Older readers will be aware that we have often held up the absence of some of Germany’s most important designer furniture manufacturers as an unmissable indicator of an inherent weakness in the IMM Cologne brand.

Those same readers will therefore understand the confusion we felt on seeing that Wilde+Spieth would, finally, be attending IMM Cologne in 2013.

We were delighted they were participating. We however now have one argument less.

Based in Esslingen near Stuttgart, Wilde+Spieth were originally a manufacturer of roller shutters, then in 1948 Egon Eiermann approached the company with a simple request for extra wide blinds for the Ciba AG factory he was building in Wehr, Baden: a simple request that Eiermann then extended with a brief “Kinderchen, can you also build chairs?”.

They could.

And Egon Eiermann’s hopeful question was to evolve into one of the most productive, successful, but for all innovative, partnerships in the chronicles of German furniture design.

Together Wilde+Spieth and Egon Eiermann released over 30 product ranges, and even today some 43 years after Eiermann’s death the two remain inseparable, while chairs such as the SE 18, SE 42 or SE 68 have gone on to take their rightful place in the high pantheon of European design.

Many of Eiermann’s early collaborations with Wilde+Spieth were launched at the International Möbel Messe Köln – the bi-annual forerunner to the current IMM – and so it was somehow more than fitting that for the company’s debut at the modern IMM four Eiermann classics were being presented in new colours from the Le Corbusier “Les Couleurs” collection.

In addition, and in many ways more significantly, Wilde+Spieth also used IMM Cologne 2013 to launch three new products: CU! by Avinash Shende, TG1 by Thore Garbers and Typus by Edelhoff & Nettesheim.

It seemed therefore obvious to take the opportunity to speak with Wilde+Spieth’s CEO Thomas Gerber about the new products and living with Egon Eiermann’s legacy, but we started by asking why, after all these years, they have finally decided to show at IMM Cologne….

Thomas Gerber:  Whereas we have often exhibited at, for example, Orgatec with the Egon Eiermann classics, we never really ever felt we had that many objects that could be seen as “domestic furniture”. This year however we are releasing three new products, products that all fit well into the home furnishings sector and we felt that IMM Cologne would be a suitable place to launch them. On the one hand because of the fair’s international profile, but also we feel the mixture of visitors – so architects, large chains but also small, independent shops – largely reflects our target audience.

(smow)blog: Before we come to the new products, until now Wilde+Spieth have concentrated, more or less, solely on the classic Egon Eiermann chair designs. While that presumably has its benefits, in how far is such a close association with such a famous furniture architect a burden?

Thomas Gerber: While taste itself, fortunately, only changes very slightly over the years, the popularity of design classics is cyclical and so while there are periods when classics such as the Eiermann chairs are very much in, there are also periods where they are very much out. And such phases are very hard for us. A large proportion of our business is contract and so if the project manager tells the architect that they don’t want design classics for a project, then we have a problem. Which is also one of the reasons for the new products.

And that is when the real curse starts, because when we announce we are releasing something new the expectations are so high. It is expected that we will release something that is just as good as what we currently have, is cheaper than what we currently have, and which has the potential be the next classic. And that makes it very difficult. Over the years we’ve co-operated with numerous designers and architects, but until now never had anything that we felt completely comfortable with…

(smow)blog: Until now! This year you have three new products, what “clicked” here that perhaps hadn’t in the past?

Thomas Gerber: Probably that we approached the search from a different perspective! This time we pretty much let the designs find us rather than commissioning someone to develop something. With, for example, the CU! chair by Avinash Shende, we discovered it at Salone Satellite in Milan, were instantly fascinated by it and so decided to explore if it could be something for us. And then once the decision was made to take it on all we really had to do was tweak it a bit so that it can be serially produced.

(smow)blog: Which we presume means you’re confident that it will meet the expectations?

Thomas Gerber: We wouldn’t be showing it if we weren’t! And, for example, before making the decision to take on the project we took the chair to architects showed them it, and got 100% positive feedback, which was then one of the reasons we decided to say yes.

(smow)blog: The one thing we notice immediately with CU! is the colours. Was the decision for such a bright palette also a result of this feedback from the architects?

Thomas Gerber: Partly. But much more CU! is a cheeky, fresh product that simply cries out to be colourful. Also it can be used outdoors, for example, in cafes, bars, etc, and who says cafe chairs can only be black and white?

(smow)blog: To end and, staying with colour. You’re also launching four Eiermann classics in hues from the Le Corbusier “Les Couleurs” collection. Why the Le Corbusier colours?

Thomas Gerber: Because it all passes so well together. When you look at Le Corbusier and Egon Eiermann they are both from a similar age, had similar passions and ultimately the colours look so good on the furniture that it really is a coming together of what belongs together!  And of course a chair is just one part of a room design, inevitably you also have other furniture, wallpaper, floor coverings, etc, and such objects are all available through other manufacturers in the Les Couleurs palette. Consequently, because the shades are all based on natural tones and compliment one another you can either use one colour throughout a project or effortlessly combine colours, and we find this inherent harmony in Les Couleurs a really fascinating concept.

IMM Cologne 2013: Wilde+Spieth Egon Eiermann chairs in new shades from the Le Corbusier "Les Couleurs" collection

The SE 68 and SE 42 in Le Corbusier "Les Couleurs"

IMM Cologne 2013: CU! by Avinash Shende for Wilde+Spieth

The table Typus by Edelhoff & Nettesheim for Wilde+Spieth. Here with 2 SE 68s. (Photo Wilde+Spieth)

In March 2012 we wrote about the Depot Basel show “Seats” which included a section devoted to the “Take a Seat” project run by Zurich based design studio Aekae in co-operation with the Zurich cafe “Z am Park”

In essence “Take a Seat” involves commissioning contemporary designers to “re-work” four Horgenglarus 1-380 chairs. The results are then used for 6 months in Z am Park before being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The interesting aspect, or one of the interesting aspects, of the project is that if the designers didn’t pimp the 1-380s no one would look twice at them. Resembling as they do “normal” cafe chairs. The sort of wooden chair you’d expect to find in a cafe. The archetypal wooden chair as it were.

Indeed when Jasper Morrison created his Basel Chair for Vitra as a modern, synthetic, re-interpretation of a classic wooden chair, he took the Horgenglarus 1-380 as his muse.

However just as with Michael Thonet’s Chair No 14 the apparently ineffable normality of a form everyone knows disguises a fascinating and genuinely innovative piece work that when launched in 1918 set new standards and even inspired a young Le Corbusier. And which make the Horgenglarus 1-380 one of the genuine classics of Swiss furniture design. And one of the most successful pieces of Swiss furniture ever developed.

A success and status that is maintained today through the simple mastery of the design and Horgenglarus’s unflinching loyalty to the original hand-finished, bentwood construction principle.

And a success which means that much like USM Haller Horgenglarus are in the enviable position of not having to continually release ever new products. They have the definitive.

However Horgenglarus do and over the decades have undertaken co-operations with some of the most important Swiss furniture designers including Max Bill, Werner Max Moser, Max Ernst Haefeli and most recently Hannes Wettstein. Co-operations which have produced a collection of chairs every bit as elegant and understated as the classic 1-380.

While through the input from the likes of Nicolas Le Moigne, Jörg Boner or Frédéric Dedelley in the context of “Take a Seat” the 1-380 remains contemporary, relevant and at the forefront of Swiss design.

Which of course is, as Le Corbusier preached, where it belongs. Even if no one recognises it.

At IMM Cologne 2013 Horgenglarus did what they do best – presented a series of simple, charming wooden chairs. Here a few impressions….

IMM Cologne 2013: Horgenglarus

IMM Cologne 2013: Horgenglarus Left the Classic 1-380 from 1918, right the Icon 1-340 from 2012

Part of the " Take a Seat" collection on display at Depot Basel in 2012

IMM Cologne 2013: Horgenglarus

As we’ve said before, and will never tire of repeating, the Thonet back catalogue harbours an unparalleled treasure trove of design classics.

And certainly enough interesting and challenging designs to keep half-a-dozen contemporary furniture companies in business for the next decade or two.

Fortuitously just as Iceland’s fisherman don’t try to maximise profit by catching as many fish as possible as quickly as possible, so to do Thonet choose not to raid the archive every couple of months in the hope of cashing in, rather treat it with great respect.

A strategy which means one never tires of the occasional re-issues.

At IMM Cologne 2013 Thonet are launching the S 1520, S 1521 and S 1522, a family of re-worked, updated, coat rack/shoe rack “systems” based on original Thonet designs from the 1930s

Developed as an in-house project by the Thonet Design Team, the S 1520, S 1521 and S 1522 are constructed from steel tubing combined with a highly durable netweave mesh and exude what one could, but probably shouldn’t, refer to as a “classic Thonet aesthetic”.

The S 1520 has a shelf/hat rack and 10 hooks hidden unobtrusively behind the lower tube, the S 1522 is essentially the same just with only 8 hooks and a chalkboard extension. For both the S 1520 and S 1522 an optional mirror is available which can be hung on the hooks. The S 1521 is two shelves which can either be used low down for shoes or higher up as a double-shelf system.

At around a metre long and 25 cms deep all three should pass in most hallways/porches, and at least the S 1520 could easily be used in an office/waiting room environment.

We could go on; however, the easiest is probably a few photos….

IMM Cologne 2013: Thonet S 1520 (top) and S 1521(bottom)

IMM Cologne 2013: Thonet S 1520 (top) and S 1521(bottom)

IMM Cologne 2013. The hooks on the Thonet S 1520 & S 1522 are "hidden" behind the lower tube.

IMM Cologne 2013: Thonet S 1522

IMM Cologne 2013: Thonet S 1522

In our interview with Michel Charlot about his lamp U-Turn for Belux he told us that “I like it when people look at an object and find it “normal”, but that is something which is quite difficult to achieve….”

Such an object is without question Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto.

As so to help explain the complexity hidden in the simplicity, and celebrate the object’s 80th anniversary, the Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft are staging an exhibition during IMM Cologne 2013 devoted to this classic of early 20th century furniture design.

Organised by the Alvar Aalto Museo, Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto at Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft is not an extensive exhibition. But then it does solely concentrate on one, formally relatively simple, object.

But what it does offer is fantastic depth. In the course of the presented objects and clearly written texts the exhibition explains the background to Alvar Aalto’s forays into furniture design, the nature of the cooperation with the carpenter Otto Korhonen, technical aspects of the wood bending processes Aalto and Korhonen developed, the production process of Stool 60, etc, etc

And it is this depth that makes it so enjoyable. And rewarding.

After viewing this exhibition we guarantee you will understand just what a high quality, technical masterpiece and genuinely innovative design object the “Oh so simple!” looking three legged birch stool really is.

In addition a number of books on Alvar Aalto are available for all who either want to learn more about his complete canon in general or more specifically to place Stool 60 in, for example, the context of his other furniture or inter-war architecture.

All in all we can thoroughly recommend Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto at Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft and hope that it will soon be displayed elsewhere, because, much like its subject, it is a very well conceived and executed piece of work.

And if you are planning going, and if you are in large group do ask the Archiv in advance about a guided tour of Oswald Mathias Ungers library and house.

Such is only available with advance booking, but is worth it.

Not only do you get rare insight into the methodology and philosophy of one of Germany’s most important 20th century architects and architectural theorists, but in the context of the library you also get to experience one of the most comprehensive and enchanting private architecture libraries you’re likely to come across.

Indeed, given the number of architectural tours organised during IMM, it’s strange that they don’t offer visiting architects and journalists the chance to view the Oswald Mathias Ungers Archiv.

Might be something worth considering for next year….

Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto can be viewed at Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft, Belvederestraße 60 D-50933 Cologne until Sunday January 20th 2013

A few impressions.

The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln (MAKK) opened in 1888, and so it is somehow fitting that it should start the celebrations of its 125th anniversary with an exhibition exploring Romanticism in contemporary design.

Not just because a museal discussion of Romanticism refers neatly back to the prevailing atmosphere when the museum was being established; but because it also opens a window on our contemporary society and so potentially provides some pointers as to where the next 125 years will take us.

Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln: Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation

Featuring the works of some forty international design studios and curated by Vienna Design Week Director Tulga Beyerle, “Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation”  is split into two distinct parts.

The first looks at contemporary Romanticism in context of products which are available on the general market. The second looking at more experimental, conceptual works. A division which of course neatly reflects the current design world; split as it is between products for production and projects for galleries.

For us the weaker of the two sections is that looking at commercial products.

For us here is too much focus on Romanticism as kitsch; or put another way, for us it concentrates to heavily on understanding the romantic period from today’s viewpoint rather than in terms of what Romanticism meant to those who lived and experienced it.

The industrial revolution brought not only upheaval and suffering to the people of Europe, but also wealth and freedom.

While some were forced to give up their poor but free peasant life for the servitude of the mill; the winners found themselves with cash. Great dirty plies of cash. And nothing to do all day.

Romanticism was part of their therapy.

They started writing poems or paid others to write poems for them, went off to look at the Alps or the Scottish Highlands, died of brain fever, broken hearts and other improbable illnesses and generally tried to find escape from the troublesome modern world through constructed realities.

The cultural goods that arose in the period were the protagonist’s response to the prevailing climate.

And so much as we’d all like to believe he was, Caspar David Friedrich was never being ironic. He meant it.

What we now see as kitsch was created honestly and earnestly, much of what is on display in the MAKK is created to be intentionally kitsch. Ironically kitsch. Which then can’t be argued to be a contemporary interpretation of Romanticism. Rather an individual interpretation of “romantic kitsch”

Is this making sense?

There are however a few excellent pieces on display, objects that for us do encapsulate the essence of the romantic age. Patricia Urquiola’s Re-Trouvé chairs and table, for example, whisper to you that they are a place of childhood safety, especially through the clever juxtaposition with Bertjam Pot’s Led Zeppelin lamp – an object which promises to shield you from the troubles of life.  And even though we can’t stop thinking of Louis by Anne Lorenz for maigrau as a student project, it is just the most delightful study into trying to find comfort and belonging in banal, soulless, household objects.

(And obviously we’re not the only ones who can’t stop thinking of it as a student project. In the official catalogue it is listed as it once was: “Home Traveller” and part of the kkaarrlls collection. We’re sure there is a logical explanation….)

But for us, as we say, there is just a touch too much Romantacism à la Liberace.

We know that’s part of the exhibition concept, but for us it just doesn’t work as well as it could or indeed should.

Home Traveller / Louis by Anne Lorenz As seen at Isn't it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln

The current situation in post-industrial Europe is of course not that much different to the one experienced in the mid 19th century.

Digitalisation, the decline of production and the rise of service industries has produced winners and losers. Then there are the challenges posed by our increasing awareness of our personal involvement in and responsibility for the pressing environmental and social issues of our time.

A lot of people are consequently insecure, out of their depth, don’t know what to do and are on the search for a safe haven. A constructed reality.

Last year in the context of his book “21 Designers for 21st Century Britain”, we asked Royal College of Art Senior Tutor Gareth Williams how he saw the future for designers, his answer “…many designers are very aware of the social and cultural context of what they do and I think designers have an important role to play in redefining how we live in the 21st century.”

Examples of the sort of projects Gareth had in mind can be found in the excellent second section of the exhibition; which in contrast to the commercial products section presents a near literal expression of how we would define the interpretation of the romantic spirit into contemporary design. Objects that in essence no one needs or wants but which speak to us all in a way that feels private, comforting, supportive.

In Situ by Julien Carretero, for example, was conceived as part of  the 2010 Dutch Invertuals exhibition “Matter of Time” and challenges us to either escape or stay and face reality. Pieke Bergman’s Light Blubs scream “Told you so!” and reinforce our insecurity. Which in itself gives security. A more primal form of security meanwhile is, literally, given off by Hana Kurková’s “Fine Brushes”. When we saw them in Vienna we wrote “The bristles are pine needles. The brush smells like Christmas. Genius.” Words we stand by. And so it is a real shame that they are being displayed behind glass in Cologne. They just look like brushes. You don’t get the feeling of calm. Similarly the decision to place Frédéric Dedelly’s Objects Mélancoliques behind glass robs them of all their heroism. Or maybe we’re just remembering the strong impression they made during the 2012 Grassimesse in Leipzig.

But the shortfalls in the presentation can’t detract in any way from what is a wonderful collection of wonderful projects.

Works by Frederic Dedelley as displayed at Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln

Design obvioulsy didn’t have a seat at the original romantic dining table.

Because it didn’t exist back then.

And so it’s wonderful that the MAKK and Tulga Beyerle are allowing it the opportunity to take a place alongside the other forms of cultural output that are already there.

The question if one can actually talk of a return to Romanticism in contemporary design, is however one that is left open for each visitor to answer for themselves.

We don’t think you can. But you probably suspected we’d say that.

On the one hand our modern world is much more complex than that in the 19th century, cause and effect aren’t as elegantly linked as once was the case.

And on the other, the objects on display arose independently, often over several years and for a number of reasons: not all of which had or have to do with the context in which they are now displayed.

Yes the objects can all be linked to Romanticism – “Seek and ye shall find” as it were – but for us they don’t represent in any shape or form evidence of a new general movement amongst designers towards the spirit and motifs of Romanticism, and certainly can’t  justify some of the eye-watering hyperbole written in conjunction with the exhibition.

And indeed on the basis of some of the objects one could argue that Post-Modernism was a return to Romanticism. And if we’re always returning to it, what’s so new or interesting? While other objects imply that having learned the lessons of Modernism we are now actually returning to Arts and Crafts, redressing historical errors as it were. And if that’s the case then Romanticism is just an historical reference.

Nor do we believe that any of the objects on display will serve as more than a footnote in design history. Far less signal new directions for either design or society. Which isn’t to diss them. Far from it. Not everything can revolutionise.

Some of the ideas being developed in some of the projects on show will undoubtedly enter the mainstream, and we’ve certainly high hopes for one or the other. But they wont enter it in the context of contemporary Romanticism.

And ultimately, just as not all 19th century citizens stood around looking at mountain ranges in terrified awe before going home to read a 1000 page poem about knights good and bad or popping some arsenic in despair, so to are the majority of us today not really looking for escape or fulfilment.

A beer possibly. A hug definitely. But little more.

The minority who are looking to constructed realities to provide answers to their current woes are largely from the educated middle-class, invariably own something made of felt, and find articles in The Guardian about handmade Swedish butter “fascinating”. And we all know who controls the cultural dialogue. And indeed who controlled it in the 19th century.

All that aside “Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation” is to be highly recommended, not least because it allows us an insight into a fascinating new way of viewing those objects that surround us and of questioning why they surround us.

An excellently conceived and realised exhibition, “Isn’t it romantic?” makes wonderful use of the space available in that it doesn’t overfill it with objects – a regular error in temporary museum exhibitions – but rather leaves space between the exhibits. Space for movement and thought. Which is very agreeable.

And Romantic.

In addition to the exhibition itself we can also thoroughly recommend the delightfully produced catalogue, featuring as it does intelligent articles from international experts including Design Museum London Director Deyan Sudjic, GRID Magazine’s Gerrit Terstiege and of course exhibition curator Tulga Beyerle herself.

“Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation” runs at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln until April 21 2013. Full details can be found at www.makk.de

Back in the day the gentle flapping and choral honking of a snow goose skein heading south provided a comforting, aural background to the approaching winter. It meant our year was coming to an end and we could slowly wind down and enter a state of semi-hibernation.

These days we dread the approaching Hitchcock cliche. The unrelenting, tuneless screeching reminding us it is time to decide: Should we travel to IMM Cologne in January? Really?

And much like the migrating goose always follows the same route, so to does our decision making process adhere to a well worn path.

Initially we always decide no, it’s not worth it.

Then in mid-December we panic that maybe, just maybe, this year will be excellent and we really should attend. And so frantically start booking hotels.

Consequently, and somewhat predictably, in a couple of days we head off to the banks of the Rhein for IMM Cologne 2013 and the parallel Passagen 2013.

While the process leading to the final decision may be the same every year, the reasoning is always different.

IMM Cologne

2013 sees the return of Vitra to IMM Cologne after a three year absence. While we’re not expecting anything radically new from Weil am Rhein, we are curious to see not only how Vitra present themselves but how the rest of the exhibitors react to their presence. Few brands dominate the European contemporary designer furniture market quite like Vitra and while many IMM exhibitors were unquestionably glad not to have had to share a stage with them of late, most will also hope to benefit from Vitra’s unparallelled ability to attract buyers and journalists.

A further returnee for IMM Cologne 2013 is Wilde+Spieth. If we’re honest we’re not entirely sure how long it is since Wilde+Spieth last exhibited at IMM but in decades of yore they were an important feature, representing as they do the work of Germany’s most important mid-20th century furniture architect Egon Eiermann.

And for their 2013 return Eiermann is also in the centre-point of the Wilde+Spieth presentation with four Eiermann chair designs – the SE 68, SE 68 SU, SBG 197 R  and SE 42 – being unveiled in four new colours from the Le Corbusier “Les Couleurs” collection.

A development which obviously stinks of “lifestyle marketing”; but which may also help make the Eiermann canon more accessible to a new generation of consumers. Something which, in general terms, can only be applauded.

As far as we can remember the last manufacturer to experiment with presenting furniture design classics in new hues from Le Corbusier was Cassina when they released a series of Le Corbusiers’ own works in previously unreleased colours.

Consequently Alanis Morissette would no doubt find it “ironic” that this year Cassina will be absent from IMM Cologne, choosing instead to concentrate on launching their new showroom in Cologne’s terribly gentrified Neustadt Nord. As part of the Poltrona Frau Group’s “Design Village Cologne” they will be presenting new works from Piero Lissoni, Luca Nichetto and Charlotte Perriand. The works from the later being, with all probability, new-ish rather then new in the classic, biblical, sense.

And in general outwith the marketing twaddle heavy atmosphere of the Cologne Fair grounds, there are numerous events that interested us enough to force us to book a hotel.

SE 68 by Egon Eiermann for Wilde+Spieth. Launched at IMM Cologne 1952. And 61 years later it will be "relaunched" in 4 new colours

As is tradition the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln have organised a special exhibition to coincide with IMM. Following on from last years somewhat disappointing “From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects” we have high hopes for “Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation”. Curated by Vienna Design Week Director Tulga Beyerle “Isn’t it romantic” seeks to explore contemporary understandings of “romantic”. Whereas in 1807 William Wordsworth may have eased his pensive mood with thoughts of dancing daffodils, Tulga Beyerle’s hypothesis is that today’s troubled urban romantic is more likely to turn to design objects which through their form and material speak to something deep within us. We’ll let you know.

Elsewhere the A&W Designer of the Year Award 2013 goes to Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, which means we can look forward to a nice, compact retrospective of their furniture designs in the accompanying exhibition; the Unger Archiv are presenting a special exhibition devoted to one of the most underrated of all underrated design classic, Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60. And we don’t even want to think about the joy the ever genial Martin Neuhaus is promising with his latest lighting project. We’ve not seen it, but if our expectations aren’t met the pain will be crushing.

Despite the above, and numerous other interesting sounding events, the allure of IMM Cologne remains thin.

IMM Cologne itself remains for us a troublesome event. And we’re pretty much resigned to the fact that it will remain so.

IMM Cologne exists for the mass market. For a market dominated by faceless manufacturers selling faceless products they feel reflect some current, and economically expedient trend amongst a faceless public. And while the Passagen festival seems to get bigger every year, much of that growth is due to furniture retailers organising manufacturer sponsored in-store “exhibitions” of existing product lines rather than genuinely interesting shows of new, design led, projects.

But because the new, design led projects are there, and because manufactures such as Lampert, Müller Möbelfabrikation or e15 use IMM Cologne to launch new products………

The snow goose has to fly south. It can’t help it.
We don’t have to travel to Cologne. We feel we should.

In the coming weeks we’ll let you know in just how far the decision was correct.

IMM Cologne 2013. Will it be a fair to celebrate..... ?

We received advance warning of what awaited us at IMM 2012 on the Friday afternoon before the official opening.

Ambling through Cologne town centre we came across a large plastic hemisphere – the IMM Snow Globe.

Dispatched on a tour through the city to entice the good folk of Cologne to visit the fair, the IMM Snow Globe was filled with some of the delights that would be on show, and, at the touch of a button, feather-lite snow blustered over the scene.

Beautiful!

IMM Cologne 2012 Schneekugel

However, as Julia Landsiedl taught us all with her “Wunderliche Kugelkammer” exhibition at Vienna 2010, snow globes can also have a dark side.

Such as the armchair in the IMM Snow Globe.

All that is wrong with the majority of the furniture one finds in the Cologne trade fair halls brought together in one item.

Beauty and the beast have rarely fused so poetically since OMD underscored a song about Hiroshima with one of the most seductive melodies ever put to paper.

For us the snow globe beautifully illustrated how at IMM one is caught between two opposing realities.

And raises the question, how much longer can the organisers keep up the pretence?

On the one hand we have the IMM as represented by the Kölnmesse press department. A world where words like “new” or “innovative” predominate.

And on the other hand we have the IMM as represented by those people who sell the stand space. And clearly couldn’t give two figs for innovative, thoughtful and interesting furniture design.

A good example of this indifference was the Interior Innovation Award Exhibition 2012. Organised by the German Design Council in co-operation with IMM Cologne the Interior Innovation Award may not have the star allure of the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland – is however an award that furniture producers always seem genuinely happy to receive. And is one of the very few external publicity tools IMM has.

Last year all winners were displayed in a simple yet accessible show in a central passageway in the exhibition centre. In a passageway that many visitors and all press had to walk past; and which indeed could be viewed from the press room windows.

This year, the Interior Innovation Award Exhibition was tucked away in Hall 4.2. A hall that doesn’t even feature in the hall plan as published on the IMM Cologne website.

Hall 4.2 housed the “Living Interiors” exhibition – but the Interior Innovation Award is part of IMM. And so doesn’t feature on the Living Interiors website or interactive hall plan. Which one could also interpret as meaning the exhibition was banished outwith IMM. Discuss

The prime space of yesteryear meanwhile had been sold to a magazine so that they could display their furniture “trend tips”.

IMM Cologne in its public face. A glowing beacon on the domestic furnishings plain...

“Cologne is a sales fair” has been the industry’s cry since at least 1962.

“If that’s the case then do us all a favour and lose the innovative producers and young designers“, has been our cry since at least 2011.

This year the design schools were gone – in our opinion the only logical step following their disgraceful treatment in 2011 – and it can only be a matter of time before the complete d3 design talents section follows them into the city.The heavily scaled down programme and non-updated website being a good hint that the decision has already been made.

And the innovative producers?

They’re gathered together in Hall 11 like an alpine sheep flock protecting themselves from the circling wolves.

We spoke to one producer who had a truly appalling stand position. Honestly one of the least advantageously located stands we have ever seen. The producer was quite happy though because it was in Hall 11. Had it not been Hall 11 he wouldn’t have come. In Hall 11 he was prepared to accept the space offered. Regardless

No one who shops in Hall 11 shops in the other halls. And vice versa.
And the press only visit Hall 11. And 3 for the d3 Talents.

IMM Cologne. Two realities. One location

If we’re honest we hope that in the coming years those producers who place quality, design and innovation above “units sold” find a new home.

If they’re clever the IMM organisers will instigate the fission and let a new young team establish a new fresh fair in Cologne parallel to IMM. That would not only help invigorate IMM, but also help develop the Passagen programme of fringe events and so help re-establish Cologne Furniture Week as a truly important event.

The only obvious alternative at the moment for those producers no longer prepared to accept the limits of Hall 11 would be Qubique Berlin. But they first need to prove their staying power. And also consider moving from their October date.

And so it’s “Advantage IMM” If they choose to take it.

However at the moment they show little sign of wanting to and instead seem set on using the passivity of the media to continue promoting an image of IMM that diverges ever more from the reality one meets in Cologne.

Kartell at IMM Cologne 2012. With a reduced version of the Milan 2011 show. Almost a historical artefact

We’ve noted a couple of times in the past just how uncritical the media has become of such events.

Ahead of IMM much was made of the number of Italian producers showing in Cologne. And most of the press picked up on this “positive development”

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung¹ even going so far as to claim, “And for all the global tone setting producers from beyond the Alps are the yardstick if a fair is doing well and is being well received”

Global tone setting Italians as a yardstick! Is it still 1982? Have we dreamt the last three decades?

Italy does have a special place in the story of European furniture and there are a great many wonderful and high-quality Italian producers.

But not because they are Italian. Because they care.

High quality furniture can also come from other countries.

And while it is justifiable that the IMM press department set up the smoke screen of “We’ve loads of Italians, hurrah!” to disquise the fact that a great many quality producers from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, Belgium, Denmark or America aren’t present.

It’s inexcusable that leading media buy it.

Not least because it does the whole industry a disservice and hinders the positive developments that would come from a complete overhaul of IMM and Cologne Furniture Week.

We spent about 20 minutes watching the IMM Snow Globe. And the longer we watched the more certain we became that change is coming. And as we say IMM still have the chance to decide how that change happens.

We hope they take that chance. For if they don’t then in a couple of years we could all be quoting OMD.

“It shouldn’t ever have to end this way”

1. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/design/koelner-moebelmesse-wohnen-fuer-alle-11616978.html Accessed 25.01.2012

On Monday January 16th IMM Cologne, Germany’s largest furniture trade fair, opens it doors.

In the coming days we’ll bring you a series of interviews, reports and reviews from the Rhein, but ahead of the show we thought we’d look back at what Cologne 1962 had to offer.

On the one hand, because we think it’s interesting to look back on what the furniture industry had to offer 50 years ago; but also to help place IMM 2012 in context of its heritage.

IMM Cologne

The International Möbel Messe Köln started in 1949 and was initially a bi-annual event. A concept that not only really appeals to us, but also reminds us of the days when furniture producers didn’t release new products every couple of minutes.

Indeed in their preview of Cologne 1962 the industry newspaper of the day “Möbel Kultur” spoke of the “…creative pause …” since 1960.¹ Using creative pause in the positive sense of “chance to reflect on and improve your products.”

For as Nils Holger Moormann reminded us, “Furniture needs time. It must be refined and gradually perfected.”

Judging from the exhibitor list the furniture industry in 1962 was still dominated by wood products from small and medium sized carpentry businesses. The situation was however starting to change. For example, there appeared to have been a very controversial debate in Cologne over the use of this newfangled plastic material for surfaces, especially on kitchen units.

In the years immediately after the war, the principle requirement in Europe was for simple, cheap products to help people refurnish their homes; something we noted in our “Design for Use, USA” post. However, in their review of the Cologne Furniture Fairs up until 1962 Möbel Kultur postulate that despite the planners wishes many Germans, especially those refuges from Prussia, wanted – and bought – sturdier furniture to remind of them of their lives before the war.² As such the so-called “Gelsenkirchener Barock” was all the rage in 1950s Germany. Large, immobile objects created from tropical woods.

But as this generation aged and ceased to be such an important purchasing group, so too did their influence on the market wane.

Cologne 1962 indicated this generation change was well underway, and there is regular reference in the reviews to furniture in the, modern, “gute Form.” Today we’d probably just call it designer furniture.

But there are also indications that the furniture industry and the Cologne Fair were about to let this particular boat sail off into the future without them. And that, as today, the “gute Form” furniture may have been present. Was however an under-represented segment.

In his review of the event for Form magazine Karlheinz Krug, the magazine’s later much celebrated Editor in Chief, divides the furniture producers of Cologne 1962 into three groups; those who work with competent designers to create individual, innovative products; those who copy the basic form of the designer furniture and produce them cheaper; and those who re-create styles of old.³

An observation that shows that despite any preconceptions that Cologne 1962 must have been a world away from that we can expect to meet 50 years later. It wasn’t really.

Herr Krug, for example, goes on to regret the absence of many important producers, in particular those who through their design orientated approach can be considered shining examples of the modern furniture industry.

He lists Knoll International or Wilkhahn as examples. Fifty years later both are still missing. As are, for example, Magis, Freedom of Creation, Moormann or Vitra.

The last in the list were, somewhat ironically, present in 1962 as a small company taking their first, tentative steps in the global market.

Today the Vitra brand is so well established that one can safely say they don’t need a fair such as IMM.

And for us that remains one of the problems with IMM; too much focus on Karlheinz Krug’s “Group 2″ producers and not enough of those from Group 1.

In effect they are still focusing on providing furniture for those customers who want the familiarity of “Gelsenkirchener Barock”, customers who are prepared to pay over the odds for something that they believe confers a certain status upon them because it visually conforms to some perfunctory sense of “style”, “trend” or “luxury”. Rather than challenging the market to offer consumers real quality at a realistic price.

And that despite Herr Ordnung⁴ stating in 1962 that Gelsenkirchener Barock was in its death throes.

It may still be. But it is obviously just as profitable as ever.

Cologne Furniture Fair 1962 recorded some 65,400 visitors – almost 90% of them from Germany – who viewed products from 868 producers, ca. two thirds domestic, one third foreign.⁵

Cologne Furniture Fair 2011 recorded 138,000 visitors – with 39% coming from outwith the German borders – who viewed products from 1028 producers. Some 60% non-German.⁶

Figures that indicate not only a healthy event, but also one that has successfully transformed itself from an essentially domestic affair into an important regional trade fair. And that, despite our objections, there is a real demand for the products the majority of exhibitors sell.

We’ll probably never tire of trying to persuade the organisers to change their format and embrace more innovative high-end design. But we also have to accept that IMM is a commercial fair and must be judged in the first instance on economic results.

Such statistics obviously say nothing about the quality of the goods on offer then or now. Nor will we. Not here. That’s a subject for another post.

And one could be petty and compare the figures with those of Milan – 12,000 visitors and 328 producers at its first edition in 1961; 320,000 visitors and 1283 producers in 2011.⁷

But that would be really petty.

Reading the reports and reviews from Cologne 1962  – and we can thoroughly recommend them – one is stuck by a certain continuity in terms of themes, topics and opinions. We kept finding visitors from back then criticising or applauding things that mirror our experience and opinions. As such its clear to see that at such a fair it’s not just the furniture that repeats itself at regular intervals.

And in that respect, one thing that really caught our attention was the obvious the “trend” in 1962:  light, natural wood colours.

Something we should all bear in mind when we read the mass market press reviews of IMM Cologne 2012…..

1. “Was bringt Köln 1962?” Möbel Kultur, Februar 1962

2. “1949-1962. Die Möbelformen seit der ersten Kölner Messe” Möbel Kultur, Februar 1962

3. Krug, Karlheinz “International Möbelmesse Köln 1962″, Form, 17, 1962

4. Herr Alfred Ordnung, Chairman of the Furniture Sector in the German Retailer Association

5. “Die Möbelmesse statistisch gesehen” Möbel Kultur, Januar 1962

6. “Facts and Figures” IMM Website http://www.imm-cologne.com/en/imm/diemesse/daten_fakten/index.php. Accessed 09.01.2012

7. “Facts and Figures” Salone Internazionale del Mobile http://cosmit.it/tool/download.php?id=82945&idst=12535 Accessed 09.01.2012

On his 2009 album “Waxing Gibbous” Falkirk balladeer Malcolm Middleton included the song “Red Travellin’ Socks” a jaunty – if for us touch too obvious – ode to his love/hate relationship with, well his Red Travellin’ Socks.

Wearing his socks he’s reminded of the freedom of the open road that is currently helping him fulfilling his primitive desires – until such time as the romantic myth of the endless highways explodes and he begins to long for home. The red socks symbolising his frustration and hopelessness.

“Take me home Red Travellin’ Socks”, he demands. “I’m out of money and I’m sick of these songs….”

And then, inevitably, after a period at home his Red Travellin’ Socks sit there in the domestic wardrobe, taunting him and reminding him of what he is missing….

Malcolm’s Red Travellin’ Socks are our Vitra Panton Chair Miniature.

For no obvious reason it began accompanying us a couple of years ago and even featured in our controversial tour of Verner Panton’s Copenhagen. And will inevitably feature in our forthcoming Arne Jacobsen portrait.

Much as we enjoy photographing it, there comes a point in every tour where it sits in the camera rucksack like a lead-lined metaphor for the domestic regularity we’re missing. However, no sooner is it back on the bookshelf….

Our erstwhile travelling companion in front of Arne Jacobsen's former house in Copenhagen.

And so while we admittedly did consider throwing it from the train on the way back from Neue Räume Zürich 2011 – we’re currently polishing it up for Spring 2012.

On January 13th we’re in Cologne for the opening of the exhibition “From Aalto to Zumthor – Architect Furniture” in the MAKK. And of course for IMM Cologne 2012 and the parallel fringe events.

Among the, potential, highlights are a new outdoor collection from Richard Lampert, the exhibition “Made in Sishane” and seeing how the colleges do now that they have left the confines of IMM and will be showing their work at a satellite event in the city.

Early February then sees the opening of the Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec Exhibition “Album” in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery in Weil am Rhein. We missed it in Bordeaux and so are really looking forward to seeing it; and of course finding out how their yacht is coming on!

And then from February 6th were in Stockholm for the annual Design Festival and Furniture Fair. The obvious highlight being Stockholm in February.

But given that the (smow)boss will also expect us to produce some form of “work” from our trip, we’ll be checking out the exhibition The Evolution of Object by Katrin Greiling, pursuing the new tile designs by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Marrakech Design and generally investigating the current state of the designer furniture industry in Scandinavia.

Reports, photos, interviews and reviews will be published here and on Facebook.

Stockholm. February. 2011

It’s fair to say that for us the real shock of IMM Cologne 2011 was the number of senseless sofa combinations and truly, truly, hideous leather cantilever dining chairs on show.

And that despite that fact we were expecting such.

It of course wasn’t all cheap pointless tat, there were also some wonderful young designers on show and one or two brave producers with genuinely interesting, innovative and aesthetically coherent product ranges.

They were sadly in the minority – and we fear that in the coming years they will become even rarer and that IMM will increasingly look even more like a cheap out-of-town furniture discounter than it does at the moment.

IMM Cologne 2011: Pile em high and sell em cheap....

IMM has two main problems: Milan and Maison et Objet in Paris.

Paris is sexy, exciting, dangerous, passionate…..

Cologne.

And no amount of Viva Colonia is going to entice young dynamic producers and designers to the Rhein when a couple of days later they can be on the Seine.

For that they need the belief that there is a real reason to exhibit in Cologne; be it at IMM, Designers Fair, or independently in the city.

At the moment they simply don’t have that.

And regardless of how large, expensive and wholly irrelevant Milan becomes, the furniture industry will continue to cling to its beloved Milano like some gin-addled old woman who can’t face the hollow reality of her existence sober – and that means that IMM need a concept that offers exhibitors alternatives that they do not have in Milan.

That was always the case – but the changing nature of the global furniture industry makes it more important now than in the 70s or 80s.

Kartell brought Milan with then to IMM Cologne 2011. We can only guess why.....

At the end of the day everyone knows that launching new products in Milan makes no sense – the fair is too big and the international media only listen to those with whom they have a personal relationship or those with the biggest PR budget.

Launching products in Cologne makes sense – but only if IMM provides a suitable environment.

But the press room at IMM is full of advertising sales reps and PR agencies on the look out for new clients.

We’re not saying its any different in Milan – we’re saying it should be different than in Milan.

Read many good interviews from IMM?

People still talk about Verner Panton’s Visiona 2 exhibition from 1970. It’s highly unlikely anyone would even notice in 2011.

IMM need to decide if they want to position themselves as a fair for the lower rungs of the quality and taste ladder – or if they want to offer furniture for the majority of purchasers. And furniture that is ecologically and ethically justifiable.

The Boulevard of Innovations at IMM Cologne - a couple of hundred feet quality before the cheap leather sofas ruin your day.

For if they just want the cheap leather sofas – then please do us all a favour and lose the innovative producers and young designers.

It would be a real shame. It would however be real honest.

With d3 Design Talents IMM have a nice concept, one that works, and indeed one that is important for IMM – but it needs to be better supported by the Messe and not just seen as market relevant add-on that looks good in the sales brochures.

d3 Professionals showed what a wonderful range and depth of design talent Germany – and neighbouring countries – have to offer.
Young designers who are prepared to invest time and money in establishing themselves and their ideas in a very competitive global market.

However many of those who took part in d3 Professionals were once in Cologne as part of a college show.

And so if IMM want to ensure the continued success of d3 Professionals they would be well advised to treat the current student generation with a little more respect.

The location of the d3 Schools show this year was an absolute disgrace. Had we been due to exhibit there we would have packed our bags and left – never to return.

Stockholm Design Week is four weeks later, cheaper, more personal – and just as close to Cologne as Berlin, Vienna or London.

We know where we’d rather exhibit.

IMM Cologne will of course continue to survive – it would just be nice if it also remained, relevant, innovative and an event that one looked forward to.

Rather than feared.