One night in Brooklyn
Be aware, that if you go and meet a friend in his Brooklyn studio late at night for a chat & drink, you might end up spending the whole night working with him on the re-design of a project that needs to be put into the MoMa for a press preview the following morning. This happened to me when I visited my dear friend Adam last night in his studio. When I arrived he was about to assemble an adjustable table for an artist performance in MoMa’s PS1 museum – but it soon became clear that it just did not work the way he thought it would. So we spent literally the whole night completely re-designing this piece and just managed in time to load it onto the truck and deliver it one hour before the press preview started. The curator wasn’t as delighted as we were, but despite being in a sleepwalking mode today, Adam and I are very proud to have managed to get this done within such a short time. And – actually it was a way more memorable and bonding experience than just hanging out, chatting & drinking… in fact I should consider spending my nights like this more often!
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Book Publication @ Corraini
I am very delighted to announce the publication of my first book! In collaboration with the wonderful Italian publishing company Corraini, Diego Paccagnella (from Lago) and I have managed just in time to finish the book “Lago Appartamento – A Living Show Room”, which was presented last week during the Milan Design Week in the Corraini HQ in Zona Tortona.
The 160 page book features not only a break down of new concepts for showing & selling design products in the newly developed Lago Appartamentos, but also a big number of interviews that I conducted: Various interesting people from the design world are having their say about the paradigm change that we are currently facing and point out the values that are important from their point of view.
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Milan Madness 2010
Allora, finally my exhibits are on their way to Milan and I will follow them this coming Monday, moving into the new Lago Appartamento in Via Brera 30 for the duration of the Milan Design Week (showing & working for Lago). I have just checked some of the countless exhibitions online and stumbled upon this impossible map which shows the vast number of exhibitions that are presented as part of the Interni off-shows in town.
Particularly from my point of view as a blogger, who will report from the festival for the design blog Core77, I feel that the sheer size of the festival is getting out of control. When everybody and their grandmother think that they have to be present in the world’s hugest international design event, it leads not only to the downfall of the festival’s manageability, but also to a constant reduction of the overall quality! Maybe it is time to remember the phrase “Small is Beautiful” ?!
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The majority of independent artists or designers who work in their own studio, usually get cold feet (and hands and noses and…) once the leaves have fallen from the trees. Then they either enter a kind of hibernation mode, only visiting their studio as less as possible until spring time, or they are surrounded by energy wasting electronic heaters, wearing gloves, scarfs and ice bear furs while working.
But now there is another solution! I have discovered it just recently and it does not only keep you warm but also makes you happy and enhances your fitness. And all this for just a single payment of twenty quit: Get a trampoline! Since I have it in my studio, I am not just able to fight the cold in a fun way, but can also save the gym since jumping around on one of those little bouncy tools is even recommended by the NASA – so I even prepare for space travel. Can you say that about your electrical heater? So, turn it off (gives you dry skin anyway), start to bounce and get hot & happy!
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Good Design™ Award for Huggy
I am delighted to announce that the armchair Huggy, which I designed for the furniture company Lago, was awarded with the prestigious Good Design Award in the Chicago Athenaeum last week!
Founded in Chicago in 1950 by architects Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., GOOD DESIGN bestows international recognition upon the world’s most prominent designers and manufacturers for advancing new, visionary, and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design.
A big THANK YOU to the jury!
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Your Vote Counts!
Two Shoot the Stylist! products got nominated for the People’s Design Award at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York – many thanks! But now it is time to vote for them, and therefore I need your help! Please vote for Huggy and Punch’n'Cuddle before 6:00 p.m. EST on October 20, 2009 by following the links. The winner will be announced live at the National Design Awards gala in New York City on October 22. So, fingers crossed and thanks a lot for your support!
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Sunny Side Up!
The coming weekend (5.-7. September) sees the launch of our surrealistic fried egg boat at the Venice Art Biennale where in the guise of giant houseflies we will cruise the canals and transform reality. With Sunny Side Up! we are promoting positive thinking and (metaphorically) proof that it is indeed a wonderful thing to just “ride the waves” and hook up with perfect strangers in beautifully surreal situations (after all, what else can an ordinary house fly do but create a buzz).
The boat will be launched on Saturday, 5. September on the Venice Arsenal around 11:00. So if you are lucky enough to be in Venice and up for a surreal buzz, come and have a look – the yoke’s on you – join us for a ride on the “Flied Egg Boat”!
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WannaBee?
Wanna be a bee? Our beloved honeybee is on the brink of extinction! Come to this year’s Village Fete at the Victoria and Albert Museum and take on the role of a honeybee: Wear a fancy bee-poncho & kaleidoscope glasses and collect pollen & defeat mites! Win honey jars filled with seeds of bee attracting flowers for guerilla gardening and bee shelters to help our little honey making friends to survive. Bzzzzzzzzzz!
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Punch’n'Cuddle at Bubble London
The Kids Trade Show Bubble have invited us to partner with them at their show, happening next week in the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. The event will run on June 21st and 22nd. Having just had delivered our first production samples of Punch’n'Cuddle, we are looking forward to some jolly days full of playful anarchy.
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During Milan Design Week 2009, working for Core77, I sought to create a “Post Futurist Manifesto” through dialogues with some of the leading thinkers in the world of design. Interviewing designers, producers, publishers, gallery owners and sociologists, the dialogues centered around the new values that designers (and the design industry) should address, and the new approaches they ought to take in order to confront the paradigm-shifts that we are currently facing. Here’s the point of departure:
100 years ago the futuristic manifesto was announced in Italy–to express the spirit of the era, break with all the conventions of the 19th century and replace them with new values. We all know that the futurism of the 20th century went terribly wrong at one point, and eventually ended in fascism. However, it is important to understand that initially it was all about liberation and freedom–aesthetically, politically and socially.
100 years later, the world is in collapse. The futurism of the 20th century has reached its end, and it is well time to create a post-futurist manifesto that seeks to define the true nature of the 21st century, establishing a new value system to replace the ruins of the old.
Check out all the dialogues below or have a look at all posts in one place, including interviews with conceptual artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, ex-designer Marti Guixe, publisher Sven Ehmann, and many more.
Michelangelo Pistoletto Founding member of the Arte Povera Movement
Emma Firmin Co-Founder and Editor of DAMn Magazine
Marti Guixe Ex-Designer
Francesco Morace President of Future Concept Lab
Alice Wang Designer
Sven Ehmann Creative Director of Die Gestalten Publishers
Barbara Bondi & Marco Raino brh+ Architects of TURN
Marco Bettiol Researcher at the Venice International University
Snippets Three Main Ingredients
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