After the strenuous match against Alexander Girard, France decided to rest Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for the match against Eero Saarinen.

Their replacement, the enfant terrible of contemporary French design Philippe Starck however failed to match the old Finnish master; too often Philippe Starck strove forward with fairly predictable and poorly considered approaches.

Eero Saarinen was able to make use of the gaps produced by Philippe Starck to good effect scoring with his Tulip Chair and a pedestal table for a thoroughly deserved 2:0 victory

The Group D table and all Group D results can be found here.

Philippe Starck failed to get the better of Saarinen's Tulip Chair through Knoll International

You know how it is.

You arrive early in the office….. Make a coffee….. Turn the computer on…….. Check out the tabloid press websites….. And break gently into the day with stories as irrelevant and vacuous as they are compelling.

It’s just a comfortable and familiar way to start the day.

This morning was different.

The story had all the makings of normal tabloid nonsense: a pop star, a footballer’s wife and a party guest list that you suspect had been thrown together by a tired and bored PR company who distribute invites by clicking “resend” .

“The popstar wife of footballer David Beckham, who has her own fashion label, revealed that she has been asked to design the interior of the new X Y Z – extending the ever-expanding ‘Brand Beckham’ into the world of motoring.”

“On her new role as car designer, she said: ‘I am incredibly excited to be collaborating with X Y. I like to take on a challenge and I’m ready for it.’”

Vehicles by designers aren’t new.

The Interior of James Irvine's bus. Roomier than what Mrs Beckham has to work with.

In cooperation with the Expo 2000 exhibition James Irvine and Jasper Morrison designed trams and buses for the cities of Hanover and Leipzig; London Transport recently unveiled their new routemaster bus from the pen of Thomas Heatherwick; Thonet have developed a delightful gear shift knob in collaboration with Volvo.

Aschau im Chiemgau design legend Nils Holger Moormann has as even designed a complete range of vehicles for nomadic bibliophiles; the Bookinist and Easy Reader.

But “car designer” Victoria Beckham?

Is that really “design”?

Or just an obvious and cheap PR gag from a company whose tradition and customer list would tend to imply that they really don’t need to resort to tired PR gags?

We go with the later. But know that in doing so we’re opening a large can of worms.

The delightful Volvo gear shift knob by Thonet

Is every new Philippe Starck product really necessary? When company A, B or C hire Patricia Urquiola to design a new sideboard – do they really need the sideboard, or Patricia Urquiola as a designer in their portfolio? In a saturated media market are “star” designers being increasingly abused as “blog fodder”? A quick look in our twitter and RSS feeds would tend to imply yes.

Ronan Bouroullec certainly provided a fairly broad hint in that direction during his conversation with us in Milan.

But also did little more than confirm what we all know.

A lot of the products that are launched at design shows are superfluous.

Completely.

They are superfluous because they are not necessary, because they exist only as marketing vehicles for the company; but principally because everyone can see that the designer has given practically no thought as to what they are doing or why.

Consequently, many of the products in Milan might as well have been “designed” by Victoria Beckham.

Which is why we’re not going to Milan 2011: Too irrelevant.

Bookinst by Nils Holger Moormann - a real designer car

Clearly Mrs Beckham isn’t “designing” the interior of the new X Y Z; she’s choosing the fabric.
And it will probably be black leather.

And as such we shouldn’t get so wound-up.

But it does get our goat when something as involved and creative as “design” is reduced to nothing more than a marketeers line in a press release designed to ensure media coverage and thus sell a product or brand.

A marketeers line that is then gleefully repeated ad captandum vulgus by the international press.

Just as it gets our goat when designers who we know are blessed with talents far beyond the normal turn out pointless tat that no one really needs in order to make a quick buck. A little more self-control would be nice; from the designers as well as from the click hungry blog community who give the producers the oxygen they crave – yet often don’t deserve.

“Car designer” Victoria Beckham.

We’d love to be a fly on the wall as Victoria Beckham “designs” the X Y Z interior.

The undisputed highlight of the Kartell stand at Saloni Milano 2009 was the cat and mouse game with the special forces Kartell had hired to prevent visitors taking photographs.
Despite the Kartell stand taking up an area half the size of Lombardy, the highly trained troops proved particularly efficient and we, for example, were forced to camp out overnight in a disused fox hole just to get a quick snap shot of the Dr NOs.

Judging by the pre-Saloni press, this year is going to be even more fun.

They’re turning out the lights and employing the forces of the Dark Side to stop photographers!!

"Welcome Black 2010" Philippe Starck and Kartell in Milan

“Welcome Black 2010″ is the motto of Kartell’s Saloni show and the invitation promises a dark landscape full of sorcery and demonic goodness.
Or it does if you interpret it as we do.

Aside from fighting Jedis and terrifying young children, Kartell will launch new products by, among others, Tokujin Yoshioka, Philippe Starck and Eugeni Quitllet, Piero Lissoni and Ferruccio Laviani.

We’ll be taking the night vision goggles and you can read our impressions of Kartell’s new products in our (smow) in Milan coverage from April 14th.

Invisible Chair by Ttokujin Yoshioka for Kartell

Ghost Buster by Philippe Starck and Eugeni Quitllet for Kartell

Having sold everything, including our kidneys and the neighbours cat, we can finally afford to pay for a hotel in Milan.

“Is it really worth it?” ask the pensioners, students and lawyers who gather in front of the (smow)blog flat every March to buy our possessions and so help us finance the life of luxury enjoyed by that special class of bloodsucker that is the Milanese hotelier.

“No” answer we.

“But what are we to do?”

And indeed what are we to do.

One need only look at the press photos from Studio Bouroullec that landed in our inbox this afternoon.

Lighthouse by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are always among the most active designers in Milan; some years they even mange to make Philippe Starck appear like a tired old man.

For Milan 2010 Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are presenting new products for Established and Sons, Venini, Bitossi and Magis.

Last years Established and Sons product was the Quilt Sofa – a product which, if were honest disappointed us an awful lot. Looked great, sat awful and is pre-programmed to cause all manner of mishaps.

The 2010 effort looks a lot more promising.

Lampalumina by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Lighthouse by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Established and Sons is produced in conjunction with Murano glass manufacturer Venini. A table lamp in an over-sized candle effect, Lighthouse comes with the most gorgeous, retro-70s Murano glass shade.

Le Freres Bouroullec have also designed a lamp for Italian ceramics producer Bitossi. An almost religiously minimalist piece in white ceramic Lampalumina looks a little bit like a goose and undoubtedly does what it says on the label.

Central by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

For Magis the Bouroullec Brothers have created two tables: The die cast aluminium central is a “classic” bistro table, albeit in a three-legged version and the somewhat humorously named Baguettes is class and aluminium dining table. In both cases we are of the opinion that the effect is much better in “real” then in photos. the smooth, almost indiscernible lines of the tables promising a wonderfully unobtrusive yet defining presence.

And that is why we sell all we own.
And the neighbours cat.

Saloni Milnao 2010 runs from May 14th until May 19th

Daily coverage here at (smow) in Milan, on (smow)twitter, (smow)book and vimeo.

Baguttes by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

There is little doubt as to who the most popular furniture producers with the exhibitors here in Köln are…. Vitra and Kartell.

Two producers whom the Messe Köln sadly can’t attract to the show in their own right.
And that despite the fact that all the snack bars here in Köln Messe use Maarten van Severen‘s genial .03

On the stands here however we’ve seen, for example, Panton Chairs being used to augment otherwise tasteless bedroom suites and the classic Vitra DSR by Charles and Ray Eames standing at more than one table. Across the Rhein at designers open meanwhile, the somewhat less well earning young designers are more modestly kitted out interror.be, for example, with his Elephant Stool by Sori Yanagi.
Many of the more garish room set ups, meanwhile, use Kartell lighting as accessories.

The curious thing is – it works.

That however may just be due to the number of ironic bad taste hotel, spa and casino ensembles that Philippe Starck has organised of late. And not just lamps, Kartell seating pops ups up fairly frequently as well.  Sadly we’ve not seen as many from the Starck “Ghost” range as we like, however, we have seen some excellent ero|s| usage.
And as if all that wasn’t enough, the stands on which visitors fill out their registration forms are finest USM Haller.
But that USM Haller aren’t here is less of a surprise… they don’t do trade fairs.

And so despite our concerns over the aesthetics standards of some of the exhibitors here; it’s comforting to know that at least someone in the organisation can appreciate quality designer furniture.

.03 by Maarten van Severen from Vitra

Vitra DSR by Charles and Ray Eames

System USM Haller at IMM in Cologne

Ero|s| by Philippe Starck from Kartell

Cassina

Italian design is, if we all close our eyes for a minute or two and be brutally honest, a lot like English football or French cooking – it’s continued association with a particular quality and geniality is largely due to the number of non-Italians(English/French) who have continually contributed to the tradition and so kept it modern, kept it fresh and kept it exciting.

Danish design is Danish because only Danes are allowed to do it – Italian design is universal because any one can do it: Assuming the Italians invite them that is.

And so it comes that we all enjoy going to Milan in April and paying more for one night in a dingy room than we pay per year for our own flats; because it’s Milan and Milan is design.

In 1927 a decisive step towards the establishment of “Italian design” was taken when the brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina established their new furniture production company in Meda, Lombardy (half way between Milan and Lake Como – for all of you on the search for a dream “half-way house”)

LC 1 by Le Corbusier, Jeanneret and Perriand through Cassina

After initially building up a reputation for their high-quality outfitting of ships, hotels and casinos, in 1967 Cassina launched their ‘CASSINA I MAESTRI’ range with the acquisition to the license for four Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand products: LC1, LC2, LC3 and LC4. In Cassina’s own words the aim was  – and indeed is “… the diffusion of universally accredited cultural values through the re-proposal -  today – of “reconstructed” furniture.” Using original sketches and studio notes as the basis for their models Cassina went on to acquire the rights to not only further Le Corbusier works but also to important works by designers as diverse as Gerrit T.Rietveld, Charles Renne Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright.

In the 19070s, and with the security achieve dthrough the CASSINA I MAESTRI range, Cassina did the “Italian thing” of embracing new materials and new technologies and via the works of designers such as Mario Bellini or Vico Magistretti established themselves as an important and truly forward-thinking player in the international designer furniture scene. A trend which they have continued through co-operations with designers such as Konstantin Grcic, Patrick Jouin or Philippe Starck.

Zig-Zag chair by Gerrit T.Rietveld through Cassina

And so today just as the mix of domestic and foreign players have helped Manchester United or Liverpool achieve global success, so has the combination of Italian and international design talent helped Cassina to become one of the leading designer furniture houses.

And since late 2009 the Cassina CASSINA I MAESTRI range is also available through smow.com, a range that features design classics such as the Zig-Zag chair by Rietveld or the Argyle Chair by Mackintosh.

And if you’d prefer something more modern smow.com can supply the complete Cassina range.

Full details can be found at the smow.com Cassina page

(and yes, for all you observant readers out there, google failed to provide us with a list of 3 Star Paris restaurants run by foreigners :( )

Today is World Usability Day.

We do admit to be being more than a touch sceptical about the motivations that lead people to establish events such as “Global Avocado Day”, “Bulgarian Aramaic Appreciation Week”, or indeed “World Usability Day”, but we can’t help agreeing with the preamble to their charter.
(Without endorsing the charter, per se):

Human error is a misnomer.  Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy-to-use as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, government, communication, entertainment, work, and other areas, we must agree to develop technologies in a way that serves people first.

In terms of furniture design we couldn’t agree more and, indeed, in these pages have often argued for clear, defined and properly thought through design.

The work of Charles and Ray Eames, Jasper Morrison, Philippe Starck or Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec wonderfully reflects what can be achieved with the minimum of fuss and unnecessary cleverness.
And so for our contribution to World Usability Day 2009 here are the 10 Design Principles from the doyen of German Industrial Design Dieter Rams:

* Good design is innovative
* Good design makes a product useful
* Good design is aesthetic
* Good design helps us to understand a product
* Good design is unobtrusive
* Good design is honest
* Good design is durable
* Good design is consequent to the last detail
* Good design is concerned with the environment
* Good design is as little design as possible

It’s that simple.

Happy World Usability Day!

One of the classic rules of furniture design is the product must look good, must look appealing.

What, however, if you can’t see the product.

If it doesn’t have a visual presence.

That would make no sense.

Victoria Ghost by Philippe Starck for Kartell in New York

Which is probably why it took Philippe Starck to come up with the “Ghost” range of chairs and stools for Kartell.

Very few other designers could create a range of chairs that regularly vanish in the light.

Starck’s motivation was of course somewhat different. With his Louis Ghost, Victoria Ghost and Charles Ghost for Kartell, Philippe Starck is playing with the “ghosts” of long since dead design styles. Awakening the past in a modern setting where it no longer plays a role yet is not forgotten.

Which is all well and good. That’s his job.

Louis Ghost Chairs in Milan... seen the one behind the table? Didn't think so

What he’s also achieved is a line of furniture that belong to most distinctive of the last 20 years.

Louis Ghost is a play on the period furniture from time of Louis XV’s regin, moving forward a century the Charles Ghost is reminiscent of the stools of 19th century Europe and with Victoria Ghost Starck completes his tour through three centuries of European furniture design.

The real magic of the series, however, is only really apparent – or better put not apparent – when the chairs are in use. With their transparent plastic frames the chairs genuinely merge in with the background allowing other objects in a room to take precedence.

It is truly an affect that needs to be seen to be appreciated, the photographs added here can only offer an idea of the beauty that is Ghost series.

More details on the chairs can be found in the Kartell information brochure

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.

Eames Lounge Chair by Vitra - The classic view of furniture as an heirloom ...

Our (smow)twitter recently brought our attention to an article at worldchanging.com about what the author termed “Heirloom Design”

In the article Adele Peters discusses sustainability, durability and for all “What makes something worthy of passing down through generations?”

Peters decides that the future monetary value, the usefulness and sentimentality play a role; somewhat bizarrely in respect of sentimentality , she states: “…designers can aim to create products that inspire emotional responses.” Sentimentality is of course never something a designer can aim to achieve, rather is something abstract that develops through the nature of the relationship you have with an individual product. But more on that later.

... however, Mr Impossible by Phillipe Starck for Kartell, is also a product that can be enjoyed for generations

For us, however, the main point that Adele Peters misses in her highly readable article is that “Heirloom Design” isn’t “new”; rather, it has always existed.

In the past designing and constructing furniture to have a eternal life span and to be kept within a family for generations was normal. However, in the fast moving consumer culture that has overtaken The North since Thatcher freed us from guilt we’ve kind of all lost sight of that a little. And at this juncture you’ll forgive us if we don’t discuss the role of everyone’s favourite Swedish producer, but you get the drift. And because we’ve forgotten that one can pass furniture on to the next generation “Heirloom Design” can be presented as a “new meme”.

AC 4 by Antonio Citterio for Vitra - 54% recycled and 95% recycable

However for producers such as Vitra, USM Haller or Moormann and their designers, creating products with a long life span is part of the normal product development process. As we have often stated, and will probably never tire of repeating, with, for example, the Eames chairs from Vitra or the complete system USM Haller elements, practically every component can be replaced if required. They are truly articles that once bought will outlast the owner and the owners children. And which will be used every day by all.

Just far too many people think that designer furniture is expensive and that to buy a product that will last more than four months involves an investment beyond the average mortal soul.

Random Light by Bertjan Pot for moooi

In her book “Antiques of the future” – we hate the title by the way, but enjoy the project – Lisa S. Roberts presents her collection of items she believes will increase in value in the future. Included in the collection are products such as Algue by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra, Louis Ghost Armchair by Philippe Starck for Kartell or Random Light by Bertjan Pot for moooi. These are not especially expensive products, nor are they products that in all honesty are likely to increase greatly in monetary value.

They are, however, every day items that you would use and interact with, without even necessarily noticing them. And because of this they are items with which you develop a bond and which through their function and familiarity become part of your identity and as such something that you want to pass on the next generation, just as much as your Rolex watch, Mont Blanc Pen or Gangsta Lean record storage units. That’s the sentimentality that Peters’ means and that has nothing to do with the Bouroullec’s or Philippe Starck, rather us. The designers just make the relationship possible. (For more on Philippe Starck’s own assesment of his role in such check out our (smow)tube video)

214 from Thonet, also an heirloom if looked after properly

And the wonderful part is that because they are well made, high quality  products whose development was painstakingly undertaken and in many cases where whole new production processes had to be developed just to create the goods – you can pass them on. And your kids will also be able to pass them on. And their kids. And theirs … ad infinitum.

And that without lumbering the future generations with an unpayable debt.

Designer clothing is all about the designers name, art is all about the artists name, designer furniture, however, is about products created to fulfill a function. OK one or the other designer can afford to buy a couple of pair of shoes and is occasionally photographed at a star-studded party.

But the designers name isn’t just the brand much more it is the guarantee of quality.

And so we say a hearty yes to “Heirloom Design” but lets not call it such, the PR monkeys take up enough of our time, lets call it simply “designer furniture“