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RIT Metaproject 01 at ICFF

Metaproject01 furniture design competition RIT and WilsonartContinuing with the impressive student work at ICFF, RIT’s “booth” stood out through and through. Wilsonart International (a manufacturer of laminate surfacing materials) teamed up with RIT to create a student competition called Metaproject 01. Twenty senior industrial design students were given the task of designing seating prototypes using the Wilsonart laminate. The palate was limited to the use of black, white and red laminate colors in order to focus attention on the design. Further requirements included:
– The product must be well crafted and bear substantial weight.
– The product must be recognizable as a seating device. The product must function as a seating device.
– The product must incorporate an image of the Wilsonart laminate sample chip.

The $1,000 scholarship prize was awarded to Dan Fritz for his chair The Trance (top). There were 5 runners up who had their pieces displayed at ICFF, but the other 14 projects not exhibited were included in the beautifully designed catalogue that were being distributed by the students who were also enthusiastic and eager to show and explain their designs.

Daniela and I would have had a tough time deciding who to pick as a winner; good thing they didn’t ask us to be judges. Other projects shown here include: The Cooler Bench by Andy Clark; The Nodule by Francesca Pezze; The Reader by Megan Searle; and The Encounter by Tim Kuo.

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Vivian Chiu: Inception Chair and more

Vivian Chiu Inception Chair Furniture DesignI’d have to say that, for me, some of the most creative and interesting work at this year’s ICFF and its satellite shows came from design students. One of these is Vivian Chiu, a furniture design student at RISD. What first caught my eye was her Inception Chair at the Noho Design District show, then later I noticed her Fu Lei Zhi bench at ICFF as well, and have since visited her website to see a slew of interesting work.

Chiu seems fascinated by repetition and intricate pieces fitting together perfectly in a puzzle-like fashion. Together the pieces create a whole, yet separately, they function (to some degree) as well. In addition to the originality of the work, her craftsmanship is remarkable.

To see more of Vivian Chiu’s work visit her site.

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Bike-In Theater

Bike-in Theater Forking Tasty eventHere’s a Saturday night plan for those in NYC tonight, provided it doesn’t rain: Bike-In Theater part of Forking Tasty’s dinema supperclub. It’s a free event and the film, location, and time were all underwraps until this morning. This is the first Bike-In in the series and therefore an experiment which will include popcorn and some water, but not the usual full dinner that they apparently provide in other events. You can bike-in or walk-in but you might want to bring a blanket or some sort of seating since this will be on an asphalt floor.

What: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Where: India St. and West St. at the water in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
When: 8pm

In case of rain, they will try for Sunday. In case of rain on Sunday, then next weekend. Sign up here to get the latest updates.

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Synapse by Francisco Gomez Paz

Synapse Modular Lights_Luceplan_Francisco Gomez PazOn the eve of ICFF here in NYC I’d like to keep with the industrial design theme and present Synapse a modular lighting system by Francisco Gomez Paz, an Argentinean designer who lives in Milan. I don’t know whether these lamps will be at ICFF but if so, I certainly look forward to seeing them live. I think they’re beautiful. I can imagine these looking just as great in a private home as in a public space, whether office, hotel lobby, or store.

Each module is a smart cell that when combined with other smart cells creates illuminated surfaces of any size and composition. The use of advanced RGB LED technology allows the light to be white or colored. And the fact that they can be configured as desired, whether used as a single piece or a whole wall-ful makes each one a bit unique, no?

Manufactured and distributed by Luceplan.

via 90mas10

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BMW Guggenheim Lab

BMW Guggenheim Lab NYCAccording to their site, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, coming to NYC this August, is part urban think tank, part community center, part gathering space. At the border of East Village and Lower East Side, 1st Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues will be the site of the first Lab. They are bringing together a group of very talented people from varied fields to see new ideas, experiments and solutions for the city. To explore the potential between private and public comfort. A platform for positive interaction that welcomes in the public to participate and be a part of the forum.

The project starts in NYC with the first cycle’s theme, Confronting Comfort, and will be traveling to Berlin and then Asia, with an exhibit at the end of the first cycle scheduled for the Guggenheim in 2013. The BMW Guggenheim Lab will open on August 3, 2011 and run through October 16th before moving on to Europe. Free to all. Visit their site for more information.

via Breger via Inhabitat

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Nari Ward: Sub Mirage Lignum

Nari Ward_Sub Mirage LignumComposed of everyday found objects, Nari Ward’s dramatic sculptural installations examine issues of race, poverty, and consumer culture and the inherent meaning placed upon the discarded, as well as the treasured.

Currently, at MASS MoCA, visitors can view Ward’s latest large-scale installations taking over an entire floor of one of their buildings. The title of the exhibit, Sub Mirage Lignum, represents the three themes of the show: “sub, in the dual sense of “underneath” and “substitute for another (space)”; mirage, a false image produced by the refraction of light, subject to human interpretation; and lignum, derived from Lignum Vitae (“wood of life”), a tree whose bloom is the national flower of Jamaica.”

The centerpiece of the exhibit is Ward’s monumental work, Nu Colossus. The form of the sculpture comes from a small conical basket-woven fish trap, in which fish are lured in and ensnared. This duality of seduction and entrapment is at the center of Ward’s idea of mirage.

Born in St. Andrews, Jamaica, but living and working in New York since his teen years, Nari Ward became “particularly interested in Jamaican fishing villages as temporary spaces suggestive of both community and sustenance. Like in Ward’s work, these villages are made up of what the fishermen can find — old oil barrels dotting the shore and brightly painted, recycled plywood shacks. For Ward these villages go beyond the boundaries of the “Jamaican experience” and connect to the creative act itself, in both the utilization of reuse and in the wide net cast by both fishermen and artists, even though the outcome is unsure.”

Sub Mirage Lignum is now open at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. One of the many interesting exhibits going on there.

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Il Tiro: Espresso Gun

Il Tiro_ Espresso maker gunWith this cleverly designed espresso maker, you can shoot your shot of coffee straight into the cup. Designed by four students at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, (Nicolas Schwarz, Stefan Riegebauer, Florian Kainz, and Christina Carli), Il Tiro (gunshot in Italian) seems like such an obvious solution to get that high pressure necessary for a good espresso. The portability aspect is a plus as well, not allowing the espresso to cool from coffeemaker to table. Watch the video below for the full explanation.

via designpumpa

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The Heads of State: Book Covers

Rosenfeld Book Covers: Heads of StateA very enjoyable way to procrastinate and not get work done is to visit The Heads of State’s site. It’s incredible how much time I can spend looking at their posters. What I wasn’t aware of is that they design book covers as well. These covers for Rosenfeld Media, a publisher of user-experience design material, are just great. So simple, to the point, and graphically pleasing. They have a late 50s, early 60s aesthetic evocative of Paul Rand which I love, while feeling very much of the 21st Century as well.

Have some extra time? Check out their posters here.

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Blow Chair: Malafor

Malafor Blow Arm ChairMade of inflatable paper dunnage bags, a metal frame and rubber straps, the paper Blow Armchair is simple to inflate (just use a blow dryer),  easy to transport, and recyclable. Not to mention hard to ignore in a room! The young designers at Malafor, a Polish design studio, have now come out with a new plastic version called the Explore Chair which is made of DAKRON sailcloth, very durable and weather resistant; perfect for outdoor use.

The sofa version can be purchased here.

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Typographied Objects

Typography ObjectsPretty much anything with nice typography is bound to catch my eye. And pretty much any object that uses typography as an integral part of its design is likely to win me over. Here are but a very few:

Clockwise from top left:
Typographic Dress at the Met
Alphabet Poster
Jacqueline Rabun Type Jewelry
Veer Character Scarf
House Industries Neutraface Pillow
Alphabet Ice Cube Trays
Red Plastic Letters from Etsy
Domino Clock
British Route Signs Chair
Fontables
Typography Coasters
Typolade Chocolates
Type Bookends
CB2 Letterpress Rug
Alphabet Bookcase
Letteroom Alphabet Eco Wrapping Paper

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Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man

Liu Bolin The Invisible ManLook closely. Very, very closely. In fact, you might want to click on the image to enlarge it and get a good look at these photos. In each one there’s an invisible man, usually the artist Liu Bolin himself. No, these are not digitally modified photographs. No, this is not Photoshop mastery. Liu Bolin, from Shandong, China, camouflages himself in all kinds of surroundings, no matter how complex they may be. He carries this out by painting himself to blend in perfectly with whatever is behind him. Liu will work up to 10 hours at a time on a single photo to achieve the right effect.

The artist says his art is a protest against the actions of the Government who shut down his art studio in the past and persecute artists in general. It’s about not fitting into modern society.

More of these amazing photos here.

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Teapot: Erik Magnussen

This lovely teapot was originally produced in ceramic in the 1960s, but has now been redesigned by Erik Magnussen, in Denmark, and produced in bone china. It’s a testament to the original design that this teapot still holds up as a modern and timeless piece. The built-in handle in the back is a very cool feature that makes the hand seemingly disappear into the teapot when serving.

Available here.

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Cristina Garrido

Cristina GarridoI don’t know if it was my “Philosophy of Art” class trip to a Vito Acconci exhibit in high school, or a visit to a John Baldessari exhibit later on, or maybe the first time I saw a sketch of a Christo-wrapped building, but somewhere along the way I came to really enjoy and appreciate Conceptual Art. So it’s not a surprise that coming across Cristina Garrido’s work recently, was a nice surprise.

Garrido’s work explores the idea of “visual removal of information through the appropriation of objects and images,” slightly reminiscent of Jennie Holzer’s Redaction Paintings though the target of criticism here is capitalism or materialism rather than the military and government censorship. In her series Removals, Cristina Garrido filmed her subject at an Ikea store in Madrid, covering up all the furniture in a living room display with white bed linens from the store, transforming the space into that of an uninhabited house. In addition to the video, Garrido took Ikea information flyers and veiled (or wrapped) the furniture in the flyers with white-out, forcing the reader to speculate based on the written description what is under the white-out. These, in effect, worked as publicity for her performance piece in the store as well. She continues these white-out “removals” in other catalogues as well, not exclusively Ikea.

Another related series of Garrido’s is called Próximamente (Coming Soon). (See bottom two images; click to enlarge.)

Coming Soon is a project of public intervention which consists in placing several big format billboards on the façades next to demolished buildings in the city of Madrid.

“The billboards would partially cover what is behind them and, at the same time, they would open a “window” to the interior of the building. In them, we could see images of uninhabited domestic interiors, with their furniture covered with bed linens. The images would have a cinematographic aesthetic; which addresses the viewer to those publicity billboards of new premieres. But instead of being an invasive advertisement, which has nothing to do with the place it is located, these billboards tell us about these absent houses, about their possible history.The title of the project, Coming Soon…,  announces something which is about to come (a new construction, the arrival of new inhabitants…), which might or might never happen.”

You can see more of Cristina Garrido’s work on her site.

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Impressive Parsons Seating Prototypes

Parsons Seating Prototypes_Parsons Festival 2011Having a possible future industrial designer in the family makes us especially interested in furniture design, and even more interested and impressed by student furniture design work. Strolling by Parsons yesterday, Dan and I noticed these beautiful chairs through the windows and went in to see, what turned out to be, part of the Parsons Festival 2011. These spectacular chairs are designed by Sophomores. Second year, undergrad design students. Unbelievable! “Parsons product design students present full-scale study models of bent plywood chairs that are the result of a six-week project in which students learned the basics of ergonomics, sound construction principles, and finishes.”

Parsons Festival runs through May 23rd in the lobby of the 2 West 13th St. building. The rest of the show, which includes interaction design, looks equally impressive.

Working prototype design credits, clockwise from top right: Megan Enright; Reading Chair by Siramol (Muan) On-Sri; Credit to come for this chair; Bone Lounge Chair by Soonyong Yoon; Reading Chair 01 by Irina Williams.
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Diseños Enredados (Tangled Designs)

Ivana Crivos Knitted BagsThese bags in their organic shapes are part of Argentinean designer Ivana Crivos’ clothing and accessories creations and company called ‘Hedón’. Hand knit in Lycra, Crivos likes the melding of new technology with the traditional process. The priority for Crivos is that the material work well with the body, covering it and molding its shape to it. “I want my products, clothing or accessories, to transmit love, happiness and comfort,” says the designer. “My designs are basically about the human body, as well as thinking about the requirements of modern life.”

You can see more of Ivana Crivos’ designs here.