February 10, 2010
As a practising designer and artist with many years’ experience, I feel qualified to say that I do actually know a lot about art, and I certainly know what I like. As far as I am concerned, if something falls into the category of ‘design’ rather than ‘art’, then it has to satisfy certain basic criteria, even if it strays into the new area of ‘design art’.
When I look at a designed object, the first question I ask myself is, ‘Do I want one of these?’, and if the answer is ‘Yes’, then I ask the question, ‘ Would I pay good money for this?’.
Let me explain ‘Do I want one?’ first. The piece in question has to be more than just an object of desire, regardless of how cool or sensual it might appear. It has to have a resonance, a timbre and a significance beyond its functionality. For me, this is more than simply ‘wanting’.
‘Would I pay good money for this?’ is the second hurdle. As I am browsing, I am not thinking whether or not I can afford the price tag. Instead, I am considering whether I feel it represents value, be it simply in aesthetic terms or in the quality of the materials and manufacture, in other words, is it fit for purpose?
Julia Lohmann
Julia works in a wide range of materials and in many different areas. She is comfortable to bridge the gap between the conceptual – The Catch - and the commercial – Cow Benches keeping her work both humorous and thought provoking. On prominent display at the moment is Co-Existence, a window display for the Wellcome Trust.
Wieki Somers
My favourite and widely exhibited piece of hers is Bathboat, and it is as you have guessed, a boat used as a bath. What should be on the outside is on the inside. She also makes tea pots, napkins and tablecloths.
Joris Laarman
Like Tord Boontje, Joris attended the Eindhoven Design Academy. He has achieved the comfortable position of being able to experiment in his ‘lab’ and have the results translated into industry by working with companies such as Flos, Vitra, Swarovski and Droog.
Sebastian Brajkovic
Sebastian’s work is lathe; the word is in the title of his works and it is also the concept. Lathe is a tool for turning material on a fixed axis and a term used in 3D modeling. His chairs start in one plane and end in another, and are distinctive and readily recognisable. He distorts both the form and the surface decoration.
Sebastian is a furniture maker whose furniture, if squeezed back into its original form, would be described as traditional in style; it is this juxtaposition of elements that makes his pieces so collectable.
Tord Boontje
His work as a designer has become popular and his focus is around light and he regularly works with glass and lighting. He is well known for silhouettes of birch trees and other delicate natural forms used in fabrics and wall decoration.
His pieces are widely available in Scandinavian type shops, although he is a Dutchman educated in the Netherlands and here in London.
Jeroen Verhoeven
This is part of the design collective Demakersvan, with Joep Verhoeven and Judith de Graauw, and it is their design work for droog for which they are best known, the lace fencing in particular.
They design a range of other products, including the hallmark propeller lights and the outside oil lamps, and Cinderella, a table dreamt up by a computer, was featured in Telling Tales.
Stephen Richards
Stephen’s background is that of a geologist; he became a furniture maker later on. There must be a connection and I am sure Richard could explain it, but his work looks to me to be the antithesis of geology. Perhaps it is my understanding of geology that it at fault.
His work borders on the minimal, with no surface decoration and bare wood, but beautiful nontheless because of the twist he gives to otherwise simple designs. I am thinking of as you like it, a stack of rhomboid drawers that swivel through 180 degrees.
His most recognised work is storm, a chair made of uniform off-cuts that look as though they have been blown into a shape that resembles a chair by a storm.
Joep van Lieshout
The best way for me to describe Joep’s work is to tell you about Hollow Sitting Man on Table – think about the title for a moment, now let me describe it – a man cut in half vertically slumped over the table, his innards having drained out through his bottom are pooled on the chair.
Or there is bar rectum, 16 meters by 4 meters, or womb house. These are works adequately described by their titles; there is nothing for the imagination to do, and it is surprising how effective school boy humour can be in raising a smile in even the most cynical of viewers.
Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe
Figurines, lights, ceramics and linen are some of the things this design duo produce, and they work on some interesting projects as well covering interior design, furniture, and a lot of work with flowers for the Flower Council of Holland; for all many designers talk about natural forms and materials, this duo is one of the few that work with the real thing.
Luc Merx
His signature piece is the Dammed chandelier, creamy transparent bodies intertwined, and many of his other pieces use small plastic molded figures, but that is only part of the story. He is influenced by the baroque style and his designs for wallpapers are particularly interesting as they are suggestive of ‘computer meets rococo’. His other works, particularly the wall lights, are true to his style but nothing like you have seen before, something from an alien world.
October, 2009
Autumn '09 Trade shows
Autumn is a busy time for many reasons, holidays are out of the way and the onset of winter puts people in the mood to get busy. It is the start of the new academic year, the new parliamentary session, business moves into the all-important ‘fourth quarter’ and the festive season is just around the corner. It is the prime time for trade shows where buyers stock up on what they think they will sell in the coming months.
This year I attended Maison et Objet, Top Drawer, Tent, Designer’s Block, the Autumn Fair, The Dock, Origin, Ysh and 100% Design. It looks like too much to take in, but each show is different, and although some companies are represented at more than one, each show has its own personality, strengths and weaknesses. 
| Julia Lohmann |
| Fabrica |
| Jeroen Verhoeven |
| Joep van Lieshout |
| Joris Laarman |
| Luc Merx |
| Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe |
| Sebastian Brajkovic |
| Stephen Richards |
| Tord Boontje |
| Wieki Somers |
| WOW |
| Troika |
| 100% Design |
| Designersblock |
| Maison et Objet |
| Origin |
| Tent London |
| The Dock |
| Top Drawer |
| YSH |
Artists Index
Exhibition Review
June 6, 2006
If you only know a little about me it should come as no surprise that I think in pictures and having spent my time so far as a conceiver and visualiser of ideas, then painting, photography and generally making marks on surfaces is my natural medium.
As a synaesthete, I find that landscapes, interior spaces and natural forms can change into abstract, ambiguous and tantalizing shapes, similar to the process I use for solving problems for clients.
It is also refreshing to explore all the digital tools now available to creatives and it is no coincidence that these voyages of exploration often result in helping to take clients in new directions and to try new techniques.
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