Posts by Niels-Peter

Exhibition- Less and more: the design ethos of Dieter Rams

Less and more: the design ethos of Dieter Rams. More than 500 exhibits on 1000 square meters of exhibition space in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.

An important focus of the exhibition is context, the historical context as well as the design context of Rams’ oeuvre, and an overview of the concepts of 20th century design with a balance of aesthetics and functionality. Among others, work from Hans Gugelot, Peter Raacke and Richard Sapper are on view. The exhibition does not only want to provide an overview of the work of Dieter Rams, but is also devoted to the future of product worlds.

Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.
Until September 5, 2010.

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Lunchbox

San Francisco/New York-based art director/artist Dan Kenneally creates a collection of light-hearted acrylic paintings titled Lunchbox. Nice abstract, almost infographic-like, sandwich paintings communicating volumes though use of complex arrangement of color, and simplification.

What was in your lunchbox today?

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Wire chair

Tokyo based furniture designer Oki Sato designed this wonderful, thin and almost fragile wire chair. The wire chair is a follow up of the cord chair.

The stainless steel legs have a diameter of 12mm and multiple layers of powder coating and hand polishing give the chair a lustrous finish. Due to this finish you can use the chair outdoors as well. Available in three different serene colors a perfect complement for your interior.

Photography by Masayuki Hayashi.

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Heineken Icone Pure

Heineken and French designer ORA-ÏTO teamed up again after previous collaborations. Back in 2002 ORA-ÏTO received the ‘oscar for the best packaging’ for his aluminum Heineken bottle. The outcome of the latest collaboration is a new limited edition set of 100% sustainable aluminum bottles; the Icone Pure.

ORA-ÏTO is the brand name of the designer Ito Morabito. Morabito describes his style as simplexity. He says:

All my designs look very simple, but I can tell you it is very complex to make it happen.

The new bottle is white with a green dotted inscription and featuring the iconic green logo of Heineken on the front and back.

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ECAL

Swiss industrial designer Nicolas le Moigne created ECAL, a stool and side table of fibre cement, a mixture of cement and asbestos cellulose and synthetic fibers. Organically shaped, light of weight and durable, ECAL is perfect as garden furniture, but the stool and side table would look amazing indoor as well.

ECAL was conceived as part of a design contest at the University of Art and Design (ECAL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Photography by Thomas Adank.

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REK coffee table

I love the timeless design of the REK coffee table by Rotterdam-based designer Reinier de Jong, who works on both architectural and product design. The table is a brother of the acclaimed REK bookcase.

By easily sliding out the inner parts, you create extra table surface for guests or just to create some extra storage space.

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Foundation

London-based designer Benjamin Hubert created Foundation, a shelving system inspired by brutalist architecture. The brutalist architecture style flourished from 1950s until 1975 and spawned from the modernist architectural movement.

Just like the characteristic of this style, Foundation has striking repetitive angular geometries. You can also see the influence in the contrast between the industrial materials like the Valchromat shelves (organic coloured wood fibre panels derived from forest waste), the steel metal boxes, and the soft and smooth leather tabs on those boxes.

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USB Clip

The USB clip, designed by Germany based industrial design agency Emamidesign, was recently awarded with a Red Dot award for product design 2010.

The way of reinterpreting the functional principle of a steel paper clip and translated it into the design of a storage medium to make data transfers and archiving easier was highly praised. The clip can be attached easily onto paper documents and can deliver additional information, like for example a multi-media presentation. The slim shaped and light in weight clip comes in several appealing colors.

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Domenica Sport

The start of the Tour de France tomorrow in Rotterdam – The Netherlands is a good occasion to talk about bicycles again.

Based in New York City designer Francesco Bertelli makes wonderful pure, clean, old-fashion bicycles (track bikes and fixed gear only). Every single part is assembled by hand, finished and fine-tuned by Bertelli himself.

“I combine brand new parts with “new old stock” and vintage parts found at flea markets, old bikeshops, collectors and from my trustworthy suppliers.” The result of each project is a unique bicycle you won’t find anywhere else.

I would like to highlight the Domenica Sport. Cool Nitto dropbars on a Belgium made Titan stem, a black Alien track frame, chrome straight fork and silver wheelset. The slick Gran Compe SS White tires and England made swallow Wrights W3SW saddle make this masterpiece complete.

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Circus

Inspired by “the playfulness of the big top” industrial designer Stephen Burks, founder of the New York studio Readymade Projects, created a hand-made shelving system. Burks – considered to be one of the most recognized American industrial designers of his generation – is with his studio responsible for creative direction and industrial design on projects ranging from retail interiors, events, packaging, consumer products and lighting.

The idea is simple; each unit includes up to eight steel, colorful, wired cages that can plugged in easily into the oak surfaces. This makes the shelving unit is easy to (dis-)assemble without any tools.

Circus, manufactured by Mattermade, is available in a 1, 2 or 3 shelves edition.

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