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Jean-Claude Leblanc’s Core Collection
Brand Focus, Designer Focus, In Store | Published on April 8, 2013
Like many lasting designs, Jean-Claude’s Core vessels were created out of a need for the product by the designer:
“The idea to create a pot came from a succulent installation I saw on a trip to Tokyo a year and a half ago. It reminded me of my mother’s love for plants and the life it added to my family’s home as a child, something i’ve been trying to emulate ever since. This inspired me to buy a succulent for my bedside table so I always had this life form to wake up to. After searching, I couldn’t find the right pot. I then began designing my own, knowing I wanted the finished product to be made from marble.”
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Carlo Mollino
Designer Focus | Published on July 5, 2012
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I have always held a great appreciation and admiration for Carlo Mollino. He was a true renaissance man of the 20th century. He is mainly known as a designer of hand-made furniture and exclusive interiors._
He designed a double-torpedo race car for the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans of 1955. -
Achille Castiglioni | Further Functions Found
Designer Focus | Published on March 29, 2012
Achille Castiglioni (1918-2002) Architect / Designer
Born in Milan, the epicentre of industrial design, Castiglioni graduated from Architecture in 1944 at the Politecnico di Milano University. The same year, he started a design office in with his brothers, Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Their interests lead them to research new forms, techniques and materials, aimed at developing a process of “integral design”. Most of their theories are still taught in Universities and resonate with young designers today.
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VIDEO: During the 1989 International Design Conference of Aspen, Achille made a presentation on his affair with lighting design. His enthusiasm and sense of humour is awe-inspiring – he seems to have the energy of a much younger man. -
Antonio Citterio | Master of Modernism
Designer Focus | Published on December 30, 2011
1950 Meda, Italy: a pioneer in furniture design was born. One of the most under-stated designers in the business today, Citterio continues to design countless objects that most designers could only dream of creating.
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Citterio graduated in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and since 1972 continues to design for most of the leading furniture and accessory manufacturers world-wide, such as B&B Italia, Flexform, Flos, Iittala, Kartell, and Vitra. B&B Italia’s Maxalto collection is designed and coordinated exclusively by Antonio Citterio.He has also been engaged in architectural works, dealing with construction projects and interiors, both in Italy and abroad. Citterio holds lectures and conferences and his work has been extensively exhibited and published.
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Armchairs: Morgan, Jenny and Margaret -
Mies van der Rohe | The Will of an Epoch
Architecture, Designer Focus | Published on November 1, 2010
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born on March 27th, 1886, as Ludwig Michael Mies, in Aachen, Germany. Classically trained as a stonemason, at 19 he moved to Berlin where he worked for Bruno Paul, an art nouveau architect and industrial designer.
Mies’ professional focus was to define new architectural and design styles that reflected a more modern and industrialized time. Along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, Mies is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of Modern architecture. His infamous quotes “Less is more” and “God is in the details” ring true to his architectural projects as well as his furniture and interior designs. He promoted purity in his minimalist style which was often referred to as “skin and bones” architecture by Mies himself.
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Marcel Wanders
Designer Focus | Published on October 12, 2010
_Marcel Wanders is originally from Boxtel, Holland and graduated from the School of the Arts Arnhem in 1988. Wanders’ fame started with his Knotted Chair, which he produced for Droog in 1996(image right).
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He has designed for B&B Italia, Poliform, Moroso, Flos, Boffi, Cappellini, and Moooi, founded in 2000, of which he is also art director and co-owner.
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Two of Wanders’ recent interior designs. -
Eileen Gray | Slight yet Substantial
Designer Focus | Published on September 16, 2010
Eileen Gray was born on the 9th of August, 1878 to Eveleen Pounden and James Maclaren Gray, a wealthy family of south-eastern Ireland. She was the youngest of five children. Eileen’s father was a painter who encouraged his daughter’s artistic interests. He took his daughter on painting tours of Italy and Switzerland which encouraged her independent and somewhat rebellious spirit.
When 22 years old, her father died. She went to a world’s fair in Paris where Art Nouveau was the main style, Gray was a fan of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who’s work was on exhibit. Gray would go on to study art in Paris, at the Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi.
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After moving to London, Gray came across a lacquer repair shop in Soho where she asked the shop owner, Mr. D. Charles, to show her the fundamentals of his work. She later returned to Paris and met one of her employers former contacts, Seizo Sugawara. He originated from an area of Japan that was known for its decorative lacquer work._
Sugawara emigrated to Paris to repair the lacquer work exhibited in L’Exposition Universelle. She found after working with Sugawara for four years that she had developed the lacquer disease on her hands, she persisted though it was not until she was thirty-five when she finally exhibited her work. -
Designer Focus | Konstantin Grcic
Design Information, Designer Focus | Published on July 23, 2010
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Grcic was born in Munich in 1965. He originally intended to become a cabinet maker while studying at Pernham College in England. He later studied design at the Royal College of Art in London where he collaborated with Jasper Morrison. Since then Grcic has designed for such brands as Magis, Vitra, Thomas/Rosenthal, Flos, ClassiCon, Krups, Moroso, Muji, Plank, Driade, and many others.
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Designer Focus | Ingo Maurer
Design Information, Designer Focus | Published on July 8, 2010
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Ingo Maurer was born on the island of Reichenau in the Lake of Constance, Germany. After an apprenticeship as a typesetter, Maurer studied graphic design in Munich then moved to the U.S. as a freelance graphic designer. Only three years past before Ingo returned to Germany and opened his own studio named Design M where he developed and manufactured lighting concepts and systems. In 1973 Design M became and still is Ingo Maurer Lighting GmbH.His first design, simply titled “Bulb” can now be seen in the permanent collection at MoMA in New York.
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Besides the design of lamps for serial production, Maurer creates and plans lighting installations for public or private spaces. In Munich, 1998, he created a light installation at Westfriedhof subway station and the renovation and lighting concept for Muenchner Freiheit subway station which opened this last December. In 2006 he created lighting objects and installations for the interior of the Atomium in Brussels.
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Designer Focus | Charles & Ray Eames
Design Information, Designer Focus, Staff Picks | Published on June 18, 2010
Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri and by the time he was 14 years old was working part time at the Laclede Steel Company where he learned about engineering, drawing and architecture and first entertained the idea of one day becoming an architect.
Informed