Beyond Couture, Studio Färg and Blanche, Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair

Stockholm Design Week starts Monday February 06, with its key exhibition Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair opening Tuesday 07 till Saturday 11 February. ARTS THREAD previews the highlights.

The most talked about exhibition at last year’s design week was 20 Designers at Biologiska, picked up last year by ARTS THREAD as our one show not to miss. Curated by Fredrik Färg and Emma Marga Blanche, now known as Studio Färg and Blanche, the duo are now producing an installation called Beyond Couture specifically for next week’s fair. It will be a textile exhibition/bar, combining fake nature filled with dressed-up animals and kilt tribes Most of the objects have been specially created by hand in their studio for the exhibition, featuring some 35 seats, 10 tables, 25 lamps and much more. We can’t wait to see it!

In addition, Studio Färg and Blanche are also part of a one day exhibition on February 08 entitled Extra Material, alongside designers Simon Klenell, Vivianne Hedberg Perron, Alexander Lagergren, Sylvain Runberg and Hanna Gradin. Extra Material is about ‘B-sides, extra material, out-takes or bonus material. The creative process often causes a huge amount of material apart from its main product. Material that is worth taking care of.’

Extra Material; In progress to progress, Linnaeus University

During the four days of the exhibition, Linnaeus University will present the work of nine students from different courses at the Schools of Design in Växjö and Kalmar. This year’s title for the booth is In Progress to Progress and the students’ work from Växjö focuses on sustainable development, while the course at Pukeberg (Kalmar) shows works from students of both BA and MA product design students.

Swift, Johanna Stridh, Linnaeus University; Grow, Steneby, The School of Craft and Design

Never Mind the Object #1 from Beckmans College of Design on Vimeo.

Beckmans College of Design, based in Stockholm, is presenting Never Mind the Object. ‘Why should you care about objects? It is not until objects are filled with content and reason that they become meaningful. This exhibition is about ideas which require the observer to dig a little deeper, penetrating the surface. Welcome to the exhibition Never Mind the Object and have a closer look at ten personal projects by the third year students of Product Design, Beckmans College of Design.’

Everyday Tools, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Mumrik, Petra Wester Nordgren; Felia, Anna Jonsson, The Swedish School of Textiles

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, The School of Design will present a unique selection of uplholstered furniture under the theme RÅSTOF and TEKO, VIA University College in Denmark will showcase work from upcoming furniture designers.

Träakademien-Mittuniversitetet

Stockholm Design Week runs February 06-12 and Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair February 07-11 February.

Colleen Ellington/ Lucy Alice Porter/ Sophie Adamson

Interiors UK 2012 showcased the work of this year’s New Design Britain Awards finalists with the winners in each design category being announced on the 23rd of January. Each winner in the four categories (furniture, furnishing accessories, surfaces and fabrics) were awarded a placement within the industry.

Although Colleen Ellington and Lucy Alice Porter didn’t take home first prize in their categories, we were really impressed with their work. Colleen, who graduated from Cleveland College of Art and Design, created some vibrant, luxe surface designs for interiors covered with decorated with animal and figurative motifs. Lucy Alice Porter’s series of owl and squirrel shaped wall decorations were also really eye-catching.

Heriot-Watt University – School of Textiles and Design graduate Sophie Adamson scooped up the top prize in the fabrics category for her Pouffe design. Drawing inspiration from bird feathers, Sophie created a wonderfully thick yarn which incorporated both hand and machine knitting techniques.

Rachel Hagger

Taking home first prize in the Surfaces category was Rachel Hagger who designed hand-printed wallpaper covered with an architectural motif. Drawing inspiration from Cavern Home interiors and Trove wallpapers, Rachel layers the different images to great a busy, bustling cityscape.

James Uren/ Roland Beaven

James Uren was lucky enough to take home both the people’s choice award and the award for best furniture design. James’ Luso Lounger is a modern reinterpretation of the classic Chaise Longue while his Dorso Stool is an investigation into different ways of joining wooden components together using a second material. Roland Beaven was awarded the prize in the furnishing accessories category for his Peaucellier Lamp.

Camilla Barnard

ARTS THREAD and Designersblock teamed up once again to bring you some of the best and brightest emerging design talents, this time at Interiors UK, Birmingham. From our Call for Entries, we selected six unique creatives from the realms of illustration, ceramics, product design and textiles.

University of Brighton 3D Materials Practice BA (Hons) graduate Camilla Barnard was there, displaying her three dimensional illustrations. Using wood, Camilla recreates everyday objects such as telephones, pencils and screwdrivers, all to surprisingly life-like effect.

Camilla explains: ‘I made the objects to trick my classmates. When they were looking for tools I would trick them into picking up the wrong ones. It will annoy them at first but I think it also makes them really appreciate the real thing once they have it.’

Catherine Frere-Smith

Catherine Frere-Smith also joined us to showcase her beautiful prints for interiors and fashion design. The Chelsea College of Art & design graduate also showed her lovely Old Farmhouse collection of hand embroidered fabric birds.

Sarahjane Harrison/Holly Wilson

We were pleased to see so many visitors at the Designersblock Design Village were enjoying sitting on Sarahjane Harrison’s Urbanisation chairs. The Liverpool Hope University Design BSc graduate printed the upholstery with photographs of Liverpool which she took during her investigation into how Chinese culture has affected the city.

If you visited The Local pub in the Design Village then you would have spotted University of Worcester Illustration BA (Hons) graduate Holly Wilson’s brilliant owl illustrations. The incredible amount of detail which goes into Holly’s illustration really impressed us and visitors.

Karin Soderquist/Katy Jennings

Camberwell College of Arts graduate Karin Soderquist had several of her 3D illustrations dotted around the Village while Royal College of Art
Ceramics & Glass MA graduate Katy Jennings had a display full of her ornamental Knitwear Birds. The birds are purposefully chipped during production in order to give each one its own individual ‘personality’.

Camilla Barnard
Catherine Frere-Smith
Sarahjane Harrison
Holly Wilson
Karin Soderquist
Katy Jennings

Urbanisation, Sarahjane Harrison; 3D projects, Karin Soderquist

Design Village also includes all manner of marvellous delights, including B&B installations by Donna Wilson, House of Hackney and Morag Myserscough and Luke Morgan.

B&B Installations: Morag Myserscough and Luke Morgan; Donna Wilson; House of Hackney

Design Village by Designersblock at Interiors UK continues until Wednesday 25 2012.

Rosemary Anrude/ Daniel Schofield/ Stuart Melrose

Following our successful collaboration at the Farmiloe Building during the London Design Festival, ARTS THREAD are once again teaming up with Designersblock to bring you the best emerging graduate and student design work. This time we’re heading up north to Birmingham where we will be taking part in the UK’s interiors trade exhibition Interiors UK – and we’d like you to join us! Visit our Designersblock competition page for further details on how you could be exhibiting your work in front of Britain’s top retailers and buyers.

In the meantime, we preview a selction of talents on show with Designersblock in January in Birmingham.

For this year’s Interiors UK, Designersblock are curating a village complete with local bar (co-hosted by our own Alex Brownless), market stalls and shops where visitors can become fully immersed in the latest furniture, lighting, accessory and lighting designs from the country’s top creatives.

Whilst wandering around the village, visitors will uncover the work of furniture designers such as Sheffield Hallam University graduate Daniel Schofield who will be presenting his ‘Out Kid’ and ‘Slide and Hide’ designs, Kingston University graduate Rosemary Anrude and Exeter School of Arts Stuart Melrose who will be showcasing his new furniture created in collaboration with Corian and Puff & Flock.

POSTextiles/ Patrick Stevenson-Keating

Amongst the textile designers on show, visitors should keep an eye out for the work of the twelve St Martins graduates who have formed the experimental textile collective POSTextiles. Patrick Stevenson-Keating, winner of the Designersblock award for outstanding creative thought at New Designers 2011, will also be in attendance presenting ‘The Quantum Parallelograph’ and his ‘Home Particle Accelorator’ alongside some new work.

House of Hackney/ Donna Wilson

In addition, Designersblock have also commissioned three leading contemporary designers to create their own interpretation of the classic British Bed & Breakfast. We can’t wait to see the incredible interior spaces which House Of Hackney, Donna Wilson and Studio Myerscough will come up with!

Interiors UK runs from 22 – 25 January 2012 at the NEC, Birmingham.
For opening times and further details visit the Interiors UK website.
To apply for our Designersblock competition, visit our ARTS THREAD Opportunities page.

Bless you, Rémi Bouhaniche, Les Coffrets aux Secrets

The exhibition includes work by designers such as Patrick Nadeau, Les Héritiers, Sam Baron, Pascal Mourgue and USIN-e (Rémi Bouhaniche et Amaury Poudray), as well as pieces by students from ESAD Saint-Etienne and upcoming talents at Fabrica, the Benetton Group’s research studio.

Rémi Bouhaniche, half of the studio USIN-e has designed Bless you in brass and stainless steel, manufactured by Magppie. Bless you is ‘a primitive and massive object, a 40 cm height and 22 cm width jar created by the accumulation of 1300 small holy statues collected in India. In this way, more that 1000 small stories are put together. The opening in the top embraces the user’s arm when he/she puts the secret inside. The object becomes the extension of the body and soul. This box is the carrier of a universal message, adressed to the world like a prayer ending by the words: Bless you.’

Patrick Nadeau, Les Coffrets aux Secrets

Au bonheur retrouvé, Fabien Barrero-Carsene, Les Coffrets aux Secrets

Sam Baron; Hall, Lizé Julien, Les Coffrets aux Secrets

Les Héritiers, Les Coffrets aux Secrets

Pascal Mourgue; Coffret Piano, Quentin Simonin, Les Coffrets aux Secret

Les Coffrets aux Secrets continues at Granville Gallery, 23 rue du départ, Montparnasse until January 02 2012.

Image credits: photography courtesy Granville Gallery, except Sam Baron © Gustavo Millon & Pascal Mourgue © Katrin Bremermann.

Patrick Nadeau
Fabien Barrero-Carsenet
Sam Baron

Gravity Stool, Jolan van der Weil / Gousset, Raphaëlle Bonamy

A fresh crop of designers will be unveiling their unusual creations as part of the [D3] Contest exhibition at the imm Cologne + LivingInteriors trade fair 2012. The [D3] Contest, which is open to students and graduates who specialise in furniture, lighting, textiles and accessories, gives young designers the fantastic opportunity to present their ideas to an international audience. Each year the competition receives hundreds of applications, with 2011′s contest receiving a record number of 862. ARTS THREAD takes a look at what to expect this January.

Gravity Stool by Jolan van der Weil, a 2011 graduate from Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academy uses gravity as the determining factor in the design. Jolan sets the parameters for the magnetic field and then the plastic particles with metal cores arrange themselves into an object that you can actually sit on. Jolan constructed the machine from wooden frames and magnets and chose a soft, very malleable plastic for the manufacturing process. The final shape of the stool assumed by the special plastic makes the invisible visible by materialising the magnetic fields into a product.

Raphaëlle Bonamy, a graduate of the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL) is showcasing Gousset, a wooden six tier chest of drawers shaped like a waistcoat pocket that can only be opened and closed using a chain block mechanism. ‘A daily routine is thus turned into a conscious act by transforming the pine drawers into a precious safe and the fittings – in this case chrome-plated bicycle chains – into gleaming jewellery.’

Recycling Plastic, Julien Renault / FALT.lamp, Tim Mackerodt

Recycling Plastic series by Julien Renault looks as if its made from rustic solid wood but is actually produced from recycled plastic. Julien Renault studied product design in Lausanne and Reims and has developed a range of furniture that can be used both indoors and out. Julien used the technology normally used for mass-production of terracing, with boards and blocks made by melting plastic granules and spraying them into moulds. The robust outdoor collection consists of a table, bench and chairs, all of them very low, with a symbolism of being closer to nature The solid plastic furniture can be melted down and reprocessed ad infinitum.

[D3] Contest featuring all the designers chosen can be seen at imm Cologne + LivingInteriors trade fair 2012 taking place January 16-22 2012.

Jolan van der Weil
Raphaëlle Bonamy
Tim Mackerodt
Julien Renault

Fabien Cappello, 'Christmas Tree Project'/ Nina Tolstrup, 'Paletable'/ Stuart Haygarth, 'Tail Light'

Five of Europe’s leading designers come together for Grandmateria II at the Gallery Libby Sellers, London. Inspired by the mythological tale of the Philosopher’s stone, the five designers have set out to ‘turn lead into gold’ by taking simple, ordinary materials and transforming them into extraordinary design items.

Furniture designer and Royal College of Art, London graduate Fabien Capello took advantage of the 1.8 million Christmas trees which are thrown out into the streets in January to source the materials for his collection of modest stools.

Nina Tolstrup, owner of London-based design company Studiomama is showing her series of home furnishings created from reprocessed wood sourced from discarded pallets and lighting designer Stuart Haygarth is displaying his Achille Castiglioni inspired light which is made from vehicle tail lights!

Nicolas le Moigne, 'Slip Lamp'/ Simon Hasan, 'Geno Chair and Stool'

Swiss designer Nicolas Le Moigne has previously displayed his work with Libby Sellers in 2008 and this year is showing his fibrocement ‘Slip Lamp’. The fifth designer taking part in Grandmateria II, Simon Hasan, is showing pieces from his ‘Geno’ collection of furniture made from boiled leather.

Grandmateria II runs until the 7th of December 2011 at Gallery Libby Sellers, 41-42 Berners Street, London, W1T 3NB

Libbery Sellers website.

Shana Teugels,'Crowned Curiosities'

The final results of Design Platform Limburg’s annual Toegepast program went on display today at the Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium. The five promising designers who took part were given the unique opportunity to be professionally coached by fashion duo Ti + Hann who were on hand to enable their creativity and help them realise a brand new piece of work.

Attraction and repulsion are the emotions which jewellery designer Shana Teugels hopes to invoke with her new collection created for Toegepast 16. Shana’s kitsch, glittery and over-exaggerated designs may at first catch someone’s eye for all the wrong reasons, but her curious use of materials and shapes eventually draws the viewer in, making them want to touch, hold and wear her pieces.

Jihyun Ryou, 'Save Food From Supermarket'

Jihyun Riyou’s project brings together a wealth of knowledge regarding effective food preservation in her installation to promote forgotten vegetables. Jihyun’s work can teach us some fascinating things about storing fruit and veg. For example, did you know that if you store an apple and a potato together, the gases released from the apple will preserve the potato for longer?

Lore Langendries,'Tension Between Industrial Design and Craftmanship'

PHL Hasselt Jewellery Design graduate Lore Langendries has created a beautiful collection of jewellery based around the pharmacist’s mortar. Lore aims to create a link between traditional pharmacist’s mortar with the sterile and industrially produced mortar used nowadays.

Niek Kosten, 'Activist'

Niek Kosten presents an installation inspired by his personal research into activism and visual identity. Niek has previously explored the topic during his studies, culminating in his graduation project ‘Manifest voor Winterslag Cité’, a flag and visual identity for the Winterslag neighbourhood.

Dik Scheepers, 'Unpolished'

Dik Scheepers worked with a relatively unused material called papercrete to produce his new furniture collection ‘Unpolished’. Papercrete is a mixture of paper and cement which, when hardened, has a surface which looks similar to a concrete breeze block.

Toegepast 16: Les Nouveaux runs from 30th October 2011 – 5th February 2012 at Z33, Hasselt.

Further information can be found on the Z33 website and the Design Platform Limburg website.

Niek Kosten
Jihyun Riyou
Dik Scheepers
Shana Teugels

Jair Straschnow and Wouter Nieuwendijk, 'Another Picnic Table'

The iconic picnic table bench has been re-designed by Jair Straschnow and Wouter Nieuwendijk and is currently being presented in two separate locations in Dutch Design Week, offering event goers a comfortable and stylish place to rest between exhibitions.

The bench has been split into separate seats which not only allow easier access but can be adjusted to offer a lower, more relaxed seating position which brings the comfort of an easy chair into the outdoors.

Made from pressed bamboo, the chair would be perfect in parks and other leisure areas.

Jair Straschnow and Wouter Nieuwendijk, 'Another Picnic Table'

You can find Jair and Wouter’s ‘Another Picnic’ at the Dutch Design Year shop/restaurant Smalle Haven 2-14, 56611 Ej Eindhoven and Gebouw TAB – Strijp T, Swaanstraat 1, 5651 CA Eindhoven.

Dutch Design Week runs from October 22 to 30 2011.