“The placing of foam mattresses, spring mattresses, and the like, on bed frames made of wood or metal is familiar”, notes a July 1966 patent application, and it was. However, it continues, “bed frames of this type are heavy, continually take up one and the same space in a room, must be dismantled if they are to be moved to a new location, and represent a major obstacle in context of cleaning the bedroom.”1
Which, certainly in the early 1960s, they were and did.
But what is one to do?
Verner Panton had an idea.
An idea that may not count amongst his better known projects, but is a project that allows one to approach a better understanding of the work and career of Verner Panton…….
Qu’est-ce que le design?
What is design?
A question as old as the word itself, arguably older. But one with an answer?
In an attempt to approach one the Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris asked Charles Eames, Verner Panton, Roger Tallon, Joe Colombo and Fritz Eichler, Qu’est-ce que le design?……
Escalating tension between the nuclear powers, public discourses on gender equality/respect, racial equality/respect, religious equality/respect, thousands displaced through war and conflict in South East Asia, destabilising wars and conflicts in the Middle East, warnings about irreversible environmental stability and the long-term habitability of earth, thousands on the streets demanding change…..
And the situation in 1968 wasn’t very different.
With the exhibition 68. Pop und Protest the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg explore the relationships between the social and political developments of the late 1960s and the cultural manifestations of the period……
According to the German philologist, mythologist, folklorist and definer of the Germanic Umlaut, Jacob Grimm, an old belief states that the Cuckoo never sings before the 3rd of April; and, “should you have money in your pouch when you hear him sing the first time, you will be well off all that year, if not, you will be short the whole year” 1
Much like the cuckoo, our five new architecture & design exhibitions recommendations for April 2018 begin with their songs after April 3rd; and should you have money in your pouch when in their vicinity, and use it to visit one, we can’t guarantee a year of financial wealth, but they all sound like providing not only a couple of hours entertainment, but a lifetime of joy through helping you develop your understanding of architecture and design, and thereby the world that surrounds you….
As regular readers will be well aware, here at smow blog HQ we’re very much of the opinion that fashion isn’t design. Never was. Never will be. Design, and without wanting to wade too deep into the definition quagmire, arose from applied craft/applied art, fashion is applied craft/applied art. And so while unquestionably a creative discipline, isn’t design. Neither is Graphic.
Design can however inspire and influence fashion, past decades recalling numerous occasions of fashion houses being motivated by designers’ works, a particularly apposite recent example being the news that Swiss fashion house Akris have based their Spring/Summer 2018 collection on the works of Alexander Girard, news which motivated us to retrieve a few classic items from the smow blog wardrobe……
If the Light + Building trade fair in Frankfurt is home to exhibitors the majority of us have never heard
Parallel to the exhibition Konstantin Grcic – Panorama, the Vitra Design Museum is revisiting perhaps the daddy of all explorations
It is almost certainly more by chance than design, but in the week that Verner Panton would have celebrated his
“Wood will be driven out of living spaces; even metal and glass, although much newer in domestic situations, are losing
“My, my, my, Delilah! Why, why, why, Delilah!”
The morning of Friday September 27th 2013 was one of those misty autumn occasions that cause SANAA’s immense new Vitra Factory Building in Weil am Rhein to merge, almost unseen, with the grey background. Even Herzog & de Meuron’s new Basel Messe complex was reduced to nothing more grand than a continuation of the uncaring monotonous sky. The glitzing, shimmering palace of high summer just the weak shadow of a memory.
And so it was perhaps fitting that the Vitra Design Museum choose this dank September morn to open their latest exhibition, “Lightopia”, an exhibition devoted to light.
For today was a clear warning, in the coming months we will all be in need of a little light.
At the same time as he was developing the Ant Chair, Arne Jacobsen created a one-off range of office furniture
On Wednesday February 29th the Hofmobiliendepot Vienna open their 2012 spring exhibition. We had hoped to make it to the
If purple is the second colour of mourning; then citrus colours are unquestionably the second colour(s) of Christmas. Be it
Back in the summer we ran a highly entertaining “Summertime in Dark Lime” Panton Chair Cocktail competition. The judging was
For a publication renowned for the quality of its authors, the Spiegel press department write press releases that repeat themselves
Last August we made an ill-fated trip to Copenhagen and CODE 10. A trip that caused us to ponder the
The winner the Dark Lime Vitra Panton Chair Summer Cocktail Competition is Alessandro Barison. Congratulations !!! His “Spritz Upgrade” –
London based design studio Barber Osgerby stands as a testament to the fact that high quality work will always win
Until July 31st we are giving readers the chance to win a limited edition Dark Lime Panton Chair. In effect
Summer. Sun. Cocktails. In order to allow you to enjoy this combination to the full (smow) are giving away a
For all those looking to make their summer balcony even more exclusive, Vitra are currently offering the Panton Chair in
One of the most famous – and arguably professionally relevant – phases in Verner Panton’s life was his journeys through
Ida Engholm, forskningslektor ved Dansk Center for Designforskning er kurator for den akutuelle Pantonudstilling på den danske ambassade i Berlin.
I 1962 mødtes Verner Panton og Marianne Pherson Oertenheim under en ferie på Tenerife, og to år senere blev parret
This past Friday the Danish Embassy in Berlin opened an exhibition devoted to the work of Verner Panton – from