vitra – Page 3 – DesignApplause

Be original at westedge.

Sep 27, 2013

Be Original Americas at WestEdge Design Fair | Why Authentic Design is Important – to You!

Be Original Americas, LLC, in its commitment to initiate discussion on the importance of preserving original design across North America, will appear at the inaugural WestEdge Design Fair, the newest destination for progressive, international contemporary design.

On 3 October > 5:30p | Be Original Americas will host “Why Should You Care About Original Design?” a panel discussion moderated by Jaime Derringer, Founder and Executive Editor of Design Milk, featuring Gregg Buchbinder, CEO of Emeco (a Be Original Americas Founding Member), Irwin Miller, Design Director and Principal of Gensler, and Antoine Roset, Executive Vice President of Ligne Roset/Roset USA Corp. (a Be Original Americas Founding Member). The group will examine why we need to challenge the “knockoffs” – a nearly $1 trillion industry that has cost the world 2.5 million jobs. The issue will be addressed from ethical, economic, sustainable and humanistic points of view.

Gregg Buchbinder and Antoine Roset will also highlight Be Original Americas’ mission in educating, informing and influencing designers, manufacturers and consumers on the importance of the preservation and protection of original design and its creators across North America.

[ be original americas ]
Be Original Americas, LLC is committed to initiating discussion on the importance and value of preserving original design across North America through informational, educational and influential marketing initiatives and consistent efforts to promote this agenda in various design contexts.

Be Original founding members—including Alessi, Artek, Bernhardt Design, Cassina/Poltrona Frau/Cappellini, Emeco, Flos, Fritz Hansen, Herman Miller, Ligne Roset, and Vitra—believe that the value of authenticity cannot be underestimated or taken for granted in the marketplace. Through an aggressive program of lectures, workshops, and roundtables, the movement campaigns to establish a set of industry standards that encourages consumers, the architecture and design community, producers, dealers, and media partners to fully support creativity and authenticity in order to invest in the future of design, incentivize innovation, and give back to the industry and the people it serves.

samples. vitra & flos.

Sep 19, 2013

Vitra & Flos Sample Sale 2013. Vitra and Flos are partnering for Vitra’s annual sample sale in the Meatpacking District. For two days you will have the opportunity to purchase showroom models and lightly used products for up to 80% off retail value.

[ best deal ]
Be the first one through the door on Saturday to buy a La Chaise by Charles & Ray Eames, designed in 1948, for $ 1,000. (Original retail value $ 10,625)

saturday & sunday 21 > 22 september 2013 | 11a > 5p
vitra | 29 ninth avenue | new york | 212 463 5750

Artek and Vitra: a partnership built on affinity.

Sep 6, 2013

On 6 September 2013, Vitra acquires Artek. Two venerable and like-minded bastions of avant garde modern furniture agree to partner. How like-minded? The logos may say it all.

panton chair | verner panton | vitra | 1967 | click > enlarge

stool 60 special edition series | tom dixon, comme des garçons, mike meiré, monocle, mads nørgaard, nao tamura | artek | 2013 (based on 1933 original by alvar aalto)

[ artek ] Artek was founded in 1935 by Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl. The business idea of the company was “to sell furniture and to promote a modern culture of habitation by exhibitions and other educational means.” That was the beginning of Artek. The Artek collection comprises design furniture and lighting fixtures by the Nordic masters Alvar Aalto, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Tapio Wirkkala and Eero Aarnio. The latest addition to the portfolio consists of products by Yrjö Kukkapuro. The masterpiece of Kukkapuro, the Karuselli chair, will be re-launched on the market in the beginning of the year 2014. In addition to classics, Artek is also launching new generation design products under the Artek Studio brand. Alvar Aalto’s furniture represents an interpretation of Scandinavian modernism articulated primarily in Finnish birch wood. Wood and functionality are both hallmarks of the Artek collection. The Artek portfolio represents the most comprehensive collection of wooden design furniture in the world. Artek has international sales offices in New York, Berlin, Stockholm and Tokyo. The domestic market accounts for 60% of the company’s turnover, with Artek holding a solid position in the Finnish consumer and contract market. Vitra’s design classics have for a number of years been an important part of Artek’s collection for the Finnish market. Artek operates four stores in Finland, as well as a wide retail network.

[ vitra ] Vitra is a furniture company dedicated to developing healthy, intelligent, inspiring and durable solutions for the office, the home and for public spaces. Vitra’s products and concepts are developed in Switzerland by applying a diligent design process that brings together the company’s engineering excellence with the creative genius of leading international designers. It is our goal to create products with a high functional and aesthetic life expectancy. The Vitra Campus architecture, the Vitra Design Museum, workshops, publications, collections and archives are all integral elements of the Vitra Project. They give Vitra the opportunity to gain perspective and depth in all of its creative activities.

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Prima by zaha hadid. Swarovski and vitra design museum.

Jun 5, 2013

Zaha Hadid has created ‘Prima‘ an installation for Swarovski at Vitra Fire Station on the Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein, Germany. Hadid, is one of the world’s most celebrated architects and the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize, the most prestigious award in architecture. For years, her radical designs remained on the drawing board, but the turning point came in 1993 with the opening of the Vitra Fire Station commissioned by Vitra’s founder Rolf Fehlbaum.

Prima will be installed in front of the Fire Station, reflecting and honoring the design process of the building. The project recalls the dynamism of Hadid’s original drawings created for the Vitra Fire Station, exploding in three dimensions from the lines and planes of the paintings and sketches. Its reflective surfaces contain seating for visitors and are illuminated with LED technology.

Hadid comments, “I’m equally proud of all my projects as they each represent different times of my career and periods of research, but I have a particular affection for Vitra Fire Station as it was my first building. Rolf Fehlbaum shares my passion for architecture and was inspired by my early visualizations. He dared to engage me without seeing a prior track record and without the certainty of public success. Returning to Vitra to work with Swarovski on this installation has been a very rewarding experience.”

Painting formed a critical part of Hadid’s early career as the design tool that allowed powerful experimentation in both form and movement – leading to the development of a new language for architecture. Hadid’s interest in the concepts of fragmentation and abstraction is evident throughout her repertoire and continues to this day. Originally engaging with the work of Kazimir Malevich, Hadid translated the warped and anti-gravitational space of Russian avant-garde painting and sculpture into her own unique architectural practice.

Using the advanced design and manufacturing technologies available today, the facets of Prima are a direct translation of the dynamic two-dimensional lines and planes on the canvas, reflecting Hadid’s detailed experimentation to perfect the Fire Station design. The installation continues this research, documenting Hadid’s remarkable journey as an articulator of complexity: a 2D sketch evolves into a workable space, and then into a realized building.

Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board, commented: “Zaha is an astonishing force of nature who imparts her designs with power and grace in equal measure. It has been an honour to work with her once again on this exciting celebratory commission. Prima is a dramatic sculptural installation – half art, half furniture, and stunningly beautiful.”

Rolf Fehlbaum, Chairman of Vitra, said: “I am happy to have worked with Zaha Hadid at such an early stage of her dazzling career. Her Fire Station is a spectacular building and it looks as impressive now as it did when it was first built. Few other architects would have been able to transform a modest commission like ours into a masterpiece of contemporary architecture. Zaha has been able to do so, thanks to an incredible sense of space and a radically new vision of what architecture can represent.”

[ prima ] is a structure composed of five highly polished components with angled planes, the installation is made from composite materials, and the surfaces are covered in a gun-smoke metal coating. Each component weighs 300 to 500 kg and the overall dimension of the installation is 11 x 8 metres.

zaha hadid and nadja swarovski

[ zaha hadid ] Hadid was born in Baghdad and studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to London to attend the Architectural Association (AA) School. She founded Zaha Hadid Architects in 1979 and completed her first building, the Vitra Fire Station, Germany in 1993. Her dynamic and innovative projects include the MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games and the Guangzhou Opera House in China. Hadid is currently working on a multitude of projects worldwide including High-Speed train stations in Naples and Durango; the Fiera di Milano masterplan and tower as well as major master-planning projects in Beijing, Bilbao, Istanbul and Singapore. Time magazine included Hadid in their list of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ and in 2012, Zaha Hadid was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

[ swarovski ] is a global leader in crystal with a diverse product portfolio that is loved by designers and millions of customers around the world. It brings innovation in jewelry, fashion, beauty, home accessories and collaborates in art, design, fashion, film, stage and screen that challenges emerging and established creative talents to evolve groundbreaking new uses for crystal.

[ vitra design museum ] is dedicated to the research and presentation of design, past and present, and examines the relationship of design to architecture, art and everyday culture. The Museum was founded in 1989 by the company Vitra and its owner Rolf Fehlbaum and is today led by directors Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner. Mounting two major exhibitions and several more shows, events and workshops per year, it has its headquarters in a building by the Californian architect Frank Gehry, situated within the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Its extensive collection encompasses key objects of design history, and the estates of several important figures in design (including Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard).

installation: 12 june > 11 august 2013 | weil am rhein, germany
@swarovski #prima

Chicago design week 2013.

Jun 2, 2013

10 > 15 june 2013 | this is the fourth annual chicago design week #chidw. quite a bit of design going on elsewhere too. [ aiga @AIGAchicago ] [ chicago design museum @chidm ] [ idsa @IDSAchicago ] [ luminaire @luminaire_ ] [ neocon @neocon ] [ shared practice @SharedPractice ] [ sta @STA_CHICAGO ] [ the guerrilla truck show @GrillaTruckShow ] @DesignApplause encourages to ‘proceed to add value’ by sharing and via ‘comments’ below.

as seen from the chicago design museum, banners promoting the one month pop-up exhibition are currently lining state street directly in front of the museum space located in block thirty seven, 3rd floor | click > enlarge

guerrilla truck show / 11 june 2012 / 6:30p

force of nature | an installation by the guild, karlssonwilker and wolf-gordon

showroom 11-100

hanging with physix by alberto meda | vitra showroom #1192

model 2 bike | custom bike by legacy frameworks, a step-through bike frame with a belt drive | at the guerrilla truck show

thinking bigger > bluescape | haworth showroom 312

showroom 3-321

decca élan / showroom 3-101

win this bmw 128 | janus et cie showroom 3-107

love power money | 1991 aiga national conference || head heart hand | 2013 aiga design conference

Be original at new york design week.

May 19, 2013

Be Original, in its commitment to initiate discussion on the importance of preserving original design across North America, will appear at a number of events and locations throughout what has become known as New York Design Week.

[ Tradeshow Exhibits ]
Be Original will appear at New York City’s two largest design tradeshows: WantedDesign, 17 > 20 May at the Tunnel (269 11th Avenue), where the group will have a booth at the 11th Avenue entrance, and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), 18 > 21 May at the Javits Center, booth #976. At each fair, Be Original will share information on the initiative and host giveaways and social media contests to help promote the campaign, with branded buttons and chances to win and an exclusive LunaTik Life iPhone case designed by Scott Wilson, Founder and principal designer of MINIMAL studios.

Events Hosted by Be Original Founding Member Companies
Additionally, employees will be wearing Be Original t-shirts during select events hosted by Be Original founding member companies, including Alessi and FLOS on Monday, 20 May and Tuesday, 21 May to raise awareness for the movement and spark conversation about original design and authenticity.

[ Be Original ]
A movement formed by Alessi, Artek, Bernhardt Design, Cassina/Poltrona Frau/Cappellini, Emeco, FLOS, Fritz Hansen, Herman Miller, Kartell, Ligne Roset, and Vitra which is committed to initiating discussion on the importance of preserving original design across North America through informational, educational and influential marketing initiatives and consistent efforts to promote this agenda in various design contexts.

[ be original blog ] [ facebook ] [ icff ] [ New York Design Week ] [ twitter ][ WantedDesign ] #BeOriginal #wanteddesign

Neo-utility. NYIGF 2012

Aug 20, 2012

click > enlarge

Before Kip Kotzen started neo-utility, his Brooklyn-based design sales agency and distribution company, he worked with the Eames family in California as well as with Vitra and Areaware. Since 2009 he’s been applying his excellent taste to smaller goods for the home and office, like the To:ca Alarm Clock (which is, by now, a modern icon), the beautiful handmade wooden toys by Miller Goodman or the minimal, purpose-driven desk accessories by ANYTHING that make me want to spend my last paycheck on an office makeover.

Among neo-utility’s 2012 product line up is the clever/cute Chick-a-Dee, a bird-shaped smoke detector and the Mini-ELEFAN, a small table top fan with an elephant trunk-like duct you can use to adjust the direction of the wind and control in three settings – strong, weak and rhythmical. Since the blades aren’t exposed its ideal for children, and it can be charged with a USB cable. The filter is washable, too, and it even comes with an optional aromatherapy attachment.

We also love the Recycled Sky Planter, by Boskke. Upside down planters make it possible for apartment dwellers to maximize their interior green space without cluttering up every available surface, and Boskke’s line of planters are, as their name suggests, made from recycled plastic. A float-stick indicates the water level so you know when to refill, and starting at $18, you can easily afford to cluster them in groups.

Visit neo-utility’s at NYIGF at the Javits Center, Booth #3748.

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The eames elephant, 67 years in the making.

Feb 13, 2012

click > enlarge

Designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1945, the Eames Elephant never made it into mass production. This actually isn’t all that surprising; many of the Eames now iconic designs were made as one-offs for friends and family, and it was only through the urgent pressing of the recipients – and in some cases Vitra – that pieces like the rosewood leather lounge chair and ottoman were ever put into production.

The two original prototypes were made out of molded plywood and exhibited at MoMA, but were never seen by the public again until 2007, when a limited, 1,000-piece run in red and natural maple was produced to celebrate Charles’ 100th birthday. Now, 67 years after it was first conceived in the Eames office, Charles’ grandson Demetrios has teamed up with Vitra to bring the Eames Elephant to the public en masse and for good. The elephant is available in five different colors and instead of plywood it’s made from thick plastic, a more durable choice for children at play.

Buy it online for $322.

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Vitra g-star prouve raw special edition. NYFW 2011.

Sep 1, 2011

An invitation to the Vitra G-STAR Prouve Raw special edition event during NY Fashion Week. Odd mashup.

tabouret solvay, 1941 in with fittings in rustic red and basalt. [click to enlarge]

when: 13 september | 8-10pm
where: vitra store | 29 9th ave | meatpacking district
[ vitra store ] [ g-star ] [ jean prouvé museum ]

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Kuubo table for vitra. Naoto fukasawa.

Feb 24, 2011

naoto fukasawa has designed a new table for vitra.

Executed with Fukaswa’s usual cool precision, it is called Kuubo. As Vitra notes, it “exudes purist elegance.” Its theme is hidden storage. One image shows a couple of dozen lemons tucked beneath one of its work surfaces. Are we to read a lemon into lemonade joke into this? It is also in keeping with the new trend in furniture–the “common table” that can be used for meetings or as a shared surface combining in effect many cubicles. “Kuubo lends itself to many different kinds of work processes – particularly where emphasis is placed on a successful joint team effort and where a culture of open communication is encouraged,” says Vitra’s prospectus. “Kuubo is well suited as a central team table in such an environment, serving many purposes as it can be easily adapted within seconds for different situations and uses.”
designer: naoto fukasawa
producer: vitra

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