monbento – DesignApplause

discover design & gia awards winners. housewares show 2014.

Mar 29, 2014

‘Discover Design’ is four years old in 2014 and is a destination of more than 100 design-centric exhibitors from around the world. The confines includes the ‘Discover Design Gallery’ featuring the products submitted for the gia awards; ‘Design Debut’, an incubator program within Discover Design, featuring 10 new companies; and the Discover Design Lounge with Wine Bar and Café. In 2014 nearly 200 entries were viewed by 20 judges to select the 2014 gia awards winners:

[ best Collection Design ]
global honoree
Magisso > Naturally Cooling Ceramics

finalists
Carl Mertens > Verso Collection
Ekobo Ecology & Design > BIOBU Bamboo Kids Collection

[ best product design ]
global Honorees
Crucial Detail > The Porthole
Joseph Joseph > Twin-cut compact 2-in-1 scissors
Sagaform > Mini Greenhouse

finalists
Dreamfarm > Onpot
Monbento > MB LIB
Parallax Horizon > SpreadThat!
Room Copenhagen > Ole Jensen Colander
Savino > Winestor

[ martin m. pegler award for best booth ]
global Honorees
3 Sprouts

the porthole | crucial detail

twin-cut Compact 2-in-1 scissors | joseph joseph

mini greenhouse | sagaform

onpot | dreamfarm

mb lib | monbento

spreadthat! | parallax horizon

[ 2014 judges ]
Specialty retailers, design and consumer editors, trendspotters and independent designers served as Discover Design judges for the gia awards. They are: Asko Ahokas, Asko Ahokas Consulting; Jens Bauerle, Global Brand Vision; Mary Liz Curtin, Leon & Lulu; Meredith Doherty, The Grommet; Mary Rose Gearon, Global Brand Vision; Michael Higdon, National Building Museum; Raymond Hu, Core77; Ron Kovach, DesignApplause; Dan Kraemer, IA Collaborative; Lu Lyndon, Placewares+Lyndon Design; Paul Makovsky, Metropolis magazine; Marco Perry, PENSA; Jamie Rowley, Fab; Billy Shelton, Chicago Architecture Foundation; Michele Tobin, Walker Art Center; Becky Tyre, Gift Shop magazine; Robyn Waters, R W Trend; Adrienne Wheatley, Culture + Commerce, Terri Winter, Top3 by Design; and LinYee Yuan, Mold.

[ official release – winners ]

all silicone is not equal. international home+housewares 2014.

Mar 22, 2014

above> misc. storage | finell

above>below What was not so noticeble at Ambiente 14 seemed everywhere at Home&Housewares 14: silicone. Washable/dishwasher safe, flexible, can be non-stick and easily takes colors, silicone has been around and first widely used for protection from heat and ironically, never has seemed to be taken seriously. In 2012 a new ingredient was added to silicone’s many assets and that was design. In 2013-14 silicone presents itself as ‘high-end’ through a new Austin, Texas, [ Finell ] founded by designer Rebecca Finell. The company designs, produces and distributes it’s own products and not exclusively silicone.

facets | finell

siliase | monbento

above>below [ Monbento ] is a three-year-old French company founded by designer and CEO Emilie Fabien. It’s new ‘silicase’ collection for oven baked items is really beautiful, with a high-gloss inside and high matte outside and both Monbento and Finell offers a refined color palette which dramatically separates them from the pack.

silicase | monbento

chopula | dreamfarm

above>below [ Dreamfarm ] creates a myriad of silicone solutions. Here’s Chopula (2012). The Australian company created in 2009 by Alex and Cate Gransbury also has a a USA base in San Francisco. The refined function of each product is not hidden by the playfulness of form.

chopula | dreamfarm

o bag | lexon

above>below Though technically not silicone the O bag feels like it but is a great deal less dense, less heavy, and may inspire designers to experiment with less heavy silicone solutions. The bags all come with removable mix-n-match handles as well as a zipper foam-like insert if you wish a little more security and are waterproof. O bag is designed by Italian designer Emanuele Magenta and made by Fullspot. O bag was seen in the [ Lexon ] booth, a French company conceived in 1991 by designer and president, René Adda.

o bag | lexon

All of these companies were found in [ Discover Design ] a design-centric area at #IHHS14 @HousewaresShow

about ron kovach

International Home & Housewares 2012. The booths deconstructed #1.

Mar 19, 2012

click > enlarge

Most everyone goes to the show to view the goods. We do too. But we conceived this post to showcase the presentation of brand and object. And we failed in execution, in part because we started our booth documentation at the end of our list of things to do. Next time, looking at presentation is going to be first item on our list. Though the booth and the object relies on one another in presentation, we separate the task of evaluating the object and evaluating the booth.

Here are several examples from this show. Most are from the exhibitors who were showcased in this year’s Discover Design competition. Most are small companies with few products and presentation is an easier task.

The criteria:
* how visible is the booth from afar
* how visible is the brand itself
* how special are the goods presented
* how well does the booth shield the viewer from visual distractions
* how creative is the booth concept

medium-sized booth. we liked this booth last year too

large totally contained oxo booth

We do like white in most product presentations but Built makes it work with wood.

wins iron-pansy award

Room Copenhagen has visual knockouts Lego and Pantone, among others, and present these objects on boxes covered with brown carpeting. Shown here on the Discover Design display, not the booth. They do much better next year.

rare example of objects presented with and without the packaging

JosephJoseph a bit over zealous with quantity in this mid-size booth. But it’s well-organized and they present the object with and without the merchandising packaging. They also get best product award so there you go.

guessing most minimal booth in mccormick place.

Monbento plays it cool. The glass vase on right is a best of show award. That’s our trolley in foreground junking up the image.

note: We intended to make mention of those booths that were not photographed but presented exceptionally well. But a photo is worth a thousand…next time. What’s it all mean? Well, a great product might not even come to this show and still be successful. The fact that the great presentations went hand-in-hand with the awards means little in this post. We were not being objective in this matter. And careful with the brown carpet.