There are some design blogs who simply retype press releases, resize press photos and abracadabra – a blog post.

Our standards are a little higher.

Which is why we visit design fairs, design weeks, design competitions and design exhibitions.

Because only by talking to designers, talking to producers and by actually testing the products can you decide if the PR hype is justified.

The minus is of course that design fairs being the new film festivals – our schedule is an absolute nightmare.

Next week’s schedule, however, pushes even us to our limits.

The (smow) design marathon begins on Saturday at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, before moving on to Orgatec in Cologne and then rolling further to end at Grassimesse and Designerss’ Open in Leipzig.

One week, two countries, three cities, four events.

If you want to follow the (smow) design marathon, or just see if we survive, we will be publishing an, almost, real-time travel diary at smow.tumblr.com/

And of course all the highlights and best interviews from Eindhoven, Cologne and Leipzig can be found @ (smow)blog.

It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are travelling but for quality design – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

(with apologies to the Arbroath 51, and indeed all who campaign for equality, freedom and justice)

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IMM Cologne 2010

Fear not, we’ve still got a duffel bag full of products and stories from our week in Cologne to bring you.

However we feel it only right to quickly review the 2010 IMM Cologne.

Elsewhere we’ve read that there were no trends to be found at IMM.

Which for us is positive.

Trends have no place in the furniture business.

Trends imply that the role of furniture is to meet some pre-ordained assumption on the part of the consumer as to what their furniture should look like, how it should behave and how it should interact with the world around it.

Such trends generally start from some self-appointed “trend expert” and are then taken over wholesale by marketing departments and lazy journalists.

And is why the product range in some halls was so appalling, and is also one of the reasons why furniture sales are slumping.

214 from Thonet - Innovative German design ... but would it have been exhibited at IMM 1859?

Offer a consumer a choice between 1000 products that fit to a “trend” and you breed lethargy in the consumers – all they see is the same products, being sold with the same pitches… And while a few will fall for the silky sales lines and the promise of a better social image; the majority will realise they are being force fed over-priced tat. And not bite

However, offer the customer something that doesn’t fit any universal plan, but which through its form, functionality and design makes their life easier or simply more enjoyable – and more importantly let the customer decide what the product means to them and how it fits into their world – then you motivate the customer.

And for our money the work of the “trend experts” could be seen on many of the stands and heard in the senseless, contextless use of words like “organic” or “wellness” flowing like honey from the mouths of the sales professionals employed to drive home the message.

The resulting “sameness” in some halls was genuinely shocking.

As was the cheek of some producers.

Despite the IMM organisers assertions that there would be no copies on display in Cologne; there were an awful lot of products where you had to question if the company involved honestly wasn’t aware of obscure designs such as the Barcelona Chair or the Ant Chair.
We know, not everyone can have our encyclopedic knowledge of deign history; but to invite companies to take part who offer on their websites products that are clearly derived from patent protected designs is cheeky.
And does the students in Hall 3.1 a huge disservice as it underpins the quite acceptance in the furniture trade that while creativity is good… copying is cheaper and better for the profit margins.

Students, more than just decoration at IMM Cologne?

The future of the furniture industry lies in good design that breaks moulds and redefines convention.

Not copying and selling cheaper than the competition.

But it wasn’t all bad.

There weren’t a lot of genuinely new products on display, but there were an awful lot of genuinely very good products and among the producers we spoke to a lot of genuine optimism.

We discovered, and even rediscovered some wonderful products and on the whole the trip was more than worth it.

And certainly one to recommend.

However, if the IMM organisers want to make sure that the halls in Cologne are a little fuller in 2011 than 2010 … then they need to improve the incentives for those producers who do offer innovative quality to make the trip.

We’ll let you know if they manage it….

Becherlicht by Martin Neuhaus

It’s not often a product impresses us so much it causes us to swear; but Becherlicht by Martin Neuhaus had such an affect on us we spent our first four hours at Designers Fair cursing like trawlermen who had just hauled a case of whisky on board.

Honestly the looks we got.

But it was worth it.

Because Becherlicht is already well on its way to being our product of the year.

Light shining though a plastic beaker throws a coloured shadow onto a surface.

The idea is so simple, yet only works because of Martin Neuhaus’ faultlessly perfect execution of the design.

Sadly, in away, this perfectness is perhaps the products greatest weakness.

For us Becherlicht is not a product for the home; it’s not an everyday product – exactly because it relies on the “wow”, “a-ha” or “f************” effect.

And good as it is, if you see it everyday, the magic will fade, and it’ll be like having a Barry Manilow record on your wall.
Yeah you can still remember how you felt when you first bought it, but now it’s just the guy with the big nose who sings about how you used to feel….

However, if you own some sort of location where lots of people come, but each person only very occasionally – so a room where weddings or exhibitions are held – then Becherlicht is perfect.

Because you will improve the day of every single visitor.

The beaker itself comes in four colours and the illumination is supplied by a low voltage halogen bulb.

Kölle Alaaf: Becherlicht by Martin Neuhaus

Becherlicht - simple, genial

Becherlicht in our office in Köln

Becherlicht by Martin Neuhaus ... detail

Becherlicht ... more detail

Becherlicht ....

“You can’t have a light without a dark to stick it in”
Arlo Guthrie’s quote features on interror.be in conjunction with the product sevenup – a light that ironically proves that although a dark can be helpful to a light … it aint a pre-requisite.

Reminiscent of Rody Grauman’s 85 lamps for droog – just with only seven bulbs and with the bulbs elegantly held apart form one another – sevenup is a wonderful modern interpretation the classic chandelier.

Stripped to the bare essentials – cables, bulbs, supporting structures – sevenup is somehow even more present than most hanging lamps; yet without dominating the room.

And the construction principle is so charming and unassuming that it lends the structure a grandness that a mere list of the components could never allure too.

Indeed having hung sevenup there is no real need to turn it on… just enjoy it.

We were greatly taken by sevenup.

Greatly taken.

sevenup by Interror.be at Designers Fair

sevenup by interror.be

sevenup by interror.be ... detail

Nook by Patrick Frey for Vial

In a previous life Patrick Frey created one of our favourite Moormann products: Kant.

And we think he may have done it again with Nook his new stool for vial.

Manufactured in a single piece from VarioLine – an injection moulded plastic – the folded form is held together by an aluminium catch in the base.

The tension generated in the VarioLine give Nook its stability and durability.

In addition, thanks to the nature of the VarioLine Nook is weather and UV resistant and so can be used just as well indoors as out. And is a lot heavier than you might imagine meaning there is no real danger of it blowing over in the slightest breeze.

We particularly like the fact that Nook looks like its about to break; the white edges giving the impression of over tension.

It isn’t, and it wont.

It just looks like it.

And it’s made in Dresden. Which makes it highest quality modern East German design technology.

Kölle Alaaf: Nook by Patrick Frey for vial

Nook by Patrick Frey: a family of furniture

Nook by Patrick Frey

Students. They’re a bit like the monsoon rains in Bangladesh.

Cause havoc and distress, yet without them out them human life would eventually cease to be.
And so we put up with them, because they are the future.

Weirdly.

Consequently the Cologne exhibition centre cellar, as are all cellars at such trade fairs, is currently rammed full of design students.

Under the combined title: [D³] Design Talents the IMM organisers have combined three streams:

[D³] Contest- a contest

[D³] Professionals – young, independent designers and design studios

[D³] Schools – colleges and universities.

The quality of the work on show is generally of a very high standard, and so in contrast to our original plan of getting in and getting out as quickly as possible, we’ve decided to linger a little longer.

Over the coming days we will present our impressions from the three strands, and of course those works which for us really stood out.

IMM Cologne: Design Talents

ClassiCon at IMM Cologne 2010

On Wednesday a tweet fluttered into our (smow)twitter from @imm_cologne with the information that the Munich based producer ClassiCon had decided to return to IMM Cologne.

Which in the wake of the shock we received on our first day here in Köln didn’t go unnoticed among the thousands of invites to cocktail parties and sumptuous buffets at some of Cologne’s finer addresses we’re forced to deal with.

Established in 1990 from the dying embers of the 1898 established “Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk” (for the sake of convenience lets just call it a collective of designers) ClassiCon inherited the rights to produce the works of designers such as Eileen Gray or Otto Blümel. Not content to rest on their laurels however, ClassiCon were quick to cooperate with young, emerging talents such as Konstantin Grcic or Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

ClassiCon at IMM Cologne - Party!!

And it is this mix of established classics and modern innovation that has seen ClassiCon develop and expand over the last 20 years.

And is also one of the reasons a trade fair such as IMM Cologne needs companies like ClassiCon as a counter balance to the mediocre tat being peddled in other halls by men who think an expensive suit and an iPhone somehow makes them important and their products more valuable.

It doesn’t.

It’s not a second hand car show!

But back to quality designer furniture and ClassiCon.

Adjustable Table by Eileen Gray through ClassiCon - detail

To celebrate their 20th anniversary ClassiCon are now offering a 20 year guarantee on the Adjustable Table by Eileen Gray. One of the true classics of 1920s design, Gray originally created the Adjustable Table – as with the chair Roquebrune and the Petite Coiffeuse – for her own house in Roquebrune on the Cote d’Azur. With it’s chromium-plated steel tubing frame the adjusting of the Adjustable Table functions via a simple slot/rod mechanism; all beautifully set-off by a small chrome chain.

For such a product one really doesn’t need a 20 year guarantee – an Adjustable Table will outlive it’s owner -  but it is still nice to see ClassiCon standing so squarely behind their craftsmen.

Elsewhere on the ClassiCon stand we were delighted to finally get to see Saturn by Barber Osgerby; and would have loved to have compared it to Otto Blümel’s Nymphenburg, only that was far too high up.

And as ever, there are an awful lot of cheats, crooks and bandits out there and so before investing in design furniture always check that you are buying an officially licensed original. The designs of Eileen Gray, for all the Adjustable Table, the Bibendum Chair or the Non Conformist chair are globally among the most illegally copied furniture designs.

Only ClassiCon however are licensed to produce the works.

And only ClassiCon offer a 20 year guarantee on their craftsmanship.

Below is a small promotional video made by the IMM Cologne team in which ClassiCon boss Oliver Holy explains a little about the company and their relationship to IMM. Clever cats that they are the IMM marketing team have released it on sevenload: and so we’ve not got round to ripping and subtitling it yet… but we’ll get there. But possibly not until we’re back in Leipzig with the better software. And so for now it is only available in German.

luca lean by maigrau

According to the advertising information “The leaning lamp stresses the relationship between light and architecture by its generous gesture”

That as may be, for us luca lean by maigrau is one of those genially executed design concepts that separate the chaff from the rye.

Items leaning against walls is no new concept. Alone Moormann could create a category dedicated to furniture items that are supported by architectural supporting structures.

But wheels aint new either…what is new is new is how you use them.
For us there are two real positives in luca lean.

The first is the anonymity of the wood. You simply don’t notice it. Which gives the whole ensemble a delicate lightness.

The second is the shadow cast, a wonderful curving light that creates genuine atmosphere in a room: in addition to the light itself. The shadow is a result of the lamp: wall angle.

The oiled oak struts are combined by a triangular metal joint that also supports shade and bulb-fitting. While a foot dimmer allows you to adjust illumination to situation.

“luca” also comes in three legged “standard” floor version; but for us that is simply an alibi to appease the weak.

The leaning version is where it’s at.

Kölle Alaaf: luca lean by maigrau

luca lean by maigrau designers fair 2010

Richard Lampert promised a celebration of Herbert Hirche’s 100th birthday here in Cologne; and in the end could “present” the late Prof. Hirche with an award for “Classic Innovation” in the 2010 Interior Innovation Awards.

Interior Innovation Award 2010 presented to Richard Lampert

The jury, featuring amongst others the Milan based British designer James Irvine and the London based Japanese designer Tomoko Azumi,  selected Hirche’s 1957 “GFK Schalensessel für die Interbau Berlin” ( a fibre glass armchair Hirche created for the 1957 “Interbau” exhibition in Berlin) as one of the best examples of classic innovation here at the IMM.

Not that the chair is in anyway a bare fibre glass creation a la the Eames A-shell.

Hirche’s chair originally came with a lush green valour, and it is true to this version that Richard Lampert have re-introduced the piece. In addition the GFK Armchair is available with anthracite valour or leather upholstery. A version with a “bare” back is also in development.

Herbert Hirche Lounge Chair

With the obvious nods to the likes of Charles Eames, Finn Juhl or any other of Hirche’s contemporaries the GFK armchair is obviously a piece from a specific time in design history; but just like the best designer furniture it remains a piece that has it’s place in an time or space.

We remain undiluted fans of Hirche’s 1953 Lounge Chair, but in the GFK Armchair see further verification of Herbert Hirche’s role and importance in the context of German design.

Egon Eiermann Paravent

In addition to celebrating Herbert Hirche, Richard Lampert also presented some new products from their Egon Eiermann range; including Eiermann’s 1968 room divider – that once elegantly screened the seating areas in the Bundestag in Bonn – and some upholstery for the E 10 rattan chair.

Ours are covered in vegan sheep skins – as you’d expect – but we do know a few people who would appreciate a properly crafted cushion for their E 10. And so good to see Richard Lampert offering the option.

And congratulations on the award.

Herbert Hirche GFK Schalensessel fur die Interbau Berlin ... and the master can relax

We travelled on a tram for the first time this morning.

Now we know that Cologne is the universal centre of oh-so insane fun, practical jokes and dressing up ; and certainly wherever you go in the city you find old women dressed as clowns, young women dressed as cats and men all ages dressed as policemen…

However. One can take organised daftness too far.

According to the poster we saw in our tram this morning the local transport company here in Cologne are looking for students to drive trams, on a part time basis.

Students.
Trams.
Driving.

Honestly….

And probably best avoid Cologne after 17.02.2010 !!

We've seen better ideas.....