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UnBeige logo by Angela Voulangas and Doug Clouse, as part of our regular design our logo feature
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furnitureWednesday Aug 12, 2009
Vitsœ Celebrates 50 Years with Release of Archival Dieter Rams Tables
Good things come in Dieter Rams-designed packages, and all the better if they're the original packages commissioned in 1962. Such is the impeccable logic of Vitsœ ("vit-soo"), the furniture company best known for its Rams-designed modular shelving system. Vitsœ turns 50 this year and is celebrating five decades of good design by releasing the last 50 original side tables designed by Rams. Commissioned by Niels Vitsœ and Otto Zapf in 1962 and last produced in the 1980s, the 621 side table is a pure, unobtrusive plastic arch available in two heights and finishes (black or off-white). The 50 tables, in their original packaging, go on sale September 4 at midnight GMT (that's 8:00 p.m. Eastern) on the Vitsœ website. Priced at £195 (approximately $320) for the high version and £175 ($290) for the low, they're bound to sell out Vitsœ-n. Friday Jun 19, 2009
Irving Harper Reveals How the Marshmallow Sofa Was Born
More than 50 years after it debuted it in the Herman Miller catalog, the Nelson Marshmallow Sofa (at right) is still as much fun as you can have with 18 cushions and a brushed steel frame. But how did this now iconic design come about? Irving Harper, whose first assignment upon joining George Nelson's office (after Nelson poached him from Raymond Loewy) was to design the Herman Miller logo, reveals all in the June issue of Metropolis. Included in Paul Makovsky and Belinda Lanks's excellent feature on the Nelson office are excerpts from interviews with members of his talented team, including Harper: How did the Marshmallow sofa come about? One weekend, I thought about doing an upholstery unit, and wondered, Is there any way to do a sofa out of reproducible parts that could be done as if fitted out to a frame? I cooked up this model out of a checkers set, and I stuck the checkers disks on a metal frame, and it looked good to me. So I drew it up, brought it in, and that was the birth of it. Friday Photo: Into the Fold
Wednesday Jun 03, 2009
Furniture Designer Sam Maloof Dies at 93
"I was working out of a one-car garage," Mr. Maloof told The New York Times in 2001. "I didn't have power tools—nothing. He called and said, 'You don't know who I am, but I know who you are.' I just about collapsed." Mr. Maloof designed and made 25 pieces for Dreyfuss, for a grand total of $1,800.In ensuing years, Maloof turned down lucrative offers to mass produce his furniture. He preferred to work freehand with a bandsaw and was a stickler for both craftsmanship and joinery. He made furniture that was free of nails and metal hardware. According to the Los Angeles Times, Maloof once tested the strength of the joints for a set of chairs by dropping a prototype from the roof of his garage onto his driveway. The joints survived. "There's a lot of work being done today that doesn't have any soul in it," Maloof said. "The technique may be the utmost perfection, yet it is lifeless. It doesn't have a soul. I hope my furniture has a soul to it." Friday May 29, 2009
Friday Photo: Rio Grand
It's name is Rio and it dances on demand. In today's Friday Photo, we spotlight "Rio," a rocking chaise longue designed in 1978 by Oscar Niemeyer and manufactured by Tendo Brasiliera. The swooping seat of bentwood, caning, leather, and brass goes on the block Tuesday at Christie's, where it's estimated to sell for between $15,000 and $20,000. Other standout lots at the auction house's sale of 20th century decorative arts and design include architectural elements designed by Louis Sullivan (wouldn't this wrought-iron elevator enclosure, salvaged from the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, make a dynamite headboard?) and Frank Lloyd Wright (leaded glass windows, oodles of them!) as well as an extraordinary Josef Hoffmann Wiener Werkstätte mantel clock. And don't miss the highly collectible animal sculptures by François-Xavier Lalanne, or as we call them here at UnBeige HQ, "Lalannimals." Come auction time, the bronze cheetah is expected to go for about four times as much as the cooper tortoise—unless the cheetah gets cocky, allowing the tortoise to teach us all a valuable lesson. Monday May 18, 2009
Anna Wintour's Office Chair of Choice
While we didn't appreciate Morley Safer's mocking of the fashion industry, last night's 60 Minutes segment did settle one burning question: What kind of chairs does Anna Wintour prefer? In the fleeting shots of her office at Vogue HQ, we recognized the trio of steel chairs circling her desk as the cafe classic "Chaise A" designed in 1934 by Xavier Pauchard for Tolix, which still manufactures them by hand in its Burgundian factory. Longtime bistro staples, the chairs appeared on the decks of the S.S. Normandie (for our money, the most stylish ocean liner of all time) and at the Paris Exposition of 1937. Meanwhile, Design Within Reach, which sells the chairs for $250 each, spreads the rumor that "the chair was created for use in the weather forecasting room on a battleship," and notes that it "was supplied to bars and brasseries by breweries in exchange for selling their beer." Thursday May 07, 2009
TMRnyc Pulls the Plug on 'Plugly' Furniture
We'll bet our overloaded powerstrips that your home, office, and/or home office is plagued by plugly furniture. Coined by designers Scott Behr and Matthew Warren to describe furniture that lacks a built-in power supply, outlets, and cable management solution, plugliness is to blame for that ever-growing tangle of dusty cords lurking beneath your desk. Enter Total Metal Resource (TMRnyc), the Brooklyn-based design firm founded by Behr and Warren. When not providing services that range from blacksmithing and welding to lighting and water-jet cutting for designers and architects, TMRnyc creates what Behr describes as "wired furniture and lighting mixed with high-edge industrial bling." Wednesday Mar 25, 2009
Alexey Brodovitch's Recession-Minded Rocking Chair
Did you know that legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch dabbled in furnture design? Behold this plywood, rope, and metal rocking chair, one of his entries in the Museum of Modern Art's 1948 International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design. Organized by Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., who directed MoMA's industrial design department from 1940 until its merger with the department of architecture eight years later, the competition sought furniture designed to "fit the need of modern living, production, and merchandizing." Out of more than 3,000 entries received from all over the world, Brodovitch's rocking chair took third prize ($1,250) in the seating category and went on to be exhibited alongside the work of designers such as Charles Eames. One model of this chair is in MoMA's permanent collection, and another will be auctioned by Sotheby's on Friday in New York during its 20th Century Design sale. Estimated to sell for between $8,000 and $12,000, it's no longer "low-cost," but it is just about what Brodovitch's prize money would be worth in 2009 dollars. Tuesday Mar 03, 2009
Rohde Trip: Phyllis Ross Examines Lesser Known Master of Modern Design
Having already enthralled an audience at the Museum of the City of New York with tales of Rohde's achievements in adapting European design for an American lifestyle, Ross moves a few blocks downtown next Wednesday evening, when she'll discuss his legacy at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Joining Ross will be contemporary designers Ayse Birsel (Birsel + Seck) and Pablo Castro (OBRA Architects) and design historian Russell Flinchum, who will moderate a panel discussion about "Gilbert Rohde and Design Now." Then it's on to Boston, Chicago, and other locales listed here. We caught up with Ross after her MCNY lecture and learned the value of a little Bauhaus-related sleuthing and why Rohde is not a household name—yet. What drew you to Gilbert Rohde as a subject? Wednesday Feb 25, 2009
Eileen Gray 'Dragons' Chair Fetches $28 Million on Day Two of YSL Sale
Previously on UnBeige: PreviouslyChristie's Prepares for YSL Mega-Sale Gilbert Rohde, Under-the-Radar Master of Modern Design Pondering Polder, Times Makes Telling Typo Andrée Putman Returns to Morgans Hotel, Bearing Chairs Frank Gehry's Superlight Chair Goes Disco Design Miami: Maarten Baas is Melting, Melllllting! Philippe Starck Downsizes Louis Ghost Chair Mid-Century Modern Marketplace Meet-Up Debating Presidential Debate Set Design Illeana Douglas to Star in IKEA Web Series American Furniture Designers Respond to Alice Rawsthorn Robert A.M. Stern Has a Home Furnishings Line? Who Knew? Eric Villency Takes a Shine to Metallics on Today Guinness Book, Take Note: UNStudio Builds World's Largest Table You've Got One Month to Live. What Are You Ordering From Moss? 100 Chairs, 100 Days, and Too Many Splinters to Count Sleeping Pigs Don't Lie When It Comes to Pushing Product At Design Stores Take a Seat, There's Even More Artek! Design McScandal! McDonald's Mixes Real Arne Jacobsen Chairs With Fakes Design Dealer Claims Rietveld Chairs at the Corcoran's Modernism Show Were Knock-Offs Three Cheers for Chairs (But Maybe Not For Long) Blackman Cruz Receives the Entourage Nod of Approval T-minus Three Hours to Total Moss Overload Herman Miller Wants You to Be Yourself The 'Stockholm' Syndrome: Ikea Lures Their Affluent Followers A Love Story Forged In Fiberglass Put Your Butt Where Scarlett Johansson's Butt Once Was Bringing Back the Old New Series 7s Ivan Luini, President of Kartell US, Dies In Plane Crash Design Within Reach's Illegitimate Cousin We Need to Lie Down, But What to Lay Upon? Here. Child. Play Quietly With Ball. Ball Very Fun. Looks Like We're Not The Only Ones Shopping At K-Mart Perfection Is Imperfection Even When It's Sitting On The Street, Redux It's Just So Heartwarming When You Remember Meeting Them And Then You See Their Furniture For Sale Zaha: Absolutely Everywhere, Like With Our Sunday Morning Brunch Reading Kolektiv Sounds Foreign So It Must Be Hella Stylin' Sometimes, A Little Confinement Doesn't Have To Be The Worst Ever |
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