Blog:Proleno

From Australian designer Marc Pascal comes the Orchid Light, a feature pendant/table/floor-standing light.

Inspired by sensuous orchid flowers, each flower is hand dyed sometimes up to three different times, layering the colours in surprising and unexpected ways. Each light is made to order in any colour combination you choose!

More details can be found at Marc’s website.

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Ross Lovegrove has designed a watch for Issey Miyake. The Hu is made of titanium and silicon, and features a face that is easier to read when tilted 25 degrees to the right.

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Former Dwell editor, Virginia Gardiner, is an industrial designer at Design London Imperial College, where she is developing and promoting her plumbing-free toilet, the Gardiner CH4.

“In America, we have a flush-and-forget mentality,” she points out. But 2.6 billion people in the world lack any form of functional toilet, and humans create an average of two pounds of excretion per person per day.

In her video, Virginia shares the ins and outs of her low-cost, low-tech concept for a waterless toilet system. She reviews some new ideas for enabling better sanitation in even the most remote areas of the world, and breaks down the details on turning human waste into a high-value commodity.

It’s worth a look.

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Up-coming designer Zoe Catherine Kendall will collaborate with leading jewellery shop in London – Kabiri to create ‘A Window into Wearable Art’, as part of London Jewellery Week. Zoe gained entry to LJW after winning Coutts New Jewellers Award.

The dynamic window exhibition will showcase Kendall’s unique style of unisex art-jewellery alongside other cutting edge jewellery designers to watch in ’09. Ted Pearce of Team Mega Mix will be collaborating on an exclusive illustration for the exhibition. The exhibition will run the length of London Jewellery Week – 8th June to 14th June 2009.

Expect the unexpected as precursory pieces to Zoe’s follow-up collection ‘Dead Deep’ are exclusively launched. Think dominant and destructive nature, terrifying monsters of the deep sea, earthly beasts, insects and more. With a fine silver shark’s jaw submerged within an aquarium forming the centre-piece, this spectacle is set to surprise and shock, as Zoe reveals her creative motivations to challenge and create controversy.

Central Saint Martin’s graduate, Zoe Catherine Kendall, creates men’s & women’s jewellery collections that stand apart from the majority by deliberately challenging accepted ideas of what fashion jewellery should be, and in doing so creating new concepts of desirability for the wearer. Her aspiration is to merge the disciplines and alter the perceptions of what is considered jewellery and what is considered art still further. She has become known for her trademark use of glass eyes which peer out from sculptural silver jewellery, surprising onlookers. Each piece is hand made by Zoe, and is either one-off or limited edition.

Enter her beguiling world if you dare… it’s jewellery to die for!

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Super Contemporary is the spirit of London design, past, present and future. This exhibition, running from 3 June – 4 October 2009 at London’s Design Museum, celebrates and examines the creative magnetism of London and its enduring reputation as the heart of contemporary design. The Design Museum has joined forces with Beefeater 24 to showcase 15 new commissions from London’s most dynamic creative’s, and as a group they demonstrate the diverse approaches to design in London.

Asked what they would give back to London, the 15 commissions show imagination, pragmatism and vision. David Adjaye, Industrial Facility and Thomas Heatherwick take key features of the London streetscape, the bus stop, the telephone box and the lamp post respectively, and re-imagine their design possibilities aesthetically and practically. El Ultimo Grito, working with Urban Salon, will reinvigorate the design of an enduring visual icon, Nelson’s Column. Ron Arad will be re-calling the Hayward’s Neon Tower in a new film. Paul Smith, BarberOsgerby, Tom Dixon, Paul Cocksedge and Neville Brody will address some of London’s most ubiquitous issues – litter, noise, pollution, rain and surveillance, respectively, and offer ingenious and thought provoking designs. Wayne Hemingway is designing an outlet to help students and young creative entrepreneurs follow in his footsteps, Nigel Coates takes on Battersea Power Station, Ross Phillips will mix-and-match the general public with a series of interactive video pods and Kit Grover, inspired by an age old lucky charm, spins a twist on London’s heritage and turns a folk-law into a pin brooch.

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Israeli designer Arik Ben Simhon, one of the most exciting talents to emerge from Tel Aviv in recent years, will be presenting a new collection of upholstery and furniture pieces during Milan Design Week in April 2009. The designs will form part of Superstudio’s concept “Temporary Museum for New Design” and will be his second presentation at Zona Tortona, following a successful inauguration in 2008.

The collection will draw inspiration from the world of sport with upholstery shapes referencing the protective sportswear & pads used in hockey and skateboarding as well as polished tubular stainless steel structures inspired by gym equipment.

Ben Simhon’s informal style is influenced by sportswear and high performance clothing such as revotes, drawstrings and graphic logos with a resulting typology that is both humanistic and timeless. This is a futuristic collection which will challenge our perception of furniture design as well as taking a fresh and witty look at classical upholstery techniques.

Arik comments:

“For the new collection I started by looking at 1930′s movement photography and juxtaposed this with fashion. Sport was pivotal in fashion since the 70′s with functional high performance sport clothing moving from the sport hall and streets to high fashion context. I wanted to capture this with furniture that is made to the highest quality but that maintains a cool informal edge…”

The collection includes sofas, easy chairs and occasional seats as well as more obscure items such as a rocking chair, child’s high chair, hammock and a punching bag!

Arik Ben Simhon is known for bold design pieces which bear reference to fashion and culture but do not follow fashion or fads. He says:

“In uncertain times I hope to evoke positive emotion and give people a piece of furniture which they will want to live with for years, an “investment piece” both from the practical aspect but also the emotional. In my work there is memory and humour and I am drawn to comfortable, cocoon-like shapes that mould to the body.”

Milan Design Week, Zona Tortona, 22-27 April 2009.

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The London Design Museum and Beefeater 24 present Super Contemporary, running from 3 June – 4 October 2009 and celebrating visionary design from London’s creative mavericks.

Super Contemporary is the spirit of London design, past, present and future. The exhibition celebrates and examines the creative magnetism of London and its enduring reputation as a beacon of design. The Design Museum has joined forces with Beefeater 24 to showcase 12 new commissions from London’s most dynamic
creatives to explore what it is that attracts the world’s leading designers to study, work and live in the city.

The 12 commissions from London’s future stars and its current elite, including fashion designer Paul Smith, architect Thomas Heatherwick and product designer Ron Arad, form the centre of the exhibition. Their brief was to give something back to the metropolis in which they have made their name, and their designs, to be revealed in the exhibition, reflect acute and varied observations on London life.

A unique collection of personal maps will also be on show, giving a rare peek into London’s creative networks and what excites and drives them. A media-rich timeline, beginning in the 1960s and charting London’s defining creative moments in architecture, fashion, product design and communication will tell of pivotal events and key figures such as the Lloyds of London building by Richard Rogers, the first ZX80 Sinclair personal computer and Katherine Hamnett’s ‘58% Don’t Want Pershing!’ t-shirt, alongside the schools, exhibitions and cultural events that have
shaped London into one of the most creative centres of the world.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum comments, “There is no London style, it’s the city in which designers can be themselves. It’s where art and fashion, architecture and design mix with combustible results. And this is a moment to look
at what makes London special, and what lies in store”.

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Quite unexpectedly, a new resistance movement – “Save the light bulb!” – saw the light of the day at the FutureDesignDays Light Now conference 2009. The speakers – Ingo Maurer, Paul Cocksedge and Moritz Waldemeyer, along with the panel, consisting of Monica Förster, Sandra Edberg and Rikard Eduards – and a very enthusiastic audience defended the incandescent light bulb, which is now threatened with extinction. As Ingo Maurer said about the ugly low-energy bulbs: ”Nice engineering, terrible light”.

What happens when light interacts with other materials? What happens when it passes through crystals, or gases, or liquids? What happens when a light source moves at speed, or is viewed in a mirror? These are the questions that inspire three of the most talented and pioneering lighting innovators of our time: Ingo Maurer, Paul Cocksedge and Moritz Waldemeyer. Each is more than a mere designer: their work crosses boundaries to embrace science, art, culture and business. None of these maestros is ever content simply to design another light fixture – they see each project as a chance to manipulate light in a new way, or discover a new property of this most mysterious of raw materials. Maurer, Cocksedge and Waldemeyer are true magicians of light, but they are also prophets, pointing to how lighting design will change in the future. At FutureDesignDays Light Now 2009, they discussed the latest trends, techniques and technologies that will affect the spaces we live and work in for years to come.

It goes without saying that climatic influence and sustainability gave rise to discussions at this year’s Light Now conference, as well as last year. But the challenging, the playful and the thought-provoking lighting design is definitely here to stay – of which moderator Marcus Fairs showed the audience some telling examples in his introduction; such as Pieke Bergman’s handcrafted crystal pieces ”Light Blubs”, Bruce Munro’s exterior installation ”Field of Light” and Peter Coffin’s UFO project. A very inspirational start of the conference, before the ”Poet of Light”, Ingo Maurer, took the stage.

“The incandescent light bulb; my first love”.

The audience was full of expectation to meet Ingo Maurer, who visited Stockholm for the first time, giving only his fourth speech throughout his whole career. Ingo Maurer took them back to childhood and day-dreaming; he often used to lie down in the grass, watching the sunlight shining through the crowns of the trees or being reflected in the water. The fascination of natural light and how it affects people is still an important driving force in his daily work. ”It is not the shape of anything that makes us feel good – or bad: it’s the light”, said Ingo Maurer with emphasis.

Thereof his love of the incandescent light bulb, now “living on borrowed time”. ”The traditional light bulb was my first love”, Ingo Maurer said – with a smile, but undoubtedly being serious.

To Maurer, the incandescent light bulb stands for something existential and deeply human; to ban it would be devastating. Maurer had, however, a trump card: A new prototype of a modern light bulb ”for our souls and well-being” has taken shape in his head.

On the whole, 75-year old Ingo Maurer would like to see more “sane insanity” on the design scene of today, which according to him has stagnated in its expression. To get inspiration he likes to visit the Burning Man in Nevada, USA. ”I wasn’t sure that I would survive my first visit there”, said our greatest lighting designer with a laugh, and left the stage.

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Newton, the coffee table, has been awarded The Nordic Design Prize during Stockholm Furniture Fair. Designers are Staffan Holm & Dan Sunaga. The table is produced by Karl Andersson & Söner.

Laminated wood is one of the basic materials used in the furniture industry. The Nordic Design prize for wooden furniture made by compressure molding was founded in 1983 with the aim of increasing the interest for this technique. The contest is open to designers and producers in all Nordic countries. The Nordic Design Prize contest is one of the most highly esteemed furniture awards in the Nordic countries and the winning designer is awarded a scholarship of SEK50,000. The prize was presented for the 27^th time at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.

Newton’s fascinating shape derives from the natural effect of the two ring’s edges being forced towards the centre. The striking effect and the beauty of the flowing lines is the hallmark of Newton, the coffee table.

The jury commented, “With an open mind, a great deal of fantasy and knowledge of modern manufacturing techniques, the designers Dan Sunaga and Staffan Holm have created an extraordinary piece of furniture. By implementing an ingenious way to cut a pressure laminated material they have minimized material waste. This piece of furniture is unique in its form and has a strong graphical identity”.

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The winners of the 2008 International Design Awards competition have been named. IDA exists to celebrate the World’s most visionary designers, discover new and emerging talent, and promote the appreciation of design worldwide.

Architects and designers of interiors, fashion, products, and graphics submitted over 1000 entries from 52 countries throughout the World, proving IDA’s global emphasis.

Among the many awarded categories, these are the winners of the Emerging Student Product Designer of the Year 2008:

1st Place: ‘Loft’ Chair by Shelly Shelly

Handscultped, ‘Loft’ is a tangible example of the disappearing art of craftmanship in furniture-making: A solid walnut lounge chair with broad planar surfaces extending and merging into lean sinewed arms. The complex joinery is seamlessly fused, showcasing the character and structural qualities of the walnut.

2nd Place: ‘Chopstick/Steamer Stool’ by Ryan Horsman, Jason Dembski, Mary-Ann Ray, Robert Mangurian

The goal of this particular project, taking cues from Chinese culture and its ability to make excess/waste useful, was to re-use everyday Chinese items in new ways. The Chopstick/Steamer Stool takes traditional bamboo steamers, thousands of disposable chopsticks and simple cushioning material, and combines them into a piece of furniture. The stool uses six bamboo steamers stacked vertically and bound. Peaking out of the top steamer are thousands of disposable chopsticks, accumulated in less than a year by a ‘one child policy’ family, packed together and standing on end. Serving as a middleman between the steamers and the chopsticks is a basic cushion. Although foam is ideal, the cushion could be made of anything from an old rickshaw seat to a pile of rags. The cushion allows the chopsticks to move independently under pressure and prevents them from falling through the steamer racks. When combined in this way, these fundamental Chinese items form a deceptively comfortable stool that can reasonably be made without spending a single yuan.

3rd Place: ‘Crossed Fingers’ by Hongtao Zhou, Eva Haviarova, Rado Gazo, Paul Rick

The ‘Crossed Fingers’ is a simple, multifunctional and sustainable design to address the mobility of seating and racking, which is handy and flexible for usage and transportation. It is a design from two renewable, disposable and biodegradable materials: wood and fibre, manufactured with simple 2D CNC operations in 2 minutes. It is a design of one board with a material efficiency of 90-96% for mass production. Green life cycle, no tools/hardware required for assembly, simple and multifunctional and superior efficiency in material and energy.

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