1.3 Chair wins Designs of the Year, Furniture Award 2012

We were honoured to join Kihyun Kim at the Design Museum last night for the 5th annual Designs of the Year Awards, especially as he walked off with the award in the Furniture category. 

Inspired by the British WWII wooden bomber, the De Havilland Mosquito, Kihyun developed an innovative chair design in balsa wood and lime veneer. Weighing an incredible 1.28Kg, Kihyun presented it as his graduation project from the RCA in 2011.

A strong category in the awards, 1.3 Chair was nominated alongside Barber Osgerby's Tip Ton chair for Vitra, Stefan Diez Chassis chair for Wilkhahn, Jasper Morrison's Lightwood chair for Maruni and the Bouroullec brothers two nominations in this category (the Osso chair for Mattiazzi and Textile Field) amongst others.

The overall award for Design of the Year was presented to Barber Osgerby for their 2012 Olympic Torch. The full list of winners can be found on the Design Museum website here.

 

Zeitraum have produced a solid wood version of 1.3 Chair in ash, oak or walnut and presented it at Salone del Mobile in Milan last week with a companion bar stool and low stool. 

The Designs of the Year show continues until 4th July at the Design Museum but you will also be able to see the 1.3 Collection at Clerkenwell Design Week in May.

#Milan12

Our trip to Milan was shorter than usual this year, in no small part thanks to the lack of hotel space (seriously, Milan Chamber of Commerce, you need to sort that out) so we lived vicariously through our Twitter timeline. Below is a selection of our favourite #Milan12 tweets from some of our favourite Tweeters. If you're not already following them you should be!

 

http://bit.ly/HUUaEv

 

http://bit.ly/HZoj7V

http://bit.ly/HXkxie

And we end with some good advice for visitors and exhibitors alike.....

You might call it lazy blogging on our part, we call it Milan 2012 in a #nutshell.

Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter @RelayDesign and we have created a Facebook album of our own highlights. See you next year 9th -14th April for #Milan13

Zeitraum News 2012 - Part 2 The Milan Issue

Zeitraum unleashed their 2012 Collection at IMM Cologne in January, but kept a few pieces under wraps. Until now that is.

The 1.3 COLLECTION by RCA graduate Kihyun Kim is a progression on the superlight chair he first presented as part of his graduation work at RCA SHOW 2011. The project involved extensive research into lightweight technology and ecology. First presented in fast-growing balsa wood and lime veneer, this unpretentious little chair weighed in at less than 1.3Kg (hence the name!). Reaction was immediate, and several parties expressed an interest in developing the product. 

Zeitraum have worked closely with Kihyun Kim to develop 1.3 Chair into a family of products suitable for contract use and the result is 1.3 COLLECTION - chair, bar stool and low stool. For commercial production it was decided to produce the frame in solid oak or walnut, as balsa can be unpredictable.

The contours of the back and pillow-like seat appear wafer-thin yet inviting. The modest proportions make it eminently suitable for spaces where space is at a premium - city centre restaurants and cafes, for instance. 

1.3 Chair has been nominated for the Designs of the Year 2012 Award at the Design Museum, where it can be seen until 4th July. Winners will be announced on 24th April. Fingers crossed!

Also new for Milan is FRIDAY from regular collaborators Formstelle. Designed with that TGIF feeling very much in mind, FRIDAY is a decadent mix of soft, supple leather, down filled cushions and tactile wood.

Sturdy butt leather acts as a sling for the seat and back cushions within the wooden frame. Practicalities have been considered and the seat and back cushions are fastened to each other with a discrete zip so the form is not disturbed. Sit back, relax and enjoy!

These new products along with KONTUR, TURNTABLE, PLAISIR, NOON 3 and NOON 3 SMALL, TWIST STONE, STRIP and MORPH POUF, launched at IMM Cologne, all adhere to the Zeitraum ethos of honesty, character and substance and make the collection stronger than ever.

Cory Arcangel for Studio Voltaire

New York artist Cory Arcangel (who had an installation at The Curve gallery in the Barbican in 2011) has created a limited edition screen print for Studio Voltaire in south London.

Taking a page torn from an art history book featuring one of Mondrian's Lozenge painting, which were intended to be hung in a diamond format, Arcangel has turned the page back 45°, thus reinstating the traditional square format.

Part of a series of works by artists such as Phyllida Barlow and Ryan Gander to make art affordable, the price will rise as the edition sells out. The first 50 prints are priced at £50, but the price will then start to rise (there are 150 prints in the edition). We suggest you get in early and place your orders here and support a wonderful arts charity at the same time. 

Zeitraum at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan

Stockholm 2012: Exploring the City

As always there was so much to see and do outside of the Fair, as part of the umbrella Stockholm Design Week, there was little time to worry about the cold. You just had to get on with it.

Squeezing through hoarding, stepping over cables and skirting around cement mixers is not the usual way into an exhibition, but that as exactly how you gained entry to Work In Progress, a group show organised by Axel Bjurstrӧm and Jonas Wagell in the building site that will soon become MOOD Stockholm. Designers, some high profile and others on the way up, presented prototypes and finished products with sketches and stories explaining the thought process behind them. Folkform presented some details behind their exquisite Suburban Skyline series of lighting in brass. Matti Klenell exhibited his Lempi everyday glasses for iittala and Note Design Studio showed their barstool Boet, which they designed and produced for the Johan & Nyström coffee shop in Helsinki, for which they designed the interiors. 

Note Design Studio are arguably the designers to have raised their profile most this Design Week. Interior and product designers, the 5 designers behind Note mounted a show entitled Marginal Notes #2. Sketches and ideas scribbled in the margins of their notebooks over the past year were re-examined and brought to life as a way to communicate what makes them tick. Simple shapes, bright colours and punched metal sheets were the order of the day. The wire benches reminiscent of logs on sawbucks were particularly memorable.

Marginal Notes #2 has received a lot of interest in the blogosphere and the word is spreading. If you would like to know a bit more, then check out this interview with Susanna Wåhlin, one fifth of Note, on Wallpaper Style File. (If you listen very carefully you will also hear the correct pronunciation of Ӧrsjӧ!)

In the same area there was a blink and you miss it open studio/exhibition called DOWN. In an underground garage Fredrik Färg and Simon Klenell presented work alongside their studio-mates for one afternoon only. Precision timing was called for, but we just made it!

Form us With Love presented their Form Us With Friends show for the third time, this time on the island of Skeppsholmen, in association with the Architecture museum. New collaborations with 5 companies saw innovative ways to use reconstituted quartz with the Silo vases for Consetino and flat pack furniture for new company One Nordic. 

  

As mentioned in a previous post, "posh flat pack" was a mini trend throughout the week, and the Bento chair can snap together in 4 easy steps, without the need for tools or head-scratching. Obviously inspired by the work of Aalto, Bento chair and table are the first products for One Nordic, which will only be available online. 

Finally, one of the last things we saw before heading for the airport was also one of our favourites. New works by Mats Theselius were shown at the Sebastian Schild gallery, including a series of wood and copper lighting and a new chair produced by Kӓllemo. The chair comes with an interesting history. After visiting the church of Sankt Petri i Klippan designed by Sigurd Lewerentz, Mats noticed the copper roof had been replaced, so called Kӓllemo with an idea. Using the copper sheets from the roof, Mats created "Hommage á Sigurd Lewerentz", a signed and limited edition. 123 pieces are available, because that's how many copper sheets were used on the original roof.

Stockholm Furniture Fair Highlights

Apart from Mitab and Ӧrsjӧ, which were of course major highlights of the Fair, there were plenty of other new designs vying for your attention.

David Design, originally founded by David Carlson, all but fell off the design scene in recent years, but is back, back, back with new investment and a new Atelier collection. The Shelf Lamp by Andreas Engesvik was a real gem, with squat dimensions that reminded us of the famous Eclisse by Vico Magistretti for Artemide. A naked light bulb on one side and a simple brass disc on the other providing glare protection, it was simplicity itself in concept and use of materials.

There seemed to be a micro-trend for "posh flat pack". Sweden is inexorably linked with flatpack furniture, so it is understandable they should try to elevate it to something desirable, as opposed to a chore. Heritage brand Klong presented the Horizon Collection, new (and some existing) products that can be delivered flat or assembled as the customer requests.  Ania Pauser's Knopp pendant is one of the first pieces designed specifically for the Horizon Collection, with existing products like the Nova chair from Asshoff & Brogård and Signum table from WIS Design also being re-branded part of the collection.  

Gemla was the epitome of the Swedish aesthetic. Vilda was designed by Jonas Bohlin for Restaurant AG and is a traditional bentwood chair in ash and leather seat. Nothing else, apart from a handgrip in soft leather and now with a backrest in leather or a removable leather slip-cover. The Front design superstars designed Collage, a chair and lounge chair based on forms taken from the Gemla archive. Archive tools and processes were also dusted off and combined with contemporary styling to form a....collage. 

Sticking with Gemla for a moment, it was a very pleasant surprise to see Jonas Bohlin's Kvist light in striking cobalt blue. Apparently they were hand-painted by the man himself especially for the occasion.

Photo courtesy of Holloway's of Ludlow

Asplund appear to be on a roll at the moment. Fresh from their win at the 2012 Wallpaper Design Awards for the Tati side tables, they presented the Luc series of cabinets by Broberg & Ridderstrӓle. Different formats in simple wooden finishes with transparent glass tops and a splash of colour on the legs. Daniel Rybakken's mesmerising lights which we first spotted back in April last year at Spazio Rosanna Orlandi are also now available from Asplund.

Colour was a major trend at this years show. Acid yellows and oranges mixed with pale sorbet colours, especially pink. Candy pink was everywhere, especially in combination with soft greys. If you remember the 80's, you'll know exactly what we mean. The other trend was for gloss finishes. Pink and glossy appears to be the future, for now at least. 

Montana

L-R: Stolab, Swedese, String

In the young designer area, Greenhouse, Carlsten Thostrup presented Reel Cabinet and Tie Desk. They say the devil is in the detail and in this instance, it was all about the detail. The sliding doors on Reel moved on large wheels, like a barn door and Tie was held closed by leather lacing wound around two large paper buttons. 

Norwegian based Thomas Jenkins of Studio Jenk presented "All Other Things Being Equal", a series of candlesticks in brass, aluminium and titanium. Each one weighs precisely 200g, but as each metal has a different density, the resulting candlesticks are different sizes.

In Cologne we spotted Domestica by Studio Formafantasma, and just weeks later in Stockholm Bjarke Frederiksen presented the Nordic Nomad Chair. Something in the air perhaps? 

Finally, in our whistle stop tour of the Fair, we were taken with the work of Kristine Five Melvær. Her Light Jars allow you to display your mini treasures, almost like a lab specimen, in beautifully crafted glass. A contemporary form of display cabinets. 

Plaza Magazine obviously agreed, as they awarded Kristine their young designers prize. We're pretty sure we'll see these Light Jars on a stand in the main Fair next year.

The 2012 Mitab Collection is here

2012 is our first full year representing Mitab and it is a delight to kick things off with such a strong collection. Six new products from 5 designers, all with that Mitab edge, shows their commitment to supporting young talent.

Jonas Wagell continues his collaboration with Mitab with a brand new sofa system and new forms for the Montmartre series.

Cumulus is a new sofa for lobbies and restaurants that combines the practical requirements of a contract environment with the more generous and inviting appearance of a domestic sofa. Wagell's distinctive and playful aesthetics (literally) take the edge off the strictures of public area seating. Single, two seater and corner units can be combined in a variety of formats and an extensive selection of fabrics to ensure your Cumulus is as unique as the cloud that gave it it's name. Cirrus pillows optional!   

Jonas also find time to add some new pieces to the Montmartre family. Montmartre Bar keeps the familiar splayed leg and rounded foot of the original table but extends it to a barstool. The turned wooden seat and the beautifully considered footrest make Montmartre Bar extremely comfortable. The corresponding table comes with coat and bag hooks for peace of mind and added comfort.  

You can also have a low stool at 46h cms which would work perfectly with the original Montmartre table.

Joel Karlsson has worked with Mitab for several years now and is fond of archetypes. Simple, unfussy silhouettes that do exactly what it says on the tin. Shadow storage units are a first for Mitab. The Shadow table is perfect for meeting rooms, so it makes sense the storage should come from the same family. In two sizes and available in any colour you like, Shadow will fit seamlessly into any meeting room.

In 2009 Daniel Svahn designed the Mitab stand for the Stockholm Fair via the Stand On Your Own program and in 2012 he was back with his first product designed for Mitab. Quiet Riot clearly references a barricade, a brutal yet effective and functional piece of design. Available in 2 formats, portrait and landscape, with 4 fabric panels per side, Quiet Riot acts as both a room divider and notice board.

Office 4 Ideas, aka o4i are a multidisciplinary design studio based in Stockholm. Risto is their first collaboration with Mitab. The objective for the project was to create a slimline, refined and ultimately comfortable stacking chair for meeting and restaurant environments. There are no visible fixings, allowing for incredibly efficient stacking. A mesh back with upholstered seat and optional removable upholstery are all contained within a small footprint making Risto perfect for modern business. 

Raster is new concept in acoustic panelling. Designed by Asshoff & Brogård and inspired by modern architecture, Raster is a flexible panel in rock wool and recycled aluminium. The perforations in the aluminium are made with CNC and over time standard patterns will be added to the range.

Mitab stand, photo courtesy of Architonic

Mitab will join Ӧrsjӧ and Mitab at Clerkenwell Design Week in May. Don't forget to register for your chance to see the new products in the flesh.