Danish Modern
Posted on 04/06/10.
Our friends at Collectors Weekly have just drawn our attention to this fascinating interview with Andrew Hollingsworth, author of Danish Modern. Hollingsworth is a Chicago dealer of fine Scandinavian furniture and talks about the roots of Danish Modern design, its evolution, some of its best-known practitioners, and the reason why the chair is such of symbol of the aesthetic. Well worth a read!
“The person who’s considered the grandfather of the style is Kaare Klint. His belief was that form had been perfected throughout history, and that there was no need to reinvent it. He thought that the basic proportions of a chair, for example, had already been refined, and he opposed what some of his European counterparts were trying to do in the Bauhaus movement. Rather than reinventing the chair, he believed we could add modernity to it in terms of line, and then eventually materials, although he was essentially a traditionalist on the materials side of things, too.” While we aren’t particularly big fans of Klint, we like his mantra, and the chair pictured here the Faarborg.
Link: http://bit.ly/cw-hollingsworth
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100 Chairs
Posted on 26/05/10.
For this fantastic project designer Martino Gamper systematically collected discarded chairs from London streets (or more frequently, friends’ homes) over a period of about roughly two years, then spent 100 days to reconfigure the design of each one in an attempt to transform its character and/or the way it functions. He says “I see this as a chance to create a ‘three-dimensional sketchbook’, a set of playful yet thought-provoking designs that, due to the time constraint, are put together with a minimum of analysis.” Inspirational stuff, and sounds like great fun too.
Link: http://www.gampermartino.com
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//2005-2010/
Posted on 26/05/10.
If you didn’t know already we are celebrating our fifth birthday this year. This is just a bit of fun to celebrate.
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Eco cars
Posted on 21/05/10.
Our attention has been drawn to these two prototype designs today; hugely different in form factor but both fascinating in concept.
The YeZ (pronounced “yea-zi”, which is Mandarin for “leaf”) derives its power from the principles of photosynthesis, converting solar energy and CO2 into electricity to power the car.
The Audi A9, also in prototype phase, will be powered by an environmentally-friendly hybrid engine that works conjunction with four in-wheel electric motors. The excitement with this car (apart from the overall look!) is from the windscreen and roof, which are designed to be made from a nano-material that will repair itself if damaged.
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Polaroid SX-70 film
Posted on 17/05/10.
Following on from our portraits of Edwin Land – founder of Polaroid – this is an amazing film by Charles and Ray Eames about the SX-70 Land camera. A folding SLR and the first to use Polaroid’s automatic format integral film, which didn’t need to be separated from its back after being removed from the camera. Incredible.
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Anton Stankowski
Posted on 10/05/10.
Anton Stankowski (June 18, 1906 - December 11, 1998) was a German graphic designer, photographer and painter. He developed an original Theory of Design and pioneered Constructive Graphic Art. His work is noted for straddling the camps of fine and applied arts by synthesising information and creative impulse. He was inspired by the abstract paintings of Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Malevich and Kandinsky. Stankowski advocated graphic design as a field of pictorial creation that requires collaboration with free artists and scientists. Despite producing many unique examples of concrete art and photographics, Stankowski is best known for designing one of our favourite icons, the simple trademark of the Deutsche Bank.
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House in the trees
Posted on 10/05/10.
Martín Fernández de Lema and Nicolás F. Moreno Deutsch have built this amazing house in Mar Azul, Buenos Aires. They weren’t allowed by law to remove any trees on the site, so instead of relocating, they built the house around the trees. The result is a beautiful combination of wood, concrete, space, and nature.
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