pencil bench by boex is made of 1,625 pencils, each of which is individually sprung. you can remove and use them, should an idea occur to you while you’re sitting on it.

twins: the funny sam boex and the good looking will boex

definitely worth taking a look at, is the okaystudio exhibition at the aram gallery. okaystudio is a collective of individual designers and this is their first curated exhibition. they are coming from different countries and met while studying at the royal college of art. I guess their intention is to present work in a combined context to reach more attention. but what’s so likable about it? the fact that it still looked like a student exhibition because of the samples and models of the workprocess, which were hanging on the ceiling.

under the same roof, the title of the exhibition

jordi canudas

tomas alonso

hiroko shiratori

raw edges

aram gallery

tuesday evening, phillips de pury gallery, london:

rare table lamp by gino sarfatti, model no 594, c. 1962

large three-arm wall light by serge mouille, 1950s

conoid bench by george nakashima, 1985

exterior light by le corbusier, 1960

set of ten door handles with lock plates by walter gropius and adolf meyer, 1922

unique bed with pair of bedside tables by gio ponti, late 1950s

wall light by gio ponti, 1959

some of this designers aren’t alive anymore and there is nobody who updates a website of dead people. but I linked the designers with information on what they have done or with biographies. walter gropius is linked with an audio archive of the bbc from 1968. I think it’s worth listening to.

yesterday mornig my day started with the a breakfast at the new established & sons studio in north london. we just had some little problems to find the studio because it’s in an area which seems to be not discovered. anyways the studio is great, we got a tea and some fruit sticks and the important part, a warm welcome from minnie from established & sons. I’ve alreday seen the new collection of established & sons, design and manufacturing company, in milan at the design week earlier this year but I will show you my favourites and an some impressions of the showroom.

torch light by sylvain willenz

minnia from established & sons

the new studio + raw edges by shay alkalay + industrial facility by sam hecht

future system by amanda levete

the new studio + exhibited collection

konvex mirror by sebastian wrong

surface table by terence woodgate and john barnard + frame chair by wouter scheublin

the surface table is available in the sizez: 4 x 1.3m rectangular and 2 x 1.1m elliptical – the best table ever which has a thickness of just 2mm at the edge (five times thinner than its nearest equivalent)

tonight was the official opening of the london design festival at the southbank centre. a lot of veuve clicquot, a lot of people, 3 speeches and a bag. but why are there no goodie bags? promotional items from designers would be great.

jude kelly, artistic director, southbank centre

john sorrell, chairman of the london design festival

dezeen is everywhere

‘all things design’ – bag

among all the upcoming design events (london design festival is coming soon) I decided to pop into the carpenters workshop gallery for some unique pieces. It was a private viewing of the work of ingrid donat (mother of one of the gallery owners) and vincent dubourg, 2 french artist who are sometimes even mentioned as designers. but how far can you go by describing furniture as design? I would describe both works as one of a kind furniture sculptures made of bronze – a delight to look at and free to use. these limited pieces upvalued the gallery but were unfortunatly often hidden from the strolling guests. vincent dubourg’s pieces are dynamic, a bit fragile while ingrid donat’s creations are massive. if I hadn’t already known it, I would have had the impression that donat’s furniture is made by a man and dubourg’s by a woman. that’s just my impression. so, merci beaucoup, c’était un plaisir.

carpenters workshop gallery

ingrid donat
table basse anneaux

vincent dubourg
boite noire, 2008

the capital acquirer

vincent dubourg
napoléan à trotinette, 2007

I haven’t been to the thames river since I was 13 years old – it just never occured to me that I needed to go there when I was in london. but tonight I was invited at the design museum, which is on the south bank of the thames, for the opening of the designers in residence show. it’s an annual exhibition that forms part of the london design festival. talented new product and furniture designers who graduated within the last five years are invited to transform an area of the museum. so I found myself in the entrance hall of the museum where a lot fancy, designish lookalikes were hanging around and were enjoying the free drinks. I had some nice moments and these are some I am gonna share with you.. and I really liked to see the thames at night. again.

design museum

london bridge

the designer attitude

freddie yauner, designer and rose ethrington, dezeen editor

freddie yauner – continuous bench which flows in and around the design museum tank, the white bench is made of paper

matthew falla + lea jagendorf – interactive wall, which combines access to information about key pieces from the museum’s pernament collection

cicada brooch, 2006

sleeping soundly in the jaws of a wolf, 2006

the first time I saw the work of kelly mccallum a couple of weeks ago, just by browsing through the internet. currently she is exhibiting at the selfridges wonderwall and when I got there on sunday it was the first time that i was glad to be in the department store. kelly creates sculptures and jewellery and is interested in the stories of how things age, how they decay or are preserved, are forgotten, covered in shrouds of grime, only to be found again and given new meanings by our own sentimentality. in simple words: she is adding value to minor things.