New York Design Week 2010 (Update 20-05)

New York Design Week 2010: The Future Perfect: Lift Hold Roll

The Future Perfect's show Lift Hold Roll challenged designers to create an object using a clamp, pulley or caster — or any combination of these — resulting in a tightly curated and at first glance, a very functional looking range of furniture, lamps and objects.

Limited to these simple utilitarian tools, most designers took the opportunity to add a layer of playfulness through the use of simple mechanical actions, unexpected function, and bright colors. Our favorite detail was the decorative treatment to the metal on Carrie Solomon's"Portable Candelabra" (pictured last).

Pictured above: The Future Perfect in Brooklyn,"Ring & Max" by Karl Zahn, and the Lift Hold Roll exhibition space.

"Coat Rack" by Seth Quest & Megan Heacock White

"Gun_Tackle Pulley Mirror" by Barion Garzon

"Desk Lamp" by Evan Clabots, Nonlinear

"Euclid on a Roll" by Sarah Yerkes (Age 92)

"Pulley Cabinet" by Caroline McKeough

"Design Lamp" by Klaus Rosburg, Sonic Design

"Chandelier" by Chris Haynes

"Coffee Table" by Evan Clabots, Nonlinear

"Bookend" by Michael Liu

"Wine Clamp" by Joseph Eberle

"30/360" by Carl Allen

"Raise the Black Lantern" by Chen Chen

"Power Reel" by Craig Berman

"Clothing Rack" by Brendan Timmins & Mark Grattan

"Thorn Ceiling Lamp" by Alex Valich for BSB

"Portable Candelabra" by Carrie Solomon

New York Design Week 2010: Cite goes America

For the New York Design Week, the Cite curators Alissia Melka-Teichroew and Jan Habraken had created a 400 square feet "skeleton house" in the Cite shop that they filled with a selection of current work made by renowned and emerging international designers and companies from many different countries and backgrounds, all currently living and working in the United States of America.

Shown above is the Terrarium lamp by Lindsey Adelman and below theJuxtaposed Power book shelf by Mike and Maaike. It is the second part of a series of curated bookshelves, bringing together 2,451 pages, 2,390 years, 2,251 wars, 432 revolutions and 90 empires as 7 books in 1 shelf. Seven of the world's most seminal texts on power and its relationship to the ordering of society are brought together and presented on the same level.

Above is the Folder Shelf by Daniel Goddemeyer.

The Taglieri cutting board is created by Matt Brown, having 3D-scanned his grandmother's very old wooden chopping board which had a big dent, created by the long term use of the round cutting plate. Brown then re-created the shape with a CNC machine and therefore mass-producing the useful traces of long term usage.

New York Design Week 2010: ICFF: MICA presents MICA

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) just won an ICFF Award for their stand in the Javits Centre. The project presented is called also MICA, standing for Material Inspired Concepts and Artifacts. The brief was to get inspiration from traditional natural materials that have been around since centuries and are therefore "proofed by history".

Dig, Shift, Make... Earthen Play is a natural toy kit designed by Leslie Giron and Heiji Jun, including digging tools, a storage box with a sifting screen bottom and bamboo molds, to introduce kids to play with dirt.

Twist, Push, Pull... by Stephanie Sevich and Pati Pogodzinski is an interactive multipurpose object, inspired by a clarinet which uses cork as a fastener.

With his project Making non-woven objects by Sitting, Sunny Chong created a felted bag by attaching a plastic bag filled with felting wool and soap to his car seat By sitting on this plastic bag during long car journeys, i.e. applying pressure to the wool fibre-soap mix by sitting on it, a felt bag was created.

The Natural Hemp Body Pillow (summer and winter version) is designed by Christi Chung. The Jute Spool Seat was created by Karine Sarkissian, using a traditional technique from Scandinavia.

The Green Wood Rocking Stool by Antoine Heath is a simple yet very sweet rocking chair made from green wood (as the name suggests).

Core77

New telepresence robot could use some help in the design department

We all understand the point of videoconferencing: You save money on flights and hotels, reduce your carbon footprint by traveling less, yadda yadda yadda. Systems like Cisco's TelePresence, above, are supposed to provide the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting without the jetlag (and, due to product placement, it's apparently good enough for the President of the United States on this season's 24). Videoconferencing is also a currently "static" experience, meaning it's usually done by people sitting at desks. Is that a problem?

A California-based company called Anybots thinks so, and thus they've developed a "telepresence robot" that is something like a webcam on wheels. The idea is that the user can remotely control the robot; for example, you could be sitting at a desk in California maneuvering this thing through a trade show in Chicago and interacting with people. It sounds exciting or at the very least interesting...until you see the design of the thing:

Uh--really?

Anybots' aim is low cost, so the devices will go for roughly $15,000 a pop as opposed to the six figures you'd need to get into a top-of-the-line teleconferencing system. And clearly, whatever money the company has saved on production of the 'bots was slashed from the design budget.

In any case, if you've got six minutes to spare here's a video explaining the concept. It will require some patience to view as there's both an echo effect and construction noises in the background:

via cnet

Getting space-saving furniture right: Resource Furniture

These days people bandy the term "space-saving" about in hopes it will make their product more attractive to us city dwellers, particularly since there are now more of us than there are rural dwellers. But much of the supposedly space-saving furniture I've seen merely transforms from one thing to another, often in a very clumsy way; to me those objects do two things poorly rather than one thing well, and their novelty outweighs their functionality.

One company I've found that truly "gets" space-saving is New-York-basedResource Furniture, which distributes Italian brand Clei and other European furniture manufacturers. (You probably recognize the name Clei from their much-blogged orange couch that transforms into bunk beds.) The products Resource Furniture offers have a high level of design and engineering, with no compromises; there are no lumpy futon mattresses or "Grab lever A while holding switch B, then pull lever C" complications. The engineering is completely invisible, as it ought to be, the transformations do not require science backgrounds to execute, and each piece serves each of its dual functions as well as if it were a standalone. On top of that, they look good.

As seen up top, Ron Barth, President of Resource Furniture (along with Trade Account Manager Challie Stillman) took some time out to give Core77 a personal showroom demo. I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite out of all the stuff they showed us, but that hydraulic desk at 3:07 and the mind-blowing cabinet at 5:38 would probably make top of the list!

Core77

News of New York Design Week 2010

New York Design Week 2010: PORTAL/ 767825

Core-fave Subports, a text-to-buy retail platform aimed at helping artists and designers sell their stuff without needing four walls, a roof and a cash register, is ever present during this year's design week, partnering with Fair Folks & A Goat, the Joey Roth Sounds Like Show, Uncomfortable Conversations, and CITE Goes America. Many objects from these shows come with codes, allowing you to purchase them securely and on the spot with your cell phone. We love this—with Subports, exhibition spaces hybridize with retail spaces, helping young designers sell work while upping their visibility.

Subports' just-published first catalog is one of the more fun publications being tossed around at openings. Named Portal/76825 after their SMS number, the pamphlet indexes the newest Subports offerings with images, descriptions, and purchase codes. Many of these come directly out of Design Week, so it also makes for a nice souvenir. Pick one up at any of the Subports partner shows mentioned above. Or get in touch with them if you've got ideas for more retail experiments with SMS.

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New York Design Week 2010: Favorites from Design Deutschland

Design Deustchland's bright orange booth at ICFF was a big improvement on last year's. Instead of being arranged by category and hung on the wall, the objects were spread out in mini spaces that felt like small rooms, with lamps on tables, chairs on desks, and the odd car here and there.

The show encompassed both established companies and young designers. These weren't differentiated in layout, but the objects in prototype stage were marked with a tag that said "Looking for a Producer." Below, a few of our favorites from that category (like Slot, the dining table complete with Winter Wonderland centerpiece, by Matthias Ries Design Office and Studio Hausen's UDO Chair, a snap-together aluminum lawn chair).

UDO by Studio Hausen
Jörg Höltje (Studio Hausen) presents the UDO, an into four elements dismountable tube-chair. No additional procedures like welding, sanding or polishing are needed, as well as expensive tooling costs. All four elements can be customized coloured within a certain colour range and connected with blind riveting and screws. The dismounted UDO can be packed cost efficiently in a flat-pack and can be assembled by the customer himself.

Slot by Matthias Ries Design Office
Besides the classical linoleum bord Slot convinces due to its unreckoned leg construction. Their design provides structural strength in vertical, horizontal and diagonal directions, which additionally helps to strut the table. Due to additional corner caps the table can be easily color customized. For the Design Germany exhibition a special one-off with a little model scenery has been created. It plays with peoples perceptions and assumptiuons.

Henry Grid Rack by Kilian Schindler
The design of the hallstand is not unlike the trelliswork used for training garden plants, but in this case it is the tools, items of clothing and accessories that clutter up this powder-coated steel frame. The culmination of this assembly is a set of boxes made from different materials. Their purpose is to accommodate even the smallest of objects.

Bell Light by Sebastian Herkner
It's a luminaire inspired by spotlights and reflectors with changeable lampshades. This are made of copper or textile to influence the atmosphere, temperature and colour of light.

Miss Maple by Elisa Strozyk
The pendant lamp "Miss Maple" is showing the use of a familiar material in an unconventional way. We usually experience wood as a plain surface, but here it is broken down into a grid of triangles. This makes a flexible lampshade which can be transformed manually in three-dimensional ways. While the lamp generates warm light at night the surface outside becomes more evident with daylight and turns the lamp into sculptural object.

New York Design Week 2010: Student work at ICFF

Each year the ICFF invites design schools worldwide to submit student projects for juried review, selecting the best submissions for display at the fair. This year six schools had work on display; ArtFuture, Konstfact, Maryland Institute College of Art, Parson The New School for Design, Pratt Institute and Yale.

The work explored a range of subjects and themes and included housewares, toys and lighting in addition to furniture. Shown above are Neon Candlesticks, by Catherine Merrick,part of Pratt's Empathy for Culture project. The piece is inspired by the neon signage from Merrick's hometown of Las Vegas.

More pics after the jump.

At top, the Pratt Institute booth at the ICFF. Below is a set of acrylic color wheels, designed as a kinetic toy to teach the basic of color theory, part of the Parachute line of learning toys.

A student discusses the Yale School of Architecture's booth with a show visitor. The title of the installation is The Chair as Crucible, and students explored various essentials of architecture through the form of a chair. At bottom is one of the projects on display, a two-person conversation loveseat rendered in wood.

The Button Table, by Olga Prozorova, is part of the ArtFuture Design School installation. This piece explores scale, and uses the traditional Russian form of the mattryoska as the legs, and thread, of a table-sized button.

The Nucs are a bath toy in the form of a family. Kids will be delighted as they fill each character with water and watch them pee the liquid out through gender-specific openings. Part of the Flow exhibit from students at Parsons.

New York Design Week 2010: Endcap of all endcaps - LZF Lighting

The furniture fair typically hosts a ton of "veneer lighting" (most of it's pretty nice, actually), but LZF's floor-to-ceiling installation at the end of the Spain section was positively exuberant. Most of the pieces are by Luis Eslava Studio (their Agatha hanging lamp is particularly beautiful), and evoke one of those giant gift ribbons atop a car in an automobile ad. (Which would actually make some sense, given that this is the Javits Center.)

New York Design Week 2010: Core77's Kick-Ass Kick-Off Party Photos!

Core77 kicked off New York Design Week in full force last night at the Gershwin Hotel. The first 200 guests received our limited-edition "Instant Designer Glasses" Photopaddle designed by Chicago-based Steven Haulenbeek, a super low-tech pocket sized camera-phone accessory guaranteed to up your cred at any design event.

We'll be giving out more today at the Javits Center and at the parties tonight if you can find one of the Core77 bloggers. There's a live feed of the latest pictures here and we'll be featuring the best shots on Core over the weekend!

Core77.com

Citroen Graphic Design Competition

Citroen is calling for designers to submit their own stylings for the new Citroen DS3.

Designers can submit their plans for a customised roof and dashboard design for the vehicle.

The selected design will be put into production, available in 2011 as part of a special edition.

The entries will be judged by a prestigious panel of experts from the worlds of design, art and media including senior representatives from GQ, the Cartier Foundation and Louis Vuitton.

Deadline for entries is July 4, 2010.

Dexigner.com

Dell's Bamboo Packaging Is Now Compostable Too

Compostable packaging is shaping up to be the next big trend in sustainable product design.

First SunChips rolled out the first 100% compostable chip bag earlier this year, and now Dell has announced that its bamboo packaging, used as cushioning in its laptops and certain netbooks, is officially compostable.

Dell began using the bamboo cushions last year as part of the company's plan to integrate sustainable packaging into its supply chain.

"We previously used oil-based products like styrofoam and polyethylene as cushioning, but we heard from our customers that they were interested in smaller packaging and recycled or organic materials," explained Oliver Campbell, Dell's Senior Manager of Global Packaging.

Dexigner.com

Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010

Once considered a "hard" city, Seoul is making strides toward becoming a "soft" city.

Seoul is about to be reborn as a soft city by embracing design concepts that will redefine its urban environment with an emphasis on themes centering on green, blue, history and human.

The Seoul Cycle Design Competition will be held under the theme, "cycling with design: seoul style," and is part of Seoul's city-wide effort at improving its design brand and image.

The primary goal of the competition is to help build a design oriented city that focuses on its people.

The competition is divided into three categories: cycle design, cycle fashion & accessories design, and cycling infrastructure.

All three categories emphasize environment-friendly ideas, with the hope that the contest will contribute to establishing a healthier cycling culture.

Deadline for submissions is July 5, 2010.

Dexigner.com