Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen filmed a series of interviews with Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic about 59 objects from their collection for the Design Museum Collection App for iPad, which is available to download free from the app store here.

This film features extracts about the developments in chair design over the last 150 years, from the first mass produced Thonet No. 14 chair in the 1850s to the use of tubular steel as a material for furniture in the B3 (Wassily) chair in the 1920s, all the way to creating the shapes of Jasper Morrison’s Air Chair using gas injection at the turn of this century.

You can listen to Sudjic talking about classic design for driving in our earlier movie and his explanation of the way design has changed the way we listen to music in another.

Download the Design Museum Collection App »

Here are some excerpts from the app:

Mould for Manufacturing Thonet No. 14 chairs

As techniques using steam bending evolved, Thonet was able to produce a chair from six pieces of wood, ten screws, two washers and some wicker for the seat. The resulting chair, the Thonet No. 14, became one of the first genuine consumer products and is often cited as the most successful industrial product of the nineteenth century. Several million had been manufactured by 1900. This mould for the chair is from the 1850s.

Tulip chair (model 150)

Designer of the chair, Eero Saarinen was fascinated by the potential of plastics, but the limitations of early fibreglass reinforced polyester thwarted his efforts to make the world’s first chair from a single moulded element.

Panton Chair

Verner Panton was the first to succeed where others had failed, by producing a chair from a single element. Practical and comfortable, the cantilevered form is based on the same principles designers Marcel Breuer and Mies Van Der Rohe used in the 1920s. Early fibreglass versions were brittle and it was not until polypropylene was invented that a suitable material was found.

Wiggle Chair

Best known for his iconoclastic architecture in buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, Frank Gehry has also experimented with furniture design throughout his career. One of his Easy Edges chairs, the Wiggle, 1972, is composed of 60 layers of cardboard bonded and screwed together. Gehry transformed an everyday material – the corrugated cardboard from which his architectural models were made – into a solid sculptural form. ‘I began to play with it, to glue it together and to cut it into shapes with a hand saw and a pocket knife,’ he recalled.

B3 (Wassily) chair

Obsessed by the challenge of designing a chair to be built in a factory like a Model T Ford car, Marcel Breuer concentrated on two goals as head of the Bauhaus carpentry workshop. One was to develop furniture from the same lightweight yet strong tubular steel as the Adler bicycle which he rode around Dessau. The other was to design a cantilever chair, or one supported by a single base. His experiments produced the angular B3 chair in 1925, which he nicknamed the ‘Wassily’ after his fellow tutor at the Bauhaus Wassily Kandinsky. Unfortunately for Breuer, the Dutch architect Mart Stam (1899-1986) completed the first cantilever chair before him by making the 1926 Model No. S33 from gas pipes.

Chair no. 406

Conceived as a variation on Alvar Aalto’s earlier laminated wood cantilevered armchair, Chair No. 406 was designed at the same time as Aalto was working on the Finnish Pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair and Villa Mairea, a house for the industrialist Harry Gullichsen and his wife Maire. A few years earlier Aalto had co- founded Artek, the furniture manufacturer, with Maire Gullichsen and his own wife Aino. Based in Helsinki, Artek produced many of Aaalto’s furniture designs and continues to manufacture them today.

Universale

Originally an artist, Joe Colombo opened a design studio in Milan in 1962 to apply the bold, curvaceous forms – and hatred of sharp corners and straight lines – that had characterised his art to product design. He also strove to apply new technologies to develop new types of furniture. Obsessed by making a chair from a single piece of material, Colombo first tried to develop the Universale stacking chair in aluminium, but then experimented with ABS plastic. Light, portable and easy to clean, the Universale is also adjustable as its legs can be unscrewed and replaced with longer ones. Colombo strove for two years to perfect it for mass production.

Donna Up5 and Up6

The Donna Up5 was regarded as uncompromisingly radical when it was unveiled by the avant-garde Italian architect Gaetano Pesce (1939-) in 1969. Pesce designed it as part of a new series of vacuum sealed upholstered furniture which could be bought in as a flat pack and literally sprang to life once the vacuum seal was broken. Described by Pesce as ‘transformation furniture’, each Up piece is compressed to a tenth of its full size when vacuum-packed in PVC before expanding to its full size after the pack is opened. The Up5 became unexpectedly popular in the UK when it was featured as the diary room chair in the 2002 series of the reality TV show Big Brother.

chair_ONE (above)

Konstantin Grcic’s furniture and lighting designs from the 1990s were informed by pared down purism and technically rigorous forms suited to their function. Yet Munich born and based Grcic has, in recent years, embraced a more expressive element in his work – defining function in more emotional terms, combining formal strictness with wit and subtlety.

Intent on creating deliberately ‘strange’ and open forms through advances in computer design software, Grcic started to experiment with shapes that were defined by how the object would be used, rather than by expectations of how they should look, or the technical conventions of craftsmanship. The results, such as the 2002 Chair_ONE, are blunt in style, with irregular planes jutting at unexpected angles.

Grcic’s starting point for the Chair_ONE was the everyday football – a collection of small, flat planes assembled at angles to create a three-dimensional form. By die- casting the chair from aluminium – a process rarely used before in furniture manufacture that involves casting liquid aluminium alloys into metal moulds using gravity, low pressure and high pressure – Grcic was able to produce the complex skeletal one piece seat and back in a cost effective method with minimal machining.

Air-Chair

British designer Jasper Morrison began work on his stackable 1999 Air-Chair when Alberto Perazza, the owner of Magis, showed him a length of tube made by gas injection. ‘The design began from the leg up, describing the tubular structure of a chair to which a thin skin is applied for the seat and back, in much the same way as the earlier Plywood Chair uses a thicker plywood for the structure and a thinner plywood for the seat,’ recalled Morrison.

Aeron

In the early 1990s, the Aeron office chair was the first seat to address the changing shape of the American workforce with its easily adjustable, thanks to a mechanism found under the seat, optimisation for a variety of users. Designed to an ergonomic standard previously unseen, the chair commanded a huge price. This exclusivity, combined with its ubiquitous presence in expensive offices, helped it to become an emblem for the dot.com boom of the late 1990s.

The Design Museum Collection

The Design Museum Collection is made up by over 2000 objects that range from the early Modernism of the 1900s to the cutting edge of contemporary design. The Collection tells the history of design in mass production and includes furniture, lighting, domestic appliances and communications technology. The Collection is an important record of the key designs which have shaped the modern world.

The post Design Museum Collection App:
chairs appeared first on Dezeen.

Visitors are invited to make their mark on the cafe walls of London’s Design Museum by ticking boxes on this stripy wallpaper by Dutch designer Richard Hutten.

The design of the Layers wallpaper is based on the brightly coloured tape used to seal boxes, with some strips labelled ‘fragile’, while others feature the yellow and black stripes of hazard tape.

A few of the strips read ‘I’m Here 2:’ alongside the selection of tick boxes that offer responses like ‘play’, ‘forget’ and ‘destroy’.

See more stories about wallpaper on Dezeen here, including some that changes under different lighting conditions.

See more projects by Richard Hutten »

Photographs are by Luke Hayes.

Here’s some more information from Designwall:

‘Layers’ by Richard Hutten in Design Museum London

The Design Museum in London decorated its cafe with the Layers wallpaper by Richard Hutten for Designwall. The Layers wallpaper is based on the everyday tapes that you would use to seal a cardboard box. Using a series of existing tape designs and the development of new patterns, Hutten transformed the idea into a wallpaper. The wallpaper is not to be seen as a finished piece, but as a wallpaper which invites you to draw or write on it. On one tape you can even leave your mark expressing your feelings or needs, in order to make it personal and unique.

Layers is a continuation from Hutten’s Layers Furniture (Milan Design Week 2008), originally designed for a room in the Llayers Lloyd Hotel in Tokyo. Layers is one of the unique wallpapers of Designwall. Designwall is a initiative of Ontwerpwerk, The Hague.

The post Layers wallpaper by Richard Hutten
at the Design Museum appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese morphs into a stiletto shoe every fifteen minutes in a holographic performance that was created by London company Musion for the Design Museum‘s exhibition on iconic shoe designer Christian Louboutin.

This film shows the making of the hologram, projected onto a stage in the main exhibition room that’s shaped like an upside-down shoe.

Inspired by fairgrounds and cabaret shows, the exhibition was designed by Hackney studio Household.

It includes a shadow theatre, fetish room with photographs by David Lynch and a recreation of Louboutin’s Paris studio.

The exhibition continues until 9 July.

Photographs are by Luke Hayes.

Here’s some more information from Musion:

Christian Louboutin’s sensational retrospective comes alive with a Musion holographic performance from Dita Von Teese

On the 30th April, Musion will help mark the beginning of a ten week, spectacular exhibition from designer Christian Louboutin and The Design Museum. Dedicated to design and architecture, the world leading museum will commemorate over two decades of Louboutin’s career in the first UK exhibition dedicated to the iconic shoe designer. With the event drawing on his creative concepts and inspirations, in a thematic rather than chronological format, it will offer visitors a truly unique experience.

The Design Museum has enlisted the help of holographic leader Musion, to create the museum’s first ever holographic installation. To illustrate one of his early design inspirations, the showgirl, the ‘queen of burlesque’ Dita Von Teese, will be turned into a three dimensional holographic performance.

Taking centre stage, the breathtaking vision involves Ms Von Teese’s unmistakeable silhouette morphing from an oversized Christian Louboutin shoe before proceeding to dance around the stage. The performance concludes with Dita Von Teese transforming back into the elegant stiletto.

Ian O’Connell, Director of Musion, said, “The Design Museum is a perfect organisation to work with. Its support for creativity and innovation matches the same philosophies we believe in at Musion. Our technology has been used to its full artistic potential for Christian Louboutin’s awe-inspiring showcase and we are thrilled to be part of this celebration.”

Musion EyelinerTM technology is a unique high definition holographic projection system which delivers remarkably life-like, full-scale images within a live stage environment. Its holographic effect is created through an adaptation of the 19th Century Pepper’s Ghost technique. Musion recorded and filmed Dita Von Teese for the Musion EyelinerTM display with post-production partner Square Zero providing special effects and animation. A video explaining how the holographic projection was created will be shown alongside the installation at the exhibition.

Christian Louboutin
1 May – 9 July

The Design Museum presents the first UK retrospective of iconic French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, celebrating a career which has pushed the boundaries of high fashion shoe design. This exhibition celebrates Louboutin’s career to date and showcases twenty years of designs and inspiration, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoe design from stilettos to lace-up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps. Louboutin’s shoes are the epitome of style, glamour, power, femininity and elegance.

Designed in Hackney: Hoxton-based designer Michael Marriott created a landscape of cardboard tubes to display items on show at this year’s Designs of the Year exhibition at London’s Design Museum. The winning entries for each category will be revealed at an awards ceremony tomorrow evening.

Plywood discs slotted on top of each tube provide surfaces at a variety of different heights, while information for each project is presented on balanced steel stands.

Accompanying graphics for the exhibition were created by design studio A Practice for Everyday Life, who are based just outside Hackney in the neighbouring borough of Tower Hamlets.

We’ll reveal the winning entries on Dezeen as soon as they’re announced, but until then you can see all the entries in our earlier story here.

Michael Marriott started his design studio back in 1992 and is located on Southgate Road in Hoxton. See more of his projects here.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Photography is by Luke Hayes.

The Design Museum in London launches its Design Museum Collection iPad app today that features 59 objects from their collection, including interviews with museum director Deyan Sudjic filmed by Dezeen. Download it free from the app store here.

In this first movie in a series taken from the app, we’ve compiled entries about classic design for driving. Pieces discussed include the Vespa Clubman scooter, British traffic lights, Mobil Oil petrol pump and a model car built from a sketch by Le Corbusier. You can also watch this movie on Dezeen Screen »

iPhone and Android versions will be launched in the next few months.

Download the Design Museum Collection App here.

Here are some more details about the app from the Design Museum, followed by text excerpts from the app:

Design Museum launches Collection App

The Design Museum launches its first iPad Collection App featuring 59 objects from the Design Museum’s collection. The App is a free download which explores key moments in design history through the extensive Design Museum Collection. Classic pieces featured include: the Angelpoise lamp, the Dyson vacuum, the Thonet chair mould, the Face magazine, the British telephone box, the Vespa and the Kindle, a recent addition to the Collection.

The App includes video interviews with Deyan Sudjic, Design Museum director, and Helen Charmen, Design Museum head of learning. Stephen Bayley, Design Museum founding director, has contributed additional commentary. The App enables users to explore each design by material, date, manufacturer, designer and colour.

The Design Museum has showcased and celebrated design innovation for 22 years and this App, supported in part by donations from visitors, is a new way to explore the museum’s collection. With a global digital audience in excess of three million visitors a year including over 500,000 Twitter followers and 150,000 Facebook fans, the museum is offering new ways to engage its global audience with design.

The Design Museum is building its collection ahead of its move to new premises at the former Commonwealth Institute in west London in 2014. The App will develop in line with the collection and build to become a unique design resource.

iPad launch date: 28 March 2012
iPhone launch date: 3 May 2012
Android launch date: 5 June 2012

The Design Museum would like to thank the developers twentysix, film makers Dezeen and Alice Masters, author Stephen Bayley and all those who made contributions to the app. The Design Museum would also like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for their initial support.

Commissioned by the Design Museum
Development by twentysix
Films by Dezeen

The Design Museum Collection

The Design Museum Collection is made up by over 2000 objects that range from the early Modernism of the 1900s to the cutting edge of contemporary design. The Collection tells the history of design in mass production and includes furniture, lighting, domestic appliances and communications technology. The Collection is an important record of the key designs which have shaped the modern world.

Model of the Voiture Minimum

It is hardly surprising that Le Corbusier, the architect who conceived of houses as ‘machines for living in’, should attempt to design a car. The Swiss architect was famously obsessed with the potential of technology to transform everyday life. To him, and many progressive thinkers of the time, the automobile was a symbol of modernity and a focal point in his visions for futuristic utopias. The car was designed in response to a competition by France’s Société des Ingénieurs de l’Automobile (SIA), which called for proposals for a small, practical and economical car that cost no more than 8,000 francs. Le Corbusier answered the challenge with his cousin, and business partner, Pierre Jeanneret, and in 1936 they submitted proposals for the Voiture Minimum. Sadly, the car never actually made it into production, nonetheless, its striking form had a lasting impact. As Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro wrote in 1987, the Voiture Minimum ‘is so full of inventive touches that even nowadays they are among the most advanced proposals’, pointing out that it was ‘following the principles of aerodynamics that were sensed long before prototypes were placed in wind tunnels.’

Vespa Clubman

Launched at the Rome Golf Club in 1946, the Vespa was the birthchild of Enrico Piaggio. After the Second World War, a time when most Italians lacked modes of transport or the means to acquire them, the aeroplane manufacturer hit upon the idea of developing a scooter to kick-start Italy’s economic reconstruction. He approached the aeronautical engineer Corradino D’Ascanio to design a new motorcycle. D’Ascanio famously did not like motorcycles, finding them uncomfortable and bulky, dirty and difficult to maintain. Drawing on his experience in aeronautical engineering, D’Ascanio completely re-designed the scooter. The riding position of the Vespa was designed to let you sit comfortably and safely, rather than perched dangerously on top. The front body protected the rider from getting dirty and the wheels are supported by arms similar to those found on aircraft carriages to make changing tyres easier.

Just four years after its debut, companies across Europe clamoured for the right to build the motorcycle. In the UK, a licence was granted to Douglas of Bristol, who marketed the Vespa with the name ‘Clubman’. By the 1960s, the Vespa Clubman had become the scooter of choice for the fashion-conscious mods, who liked its stylish Italian associations and its potential for modification. They would add lights, accessories, various racks, mascots and crash bars, and attended scooter rallies across the country. A cultural icon both in Italy and in the UK, the Vespa scooter was one of the great transport phenomena of the twentieth century.

Traffic light

During the 1960s, thousands of miles of new roads and motorways were built in Britain. Following the introduction of the new signage system by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, the Ministry of Transport approached David Mellor to design a new traffic control system. Over 4,500 sets were to be gradually replaced by a new version, which used a new light which was brighter during the day and softer at night. Mellor’s main concern was to simplify a system that had been cluttered up with various additions over the years, developing a new system which was adaptable to include additional signs such as ‘no left turn’ and traffic filter arrows when required. It was of prime importance that the message should come across with total clarity. The new signals were made from polypropylene plastic, which needed no repainting. Mellor’s traffic lights are still in use today.

Road sign (Scarborough, York, Pickering, A64, A169)

Britain’s first motorway, the Preston By-pass, was an endeavour to alleviate congestion on the roads by increasing both capacity and the speed that cars could travel. In response to this, a government advisory committee was established in 1957 to investigate the effectiveness of current signage and align it with continental practices.

Graphic designer Jock Kinneir and his assistant Margaret Calvert were then asked to research the requirements of a new signage system. After introducing successful signs to the new M1 motorway, Kinneir and Calvert redesigned and unified the entire road sign system. Although modified over the years to include extra information, such as junction numbers and speed cameras, the purity of their original system remains and is integral to the identity of British roads.

Petrol pump for Mobil Oil

One of the most recognisable petroleum brands in the world, the Mobil logo has remained more or less the same since it was designed in 1964 by Tom Geismar of Chermayeff & Geismar. Commissioned by architect Eliot Noyes to develop a strong and coherent graphic identity for the new company, Geismar’s initial concern was that their name would be mispronounced as ‘Mo-bile’, rather than ‘Mo-bil’. His solution was to stress, visually, the letter ‘o’. By reproducing the letter in red, it is distinguished from the rest of the name and suggests the correct pronunciation. This also added a very memorable and distinctive element to an otherwise straightforward identity.

S-Cargo

Launched at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1989, the tall curved roof and circular rear windows of the Nissan S-Cargo attracted a great deal of attention. The commercial van’s name is a affectionate play on words meaning both ‘Small Cargo’ and ‘Escargot’, the French word for snail. Despite the whimsical name, the snail-like appearance of the S-Cargo belies serious design considerations. Large side doors make it simple for the driver and passenger to get in and out, while a top hinged rear door with a low payload floor allow for easy loading and unloading of large items, made simple by the tall roof and foldaway rear seat. Clear, easy-to-read gauges and a generous windscreen were developed with the driver in mind and a flat dashboard makes an ideal desk away from the office.

Although the van won widespread appeal for its appearance and versatility, it was only ever intended to be a limited edition production. Built by Nissan’s special projects group The Pike Factory (also responsible for cars such as the iconic Figaro and the Pao), a total of 12,000 vans were made between 1989 and 1992.

Moulton AM2

James Dyson, industrial designer and founder of Dyson describes the 1983 bike’s success as follows: ‘Designed by west of England designer, Alex Moulton, this bike is extraordinarily engineered. It has very small wheels, but is able to tear along at the speed of a racing bike. Small wheels grip the road surface, and good suspension gives the robust frame comfort.’