One of the stand-out pieces at Maison & Objet for me was Doreen Westphal’s concrete lace curtain. Not only visually stunning, it plays with our conception of gravity, delicately suspending something we perceive to be very heavy in mid-air.
Editor’s note: Please welcome our new Editor at Large, Katie Treggiden. She’ll be globetrotting for Design Milk, so keep an eye out for Katie — coming to a trade show near you… You might remember her amazing London Design Festival coverage last year. Learn more about Katie on our About page.
Maison & Objet is the first big design trade show of the year, and so traditionally sees a lot of new launches and new trends. I went over to Paris to check it out. My first impressions, somewhat hampered by a full cloakroom, were “huge and hot”! It’s a massive and diverse show with something for everyone – and with a very effective heating system!
Having checked in to a beautiful and bijou airbnb apartment right in the center of Paris (above), had some food – une assiette mixte, naturellement – and some sleep, I was a woman with a plan; ready, willing and able to take on Maison.
IDSwest is an annual four-day event that has earned its place as one of Canada’s top design shows, with its focus on local West Coast talent. The show featured the best of interior, industrial, furniture and lighting designers as well as showcasing work by students and recent graduates. This year also featured talks by creative director of Bocci, Omer Arbel, lighting designer Jeremy Cole, and a keynote by the legendary Ross Lovegrove (DM Interview to follow!)
Aaron De Simone covered IDSwest 2011 for Design Milk. Aaron founded and curates I HEART LUXE, a weekly newsletter, that covers design, fashion, lifestyle and travel.
Here are some of the highlights of the show…
Emily Carr student Sarah Péloquin and an IDSwest Future Master focuses on blending art and function and her mathematics-inspired Geodesic Ceramics shows her excellent potential.
This is one of the London Design Festival events I wish I had been able to attend this year.
Outline Editions invited award-winning graphic artist Noma Bar to create an interactive exhibition and installation during LDF. For the event, appropriately named Cut It Out, he made an interactive art-making machine. The machine is basically a Heath Robinson-esque embossing device in which visitors will feed paper and other material that become cut-out Noma Bar artwork. The artwork will be signed and numbered by the artist as part of a limited edition series. Oh, did I mention the machine looks like the giant dog from one of Noma Bar’s prints?
Based in the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, Shoreditch, Tent London is the unofficial HQ for East London’s Design Festival. The antithesis of the V&A (the official LDF “hub”), this is often the place to spot emerging trends and new talent. Here are the best bits…
1. Penelope Jordan’s three-dimensional textile art draws you in for a closer look.
Pop-up shops are popping up all over London Design Festival; here are three of this year’s best pop-up shops:
Design and architecture magazine Dezeen have created Dezeen Space and taken up residence at 54 Rivington Street for a month (September 17-October 16) and during the Frieze Art Fair.
Dezeen describes the space as “a multi-functional, experimental space, hosting a pop-up gallery, store, video studio and micro-event space.” Together with launching their first book, Dezeen Book of Ideas, will be handing over a 1m x 1m exhibition space to a different designer each day and documenting the work on show using a combination of photography, video and audio.
While in Denmark for Copenhagen Design Week, our correspondent Susan Serra, CKD of Bornholm Kitchen went to a small exhibition from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture called One Chair A Week. For this challenge, students were given materials each week to create one chair. Here’s a sampling of some of our favorites:
This is a special report from our super world-traveling friend Susan Serra, CKD from Bornholm Kitchen and author of thekitchendesigner.org.
Copenhagen Design Week, a collection of design events, talks, and exhibitions all over Copenhagen,was held September 1-6th, with the theme “Think Human.” Think Human is an expression of today, yet an old Danish design philosophy that has its roots in human-friendly solutions to product development. Code 11, an exhibition of (primarily) innovative Scandinavian interior design products states its priorities as: “design of high quality, peculiar ideas and crooked thoughts.” In this case, crooked = AMAZING!
The 6th Festival des Architectures Vives (Festival of Lively Architecture) was held through June 19, 2011. This year, 11 teams were selected from over 120 applications to create an architectural installation among the urban courtyards of private mansions in the center of Montpellier City.
The Pavillion D’Exposition was created by Guillame Girod of France.
It’s Design Milk’s 5th birthday today!
Once again, for your viewing pleasure: llamas in party hats.
