2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Artists, Parvez Taj & James Dewulf Collaborate For ICFF 08'.

Two creative minds have come together recently to produce a progressive, urban and eco friendly table set to debut at this Spring's ICFF in NY.
Using innovative printing technologies with UV light to cure eco-friendly inks, the cement table is manufactured locally, a method which reduces massive amounts of fuel consumption often used by large quarries producing natural stones.
Taj, a visual artist has teamed up with Dewulf a concrete master and functional artist to create an edgy, functional and earth friendly piece that is worth stopping by in person to check out if you are in NY for ICFF.
Taj and Dewulf can be found at booth #111

Hayon and Wanders at Milan Design Week 2008

With all the Earth Day events and green hype, have we forgotten about the world's largest furniture fair that just occurred last week in Milan? It was amazing. I have to thank Kay from Wallpaper Magazine for providing hundreds of photos of the show for me and all of the readers. Unfortunately, space is at a premium, so I've distilled the photos down to five. Three from Marcel Wander's Poliform show called My House of Dreams and two from Jaime Hayon's Bisazza Home Showroom.

Both Designers, I think, are projecting a much more baroque and fantastical future for contemporary design for years to come. Their work is predominated by white, smooth finishes with punctuations of color and shiny metals like gold. For lack of a better analogy, I would even say their styles, which were the most popular shows of the year, feel like stepping into Alice in Wonderland. Only time will prove if either designer's visions will be fully realized in mass consumer products, already, both designers make a large host of beutiful products that exude similar whimsy. To see  and buy some of these designer's great stuff, check out:

• Hayon Studio
• MarcelWanders.com

New on 2Modern: Droog! Different and fun, Droog's products are wide-ranging; from Doorbells to Swings, Tablecloths to Parasols. Based in Amsterdam, Droog prides itself in "creating innovative concepts that change perspective."

Rethinking the Bedside Table

Tight on space in your bedroom?  Bring your bedside table off the floor and onto the wall with these two new bedside shelves from the Swedish company Maze International.  It is the goal of Maze to "work towards an upgraded view of today's furniture through constant questioning of existing views and solutions."  Maze incorporates ecological materials into all of their designs.

Nite Bedside Table

Kubo Shelf

The Wood Co-Op

While in Vancouver we made daily trips to Granville Island, visiting the great Public Market and exploring numerous shops featuring some of British Columbia's most talented designers.  One of our favorites was The Wood Co-Op.

The Wood Co-Op is Canada's premiere showcase for quality handcrafted contemporary design. The Gallery opened in 2000, showing the work of just 34 artisans. Today the Gallery features the work of over 150 of British Columbia's best woodworkers, earning a reputation as the definitive venue for heirloom quality wooden objects.

Discarded, Recovered, Repurposed

"SCRAPILE is the collaborative work of designers Bart Bettencourt and Carlos Salgado. Seeking to create a positive environmental impact with their work, these two have developed a unique method of collecting and repurposing discarded scraps of wood from New York's woodworking industry."  No two designs are ever quite the same, due to the varying wood-grain of the reclaimed wood used in each piece.

MASH Studios

MASH Studios has launched on 2Modern! The LAX series from MASH Studios is unique furniture for the home that was designed to be both beautiful and technically sound. With no visible hardware, each piece remains sleek and modern in any space within your home or office. The Platform Bed has its own hidden storage within the optional headboard, while the powder coated white aluminum sliding doors on the Wall Mounted Shelf and Entertainment Shelf provide clean lined storage as well as contemporary beauty.

60 Grit Design

60 Grit Design founder Amy Stein believes that good design is much more than clean lines.  The Vancouver-based designer and architect feels that "each project begins with an inquiry; be it material, structural or conceptual."

Materials used in their custom pieces include birch, maple and apple wood, as well as nickel aluminum steel and felt.

One From Wallpaper's Design Awards: Cubic Meter Shelving by Arik Levy

Wallpaper recently came out with their design awards issue, and one piece that just immediately popped out at me was the One Square Meter by Arik Levy. This piece is one in a treasure trove of Mr. Levy's pieces that shows true genius. It is a modular shelving system that can break out into any form you want, or it can be compressed into its original shape of a one square meter cube (thus, the name). The finishes in the original collection came in black and natural oak and was limited to a production of 10. However, it appears that Paul Smith has bought the rights to make this piece and will be going into larger production. I checked the Paul Smith website for price and availability, but no information is currently available.

The District

I never thought my home town would look good as a table ? 

Well, it does. Thanks to Justin Couch's district table.

A coffee table in the form of the geographical borders of the District of Columbia, emphasizing the incompleteness of the form while using that same incompleteness to provide function and utility.

The table comes in white and black formica and a walnut ply. A must have for any Washingtonian living abroad.

Thanks to KB for the find in the DCist via AT.
--sdotg--