October (Five Weeks that Exhausted the Design World)

We’ve long since accepted that there are more design weeks in a year than actual weeks.

But we still can’t accept the poor coordination between the various festivals.

June, July, August.Basically nothing.

September, October. Every day

Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Budapest, Istanbul, Vienna, Eindhoven, Leipzig, Lodz, Zürich…. Every 2 years Orgatec in Cologne.

And in the midst of all this Berlin sprouts Qubique.

Hallo!

We however have no choice. Or at least little choice.

Our October 2011 tour begins in Vienna, without question one of our favourite design weeks. An obvious highlight is the annual Passionswege which this year features, amongst others Tomás Alonso, Tomas Kral and Uli Budde. Plus this year we hope to do a little more research on Michael Thonet.  Most of his old haunts have long since been bulldozed; but we’re hoping to find one or the other vestige of his time.

On the way back from Vienna we’ll be stopping of at Moormann in Aschau in Chiemgau. But more on that later.

The next festival highlight is Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. If we’re honest we don’t find Eindhoven as relaxed and pleasant a festival as Vienna; something we, perhaps irrationally, blame on the certain smugness we detect emanating from the Design Academy. That said, experience shows that Eindhoven often has the better products than one finds in Vienna; which as a festival tends to lean more towards concepts and design as a problem solver.

We will of course let you know.

Then things get really hectic with Qubique in Berlin being closely followed by Designers’ Open here in Leipzig.

If we’re honest we don’t really understand why the organisers of Qubique have chosen to set up their show in the middle of the busiest period for European design events.

Its a bit like Red Bull deciding to establish a football team in Leipzig; when Sachsen is saturated with football teams. Rather than in a sporting wildernesses such as Niedersachsen.

In principle we’re all in favour of a high quality designer furniture trade fair in Germany – IMM for us being a show on its way out in that respect.

But October!

We imagine the timing will be a central feature of our reports from Berlin.

That and the question in how far Vitra‘s late decision to attend validates Qubique. Or is it just a brief liaison in an Orgatec free year that happens to fits in nicely with the sales launch of the GStar/Prouvé collection?

Older readers will know what we think.  But also that we will give both parties the chance to respond.

Designers’ Open is, obviously, our home festival and with its move to the Baumwollspinnerei promises to be little more relaxed than last years hand-to-hand combat through the corridors of the Hôtel de Pologne.

And then on November 1st its off to Zürich and Neue Räume, Switzerland’s biggest designer furniture fair – and a great opportunity to assess the situation of  the Swiss producers following the Swiss Francs strong summer and the associated export problems.

And yes on the way back we will stop and take some squint photos of the VitraHaus.

As for Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Budapest, Istanbul and  Lodz. We’ll get to you next year. Hopefully.

Reports, photos, interviews and features from all festivals will be posted here.

Pretty much how our October is going to look.....