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.

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

As with all furniture trade fairs IMM annually gives part of the floor space over to young, up and coming, designers.

In three themed sections “d3 Design Talents” offers space for design colleges – d3 Schools – those further on the way to establishing themselves – d3 Professionals – and a competition – d3 Contest.

“Space” is however not only a relative term – but one that cannot be defined by physical measurements.

As we learned on the journey to Congress-Centrum Ost!

d3 Design Talents : d3 Contest

Beaugars by Meike Langer, part of the IMM Cologne d3 Contest. (In the background Home Traveller by Anne Lorenz)

Featuring the works of some 28 design studios from 9 nations, the 2011 d3 Contest was, for us, a little weaker than last years – but that’s obviously just our subjective opinion and no negative reflection on the competing works.

In addition to old friends such as Tafelstukken by Daphna and Laurens or Panel by Yi-Cong Lu the one object that did catch our attention was Beaugars by Meike Langer.

A clothes rack cum stool cum side table Beaugars is a similar concept to Kirin by Dörte Ahlgrimm and Kathrin Scheidt – just with a few extra features that make it, for us, the more interesting product.

d3 Design Talents : d3 Schools

Equally “interesting”  – though regrettably in the negative sense – was the treatment of the colleges taking part in d3 Schools 2011.

More reminiscent of some especially grotesque Bushtucker challenge from “I’m a celebrity …” than something anyone would undertake voluntarily, the path to d3 Schools took the courage traveller to the outer reaches of the Köln Messe complex.

And to a hall which looked as if it had been mothballed in the late1980s and then re-opened especially for the students.

Excellent lighting though. So old it’s almost modern….

We know the colleges don’t exactly help themselves by insisting on building their stands as an abstract interpretation of their underlying design philosophy rather than simply saying “Here’s our stuff – ain’t it good!”

But that’s no reason to banish them so far away from the visitors.

However, those who did pack some sandwiches and braved the journey to d3 Schools were treated to a few very worthwhile projects.

Franzel by Sebastian Schneider - the sort of thing that tickles our goat!

In particular Sebastian Schneider from the Akademie Gestaltung im Handwerk Münster caught our attention with his garden table and bench combination “Franzel” – or better put caught our attention with his delightful re-working of the “traditional” folding legs for his garden and table combination “Franzel”

In addition we were very, very  taken with Play – a versatile shelf and storage system by Adisa Vatres from the Academy of Fine Arts Sarajevo. The other item on the Sarajevo stand that caught our attention was Mantic by Marina Busic. But more on that – in the context of why it caught our attention -  later

We just hope that enough visitors saw it all to have made it worth the colleges trouble exhibiting.

And if not – we hope the colleges give IMM a wide berth next year as protest.

Or at least demand free places.

For there can be no acceptable excuse for the decision to place them in such a forlorn and desolate location.

It was insulting.

Especially when one saw the utter brilliance and unbeatable quality that was on display in the location that d3 Schools used to occupy.

But then we all know who ultimately chooses the piper’s tune….

d3 Design Talents: d3Professionals

Much more positive was the array of young talent that had gathered under the umbrella of d3 Professionals.

But more, much more, on them later.

All in all despite a few genuine high points and some wonderful new discoveries, d3 Design Talents 2011 was, for us, ruined by the treatment of d3 Schools.

Because it forces us to question how seriously the IMM organisers actually take d3 Design Talents.

And by extrapolation how much more important profit margins are than creativity, innovation and sustainability.

d3 Design Talents d3 Schools @ IMM Cologne. Genius lighting!

While critics denounce such as an easy and obvious way to generate content – for us reviewing the past year is an important step in planning our activities for the coming year: where to go, who to talk to, what to sit on and, just as importantly, what to ignore or give up.

The only real problem for us is that in preparing such we realise just how much material we haven’t had the chance to use – and so receive an impression of how much more material we will acquire in the coming year.

Heck!

Reading Table by Uli Budde @ Designers Fair 2010 Cologne

The year started, as ever, with IMM and Designers Fair in Cologne. Aside from the opportunity to roll out a few anti-carnival gags the trip introduced us to some wonderful new products/designers, specifically; Uli Budde, Christian Lessing, Martin Neuhaus, Alexander Gufler, maigrau, Tim Baute etc, etc, etc…

A further highlight was the introduction of Herbert Hirche’s Interbau 57 armchair through Richard Lampert.

Negative was the lack of innovation and – if we’re honest – quality on display at IMM. For Germany’s most important furniture trade fair it just simply wasn’t good enough.

Let’s see what IMM 2011 brings.

In February we were then on much safer ground with the opening of the VitraHaus on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein and a visit to the MoormannHaus in Aschau in Chiemgau.

Moormann Haus, Aschau in Chiemgau

Aside from the way the VitraHaus majestically appears before you, for us the real joy is the decision to include “non-Vitra” items in the displays – very much in the spirit of Charles and Ray Eames‘ “Collage” principle of interior design.

If we did have one wish for 2011 it would be that rather than only including established designers, that Vitra include one or the other design from a young designer or two in the VitraHaus exhibition space.

VitraHaus is big enough to give young talent a chance.

While the MoormannHaus is every bit as spectacular a piece of architecture as Vitra’s, the real highlight of the trip to Aschau was Berge - the Moormann auberge

Much more than a delightful base for a trip to the Bavarian Alps – Berge is much more a wonderful introduction to the Moormann philosophy.

In March (smow)airport systems premiered their range of USM Haller based airport solutions at the Passenger Terminal Expo 2010 in Brussels. Created in cooperation with USM Haller , (smow) airport systems have developed a range of solutions for both operative, Lounge and Retail areas of airports – solutions that were very well received by the PTE visitors.

The company name and structure may have changed since PTE 2010 but we will be at PTE 2011 in Copenhagen to both follow the development of the project as well as to report on other developments in airport / public area furniture world.

Full house in the (smow)room for the Leipzig Buchmesse readings

Back in Leipzig March is Buchmesse and March 2010 saw the most successful series of readings ever in the (smow)room in Burgplatz.

Ever!

Starting with Grillsaison from Philipp Kohlhöfer and then moving on over “New voices from Switzerland” to “Meine Frau will einen Garten” by Gerhard Matzig the three readings provided three very different if equally enjoyable experiences.

More so in 2011 !

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….

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.

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.....