-
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.
_
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.
_
_
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.
-
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).
_
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.
_
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.
_
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
_
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.
_ Read the rest of this entry »
-
Designer Focus | Ingo Maurer
Design Information, Designer Focus | Published on July 8, 2010
_
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.
_
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.
-
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.
-
Designer Focus | Niels Bendtsen
Design Information, Designer Focus, Staff Picks | Published on May 18, 2010
“Quality is a funny concept. We tend to think of it as being associated with handcraft. But quality is also about your attitude toward design. Craftsmanship is just as much about how you run the machines that are now necessary for economic viability.”
- Niels Bendtsen
_
Owner of Inform Interiors and Bensen Manufacturing, Niels Bendtsen has been working with contemporary furniture all his life. In 1963, he opened his first retail store in West Vancouver, Danet Interiors, focusing on well-designed and well-crafted Danish modern furniture. He designed the Ribbon chair, which was accepted into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York._
This past weekend, contemporary furniture took New York by storm with the help of ICFF and Bensen was there to be apart of it all. Above, left to right, U Trek, About Face, Index, and Canyon sectional. Click here to visit Bensen’s website. Click here to see Bensen products on informshop.com.
-
Designer Focus | Tom Dixon
Design Information, Designer Focus, In Store, Staff Picks | Published on May 10, 2010
A self-taught designer-maker from London England, Tom Dixon has combined the creative with the commercial throughout his career.
_He fell into design by accident when he found himself with “time on his hands” while recovering from a motorcycle accident. As an art school drop-out with no technical training, he taught himself how to become a designer-maker in 1983 after discovering welding when trying to repair his motorbike.
Dixon’s D-I-Y approach to design matched the post-punk mood of the early 1980s. Having made his name – but little money – by making and selling limited editions of his welded furniture – chairs such as the S Chair and Pylon Chair(above) – he tried his hand at retailing, by opening a shop, Space, to sell his products.
-
Designer Focus | Philippe Starck
Design Information, Designer Focus | Published on April 5, 2010
Wild man, free spirit, just plain crazy, call him what you will, we think he’s genius!
All of his designs are consistent in their eccentricities, you may chuckle when seeing them for the first time but you will always walk away with a little more respect for Mr. Starck. Often copied, never duplicated, Starck pieces speak volumes of the designer’s lust for life and devout passion for aesthetics and function.
Starck was born in Paris on January 18, 1949. He studied at École Nissim de Camondo and opened his first design firm, specializing in inflatable products, in 1968. Starck’s vast repertoire includes commercial and residential interiors, watches, toothbrushes, electronic devices, lighting, and furniture, to name a few.
_
Here’s is a small selection of what we retail in way of Philippe Starck designs. Click to view our current selection of Starck products on our online showroom, informshop.com.
Sign-Up
Fill out the form below to receive Informed blog posts directly to your inbox.
