Design, Art Market & Auction Houses…

…or the advantage of being an artist over a designer… sometimes.

I reckon Simon Hasan, who freshly graduated last year from RCA, identifiable through his work on boiled leather, and who has been spot at Craft Punk for Fendi in Milan this year 09, is probably one of the most well advised young designer of our hard economic context.

He had recently been commissioned to produced a small series – 5 vase pieces – that has sold out at an auction ran by Sothebys. This man has the profile of a successful designer.

I have to admit I was very enthusiastic when I saw his work at last year RCA Graduate show and was quite pleasantly surprised to see him in Milan. I don’t think his work is revolutionary but he’s a truly fine maker, and his products are a rare love declaration to a processed material.

produced image of a product

Our Society is now ruled by the world of images. It is also obvious that our most direct relation to new designer furniture or products is generally 2D, accessible via the press or the net. Most of us are strongly bound to the image of objects and the aesthetic has sometime the priority over the function.

Featured in the June issue of Icon Magazine is a very interesting product and article introducing this relation we have to image. Cushion Sofa designed by Swedish Front

Cushions are thus arranged in a sofa shape and photographed. The photograph is then printed on a sheet of fabric and laid over a foam-padded steel frame.

It looks almost unreal and this is a very interesting starting point where one does not know when the image ends and the product starts as a vicious circle almost.

It is quite fascinating to see the impact the image has in the process of making but also in the marketing process because we are pushed to settle choices to design a functional aesthetic whereas we have been brought up with the idea that form follows function.

I very much like the borderline game that is played with the materiality. The image gives an impression of volatility. Almost intangible, immaterial.

Front Design had a very wide range of various type of projects that are edgy. Definitely one of my favorite design studio. Check out their website (hideous though!) http://www.frontdesign.se/

The look reminds me of one of my favorite couch by Pascal Mourgue referring to the essence of comfort, the cushion.

i have a dream…

it is rather common to be surrounded by inspiring context… some time common becomes obsessive… after the ciment and bricks in ref to my sugar stool, my copper stool appears now in the streets, personnified by fences… design is a strong hallucinogenic drug…

milano, corso di porta ticinese.

versus

london, design studio.

Aluminum Foil

another woman, another commodity…

Adele Rottela is an italian designer who will feature Sciocola her latest product at the Salone di Mobile (Satellite) in Milan next week.

[...] la panca che prende ispirazione dalle straordinarie qualità che il cioccolato ed il legno hanno in comune, trasformando il tempo della sosta o dell’attesa in un momento di piacere e di lusso. Essenze utilizzate: palissandro/cioccolato fondente, noce/cioccolato al latte, frassino/cioccolato bianco.[...]

The bench takes inspiration from the incredible quality that chocolate and wood have in common. A break or even waiting become moments of pleasure and luxury.  Adele has determined a difference in her choices of wood to translate the chocolate aspects; rosewood is used for chocolat fondant, walnut for milk chocolate and ash for white chocolate.

http://www.adelerotella.com/

I am really looking forward to see her work…

Falo, Terry Dwan

Produced by Riva Industria Mobili in 2004, Falo is composed of superposed planks, this stool recalls a pile of wood set out to dry; practically an homage to solid wood.

Referenced in the exhibition Serie Fuori Serie at the Triennale, Milano, in the Ricerca per la sostenibilita.

http://www.riva1920.it/it/CategoriaProdotti/Designer/Terry%20Dwan.aspx

Corn syrup vs Golden syrup…

vs

packaging wise, one looks like toilet detergent, the other like wood polish…

all good so far, it’s industrial…

why for god’s sake does Karo not deliver uk… bummer.

people are sugar trippin’…

As part of the corn stool, i have been looking for processes to crystalise the corn together. Apart from the fuel made out of corn very popular in germany as part of a campaign against pollution and dependence towards the imports from the arabe country ligue i am still looking for the perfect product.

i have been desesperate to find some corn/maize syrup in the uk (as being a us/canadian product only), and have spent the last weeks on websites reading american uk residents’ comments on how, where and other w questions get the precious, rare liquid… it has occured to me that i would have probably to ask again some friends to bring me back some from their trip to the us, as i have never actually used any.

with some luck, i have learned a lot and even found some solution for the sugar stool within the corn syrup information… people have a lot to say when it comes for sugar and its by-products. following the track of liquid glucose, i’ve found out that you can actually make bombs (precisely rockets) out of sugar…

RECRYSTALLIZED ROCKETRY…

http://www.jamesyawn.com/

thank you james…

my sugar stool looks like a common trip now…

material displays create functional structures

little clouds build big cloud

if you have time to notice the woodsteel chair as well; it’s a prima design/ mix and match of materials… guud

here is a recent work by les freres bouroullec, named clouds.

the process is interesting in its multiplication of material structure to compose a massive one.

the poetry that lies beneath brings hope in this dull economic context…

concrete building sugar

i was on the bus, dreaming about the way builders make up walls from bricks and cement… i had already captured a few shots of displays when i got lucky to find a site in construction…

concrete sugar1

natural urban display/ ref: sugar stool

ciment and bricks = royal icing and sugar cubes 1

we're getting there... hihaaaaa

can’t wait to actually get there for real with the sugar…

making start definitely advanced to tomorrow

wished wayne was back from japan with the miracular liquid sugar… tintintintin

adding liquid sugar...