ICFF 2010

Arriving with rather low expectations due to all the talk of depressed economies cranking out depressing designs, I was happy to find that not everything at this year’s ICFF was a frankenstein of last year’s show. For starters, this piece was all over the fair as well as the off-site shows and is part of the latest collection from furniture company Council, a company out of SF that won me over last year with their stunning Periodic Table. This year’s room divider still maintains the sort of Designer’s D.I.Y. feel that permeated the show.

Big themes were definitely eco-conscious materials and subtle pared down design. Taking material design to the next level was this “wooden fabric” lamp titled Miss Maple, featured in the Design Deutschland exhibit and made by german designer Elisa Strozyk.

Not all young designers are as experimental with traditional materials. For many, the emphasis on environment has led to a reexamination of the less eco-impacting past. Studio Dunn, winner of this year’s Editor’s Choice award for new designer, is going traditional not only with materials and design, but with manufacturing methods as well. All of the designs are manufactured in the good ol’ US of A by artisans in their native state of Rhode Island (this local pride also informs the name of each piece). Studio Dunn’s design sense references the hand-crafted nature of mid-century modern classics like Haywood Wakefield while also tapping into contemporary collective desires to be equal parts environmentally and aesthetically conscious.

S

Scattered about and hidden in the nooks of the all the furniture booths were a couple of really exciting product and jewelry finds from some promising up and commers. Starting with the smallest – jewelry from designer Hao Shi was selling at the designboom mart like hot cakes. Shi’s designs consist of tiny, fantastical creatures made from an opaque white resin.

Hao Shi’s booth was too crowded to take photos. Fortunately I just couldn’t leave without my very own Rabbit X Ring pictured here next to the beautiful package it came in. I have since received many compliments from all sorts of crowds including design snobs and random children on subways. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Everyone’s favorite from Brooklyn Designs, FRAMEicariums was also selling at designboom mart. For those who haven’t already seen them, these are real live ant farms in frames! Absolute genius!

And last but not least, for all of you out there with an irrational fear of numbers, Qlocktwo has found a solution- a typographic matrix that spells out the time in a way we can all understand. If only there was a version for my phone, I just might start being on time to things.

Objectophilia

How great are these? The above image, entitled Koons Balloon Mould, is just one of the members of The MacGuffin Library, an enchanting collection of rapid-prototyped, black, polymer-resin objects by Noam Toran. The name MacGuffin is actually a term (attributed to Hitchcock) that references an object used as a plot device to keep the story in motion, despite lacking importance in the overall plot. Toran’s focus on objects in film culture has led him to create this wonderful homage to great MacGuffins of the past. These objects were created for a series of sixteen, fictional film synopsis’ written by Toran and though they lack film accompaniment, they hold their own., straddling the line between sculpture, product and prop.

America

Bad Engineers

Betacam Tape

Toran’s films often focus on the relationships between cinema, mass-culture and design. Below are some original objects created for his film series Desire Management. The film attempts to demonstrate how domesticated objects can be used for dissident behavior. This film is currently on show at the MoMA as part of their Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge exhibit.

A baseball fetish bed, for the home, complete with astroturf mattress and baseball diamond pillow.

Simply referred to as the “vacuum scanner,” your guess is as good as mine.

An in-flight serving tray complete with turbulence simulator, sure to satisfy even the most discriminating of flight attendant tastes.

realiTRON

Architecture from the future, brought to us by architect turned digital media artist, Pablo Valbuena. A master of space, time and perception Valbuena’s work is based primarily around his ceaseless investigations of “space-time not only as a three dimensional environment, but as a space in transformation.”

The above images are from Valbuena’s urban installation for the Hague City Hall, in the Netherlands.
See the interaction in real-time here.
Below are images of his earlier work called the Augmented Sculpture Series. See the piece as it appeared at ARS Electronica in 2007.

ICFF 2009: Never Say Never

So my post about ICFF 2009 is almost as late as the checks I ordered online from Bank of America; however, since they finally arrived the day after paying rent with yet another money order, I felt it was appropriate to argue that it’s never too late and to just post the damn thing! Rather than pretending to offer comprehensive coverage of the entire show, this post is just going to be a mish-mash of favorites and oddities that perhaps haven’t made their rounds about the blogosphere just yet.

First off in the student category of awesome is this magazine rack from the Cranbrook booth designed by Issac Yu Chen. Pretty much all of the pieces in Cranbrook’s booth were phenomenal. Check out their site Innate Gestures for the rest.

These re-used table saw blade scissors by Brian Persico are just too wonderful to leave out. Even the leftover scrap is beautiful.

The RISD booth was full of oddities this year, but most odd of all were these shoes made of all natural loofa. I would hate to be caught in the rain in those, but for wearing around the house, they probably make for a great exfoliator-duster combo.

I will admit that I did rather like this leather stool and it might have just a little bit to do with the fact that I am completely in love with a certain pair of Rodarte leather leggings!

Moving on from student work to these crazy little chairs by Jang Won Yoon.
My immediate reaction: “they look like BUNNIES!”
Come on, I know you see it too, it’s only slightly disguised by the stealthy, uber-I.D. curves. Seriously though, these chairs have so much identity and so much life to them, you can’t help but appreciate.

Gauthier Poulain’s Hold-H credenza and Hold-V cabinet is pure fantasy fetish furniture. Don’t worry, he knows. His take-away card states: “I carry out your dreams made to measure.” Check out the bold ace-bandage/medical/moving strap style securing system. Some strange ideas must have informed this piece, unfortunately I can’t read french.

Japan by Design featured many small treasures this year, including this humidifier designed by Miyuki Yoshida. Fill the tray with water and the fabric “leaves” become saturated, helping the water to more quickly evaporate into the air. Such a simple and beautiful idea for something that is normally a much more complicated, electric appliance.

Off site at the Model Citizen’s Design Show there were some additional noteworthy pieces:

Duo bookshelf by Ana Linares.

Egg Bench by Grace Chen.

When placed just so, the physical shape of the egg allows it to distribute weight extremely effectively.

D.I.Y. Fine Art/Title Unknown

I think there might be a dead hamster in there.

Well, there it is. My post, of sorts, from ICFF 2009. Glad I finally found some time to share.

Indisposed

Before the news is completely old-hat, I thought I’d post some of the pictures from the InDisposed show. Apologies for the iPhone quality pics. For those not familiar, the show is composed of completely original pieces designed around the theme of disposability. Above is the “Dough-Dough” bird house by Jeff Miller. If you haven’t gotten it yet- it’s a solid, birdhouse-shaped, bird-feeder made out of left over bakery dough. Not sure I buy it as a viable means of disposal of leftover dough, but the concept and outcome are rather nice.

This new piece from Design Glut pretty much speaks for itself.

Takeshi Miyakawa’s piece, “Furniture ToGo” is a concept for Lego-like ToGo containers that can be used to build playful, trash-art, furniture.

Tobias Wong’s submission, like the majority of his work, is conceptually stunning; however lacking in the photographability.

“Rather than design an object to be disposed of, Wong decided to not make anything. Or rather, to create a conceptual piece by ‘unmaking’ something- a strategy that likewise reduces waste. Using a magazine as his medium, Wong collaborated with PAPER to ‘edit out’ a 10 page section and make it only available online. Converting the pages from print to digital format saved roughly 13 trees, decreasing PAPER’s footprint for the month.” – InDisposed

“Pleated Paper Can” by Paul Loebach and Chris Specce. It’s pretty much just a more iconic looking version of the paper-grocery-bag turned trash can that already sits under my sink; however, it’s still a really nice looking piece, and sustainably minded.

And finally. To end on a less conceptual note- Susan Tick, textile designer for Knoll, made these wonderful wall hangings out of plastic bags and waste wire material. I can’t wait to see Knoll turn these into upholstery.

All Tomorrow’s Parties

With Design Week coming up here in New York, there will be a traffic jam of parties, shows and events between Brooklyn Designs and ICFF. This event; however, has promise to be a must see.

If you’re in New York I hope to see you there!

Death Becomes Her

Energy consumption has, as of late, become a very well explored theme for conceptual product design. Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots, succeeds in taking this theme to an entirely new dimension with a line of common household products with an extremely uncommon source for energy. Conceived and designed by James Auger, Jimmy Loizeau, and Aleksander Zivanovic in conjunction with research scientists as prototypes for their Material Beliefs project, CDER utilize small, microbial fuel cell technology to power their various parts.

Lampshade Robot attracts insects to holes that serve as light sources. These holes are based on the form of the pitcher plant and enable insects to enter, but allow no escape. Once inside, the insect falls into a microbial fuel cell at the base of the lampshade which produces electricity from the “consumption” of the insect body. This electricity is used to power LEDs that are activated when the house lights are off. I can’t help but wonder if the next generation of Lampshade Robot will smell like meat in an evolutionary attempt to attract more flies?

Mousetrap Coffee Table allows rodents to access the surface of the coffee table via a tunnel through an oversize leg where they expect to find crumbs and other edible items. Once on the table’s surface the mouse will encounter a trapdoor of sorts, in the middle of the table. A motion sensor perceives when a mouse is standing on the surface of the opening and a mechanical “iris” much like a camera shutter is activated. Shutter opens- the mouse falls through the opening into the microbial fuel cell. Shutter closes- the mouse is trapped inside and converted into energy that is stored for later use by the mechanical shutter and motion sensor.

Fly-paper Robotic Clock uses fly-paper attached to a set of rollers to trap flies. As the rollers spin, the fly carcasses are scraped off into a microbial fuel cell: producing energy that is then used to power the rollers as well as a small LCD clock.

Fake Fish

Meet my new pets! and current favorite thing. These guys were created by artist Helen Altman and currently live at the DCKT gallery where I visit them every morning on my way to work.

Dork Shoes

Conceptually stunning and fantastically executed- these shoes are made from Minke whale dork, and are the brainchild of Icelandic designer Sruli Recht. These shoes are truly art, and if you are lucky enough to obtain a pair of these Hvalsforhúdsskórs you also get to own a little bit of the artist himself, and no, it’s not what you’re thinking. Recht says: “my own blood gets on everything I make- one day auctioneers may gene test my work for authentification.” Simply put, that is true love.

Postmodern Tapestry

I love these vibrant wall hangings created by brooklyn artist Ai Kijima, out of fused and quilted recycled fabric materials. The inspiration/materials include: curtains, table cloths, bed-sheets, clothing, etc. See more work.