential nature of a time-honoured aspect of daily life.”

For those in or near Stockholm the exhibition runs from 11-28th of February.

And hopefully we’ll be able to bring you a few impressions and photos from the exhibition.

We know, we know, we’ve not even been to Cologne yet and already we’re planning for the Stockholm Furniture Fair… We are terrible !!!

Jasper Morrison "Jugs, Jars and Pitcher" exhibition in Stockholm

Today is World Usability Day.

We do admit to be being more than a touch sceptical about the motivations that lead people to establish events such as “Global Avocado Day”, “Bulgarian Aramaic Appreciation Week”, or indeed “World Usability Day”, but we can’t help agreeing with the preamble to their charter.
(Without endorsing the charter, per se):

Human error is a misnomer.  Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy-to-use as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, government, communication, entertainment, work, and other areas, we must agree to develop technologies in a way that serves people first.

In terms of furniture design we couldn’t agree more and, indeed, in these pages have often argued for clear, defined and properly thought through design.

The work of Charles and Ray Eames, Jasper Morrison, Philippe Starck or Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec wonderfully reflects what can be achieved with the minimum of fuss and unnecessary cleverness.
And so for our contribution to World Usability Day 2009 here are the 10 Design Principles from the doyen of German Industrial Design Dieter Rams:

* Good design is innovative
* Good design makes a product useful
* Good design is aesthetic
* Good design helps us to understand a product
* Good design is unobtrusive
* Good design is honest
* Good design is durable
* Good design is consequent to the last detail
* Good design is concerned with the environment
* Good design is as little design as possible

It’s that simple.

Happy World Usability Day!