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‘Colour’ or ‘color’, whichever, whatever, it’s back. Having gazed at a good many sites, blogs and trade shows over the last couple of months we believe there is a very strong trend for a greater use of color.
It’s evident in outdoors furniture such as the Kho chairs we blogged about and other products such as the Amor Sofa (above) and wall papers from Black Crow Studios.
And a confident use of color is also evident as part of the other trend we spotted – the return of wall paper. OK, so it never really went away but we are seeing more small specialist producers such as Camilla Meijer (below), Timorous Beasties and the aforementioned Black Crow Studios. The greater use of digital print technology is a factor in this, of course, although a number of producers tell us they prefer silk screening and other traditional printing techniques.
Wall paper is, of course, a great option for clients who would rather be moving or remodeling, but are hamstrung by the economic climate and the housing market. People only succumb to belt tightening and a zeitgeist of moribund pessimism for so long. Sooner or later they want to cheer themselves up. And if the move to be bigger home or the new wing isn’t possible the feature sofa might be. Failing that, pillows, paint, lights and wallpaper will do the job.
We’ve noticed a trend amongst designers as well. You seem to be more willing than ever to look at how you do business, to find new ways of discovering and meeting client’s desires in a cost effective and profitable way. Which is, of course, what Modenus is all about. There is also a keen awareness of the need to get out and find work. The days of sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring have gone. Anyone else remember this one?
There is an awful lot of lighting out there, and much of it is very good. But the sheer volume makes it hard for any one product line to stand out. In our opinion the use of hand blown glass makes the difference for JGoodDesign. The process creates a product which is somehow lighter, more alive than mass produced alternatives.
You can see how the glass is produced on the company web site. I was left marveling at the fragility of an object forged in extreme heat with the gentlest, almost intimate of human interventions breathing life into the molten glass.
It is hard to know which of their products to focus on. There are chandeliers, pendant lamps, wall sconces, lamps for floors, tables, walls and more, even the occasional vase. But it is their chandeliers that really do stand out as being fresh, elegant and playful in an arena where much is heavy handed and, somehow, takes itself too seriously.
So, the lights, all of which are hand made to order, are available in a variety of colors, finishes and light sources. Each is bespoke, individual and signed by the artist.
This is Strata. Every element is unique. Day light reflects from it, the light sources illuminate each globe in a slightly different way. The glass is layered when blown creating the internal stripe.
Here’s a close up
Beautiful when lit, beautiful when not.
Aqua is, in someways, similar. In this case the bubbles are made by dropping blobs of glass onto the molten glass and sucking it in.
This is Cyla. The elements can be made in any variation of lengths, widths, colors and finishes. A focal point on or off. Playful elegant. and very contemporary.
And finally, Velle. Once again, all hand blown and available in a variety of sizes, colors, finishes and lighting options. This manages to be retro (50s/60s/70s?) and very modern as well. JGoodDesign, a light touch but not a soft touch.
Not just the writing, but great swirls of colour, images of old Venice, Marilyn Monroe and anything else that is unexpected, bold and made to work.
Black Crow Studios was formed by the very wonderful Tracy Hiner. Her confident creativity is evident in every inch of her wall murals. She cheerfully rejects the traditional repetition in favour of something somewhat bolder. She has a flair for color, shape and visual texture. She does things others would not dare, and gets away with it. We seem to have written a lot of blogs about wall paper recently. That’s OK, this isn’t wallpaper, in the words of the great Eddie Cochran – it’s something else.
And this isn’t for everyone, as Tracey says, it is for people who want to have something unique, created specifically for them. We’ve put more images in this blog than we usually do. As is probably obvious, we love Black Crow and couldn’t decide what to leave out. Enjoy.
How cool is this? Tracey has a good eye for great typography. And she is right, it belongs on the wall, as big as possible. That said she was selling limited edition framed versions on her blog. Not sure if there are any left. Doubt it somehow.
By Black Crow standards this is understated. Ironically reminiscent of a traditional wallpaper.
Is that old Venice?
Cony Island? The old Pier in Brighton, England? The living room wall I want?
The images of print feel like autumn leaves to us. And when did you last see black and white used with such impact?
OK, prepare yourselves, it’s going to get loud!
By artist Philip Andrews I would book into any hotel which promised me something this dramatic. And next time someone offers to show you the wallpaper in their bedroom, well maybe… And Philip’s work is also available as framed prints from Black Crow Studios.
Also by Philip Andrews – Wild. Hard to know what else to say! Except that the restricted color range helps it work and we love how fluid it feels, almost sliding down the wall as you look at it. OK, it is never that hard to find something to say.
So that’s Tracy Hiner, her artist friend Philip Andrews and Black Crow studios. Do have a look at their site Tracey’s blog and her facebook page. She is an antidote to all that is predictable, pretentious, boring and dull. You know you’ve got a great client when you find yourself wondering if they might be up for a spot of Black Crow!
This is not a comfortable hotel. There are no TVs in the rooms, no fridges, no coffee making facilities, sometimes nowhere to hang your clothes. Not a trouser press in sight. And beware, the quoted prices are per person, not per room. That said, go with a sense of adventure, book the right room and you may well fall in love with it. The Atelier Sul Mare is in the tiny fishing town of Castel di Tusa in Sicily. Its a good hours drive from Palermo, the beautiful, but in parts neglected and decaying city, where driving is a blood sport and eating a passion. The town itself contains little more than a very good restaurant serving very fresh fish, a stony beach and a church.
The hotel’s owners commissioned artists to design and make the rooms. They haven’t held back. You can watch videos and see photos of all twenty, along with achingly pretentious descriptions that we are hoping suffered in the translation, pm the hotel website. But these are three of our favorites.
This is the Prophet Room designed and built by Darion Bellezza, Adele Cambria and Antonio Presti in honour of Pier Paolo Pasolini.
To enter the room you push the heavy metal door, inscribed with a poem by Pasolini, which falls like a drawbridge. You walk through a Labyrinth to reach the room. Not sure if fire regs apply on Sicily! The room itself is lined with mud and clay. The bed is part of the concrete floor.
At one end is a glass wall resembling a cinema screen. Under the glass stage in front is sand, allegedly from the scene of Pasolini’s murder. The girl with long hair wasn’t in the room when I was there. Oh well…
The bathroom is also intended to be a memory of his demise, crushed in a car. The walls are covered with pipes which issue water to be blown by the giant wind tunnel style fan on the ceiling into a maelstrom. The effect is intended to be like walking through a car wash. If you are brave enough to try this, one tip – remember to take the loo roll out of the bathroom first!
The Nest, designed by Paolo Lcaro, is a more peaceful room, with a cocoon like concrete bed adorned with a cover which resembles a giant birds wing.
The window allows the sounds and air from the coast into your room. In fact, as we couldn’t work out how to close it also let in a noisy wind and more than a little rain.
Finally, a room which I wasn’t able to use, because it was drying out. Designed by Raul Ruiz, the Tower of Sigismondo is a gloomy black tower with a giant white revolving bed in the middle.
The roof of the tower can be opened so that the occupants of the bed are exposed to the sky and the stars above.
All of which is very romantic unless there is a rain storm, in which case…
Definitely worth experiencing, inspiring even, and like the rest of Sicily, passionate but unpredictable.
The ICFF editors gave molo a “best display”, yet again, for their booth at this year’s show. I’m finding it hard to blog about them without sounding like a love sick teenager. Their product is unusual, creative, fascinating. Their people at ICFF welcoming, friendly and playful. Their promotional materials are things of beauty, their website a delight. Sorry. I really can’t think of anything to temper my enthusiasm. Except, maybe their insistence on their brand names being spelled in lower case with no initial capital. I hate that, but I forgive them. I will even comply.
Based in Vancouver, Canada, molo is led by Stephanie Forsythe, Todd MacAllen and Robert Pasut. They design and create walls, seats, lights and all sorts of other extraordinary things. You can see their work in MOMA (New York’s Museum of Modern Art) and you can see it wherever exhibition or event organisers have the imagination to use it.
This is modular softwall plus LED lights. When we talked with molo at the ICFF they told us that their stand arrived in a few flat parcels. Was it hard work assembling it? No, it was fun. It comes in heights of up to 10 foot and lengths of up to 15 ft. You can pull it out, squash it up, pile it up, leave gaps. And there is, apparently, no problem with an exhibition full of people running their hands over the very tactile surfaces.
This is their soft seating. Surprisingly comfortable and solid. Paper,of course with some clever magnetic stuff going on.We tested those at the completely molo clad, poor excuse of a bar (that being thanks to the lack of beverages aside from soft drinks and overpriced beer) at ICFF.
They also make it in long strips -
How you use this is limited only by your imagination, and maybe the space available. The honeycomb structure gives it strength and it is, according to molo, resilient and long lasting. And in case you were wondering, it is flame resistant. The picture shows the unbleached brown paper version. It is also available in white paper and in a non woven polyethylene material.
These are called ‘loungers’. Sit lots of people round the edges or curl up in the middle.
And here we have urchin softlights. You can pull them into all sorts of shapes and used in a cluster they are reminiscent of clouds on a spring day.
OK, I’ll stop gushing now. I know it is embarrassing, but I am in love with molo and want to go back to the days when I organised exhibition stands just so that I can use their products. We would love to hear from people who have done creative things with them. Somewhere, someone, has used them in a domestic setting. Any intelligence on that anywhere?
Camilla Meijer was sitting amongst the Brits at the recent ICFF in New York. That’s fair enough, she is based in London. She is, however, a Swede who says she is inspired by England, its gardens and its architecture. Her wallpapers and fabrics are fresh and stylish and very bright. She says she aims to bring the outdoors inside. There is probably no truth in the rumours that Camilla will soon be marketing her own brand of sunglasses. Here’s a few of our favorites
All papers are available in a roll width of 46.5cm, are printed on 150gsm fleece, have appropriate certificates for being anti -inflammable, UV stable, UV light proof. Self adhesive backing is available at no extra cost. They are suitable for wet areas. I’m sure that’s another opportunity for a joke but I can’t think of anything at all appropriate.
This is one of the designs from Camilla’s design portfolio. Please don’t use it on every wall of a very small room! (Why not Tim? Go crazy everyone, is my opinion!V)
Slightly less bright, this is another from Camilla’s portfolio. How good would this look on a feature wall? Probably not opposite one of her other designs, mind you.
And if you are wondering about scale, this is a wall full of Poppy.
And the same wall full of Rose. There is either something digital going on here or lots of redecorating. Camilla’s web site features the same wall with each of her other papers. These are spectacular when used with care. Actually, these wall papers a great argument for professional design. Get their use right and you’ve got something special. Get it wrong and you have a migraine.
We promised to blog about our favourite British designs at New York’s ICFF . We’ve already posted about the bold fabrics and furniture from Corita Rose. And we can’t help wondering how many of those sofas they have left. The other products we are featuring all share a confident but quirky use of color.
Glasgow based Timerous Beasties produce bright, surreal textiles and wallpapers, a style described on their own website as “William Morris on acid”. Named after a line in the Robbie Burn’s poem, To a Mouse, they are brave and confident in their images which will delight some and repel others. They typify an approach which, rather than trying to appeal to all, simply puts forward what they believe in. They won the ICFF editors best wall coverings award, a decision we applaud.
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Iguana is typical of their work. It features birds, iguanas, possibly deadly nightshade and pineapples. Who could possible say why but the result is stunning.It is part of their Solid Wall Coverings range aimed at the contract market. All patterns are digitally printed and can be scaled to fit precisely any wall
It is produced on 460gsm fabric solid backed vinyl, equivalent to US type 2. Fired rated to BS 476 Part 6 Class 0, European Class B. It also including an active biocide against a host of micro organisms including MRSA but probably not iguanas. Sold by the meter.
This is White Moth, sold with the same specifications as Iguana. It is beautiful, strange and maybe a bit frightening.
Napoleon is available in four color combinations and comes as 10 meter long roles 520mm wide. And you only really appreciate its impact when you see it used in a room.
Not for the faint hearted! Wonder if David Cronenberg or Kurt Neuman were an influence? (Note from Veronika: Ok now I’m feeling my skin crawl…)
This is Grande Thistle. With the same specs as Napoleon and also available in four color combinations. We love the way the designers have been bold with the size of the image, the colors, the subject matter and just about everything else.
Here it is used in one of the other colour combinations. Interesting that it seems to work well in a relatively small space full of furniture and accessories rather than the usual trick of using bold images in a big empty space.
Timerous Beasties also produce fabrics, pillows, lampshades and some furniture. Much of it using the same images as their papers. This is Glasgow Toile.
Also available as fabric and paper, at first glance Glasgow Toile looks like 1800′s vistas but closer inspection reveals a nightmarish vision of contemporary Glasgow .
Timerous Beasties – confident, beautifully produced and challenging. And we are all richer for that.
Good to see all the nationally themed areas at ICFF last weekend. The Spanish had their tiles, the Germans had their precision, their engineering and, er, cars, and the Brits had elegantly articulated creativity by the the wheelbarrow load. And we think we spotted more than a little nervousness in the face of vastness and aggression of the American market.
We will be doing a round up of our favourite Brits at ICFF but, in the meantime, bright and bold Dorset based Corita Rose warrant a post of their own.
Corita Rose are only making 25 of these sofas so you may have to fight us for one. Set up just last year, they specialise in printing upholstery quality cotton velvets. This is their surprisingly durable Amor Sofa. Apart from being dragged halfway across the world, the sofa we saw at ICFF had served time in founder Caroline Ritchie’s own home and survived her family and children without visible damage or fading of those vibrant colours. Incidentally, the cushions are all reversible for minor mood adjustments, but be prepared, the mood is always bold. They are more than happy to ship to the States, Europe or elsewhere.
For State-side lovers of bright, bold design who are nervous about shipping furniture, Cortin Rose fabrics may be a good option. Look at these,
Yup, Fortune favours the Brave indeed. And we defy anyone to walk past and ignore these curtains, again, printed on silk. And finally from Cortina Rose, still quirky but, for them, almost understated,
Reversible pillows, they call them cushions, but lets not get into that right now, in two sizes, 40 cm and 60 cm square. Available in many colour combinations. Lovely.
We all seem to have our own Barcelonas. For some it’s about Gaudi, the unfinished Sagrada Famila Church and the park. For others it is Lionel Messie and his colleagues (if you need to Google that, don’t, you will be disappointed), for some its the beach, Las Ramblas, the food or even an obscure little bar by the harbour that only sells sausages and Cava. I wish I knew its name!
Barcelona has no shortage of attractions, no shortage of visitors and, fortunately, no shortage of fine hotels. The Mandarin Oriental is one of our favorites. Designed by Patricia Urquiola, fast becoming a super star designer whose CV reads like a top ten of cool - Foscarini, B&B, Alessi, Capellini, Knoll, Moroso, you get the picture, it’s cool, romantic and appropropriately Spanish.
Entering a Hotel should be full of drama and occasion. And this ramp, reminiscent of a drawbridge over a moat does it. And handy for all those bags on wheels everyone seems to love.
And at the top of the drawbridge you feel welcomed, safe and separate from the chaos of the City.
It’s behind you! Barcelona, that is. How romantic is this?
So maybe a swim in the seductively gentle, dark pool. Followed by…
dinner in the excellent restaurant. The bold but delicate design is a triumph especially in maintaining and framing the drama of the kitchen.
Detail from the bar. Why does this make us think of purses? So many things make us think of purses.
And then a discussion about the restaurant bill with the Maitre d’.
And, of course, to bed. Although, sorry to be picky, but I’ve never liked double beds with separate head boards. They feel like two beds shoved together. And there is something very unromantic about that. And we do like our beds to be romantic. Night everyone.
A few weeks ago I spoke to an architect who had asked me if I knew of some “cool architecture” he could go see while on a five hour layover in London on his way to an installation in Dubai. My first inclination was to tell him that a five hour layover in London wouldn’t allow him to do much more than get a cup of coffee at the Heathrow Starbucks, since the eternally congested city would surely make him risk missing his plane if he dared venture away from the airport and into the city proper for some sightseeing. But, ever the London aficionado, I devised a quicky tour of things I would do if I was only given five hours and wanted to get a glimpse of London. The sights I mentioned however did very little to impress him and had I looked at his portfolio first I would have known that the focus had to be on really edgy architecture, preferably something very suspended.
The architect I speak of is Robert Bernstein, an architect and designer with vision for large structures who is able to translate his sensibility into weightless designs for unique pieces of furniture and commercial displays.
The Millenium bridge, one of few suspended examples I could point out to Robert, was just as unceremoniously closed for two years as it had been opened since it was a bit too suspended at first and had swayed precariously in the London breeze.
Suspended in Soho, what a beautiful “barely there” quality
Interesting concept but how do you rock back and forth on your chair in order to drive everyone else crazy?
So clean and pure and lythe, but has anyone tested this one?
Ok now those are just great, really great, I mean Modenus-office-this-is-what-I-want great. Robert! Where? When? How much?
And finally so sublime I had to post two images….
…the “wave” desk, aptly named I think. There has to be an award for that, right?
