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Book Review | The Wirtz Private Garden
Literature, Staff Picks | Published on September 3, 2010
“This garden is made for my camera” says Marco Valdivia. Unlike the Wirtzes’ commissioned gardens, this former kitchen garden was never conceived as a formal composition: a complete work of art. Rather, it is a working nursery in active use, a laboratory for continuous experimentation, in which plants are moved, transferred to other plots or to gardens in progress elsewhere.
Few landscape designers are more admired than Belgium’s Jacques Wirtz, as seen with the huge success of The Wirtz Gardens, published in the fall of 2004. The Wirtz Gardens surveyed 57 private and public gardens designed by Wirtz, many in collaboration with his two sons, Martin and Peter, in locations spanning the globe. Like the veteran art dealer whose personal collection one imagines to be stupendous, the volume raised the question of what Wirtz’s own garden looked like.
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IDSwest 2010 Preview
Design Information, Staff Picks | Published on July 14, 2010
Interior Design Show West threw a stimulating event on our rooftop Tuesday, giving us a sampling of what we can expect at this years exposition in October.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Yamagiwa Lighting
Brand Focus, In Store, Staff Picks | Published on May 8, 2010The Yamagiwa brand has been bringing high end lighting to the masses of Japan for decades. Established in 1923 the received high acclaim for their 2007 Lighting Design exhibit in Milan for their works with well renowned designers and architects.
Working with a wide range of range of materials they focus on the beauty of the light itself and how it works with people and its environment. Many projects have focussed specifically on how lighting affects the way people work.
With products designed by Toyo Ito, Tokujin Yoshioka, Ross Lovegrove, Naoto Fukasawa, and Shiro Kuramata to name a few the collection is varied but well curated.
Purchase Yamagiwa lighting from informshop.com
Above the TEAR DROP table and pendant light by Tokujin Yoshioka is a beautiful glass orb hollowed out to encapsulate the light inside.
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Rupert on Studio 4 | April 22nd, 2010
Design Information, Inform News, Staff Picks | Published on May 5, 2010Rupert made a visit to Fanny on earth day to discuss sustainability.
Click here to view some of the products featured in this video on informshop.com
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Live Small? Live Smart!
Design Information, Staff Picks | Published on May 4, 2010My recent visit to Japan has reminded me of how our ideas of living are constantly changing and that we often need to find smarter and more efficient ways of planning our homes.
In this post I will highlight a few tips on how the right furniture choices can maximize a living space. Check back in the following weeks for a few more posts on the topic.
Simplified Living Room Seating
The ultra minimal SLEEPER Sofa by Bensen offers the maximum seating area by removing arms while retaining a high level of comfort. The simple mechanism allows the sofa to turn instantly into a daybed for a quick nap or to accommodate sudden guests. The lack of a large internal bed system keeps the sofa light on its feet.
- Read the rest of this entry »
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B&B Italia Outdoor
In Store, Staff Picks | Published on May 1, 2010As the weather starts to warm and summer draws nearer, we all start to spend more time outdoors. This includes barbeques with friends and family or just plain relaxing alone on our balconies, decks and patios.
B&B Italia has some of the most beautifully designed and exquisitely built outdoor furniture to make you feel like you’re at a top class resort while being at home.
Springtime Collection
If you’re into warm minimal design and spectacular craftsmanship than this is for you. Designed by Jean- Marie Massaud the line has soft organic tables made from Crystal Plant mixed with dramatic day beds and chaises and sofas. The frames are made from aluminum and are powder coated in a weather proof polyester for years of durability, there is even a weather proof Mahogany table top.
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Newly designed site www.flexform.it
Staff Picks | Published on April 28, 2010
www.flexform.itFlexform has done a much needed update to their website and has incorporated some interesting new features. Their product line has always been one of our best sellers and we have always relied on their complete and informative catalogues to communicate this to our clients.
Along with an entirely new graphical layout, a strong distinction has been made between the brands Standard and MOOD collections.
The traditional navigation is fluid and simple to use, with an emphasis on the lines beautiful product photography.
Unfortunately they seemed to have forgotten to add all the technical specifications.
What really caught my eye on this new site is the new ‘Experience Navigation‘ system that they have developed.
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