The Historia Supellexalis E for England

England

An Island; A Notion; A Context

According to the Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus, air is the source of everything.

And whereas in the intervening 2500 years we have come to better understand the true nature, character and properties of air, as the exhibtion Design on Air at the Centre d’innovation et de design Grand-Hornu illustrates, air remains a very potent, stimulating, and protean creative force.

Design on Air, Centre d'innovation et de design au Grand-Hornu

Milan Furniture Fair 2018, at least amongst those more design led manufacturers, is/was largely about consolidation, largely about new materials, new colours, slight changes to existing objects, with one or the other family proudly presenting their latest members. Which is no complaint, far from it, Milan’s speciality traditionally being the new for the sake of the new, that misguided belief that one has to present something new every year. You don’t. Present something new when you’ve got something new to say, something new to contribute, something meaningful.

Largely ≇ exclusively and there were a few new projects to be found which did have something new to say, did have something new to contribute, were something meaningful. If not enough for a handful. Sure we could have added another project just to compete the quintet, there being no shortage of candidates to choose from, but then just as we don’t expect manufacturers to publish for the sake of the new rather for the quality, so we don’t publish for the sake of the five….

As ever we didn’t see everything, have without question missed things we shouldn’t have missed, things we will regret missing later, apologies all round, but, and with that in mind, our Milan Furniture Fair 2018: High Four!!

Milan Furniture Fair 2018 High Five

Visitors to the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig have long been able to rest on Jasper Morrison’s Vitra Bench, an object liberally distributed throughout the museum complex.

With the exhibition Thingness the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig offers visitors a deeper insight into Jasper Morrison’s oeuvre, and creative processes.

Jasper Morrison - Thingness @ Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig

Thingness. Noun. [ˈthiŋ-nəs] The quality or state of objective existence or reality1

Thingness. Exhibition. [ˈthiŋ-nəs] A comprehensive Jasper Morrison retrospective currently on show at the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin.

Jasper Morrison. Thingness @ Bauhaus Archiv Berlin

Cloverleaf modular sofa system by Verner Panton through Verpan, and distributed to airports via Vitra, as seen at Passenger Terminal Expo 2016 Cologne

If the Light + Building trade fair in Frankfurt is home to exhibitors the majority of us have never heard

Thinking Mans Chair by Jasper Morrison, as seen at Thingness, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

On February 5th 1916 Cabaret Voltaire opened in Zürich; consequently, 2016 sees the city celebrate the 100th anniversary of arguably

Fionda table for Mattiazzi, Ormiale Bordeaux & Bac Armchair for Cappellini, as seen at the exhibition A&W Designer of the Year 2016 - Jasper Morrison, Passagen Cologne

2016 sees the 20th anniversary of German architecture and design magazine A&W’s “Designer of the Year Award.” Following on from

Ivan Argote Time is Money

The biggest, and certainly highest budget, new architecture and design exhibition open in May 2015 is without question the World

……and continued over Budapest and on to Berlin – where amongst other delights we partook of the exhibitions Sensing the

Schrill Bizarr Brachial Das Neue Deutsche Design der 80er Jahre Bröhan Museum Berlin Rocking Chair Stiletto Studios

“Marcel Breuer seeing a pair of bicycle handle-bars decided to make chairs using the same industrial process. The new world

Vitra Charles and Ray Eames EA 101, 102 104

Older readers will remember how last year one of the Vitra Senior Manager’s quoted from this blog in his pre-fair

Milan Design Week 2013 The Mattiazzi Collection

For us one of the highlights of Saloni Milano 2013 was/is Italian manufacturer Mattiazzi. And not just because they have

V&A Museum London British Design 1948-2012 Innovation in the Modern Age architecture

At the end of March the V&A Museum London opened the exhibition “British Design 1948-2012. Innovation in the Modern Age”,

At the 2011 Milan Furniture Fair Vitra are presenting a range of new products from designers including Konstantin Grcic, Antonio

orgatec 2010 vitra

Although the public face of Vitra is unquestionably their “Home Collection”, for decades the backbone of the company has been

Amongst the plethora of new products launched by Vitra at Orgatec 2010 in Cologne was HAL, a new shell chair

The (smow)blog team outing to the cardboard furniture workshop was coupled with a visit to the current Vitra Design Museum

You know how it is. You arrive early in the office….. Make a coffee….. Turn the computer on…….. Check out

When asked by the (smow)boss yesterday why we appeared to be doing so little work, quoting Dieter Rams we replied

On Saturday 20.03.2010 the latest Vitra Design Museum exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” officially

We’re indebted to Dave Report for drawing our attention to the forthcoming Jasper Morrison exhibition in Stockholm. Organised by the

Today is World Usability Day. We do admit to be being more than a touch sceptical about the motivations that

On 03.11.1989 the Vitra Design Museum opened. On 09.11.1989 the Berlin Wall “fell”. Coincidence? Almost certainly. But while the Vitra

Every month Jasper Morrison sends a photo to the Vitra Magazine. And every month Vitra publish it. Every month we