Our job of the day from Dezeen Jobs is for an architect at Herzog & de Meuron, to work on the firm’s National Library of Israel project in Jerusalem. More ›
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Melbourne Design Week has put the focus on Australia’s legal replica furniture market with an exhibition of fake Jasper Morrison chairs that have been burned, cut, glitter-bombed and otherwise altered.
The 26 Original Fakes exhibition opened last week as part of Melbourne’s first annual design week. It sees 26 Australian designers given a replica of Jasper Morrison’s Hal chair, designed for Vitra in 2010, to adapt as they see fit.
Replicas of the chair are readily available in Australian specialty stores – a situation curators Dale Hardiman and Tom Skeehan wanted to draw attention to, with Morrison’s permission.
“The exhibition has been incredibly topical in Australia, as we have, with Jasper Morrison’s blessing, had 26 Australian designers hack, change and re-evaluate a replica chair – some completely against replica furniture, and some who aren’t so bothered,” Hardiman told Dezeen.
Some designers have used their chairs to make overt statements, with Adam Goodrum wrapping his in a garbage bag tagged “Unethically made. Ready for landfill”, and Daast studio engraving a satirical letter that begins “G’day Jasper” into theirs.
Andrew Simpson‘s is slapped with a sticker reading “100% fake crap from China”, but makes a bigger statement with the silhouette of the Sydney Opera House that is cut into its backrest. Unlike Hal, the opera house image has been protected by trademark since 2014, meaning it actually would be unlawful to sell this version of the chair.
“The legality of producing the replica chair reflects back on the fact that there is an inconsistency in the law, which as it stands only benefits the wealthy and the powerful,” said Simpson.
“Unfortunately, great expenses involved with the IP protection laws could easily prevent any designer from protecting all of their products, due to the large number of designs they produce,” he continued. “The original design of Hal chair was not registered or trademarked, which makes it ‘legal’ for replication.”
In an Inception-like twist, Simpson’s chair has been replicated by Jon Goulder, who is also showing a black Hal chair with an opera-house-shaped backrest, having seen Simpson’s design on Instagram.
Others have taken a more constructive approach. Liane Rossler, a co-founder of Dinosaur Designs, designed a felt slipcover called Saved, which fits over any replica chair, providing a pocket to stash money to save for the original piece.
“As a designer, I share a design approach with Jasper Morrison to ‘make something useful and responsible’,” she said.
A number of designers have made drastic formal interventions, making the work unrecognisable from the original. Matt Woods has covered his chair in goo and glitter to make the work titled You Can Polish a Turd, while Studio Gram made a melted-looking Hal to reference tar and the tobacco industry.
Poetic entries come from Tom Fereday, whose solid black cast concrete creation is formed from the negative space of the chair, “leaving you with nothing but a shadow of the iconic form”, and Hardiman, one of the show’s curators, whose seat balances on precariously long stilts.
While the designers involved expressed a variety of attitudes towards furniture replicas, the 26 Original Fakes exhibition text by writer Penny Craswell condemns “unscrupulous businesses” that draw a profit without compensating the original designers.
“Fake furniture takes the original design and perverts it,” she writes. “The image in the magazine might look the same, but the object is fundamentally different – not just in quality, longevity, function and aesthetics, but also in its very essence.”
“What makes the original authentic is stripped away and all you are left with is an empty simulation.”
The idea that the value of design is about more than just looks is part of what drove the curators to focus on a work by Morrison, who as well as being considered one of the world’s best industrial designers, is known for his conscious approach.
The curators supplied the designers with one particular quote by Morrison to guide them: “Designs that are only concerned with aesthetics usually fail in the everyday, long-term sense. They are not much more than food for the endless exchange of creative ego and selling magazines.”
26 Original Fakes is on from 16 to 26 March at Watchmaker, 296 Smith Street, Collingwood. Also on during Melbourne Design Week is Broached Monsters, Trent Jansen’s exhibition of furniture inspired by creatures from Australian myth.
Photography by Daniel Herrmann-Zoll with styling by Natalie Turnbull.
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The U34 lamp is all about efficiency through repetition without sacrificing style. The 20 faced icosahedral shape is formed by repeating equilateral triangles of identical dimension. Simple yet versatile, this allows for easier production and assembly. The resulting aesthetic is sculptural with an industrial edge. Who thought 20 triangles could make something this simply beautiful!
Designer: SHIFT
Editor’s Note: Steven M. Johnson’s “Patent Depending” series of inventions range from social commentary to plain ol’ bizarre, and they always give us a laugh. So we’ve contracted him to let us publish one every week.
Up this week: For those who cycle, and for whom their baby is the hub of their life….
These companies are hiring like crazy right now and they’re looking for all kinds of marketing talent. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on our job board.
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I’m really excited to be able to share this short video interview I did for Advanced Design Sketching with you today. In this video I answer the question: Why is sketching still so important in today’s design world? With all of the digital tools we have, why is it still relevant? Why are non-designers seemingly entranced by it, and why does it seem to facilitate solution finding? I also give you a bonus behind the scenes look at my home design studio! Can a bonus be at the beginning of something? This one is at the beginning. I like to eat dessert first. If you have watched any of my previous videos you have seen the sketch on my desk. Today I zoom out to show you what you don’t see.
People often ask me, “why is sketching so important?” I think they may be thinking of sketching as a skill. I don’t really see sketching as a skill. I see sketching as a way of thinking, a way of processing thoughts and organizing them. As you’re processing those thoughts, you’re visually thinking out loud on the page…an idea exists in your mind, the beauty of a sketch is that it can help you take that idea and push it out in the world. I can transfer a thought from my mind to yours with a 30 second doodle, and we can have a conversation about it, build on it, and slowly that thought transforms from MY idea, to OUR idea—that is when things get really interesting.
Yo! C77 Sketch is a video series from Core77 forum moderator and prolific designer, Michael DiTullo. In these tutorials, DiTullo walks you through step by step rapid visualization and ideation techniques to improve your everyday skills. Tired of that guy in the studio who always gets his ideas picked because of his hot sketches? Learn how to beat him at his own game, because the only thing worse than a bad idea sketched well is a great idea sketched poorly.
This week the equinox occurred, meaning—for the Northern Hemisphere—spring ski touring is right around the corner. Having comfortable no-fuss gear is key for an enjoyable trip during the warmer months. Like with all outdoor sports, it’s best to……
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The RDSV concept vehicle looks like an absolute beast. Even with its lean frame, it manages to look like it could outwit any mountain terrain. An aesthetic that is halfway between a rescue, and a sports vehicle, the RDSV (Rapid Deployment Snow Vehicle) definitely embodies the word Rapid!
Two hubless wheels on the front propel the vehicle forward while a snowboard back allows the vehicle to glide on ice/snow effortlessly. When matters get tough, the tires of the RDSV open out (codenamed the adaptive traction system), allowing them to grip onto snow or mud with ease. Each wheel contains 12 paddles of two kinds. Longer paddles that extend further outwards for deeper snow, and shorter paddles that work better on harder surfaces.
Designer: Juan Garcia Mansilla
In 1984, art dealer Sandy Millikan sat down with Wendell Castle and said, “Wendell, if you do another show of furniture, you are going to get labeled a furnituremaker. If you want to be an artist and be in the fine arts world, I think you have to deal with the issue of art. Now how do we do that?” (The quote is from Fine Woodworking #59.) The result was a exhibition of thirteen clocks, including the non-functional “Ghost Clock” which is one of the centerpieces of the modern furniture on display in the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery in Washington DC.
The Renwick, which is part of the Smithsonian Institute, states on their website: “The collection, exhibition program and publications presented by the Renwick Gallery highlight the best craft objects and decorative arts from the 19th century to the present.”
But it doesn’t. And this is what so disappointing to me. What it mostly shows is well-made art objects that have no relationship at all to the working craftspeople in this country.
One of the glaring differences between the furniture in great collections such as Winterthur, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Kaufman collection at the National Gallery is that the furniture in those collections represents the high end of furniture that was actually used. Some cabinetmaker, signed or anonymous, made something for some customer, and it got delivered and used in their house. Sure, it’s mostly fancy stuff, but the work had context. These days hundreds of cabinetmakers are making furniture and architectural woodwork pieces—some spectacular—that have similar context, for use the way people use built objects today. The museum world ignores them.
How is anyone supposed to learn about how modern craft fits in their world if the educational resources are stuck in an ivory tower? Where are the exhibits of real modern woodworking? I have customers who are doing spectacular work for clients. Sometimes it’s furniture, but more usually interiors. Bedrooms, living rooms, and of course, kitchens. It’s not all good, but some is real great, and some shows great craft.
By the way, Wendell Castle is a really talented guy, an early issue of FWW showed off some of his more useful functional pieces. It’s a shame that the Renwick isn’t showing something that is much harder to design than an art piece. You see, to design a piece of furniture (or building) that is functional, useful, and also passes a sniff test of master craftsmanship, art, and engenders thoughtful discussion is a lot harder than just making some art piece. I think also in our society if a piece is functional it’s automatically downgraded from being art.
Yes, you say, but what about the Maloof double rocker and Krenov cabinet on display in the same exhibit? Those pieces are functional. They are, and I was very happy to see them. I’m a big Maloof fan and copied one of his desks years ago. But I would suggest that the pieces on display by both Krenov and Maloof are more art pieces than other furniture these makers made for use in daily life.
The Krenov cabinet, which is elegant and lovely, isn’t a practical piece in any modern context. It’s a curio cabinet, not a take on furniture that Americans regularly use in their houses.
The Maloof double rocker is almost a joke on his signature single rocker, which is awesome. Maloof built hundreds of pieces that are absolutely modern in their usage. This chair is a collectible—more than something one would sit in every day. His rockers are great modern furniture and what would you rather own, one of his regular rockers that are comfortable and fun, or this double rocker, which you might sit in when? His desks are wonderful examples on how modern craft can interpret classic forms.
Here is what I want to see at the Renwick: An exhibit of modern desks. I want to see what people are making to actually use as desks in the modern computer age. From fancy financial workstations, to something elegant and comfortable that works with my laptop and printer. I want to be inspired. I want to see the best of modern architectural woodworking. For example, more than a decade ago there was a bar in NYC called Iridium where upstairs the interior looked like it was built by the mad hatter’s cabinetmaker. Nothing was square, everything was curved, crazy, and unbelievably cool. (I haven’t been there in over a decade, and I don’t know what remains of the original interior.) But that’s great design, and great craft was needed to pull it off. This is what should be on exhibit.
Note: Another issue I have with the Renwick—and just about every furniture exhibit on the planet—is the insistence of curators to display all furniture on three inch platforms. Sure it’s great for making sure people don’t bump into valuable stuff, but the raised height gives a deceptive sense of scale to the work.
Some museums do it right. Many years ago I was at the Design Museum at Canary Wharf in London, and in addition to all the stuff roped off, the museum had assembled a group of about a dozen modern chairs, all reproductions of the iconic designs of the twentieth century, and you were welcome to sit in them. I learned more about chairs and appreciating modern design in twenty minutes that you could possibly believe.
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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.
Mr Jukes (aka Jack Steadman, the frontman of Bombay Bicycle Club) has just released his first solo offering—from the upcoming record God First, which is set to drop 9 June. The song, “Angels / Your Love” is a jazz-funk jam that is way more awesome……
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
