The design partnership's founders talk about their work with BuzziSpace, Mohawk Group, and more.
13&9’s Undisciplined Design
Be Originals Fellows Visit Vitra, Emeco, and Herman Miller
The Be Original fellows are continuing their whirlwind tour of leading design companies and Be Original Americas members across the U.S. Our third update from them follows, courtesy of Karina Campos—stay turned for the final update!
Iconic furniture designer embraces 3D printing
Herman Miller, the iconic furniture design company behind the Eames and Aeron office chairs, has turned to 3D printing to slash development time. The American company behind the legendary Aeron chair that has a place in the Museum of Modern Art and the Eames that has been copied around the world, is a natural partner for the likes of Stratasys. It is a design-led company that needs to create endless prototypes to refine its concepts into the perfect finished product.
VIDEO: Rockwell Unscripted for Knoll
When Knoll was looking for a design partner to collaborate on a collection of furniture that suited modern work styles and environments "there was only one person to call, and that was David Rockwell," says Benjamin Pardo, Knoll's Creative Director. Two very different sensibilities that may at first not seem like the most obvious partnership leverage the design firm's expertise in theater, play, co-working and hospitality with the furniture company's impeccable craftsmanship and creative freedom. The result is Rockwell Unscripted, a collection that fits in between the more traditional working and meeting spaces in most offices. It's a surprisingly successful, improvisational and flexible collection of seating, borders, storage, tables, steps and accessories. David Rockwell, who had won the company's first Tony award for set design the same week as the Rockwell Unscripted Collection for Knoll launched, shares his thoughts about the collaboration.
KEM Studio Wins Eames Good Design Challenge
KEM Studio, a design studio that specializes in architecture and industrial design, has been named the winner of this year’s Eames Good Design Challenge. Sponsored by Herman Miller and the John A. Marshall Company, the contest challenged approximately a dozen architecture and design firms in Kansas City, Missouri, to “upholster” an Eames molded plastic chair in a way that combined both comfort and style.
Performance-Based Building Codes are a Game-Changer
Nobody can design a building in a vacuum anymore. On an integrated design team, it's not just engineers who have to worry about energy modeling and building performance. Performance-based building metrics are changing the field of design dramatically, and for the better, but there's more to be done. We're going to have to develop low-energy consumption systems that still deliver a great building environment.
Eames Coffee Table
The re-edition of the 1949 Eames Coffee Table, which was developed by Vitra in cooperation with the Eames Office, evokes the spirit of the early one-off pieces: fabricated in exquisite materials, this high-quality coffee table is both precious object and utilitarian furnishing. The square or rectangular table tops are made of palisander veneer, marble or solid American walnut. The base, combining black wooden legs with metal cross-struts, provides a stable understructure and emphasises the understated elegance of the Eames Coffee Table.
Will become available in August 2016.
Design Classics to Invest in—and Why It’s a Bad Idea to Buy Fakes
When decorating a house, it’s easy to get sucked in by knockoffs. After all, they’re rampant in the marketplace—even at big-name stores you wouldn’t expect—and tend to cost hundreds and even thousands less than the originals. Besides losing out on integrity and in most cases, quality, buying fakes compromises the design industry in general—and Be Original Americas, an association of design businesses, institutions, and organizations is actively working now to protect the original work of the design community. In fact, companies like Herman Miller, Flos, Vitra, and more have joined the ranks in the hopes of educating consumers on the perils of copycat design. Below we ask Sam Grawe, President of Be Original Americas and Global Brand Director for Herman Miller, and Caroline Baumann, director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, about what makes good design, why it can be so expensive, and what Be Original Americas is doing to foster creativity in the future. Plus, we’ve put together a panel of design heavyweights on the pieces they deem worthy of investing in—or at least dreaming of.
The Dark Side Of Your Design Heroes
We admire many midcentury heroes for their work, whether they created products that improve our lives, buildings that beautified our skylines, or furniture that made our homes more enjoyable. Yet in more than a few cases, some of the most famous names of the 20th century also supported questionable—sometimes, downright awful—ideas and organizations during their careers. Designers are human, after all.
VIDEO: A VISIT TO FLOS WITH MICHAEL ANASTASSIADES
London-based designer Michael Anastassiades describes his work as “minimal, utilitarian and almost mundane, yet full of vitality one might not expect”. We would whole-heartedly agree. As fans of his lighting for FLOS, we’re also fans of his philosophies. In a 2013 interview, he told us about anonymity and ambiguity: “…In the language of the products there is a certain ambiguity, you can’t really place them in a time period or a type of design. This expresses very much what I believe about design – in the design world or the art world, nothing is new. Everybody wants to claim they’ve invented something revolutionary… The reality is you have to embrace something or reinterpret something that has been done before, but in a very discrete and subtle way, in a new setting or context. This idea of ambiguity is very interesting.”
2 MINUTE READ Beyond The Whiteboard: Rethinking How Business Schools Teach Design
"Design thinking" has become the watchword for an entire generation of MBAs who think that becoming the next Steve Jobs is as easy as a whiteboard filled with disruptive ideation. "This broad definition of design thinking [practiced at many businesses] is a single-faceted cliché of what design really is, and how it can contribute to business," says Pentagram partner Michael Bierut.
IKEA FURNITURE IS GETTING FUTURISTIC WITH THE PS 2017 COLLECTION
Come spring 2017, a trip to IKEA may feel like a trip to the future. Don't worry, the Swedish furniture manufacturer's staples will still be the foundation of their offerings, but you'll also find the company's newest PS Collection, a series of experimental products released every few years and intended to add interest and energy to the stores. This one may just be the most experimental, and tasty, yet.
David Rockwell Presents Rockwell Unscripted at NeoCon 2016 Keynote
David Rockwell, founder and president of Rockwell Group, presented the NeoCon 2016 Keynote on Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Chicago. Two days after receiving a Tony Award for his scenic designs for She Loves Me, Rockwell unveiled a workplace collection with Knoll rooted in the cornerstones of Rockwell Group's practice: hospitality, user-choreographed experience, and, of course, theater.
Programming Your Design Project
Programming is crucial to every design project, but particularly for the workplace. It drives the requirements of every project, from quantities of work stations to how people want to be organized. Typically, programming happens toward the beginning of a project, prior to or coincidentally with a visioning session. This session can include any and all client parties, across any level of any function with parties that are usually identified by the client, dictated by the size and culture of the organization: real estate teams, C-suites, engineers and human resources have all been part of this phase. These are the people who build the “must-have” list for a new office.
How A Good Relationship With Manufacturers Can Lead To Great Design
German designer Sebastian Herkner started his own studio in 2006, right after graduating from Offenbach University of Art and Design. In 2011, he was showing at the Salone Satellite in Milan when Patrizia Moroso spotted his Bask collection—a series of baskets woven from paper yarn—and asked to produce them.
FRIDAY FIVE WITH ROBERT KING OF HUMANSCALE
Niels and I met in 1997 at a time when I was talking to designers about developing our first chair. I actually searched him out because I had asked many people how to adjust your chair and no one knew how to do it. I was looking to develop a chair that was easy to use and he was known as one of the great chair designers of the world. As we were talking, we realized we shared many of the same beliefs and both valued simplicity and ease of use. Over the years, he taught me so much, including the importance of restraint and how complicated simplicity can be to achieve. Thanks to Niels I learned that true innovation is very expensive, very unpredictable and very slow, whereas styling (which often passes for design) is inexpensive, predictable and fast. Niels and I were always only interested in the former.
Thinking About Design Thinking
How a brain scientist collaborates with NBBJ to uncover our perceptions of designed space.
VIDEO: Clerkenwell Design Week 2016
Aldi says replica Eames chair "does not infringe on design rights"
Discount supermarket chain Aldi is selling pairs of replica Eames chairs for £39.99 – a fraction of the £339 it costs to buy a single authorised version of the chair. Aldi is advertising "a pair of retro-style Eiffel chairs" on its website in the UK for £39.99 – the latest in a string of replica designs sold at heavy discounts by the budget supermarket chain. The Eiffel chairs are almost identical in appearance to the DSW Eames Plastic Chair, designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1950 and produced under license by Swiss design brand Vitra.
At NeoCon 2016, David Rockwell to Keynote and Debut a Collection, Rockwell Unscripted, for Knoll
David Rockwell, FAIA, who leads the firm Rockwell Group based in New York, will be a NeoCon keynote speaker, presenting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14. Rockwell’s prolific career has included interiors for numerous hotels and restaurants, as well as theater sets. He was the 1998 Designer of the Year, and his firm won four Interiors Awards from Contract over the past two years. In Milan in April, Rockwell exhibited his first furniture collection, Valet, for Stellar Works. Contract interviewed Rockwell, who has also designed a collection for Knoll, called Rockwell Unscripted, which debuts at NeoCon.