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danish design fair 2011

Grace Bonney — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Long-time hello from Copenhagen! I recently moved to the mother land, Copenhagen, (remember my delightful summer here from a couple years back?) from Washington, DC after graduating and getting married (wahoo!) and was thrilled to be invited to attend the design fair here, Formland, with designer Maria Helgstrand of Wallnut design. Formland brings together the best of Scandinavian design so I was quite interested in getting a feel for the current design scene here. We spent the majority of our time at New Note, the curated section of more innovative interior, lighting and furniture products and I was in heaven gawking over the clean yet quirky features that typify the Scandinavian aesthetic. A few trends that I gravitated towards were the harlequin patterns and spots of fluorescents, which you’ll see sprinkled through the images. I hope you’ll enjoy these highlights from the event. -Brittany

Family Jewels (above left) offers a bright & humorous knack for hand-printed textiles like their teapot cosy collection and tablecloths and cheeky bedlinens. Their tablecloth shows some of the fluorescent accents. Phucisme (bottom right) salvages discarded porcelain and beautifully paints with gold leaf. I always love seeing the student section, but was disappointed that it was so small. A few of the ceramics students from the Danish Design School presented their teapots and I found this one so handy! I didn’t feel like I was going to break it with the easy to manage grip. The Pantone equivalent for Scandinavia is the color forecasting firm Pej Gruppen and they gave a presentation on the trends for the upcoming year. They left large rolls of thread so that you could take samples, a clever solution to printed swatches that never really grasp the true colors for textiles. Below, Lucky Boy Sunday blew my knitted socks away! I was so easily enchanted with Camilla & Camilla who create cute & quirky knitted children’s toys, graphic pillows, wooden wonders. Here Camilla sits knitting mini giveaways at their booth.

CLICK HERE for more images from the Danish Design Fair after the jump!

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stockholm design fair: chandelier installation

Amy Azzarito — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:00:14 +0000

It certainly says something about Sweden’s support for student designers that first-year design students were given the latitude to festoon chandeliers from the 1860s with mops. I’ve been raving about the student designers in Stockholm at the Furniture Fair all week (Part 1 and Part 2 here!), but this was the highlight of my time in Stockholm. I saw this installation at the Berns Hotel at midnight at the end of a day that had begun at 7am — but I was immediately reinvigorated at the sight of these massive chandeliers adorned with what at first glance looked like feathers. For this project, students attending the Beckmans College of Design’s undergraduate program in form design were given a tight budget and short time frame to come up with a way to embellish these historic chandeliers. The students were so bright and enthusiastic and creative — this was seriously the best part of my trip! — Amy A.

CLICK HERE for more of the chandelier installation and for information on purchasing the mops!

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stockholm design fair: greenhouse (part 2)

Amy Azzarito — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:50:10 +0000

Image above: Linda Vännström

Yesterday I began my look back at the Stockholm Design Fair with a nosedive into the student/indie work in the Greenhouse section of the fair. One of my favorite sections, in this, my favorite part of the fair, was by the students from HDK — School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg. All of the students were instructed to create a design keeping with the theme “Traces of a Passionate Collector” — they were told to imagine what might happen if we changed focus from consumption to that of a passionate collector — if furniture bore the traces of our memories, stories and origins. I just found these objects to be hauntingly beautiful and certainly hope to see some of them make it into production. -Amy A

Note: Greenhouse is a great forum to show your work on an international stage. If you’re interested in applying for Greenhouse 2012, you can go here for information. The deadline is September 22, 2011.

You just had an accident and the red wine is now on your furniture. Congratulations! Your piece of furniture just became more special and now carries traces from your life. A pattern that doesn’t get ruined by a stain, it gets enriched instead. — Linda Vännström

Image above: Maria Bergström

With my project, I want to illustrate the different methods of how we measure and visualize time and the traces they leave behind. The result is a tool that makes time visible and that facilitates the overview of future assignments. You can easily see what things you postpone, but at the same time it can help to create structure. In any case, time passes, regardless of whether you choose to procrastinate or if you plan your life into the smallest of details. — Maria Bergström

CLICK HERE for more of the Passionate Collector Exhibition!

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icff 2010: the final roundup

Grace Bonney — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:00:32 +0000

today if my final icff post, wrapping things up with 20 of my favorite pieces from the show, including a beautiful retro bathtub, gorgeous textiles, wallpaper, and much more. thanks for tuning in for all of this year’s trends. if you missed any this week, here’s a wrap up: inspired by nature pt 1, inspired by nature pt 2, fun textures + shapes, wood + metal, facets + organic shapes, circles.

[images above: beautiful new wallpapers by deborah bowness that bring the art and books to the room for you]

[image above: i loved these flat pak metal bike baskets from mio]

[images above: i loved these colorful handprinted textiles from emamoke ukelegh]

CLICK HERE for the rest of the icff final roundup after the jump!

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national stationery show: final roundup (cards)

Grace Bonney — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:00:59 +0000

today is the final day of spring 2010 trade show coverage for d*s. after wading through aisles of both shows and hundreds of pictures, i’m wrapping up my favorites today, starting with my last 25 pictures from the national stationery show. if you missed any of the stationery show coverage amy and i have posted so far, here are the links: non-cards, cheeky + nautical cards, florals, homesteading + food, and animals.

[2 images above: beautiful calendars from waste not paper]

[image above: trophy card from yellow owl workshop]

[image above: more of the navajo weaving-inspired trend we saw at brimfield this year! cards by gold teeth brooklyn]

[images above: metallic holiday cards from pancake & franks]

CLICK HERE for 14 more designs from this year’s stationery show after the jump!

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icff 2010 trends: inspired by nature (part 2)

Grace Bonney — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:00:03 +0000

good morning- ms. jackson would like to welcome you to the end of my icff 2010 coverage. she and our other cat turk are currently battling it out over who gets to sleep in their new cardboard cat house from loyal luxe (she won the battle for this picture). today i’m wrapping up my trend posts with part 2 of the “inspired by nature” designs i saw. yesterday i touched on 15 of my favorite flora/fauna pieces, and today i’m posting the last 20, ranging from a deer-inspired bike to a giant room that looked like it was made from a wall of metal flowers. i hope you’ll check out the full selection after the jump, because these were, hands-down, my favorite crop of designs at the show. nature always provides some of the best inspiration. [image above: this flat-packed cardboard cat house was my favorite part of the designboom mart. i bought one for the cats and they LOVE it. everything comes in little perforated sheets of cardboard that you pop out and put together. genius. bonus? cutest website EVER]

[image above: i think just about every icff visitor took a picture in valentina gonzalez wohlers' prickly pair chair. and why not? it's adorable]

[image above: this antler-meets-bike piece by sung kug kim was so darn cool. the antler is actually made from wood, not horn, and had such a beautiful shine.

[image above: there are no words to describe how cool these animal-inspired false eye lashes are. let's just say that if i had ANY excuse to wear something like this, i would. design by paperself]

CLICK HERE for 14 more flora & fauna inspired designs after the jump (be sure to catch the light-up egg lamp!)

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