POP 281 Tuesday 4 May 2010

Today’s Pop is Laura who is back, for your pleasure, with more tales from the Salone de Mobile in Milan.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Five full days just wasn’t enough to see the hundreds of exhibits by designers, manufacturers and brands at the Salone de Mobile. Thankfully, quantity did not mean quality was diminished – quite the opposite, with young designers and established brands both pulling out all the stops. There was more of a leaning towards (no real surprise here) commerciability than usual with products being marketed as affordable, economical and, in some cases, available for immediate purchase. Creative innovations were plentiful too and everything from man-made clouds (Toshiba) to robot lights (Ingo Maurer) provided some real spellbinding moments. Design for 2010 is about seamless, quality manufacturing (craft or mass), efficiency of design and beautiful materials. Get into lighting, watch-out for the Norwegians, you cant have enough wood.

 

 

 

 

Here is my top ten:

 

 

 

- Aldo Bakker’s ‘Copper Collection’ from Thomas Eyck was just stunningly made. No-one does contemporary craft better than Mr Eyck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

- The Join collection of graphic screens by design duo BCXSY is made by a Tategu master in Japan.

 

 

 

 

 

-  Michaël Verheyden is a new name. His ‘Coupe’ collection for When Objects Work are each made by specialists in wood, leather, stone.

 

 

 

 

 

-  ECAL provided the best student exhibition (again). Linn Kandel’s ‘Pylone’ tables are representative of the commercial-cum-beautiful pieces on show there.

 

 

 

 

-  ‘Wonderlamp’ at Dilmos by Studio Job and Pieke Bergmans really wowed us. This was a great, unexpected, collaboration.

 

 

 

 

 

-  Every year I think I will have had enough of Swarovski’s Crystal Palace but every year I’m proven wrong. Yves Béhar’s ‘Amplify’ was great in its modesty, ‘Sparks’ by Gwenaël Nicolas was great for the opposite reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

-  Scholten & Baijings are the designers of the moment (well, I think so). Along with some beautiful products at Established & Sons, their ‘Paper Table’ collection was a successful articulation of the aesthetic we’ve come to love.

 

 

 

 

 

- Magis won the award for best big brand show. They teamed up with a massive roster of superstar designers. ‘Cyborg’ by Marcel Wanders was just one of the winning designs.

 

 

 

 

 

-  Martino Gamper’s first production design was a stunner; the ‘Sessel’ chair for Established & Sons.

 

 

 

 

-  Carolina Wilcke is a young designer high on our list of one’s to watch. Her graduation work for Design Academy Eindhoven ‘Tafelgenoten’ featured functional tableware.

 

 

 

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