For the sake of completion in terms of our coverage of the Designpreis Halle 2010: The winning film

Moving Family by Guy Königstein

(The German version is called “Die Rückreise” the film here is the English version; hence the different title)

Moving Family by Guy Königstein (click to play)

The theme of the 2010 Designpreis Halle is and was “travel”

For us travelling to Halle has a special meaning as in a previous life we used to regularly travel to Halle, experience all sorts of perverse inhumane horrors and then travel back to Leipzig glad - once again - to have escaped from the banks of the Saale with our lives.

That was then.

But since then not only has our life changed but we now see and understand Halle in a completely different light.

Thanks largely to another tour; this one along the River Saale on a tourist boat.

But also due to the fact that our new life that has seen us travel away from destructive genius and onto creative talent.

“Long-term Halle an der Saale should become the German Design City and a source of inspiration for design globally”

A couple of years ago we would have laughed out loud at Designpreis Halle President Prof Dr Peter Heimann’s opening speech

But not now.
With Burg Giebichenstein Halle has one of the continually best design colleges in Germany, with the Design Haus Halle one of the most targeted attempts to keep young talent near their former college while supporting and helping them as they establish their careers.

2010 Designpreis Halle: There's that Hallenser design spirit out and about again

And with the Designpreis Halle an international design prize that attracts entries from across the creative disciplines: We’re not saying all finalists appeal to all tastes - but there is something for everyone.

166 entries from 13 nations were submitted for the Designpreis Halle 2010 from which the jury, including Nils Holger Moormann and Axel Kufus, selected 19 for the final exhibition. And just as importantly 4 prize winners.

Fifteen students from the Fachhochschule Dortmund were awarded a special award fro their Cardboard suitcase, and two of their number, Daniel Behn and Clemens Müller, were also awarded a Special Recognition for their RESI “The suitcase that ensures safe travelling for Germans abroad”.

Suited case by Erik De Nijs Second place at Designpreis Halle 2010

Second place was awarded to Utrecht based designer Erik De Nijs for his “Suited Case” concept. Resembling Polder Sofa by Hella Jongerius for Vitra, “Suited Case” is a range of suitcases that can double up as seating. We’re fairly certain no airline could get the individual elements from A to B without damaging them; however, decisive was not the product but the concept. For all the attempt to bring a little privacy and domesticity to the stress of travel as well as the interaction between the different elements of a normal travellers luggage impressed the judges

First prize went to Eindhoven based designer Guy Königstein for his animated film “Die Rückreise” in which through his relatives memories he, literally, threads together the story of his family and as such also his own past.

Nomads wardrobe by Matthias Baumecker - for us worthy of a mention

For us a further entry that is more than worthy of a mention is Nomad’s Wardrobe by Matthias Baumecker, a travel wardrobe concept we can well imagine combining with Vitra’s Chairless chair concept.

Set in old tram wagons, under UV light in a historic tram depot, the Designpreis Halle exhibition is one of the more creative and imaginative exhibitions of recent time; and a convincing argument for the talent in Halle.

And as the next logical step Halle must ensure that Designers Open moves from Leipzig to Halle.

We remain unconvinced if on its own Halle really can establish itself as a creative center. For us such is only really possible in collaboration with Dessau/Roßlau/Bitterfeld/Wolfen; ignoring Bauhaus just seems wrong somehow.

Aside from the unnecessary competition created by having two design centres a short bike ride from one another. Or, as the Designpreis Halle 2010 competently shows; others forms of travel are available.

Full details on the finalists and the exhibition can be found at Designpreis Halle 2010.

Desinpreis Halle 2010 winners - front left first prize winner Guy Königstein

Designpreis Halle: All roads lead to Giebichenstein

Designpreis Halle 2010

Raimond by Raimond Puts for moooi

G’day!

What with all the excitement about the new iSlate, we missed Australia Day yesterday.

And so wanted to use today to write a post involving words like “Sheila”, “Sheila”, “I can see the pub from here!” and “Sheila”

Then we discovered that we’d also missed the announcement of the shortlist for the 2010 Australian International Design Awards.
And that seemed a much better subject than lazy international stereotypes.

The “Architectural and Interior” products section of the 2010 Awards shortlist is, more or less, dominated by office chairs including new models from Herman Miller and Wilkhahn.

But for us the aesthetic winner is without doubt Raimond by Raimond Puts for moooi.

This was one of the first products we saw at the 2009 Saloni in Milan, and one of the best.

Not least because it is enormous.

Similarly to Richard Sapper’s Tizio lamp foro Artemide, the electricity in Raimond passes through the stainless “spring steel” structure; the various paths being then “joined” by the LEDs.

Resembling an exaggerated Bohr Atom diagram, Raimond brings a wonderful, aesthetic ambiance to every room.

If that is enough to impress the Aussies, we don’t know… but we do hope so.

The winners will be announced in Sydney on June 4 2010.

Sheila.

Raimond by Raimond Puts for moooi ... detail

LED lamp Raimond by Raimond Puts for moooi ... as seen in Milan 2009

Chemnitz is without doubt the ugliest city in Sachsen. If not Europe.

And so it is all the more surprising that the town produced one of the most gifted aestheticians of the Bauhaus generation: Marianne Brandt.

A student of, amongst others, László Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers and  Wassily Kandinsky, Brandt is best known for her home accessories including ashtrays, coffee/tee services and lamps. Many of her works are part of the permanent collection at leading museums including the Museum of Modern Art, MoMa, in New York.

To honour the city’s most most talented daughter, Chemnitz organises an triennial Marianne Brandt Contest and 2010 sees the fourth edition.

Under the motto “Poetry of the Functional” the 2010 Marianne Brandt Contest has three categories: photography, product design and light in public spaces.

The contest is open to all students and other creative youths under 40 years old as of 10.06.2010 and who have their main residence in Europe.

Full details of how to enter and what can be won can be found in the official 2010 Marianne Brandt Contest announcement.

The “Product Design” category of the 2009 Sachsen Design Prize, as announced in Dresden Wednesday evening, produced a somewhat curious result: no winner but two second places.

Which aside from being ridiculous is a real slap in the face for the product design community in Sachsen.

For those who don’t know we live in Sachsen,; learned our trade here; took the knocks, got back up and tried again here.

The region is branded on every part of our bodies and our souls.
And we now where the weaknesses in terms of design in Sachsen are.

But it isn’t the designers - and the judges don’t do the designers any favours with such an appalling decision.

A competition needs a winner; otherwise it’s a simple PR exercise.

And not a particularly well organised one and that.
Sachsen is a county rich in design tradition - from the wood carvers in the Erzgebirge, over the ceramic makers in Meissen and on to the book printers in Leipzig: Sachsen understands and appreciates good design. And good design involves, indeed lives from, trying, failing, trying again, failing again, trying again, failing again, self-doubt, self-doubt, trying again, failing again, trying again….succeeding.

It’s like being a war photographer - your either in it for teh long run or you go and get a job with an insurance firm.

We weren’t that impressed with this years nominations. But that’s not the point.

Some years will be stronger than others; it is in the nature of design. The point is that the best must be chosen from the nominations; hard decisions must be made….

We’re at a loss.
Sadly no one in Dresden was.

Giorgio by Peter Horn for Lampert

Giorgio by Peter Horn is the chair that almost never was. Having commissioned Horn to create a stackable multi-function chair, the finished design lay for two years in the archive of Stuttgart based designer furniture producer Richard Lampert - in short, although convinced of the quality of the chair, Lampert saw that particular market segment as too crowded. After all how many chair designs does the world need?

And so the story would have ended had not one day a request for help not been received from an architect partner of Lampert’s. They needed stackable chairs for a project, but everything they found was either cheap, and looked it, or excellent but too expensive for the project. Lampert produced a few test versions of Giorgio, and the chair turned out to be just what was required - an excellent, stackable, multi-function chair at an affordable price.
And so some four years after the initial commission and nearly two since the completion of the project, Peter Horn’s Giorgio finally proved its advantages over the competition and was included in the Lampert catalogue.

And so the smow catalogue. Which pleases us.

Fits wonderfully to an Eiermann Table...

For not only is Giorgio, with its wide seat and stable backrest, an excellent chair for home or office, but Peter Horn is also responsible for the Seesaw office chair, the Turtle children’s chair and the Fixx Roll Container. Making it possible to furnish your complete home/office and/or child’s bedroom in his chairs and storage units. But much more important he’s from Dresden, where, together with his partner Michael Majewski, he runs his studio Horn Majewski Design.

Making them all but a home designers for smow. And among the most successful from round our way at that.

Peter Horn and Michael Majewski: Quality design from Sachsen

Horn and Majeski were awarded the bi-annual Sachsen Design Prize in 2001, 2003 and 2007 - were not sure what happened in 2005 - and so, arithmetically at least, 2009 should be their year again. The deadline for entries closes on 14th of August, for all of those who’ve not yet applied. We will keep you updated here of all the  news once the nominations have closed.

Until now Giorgio, however, hasn’t won any prizes, but it has demonstrated that regardless how many chair designs you think there are out there … there is always room for one more.

Which is just as impressive.

Dioscuri Tavolo by Huub Ubbens und Michele De Lucchi for Artemide

Although we’ll probably always have problems with design and branding Awards, we do appreciate the value and importance that many of them represent.

And so congratulations from us to Italian lighting designer and (smow)partner Artemide for first place in the category “Design Brand Home and Living” at the 2009 German “best brand” awards.

The “best brand” awards assess not only the market position of a brand but much more the attractiveness of that brand for consumers; characteristics such as aesthetics, cult and quality are assessed together with in how far the brand is up-to-date and represents an international brand. So along the lines of “What good is a brand if it has a large market share, but never innovates, never excites and never challenges the consumers?”

Talak by Neil Poulton for Artemide

Sometimes safe and familiar, sometimes revolutionary and sometimes outrageous, the award can definitely be seen as an ackowledgment of Artemides approach to lighting design. Never a company prone to resting on their laurels, Artemide have long worked with a wide range of international designers and architects to produce a wide pallet of products for home, industrial and commercial lighting.

In addition to Artemide, Alessi achieved 3rd place, Vitra 4th and Rosenthal 5th… all of course available from smow.

Tizio by Richard Sapper for Artemide

Artemide products available from smow include:

Tizio

Dioscuri

Itis

Talak

We’ve previously stated our quiet dissatisfaction with awards ceremonies and for all there omnipresence. But love ‘em or loath ‘em when they are good they are one of the best ways to help consumers separate the chaff from the rye - or at least from amongst those producers who pay the entrance fees….

One of the most renowned awards in Europe is the red dot Awards organised annually by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. And while the red dot Awards fulfill almost all the criteria that we dislike about design awards, principally that every design deemed suitable receives an award,  the red dot Awards do, however, have a “Best of the Best” selection - even if rather than a “Best in Class” Award it is simply a selection of the “best” . Meaning some categories have more than one “Best of the Best” which is clearly a linguistic problem.

The 2009 Red Dot Awards attracted 3.231from 49 countries and the judges awarded 683 red dot Awards and 49 “red dot: best of the best” Awards.

AC 4 by Antonio Citterio for Vitra

Among those honoured as “best of the best” are Vitra with their AC 4 office chair from Antonio Citterio. Launched at the Orgatech trade fair in 2008 the charm of the AC 4 is less the sophistication and finesse of the ergonomic features, rather that they are hidden within the chair.

But our friends at Vitras explain it all much better then we can:

That Artemide would be among the prize winners was, more or less, to be assumed. That they won a “best of the best” for a lamp in their architectural range less so.

Noto by Michele de Lucchi for Artemide

Artemide is divided into two main business units: “Artemide” who deal with individual lamps be they wall, floor or pendant and “Artemide Architectural” who deal with complete indoor lighting systems. The “normal” Artemide division won a “best of the best award” for the new Noto pendant lamp from Michele de Lucchi -a wonderfully flowing lamp which reminds us of a whale in a strange conceptual sort of fashion.

Kao by Bruno Houssin for Artemide

In addition Artemide Architectural were awarded a “best of the best” for their Kao lamp by Bruno Houssin. Initially presented at the Milan Salone International 2007, Kao is a modular system using 24w and 54w t16 fluorescent lamps. Four standard 2d and 3d kits can be installed individually or combined to create sophisticated and spectacular configurations; these kits are delivered with a drilling stencil for placing the ceiling fixing points.

Congratulations to all the winners.
And although you will not find any of the above products at smow.com, as ever smow can supply the full range of Vitra and Artemide products.  A short phone call or email is sufficient to ensure a quick, competent quote.

Project Vitra (Birkhauser)

The snow is back in Leipzig and so whereas the weekend was spent enjoying the warm spring air - the evenings are now being spent enjoying the warm living room and a good book.

And so it’s just as well we were recently at Leipzig book fair.
Among the seemingly endless piles of new historical novels, travel guides - each, naturally, with the best insider tips -  and Harry Potter wannabes there was also a few title that appealed to us.

“Project Vitra” from Rolf Fehlbaum und Cornel Windlin for Birkhauser is not only an interesting stroll through the history of Vitra - without question one of the world’s most important and creative designer furniture houses - but is also a design classic in it’s own right.

It was shortlisted in the graphics category for the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award 2009, and won a bronze medal in the “Best Book Design from all over the World 2009″ organised by the German foundation “Stiftung Buchkunst“. The prizes were awarded at a ceremony in Leipzig during the book fair.

Charles and Ray Eames with Willi and Erika Fehlbaum

The “Project Vitra” story began in 1957 in Basel and Weil am Rhein and can more or less be summarised as: Willi and Erika Fehlbaum meet Charles and Ray Eames and start making furniture.

And they haven’t really stopped.

In the intervening 50+ years Vitra have worked with designers as varied and individual as Jean Prouvé, Jasper Morrison, Antonio Citterio and Verner Panton. To name just five.

“Project Vitra” chronicles the decades and the creations and in doing so elucidates not only the Vitra story but also the philosophy which has guided Vitra since its establishment.

Writing in the Vitra Magazine in January, Rolf Fehlbaum - company Chef and son of  grounders Willi and Erika - explained part of this philosophy; namely, the importance of the “individual authorship” of articles and the importance of the relationship between designer as “author” and Vitra:

“Vitra works with independent “authors” – primarily with designers, but also with architects and graphic artists. What distinguishes the work of these people from that of other designers is the fact that their personal imprint and outlook is reflected in every one of their products.

In contrast, designers in fixed employment must adapt their personal interpretation to the requirements of the client. We do not define our roles in terms of client and contractor. Two business partners – the designer and Vitra – embark on a common quest for an optimal solution. Vitra’s task is to provide a stimulating environment, technical support, conceptual input and constructive criticism.”

Panton Chair Classic (Verner Panton) for Vitra

A classic example of this process is the Panton Chair by Verner Panton which went through numerous design and prototype phases - all the result of the cooperation between Vitra and Panton - before the final, and widely copied, design was completed.

In “Project Vitra” the importance of this relationship and the eternal conflict between creative drive and commercial survival is wonderfully , and aesthetically, documented.

“Project Vitra” is not a book for cover-to-cover reading, and at 800 pages we wouldn’t recommend it - it is however a wonderful reference book for all who enjoy quality designer furniture, want to learn more about how design classics are created or who simply enjoy good photography.

Or for those who are looking to escape the late march Leipzig snow with a glass of Tempranillo and an exquisitely laid-out and designed book.

smow don’t stock “Project Vitra” but it can be ordered direct from the Birkhauser. (more…)

Success for Konstantin Grcic. The 43 year old German was today announced as “Category Winner: Furniture” at the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2009 and now goes forward to the grand final.

MYTO by Konstantin Grcic

“It is tough creating a design classic, but the MYTO might just have achieved this through its rigorous experimentation and research, resulting in the technically very difficult outcome of a cantilevered plastic chair.” So commented the judges of the 2009 Brit Insurance Design of the Year award their assessment of the MYTO chair from Konstantin Grcic.

MYTO is a modern interpretation of the cantilever chair, with an admiring nudge towards the late Verner Panton. Moulded from BASF Ultradur® High Speed plastic the chair is characteristic of Grcic’s minimalistic work and is stackable, making it ideal for meeting rooms or wherever extra seating is regularly needed at short notice.

Few chair designs have proved so popular with the public or so inspirational and challenging to designers as the cantilever chair; and re-workings of the concept have a long tradition.

Konstantin Grcic has obviously caught the bug. In recent years he has not only has he developed the MYTO

Muji manufactured by Thonet Collection (Photo: Thonet)

chair, but has also created a reworking of the classic Thonet S43 with the Japanese retailer Muji.

If the MYTO chair will also be available from smow is still open; however, those looking to learn a little more about Konstantin Grcic and his work may be interested in his Hut Ab hat rack and ES shelving system for Moorman. Both of which, as with MYTO, take an established concept and interpret it in a modern, yet recognizable form.

And for lovers of the classic cantilever chair smow also offers the classic S43 from Thonet.

S 43F Classic from Thonet