Although Alexander Girard worked closely with Herman Miller and designers such as George Nelson or Charles and Ray Eames; Alexander Girard’s speciality was not furniture but fabrics, folk art and colour.

Born in America and raised in Italy Alexander Girard studied architecture in London before a lack of architectural openings saw him spend several years working as an exhibition and interior designer; most notably in Sweden where he worked in the design department of the Nordiska department store. In 1937 Girard moved to New York in search of architectural work, but again with a lack of opportunities he took on numerous design jobs. In 1951 Charles Eames persuaded him to join Herman Miller where in 1952 he was appointed head of the new textiles department.

In addition to designing textiles Alexander Girard also designed exhibition stands for Hermann Miller and created interior design concepts for the stores; including T&O (Textiles and Objects) shop opened in New York in 1961 and whose range was dominated Alexander Girard’s passion for folk art.

Aside from his collaborations with Herman Miller Alexander Girard also worked for companies as varied as the Ford Motor Company, Hallmark Cards and Braniff Airways.

Greatly inspired as it is by folk art,  Alexander Girard’s work is often signified by it’s bold use of colour – and as such make wonderful Christmas gifts.

Vitra Wooden Doll No 12 by Alexander Girard

Vitra Wooden Doll No 12 by Alexander Girard

With his jester suit and cheeky grin Vitra Wooden Doll No 12 by Alexander Girard passes wonderfully into any modern Christmas scene. Originally created for T&O Alexander Girard’s wooden dolls never entered production during his lifetime – as Hermann Miller closed T&O before they could be introduced. However thanks to the Vitra Design Museum the Wooden Dolls have finally been released on an adoring global public.

Millerstripe Multicoloured Bright cushion by Alexander Girard

Millerstripe Bright by Alexander Girard as a Vitra Design Museum cushion

The cushion itself is not from Girard – rather the pattern. Originally designed in 1973 – so towards the end of Girard’s tenure at Hermann Miller – Millerstripe Multicoloured Bright was re-issued by New York based textile producer Maharam as part “Textiles of the 20th Century” collection. And subsequently chosen by Hella Jongerius to form part of the Vitra Design Museum cushion collection. With its simple geometry and vivid colours Millerstripe Multicoloured Bright is a wonderful example of how Alexander Girard incorporated the basics of folk art in his work.

Vitra Classic Tray Eden by Alexander Girard

Vitra Classic Tray Eden by Alexander Girard

As with the cushion, the tray is not from Alexander Girard – rather the pattern. Also created during his time with Herman Miller, Eden wonderfully combines childhood innocence with serious art. Printed on high-grade thermoset, the Vitra design Museum classic trays are dishwasher safe, food safe … and delightful.

La Fonda Armchair by Charles and Ray Eames from Vitra

La Fonda Armchair by Charles and Ray Eames

Although designed by Charles and Ray Eames the La Fonda Armchair was commissioned for one of Alexander Girard’s most important interior design projects in New York – the La Fonda del Sol restaurant in the Rockefeller Centre. Impressed by his work for the T&O shop the restaurant operators asked Girrad to design the interior of La Fonda del Sol with a South American folk art theme – a commission that initiated Girard’s first trip to South America, a study tour that took in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. In 2009 Vitra stopped production of the La Fonda Armchair – but (smow) still have one or the other in stock.

Vitra Wooden Dolls by Alexander Girard

Vitra Wooden Doll No 1-11 and 13-16 by Alexander Girard

Before we have a mutiny on our hands. Alexander Girard deisgned 23 dolls for T&O from which the Vitra Design Museum have released16. Each with their own personality and story. Weather individual or in a set, there can be few more adorable companions for the winter months. The full range can be viewed here.

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It’s Dumfries Show on Saturday.

That won’t mean much to the most people, but for us it is a sure sign.

Winter is coming.
We know, we know. Barely have we got use to remembering to take our sunglasses to work, buying ice-creams for lunch or waking up at 5 am because we forgot to shut the curtains – again – than the Dumfries Agricultural Society hold their annual show.
And after the Dumfries show the evenings get shorter with increasing rapidity and before you know it the ground will be brown with dying leaves.

Oh Joy!

And so the time is surely rife to start thinking about lighting for the dark months ahead. Below are a few of our suggestions, in addition to our previous favourites from the spring design shows.

FL/Y by Ferruccio Laviani for Kartell

FL/Y by Ferruccio Laviani for Kartell

In the first half of 2009 Italian producer Kartell invested a lot of marketing effort into promoting their lighting range, or The Kartellights Collection to give it its correct name. Which is no bad thing. For most Kartell is all about Philippe Starck‘s chairs, Ron Arad’s Bookworm or Philippe Starck’s chairs, and too little attention is given to their lighting collection. One of the true highlights in the collection is FL/Y by Ferruccio Laviani. Made in transparent methacrylate, the cover of FL/Y is not perfectly hemispherical but, rather, the cut-off is underneath the height of the diameter allowing it to collect the most light.  In addition, the special transparency of the material combined with the sheen of the colours bring to mind a soap bubble, iridescent with reflections of light. FL/Y by Ferruccio Laviani for Kartell is available in 9 transparent colours and opaque black and white.

Talak Lettura by Neil Poulton for Artemide

Talak Lettura by Neil Poulton for Artemide

It takes a brave producer to take what is in essence a table lamp design and scale it up to a floor version. But that is pretty much what the idea behind Talak Lettura by Neil Poulton for Artemide. At 139 cm high, the intention with Lettura is not a lamp to illuminate a whole room, but much more – and as the name implies – it is a floor standing reading lamp. [Lettura is Italian for reading for all who have not been to Milan] The lighting element itself is embedded in the vertical arm, and is available as either an LED or a fluorescent unit. The vertical arm can be rotated round 360 degrees meaning that you can position it over a desk for working/reading and then – assuming your room is correctly laid out – swing it round to allow you to continue to read in your favourite armchair. With its intense, warm light Talak Lettura not only adds an attractive ambience to a room on account of it’s stylish minimal design, but also through it’s illumination.

WA24 by Wilhelm Wagenfeld from Tecnolumen

WA24 by Wilhelm Wagenfeld from Tecnolumen

Having bought Eileen Gray’s Roquebrune chair to place next to your Eiermann Table you will of course be looking for the perfect lamp to complete your informal study corner at home. The WA24 by Wilhelm Wagenfeld was created by the young designer shortly after his admission to the Bauhaus workshop in Weimar. The result of an assignment given to him by Hungarian designer and Bauhaus Professor László Moholy-Nag, the lamp can in many ways be considred as ther starting point of Wagenfeld’s design career. As with almost all famous designs from the Bauhaus period, the Wagenfeld lamp’s are amongst the most copied of all industrialal designs, and purchasers should be wary of buying cheap replicas where quality craftsmanship has been sacrifice din favour of profit. All Wagenfeld lamps sold by (smow) are, as with all products (smow) sell, officially licensed originals – in the case of the WA24 by Wilhelm Wagenfeld that means from Tecnolumen, Bremen.

Clusterlamp by Joel Degermark for moooi

Clusterlamp by Joel Degermark for moooi

If we start a post with a sentence like “And now a lamp for those looking for a little different”, it can only mean one thing … moooi. On this occasion we’re going to forgo the insane beauty of Horse Lamp by Front and instead recommend Clusterlamp by Joel Degermark. If we’re honest when we first saw pictures of the Clusterlamp we thought it was a joke. A big, fat unfunny Dutch joke.

And then felt a little guilty after seeing it “in real life” as we realised that although it unquestionably posses the inventive genius of a Laurel and Hardy or Helge Schneider, it isn’t funny.

The PR text from moooi talks of it evoking experimentation with ambient expression, and while that may be true, for us the true charm of Clusterlamp is the fact that you only notice it when it’s switched off. We’re not going to pretend it looks particularly attractive, or that it is a lamp for every situation, but with it’s pleasant, inoffensive illumination and radical design Clusterlamp by Joel Degermark is definitely a lamp for …. you know the rest. Clusterlmap is available with a choice of three bulb sets (each set conatining five bulbs). The bulb sets can also be purchased separately for those looking to mix and match.

Cushions from Vitra

Cushions from Vitra.

No they don’t light up, but what’s the point in creating a pleasantly lit environment if you can’t get comfortable with a good cushion or six. Vitra offer two ranges of cushions each covered with fabrics from US producer Maharam. The Maharam collection “Textiles of the 20th Century” is a range of re-issues of some of the most important designs in the Maharam archives. These include such classics as Geometri by Verner Panton, Small Dot Pattern by Charles and Ray Eames or Millerstripe by Alexander Girard. “Repeat” is a series of re-workings of classic designs from the archives of a Swiss mill by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius. For the Vitra cushion range three of the designs – stripe, hounds-tooth and dot ring – are available in range of colours. Both ranges offer not only exquisite design to finish off and compliment any interior, but also something soft and friendly to hold when you want to relax of a damp autumn evening after a hard days work. Depending on the design chosen the type of fabric does vary and so please check with (smow) before ordering.