Diesel teams up with cutting-edge furniture brands Moroso and Foscarini to expand beyond the fashion world into furniture and lighting. Their “Successful Living from Diesel” range hit the US market during last weekend’s ICFF. Approaching the home furnishing world with the same energetic style that’s made it such a hit in the fashion world, “Successful Living” was inspired by edgy music, a creative spirit, and a need to express one’s individuality. Now, Successful Living will be available through retailer The Future Perfect of Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Recurring themes in both the collection’s furniture (Moroso) and lighting (Foscarini) pieces include the ideas of “Camp” and “Rock.” The Camp theme implies mobility and a nomadic lifestyle, as evidenced by portable furnishings, often incorporating tent-like, canvas materials. The Rock theme has a double meaning: first, as in Rock and Roll, captured through elements like punky, metallic studs and second, more literally, through the rough-textured material inspiration for items like the hanging Rock lamp.

Check out some highlights below!

*above: Fork table lamp, from Foscarini, recalls “a casual camping lifestyle,” with a canvas shade with visible seams and metal grommets that attach it like those used to tie down tents. Fork “emits a warm homey light, like a tent illuminated in the dark woods.”

*above: Fork floor lamp from Foscarini.

*above: Glas from Foscarini reinterprets the classic work light used in warehouses and factories worldwide. Available in hanging and table versions.

*above: Rock, also from Foscarini, recalls an active volcano with its dark, lava-like exterior, split to reveal sparkling crystals inside, with hundreds of asymmetric golden facets that reflect the beams of light.

*above: Overdyed Table by Moroso. The Overdyed series of wood furniture includes a lounge chair, side chair, rectangular coffee, and round side table. The ragging paint technique used to finish the wood comes in Indigo Blue or Weathered Gray and reveals its natural markings for a more vintage effect. Frames are Raw Black lacquered steel.

*above: Overdyed Lounge Chair from Moroso.

*images courtesy of Diesel

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), New York’s annual, premier furniture design event, opens to industry-goers this weekend and to the public next Tuesday, May 18th. This year’s event will host nearly 600 design exhibitors from 40 countries, covering everything from textiles to kitchen and bath, accessories, wall coverings, lighting, carpet and flooring, and indoor and outdoor furniture. Almost 24,000 interior designers, architects, retailers, developers, store designers, hotel and restaurant designers, manufacturers, students and general public are expected to attend.

Always a playful maze of the newest available designs, this year’s participants will include everyone from Tom Dixon and Blu Dot to Bernhardt Design and Miss Print. A few sneak-peek images are below.

If you have the chance, please, do yourself a favor and check it out!

International Contemporary Furniture Fair
Open to Trade: May 15th-17th, 10am-5pm
Open to General Public: Tuesday, May 18th, 10am-4pm
Venue: Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City

*above by Danese Milano

*above by Cocoon Fires

*above by Tradition

*above by Rachel O’Neill

*above by Tom Dixon

*above by Conmoto

*above by Varier Furnitureas

*above by John Kelly Furniture

*above by Sancal Joseph

*above by Asa Selection Inc

*above by Axor

*above by Council Inc

*Images courtesy of ICFF

With “Stretch,” her debut solo furniture collection, designer Jessica Carnevale wanted to bring some of the exuberance of the fashion world into her designs. She experimented with a number of different materials and ultimately chose latex, bungee and rope for their bright colors and elasticity. She built a simple chair to better frame the compositions that she created. The result is a collection of three vivid pieces, which debuted during Satellite 2010. After all, as Carnevale says, “Design should be beautiful and useful, but also fun!”

Since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004, Jessica Carnevale has designed furniture and products for clients around the world, including Martha Stewart, West
Elm Furniture, Anna Sui and Alexandra Champalimaud, and even worked as head designer for Brocade
Home, creating a new brand for Restoration Hardware. For the past two years, Carnevale has been working at the Marcel Wanders Studio in Amsterdam. Under his direction, she has developed collections for Baccarat, Target, Bardelli, Philips, Xo, Magis, Cappellini, Skitsch and Moooi.

After a successful show at the Salone Satellite Milan, the Stretch collection is now off home to New York to be exhibited at ABC Home (888 Broadway) for May’s the International Contemporary Furniture Fair.

*above: Portrait of Jessica Carnevale

*Images courtesy of Carnevale Studio.

New for 2010, Vienna-based design house POLKA introduces the Floyd Sofa Range. Designed for Wittmann, this unconventional sofa series combines the classic couch shape with interchangeable, attachable elements that give the furniture a surprising versatility. Back cushions and armrests in various sizes let it go from a couch to a chaise, and a selection of accessories – a laptop table, a tray, a lamp, and a small round table – make it super-functional and fun.

Created in 2004, POLKA ( Polka Product Pleasure) is the brainchild of design duo Monica Singer and Marie Rahm. The pair “regards everyday life phenomena as their project’s fuel. To discover the beauty in the banal, the extraordinary out of the ordinary is the aim. We show shifting points of view, we like to surprise and carry on the ease of life forward on the way to create ‘product pleasures’.” Already, their impressive client list includes names like Lobmeyr, MINI/BMW and MAK among many others. To learn more about these product and visual designers, visit polkaproducts.com.

The brainchild of Latvian designers Baiba Lindāne and Uģis Gailis, BUdesign creates contemporary pieces that respectfully nod toward ancient Latvian folk traditions. Launched in 2008, thus far the design duo has earned a Magazine Deko Design Award, a Latvian Art Directors Club Award and a Young & Design Award.

Samples of their work are below, and include an 80 x 70cm wicker lamp series inspired by nature, a 43 x 33cm metal lamp inspired by the classic four-sided kitchen grater, and a clever catch-all hanging shelf, available in white, black or “salad green.”

To see more of BUdesign’s work, visit budesign.lv.

“This space is my space. This space is your space.”

Viennese design firm Walking Chair presents ” You May,” a super-functional, incredibly playful furniture series for the public space. Its multipurpose nature makes it a workable bar and bench, conference table and quiet corner all at the same time. It’s a lounge, a stage, a shelf, a workspace, and a private nook. You can eat on it, lay on it, play on it, meet and work on it, display on it.

Walking Chair’s design duo – Karl Emilio Pircher & Fidel Peugeot – created “You May” to provide urban planners and residents with a versatile instrument for enhancing the quality of the public space and filling it with a new, lively spirit. The first edition was finished during May 2009 for the Aarhus Festuge (Århus Festival Week) in Denmark and it was exhibitited at the Bauhaus Archive Museum of Design in Berlin in August 2009. This month, “You May” welcomes visitors to “Surprising Ingenuity – Austrian Design” (produced by Advantage Austria), an exhibit comprising 41 Austrian design creations. “You May” has been placed in the courtyard of Fabrica Bugatti at the Milanese Zona Tortona (which runs at the same time as the Salone Internazionale del Mobile).

YOU MAY be a public furniture
YOU MAY be a working space
YOU MAY be a public desk
YOU MAY be a relaxing spot
YOU MAY be a meeting point
YOU MAY be a city bench
YOU MAY be a knowledge space
YOU MAY be an outdoor bar
YOU MAY be a popular stage
YOU MAY be a beer garden table
YOU MAY be a landebahn (runaway)

YOU MAY be a missing link
YOU MAY be my new friend
YOU MAY be so beautiful
YOU MAY be my everything

*Images courtesy of Walking Chair.

Every piece of furniture designer Philip Michael Wolfson‘s TWISTED collection appears in constant motion. Complex shapes, seductive shadows and reflections result in an overall sense of ongoing transformation. TWISTED is made completely of HI-MACS ®Natural Acrylic Stone.

This week, Wolfson (together with LG Hausys) presents the futuristic TWISTED collection at Milan’s Hotel Nhow at Zona Tortona 2010. The show runs through April 19th at:

Nhow Hotel
Shangay Meeting Room
Via Tortona 35
20144 Milan

*above: Split Chair HIGH

*above: Split Chair LOW

*above: Twisted (desk)

*above: Eruption coffee table

*above: Why Not (mirror)

*Images courtesy of Susan Grant Lewin Associates

Opening tomorrow at Studio Visconti as part of Milan’s Salone design furniture festival, “flawless/imperfection” presents designer Rolf Sachs‘ newest prototypes and limited-edition furniture and lighting lines. Inspired by his fascination with the inherent ‘imperfections’ of everyday life, and wary of the often faultless, glossy designs of the past decade, Sachs’ conceptual approach celebrates and exposes the imperfections rather than attempting to conceal them: a Kevlar chair is left untrimmed, resin pieces have air bubbles and blemishes, and upholstered furniture is marked and stained revealing a joyful, lived-in domestic feel. And the lighting, well – see the stunning results below for yourself.

According to Sachs,”‘flawless/imperfection’ has been inspired by my curiosity of the imperfections in humans and daily life. We try to distance ourselves from the typically ‘flawless’ design attributes of the past decade and aim to create designs that demonstrate conceptual rather than decorative ideas. I also try to bring an underlying sense of humour, surprise and nostalgia to my work, trying to change people’s perceptions.’

“flawless/imperfection” runs through this Sunday.

*above: ‘ginger & fred’ 2010, Pair of armchairs. Studio piece. Pine wood, hessian, cotton, metal springs, natural fibres & wadding, fabric paint

*above: ‘dirty thoughts’ 2009. Armchair. Carbon fibre, Kevlar, bonding resin, paints

*above: ‘chemie no.2’ 2010. Table or pendant light. Prototype for edition. Amberised borosilicate glass, cork, flex, electrics

*above: ‘rubecula’ 2010. Table light. Studio series of 17. H40cm x W26.5cm x D26.5cm. Mirrored glass dome, felt, natural twig, stuffed Robin bird, electrics, flex, walnut dimmer

*above: ‘hand me a light’ 2010. Table light. Studio series of 17. H50cm x W42cm x D42cm. Mirrored glass dome, felt, wooden hand, electrics & flex

*above: ‘light house’ 2010. Floor lamp. Prototype. H150cm x W60cm x D30cm. Wooden stand, mirrored glass dome, straps, flex, electrics

*Images courtesy of LUCHFORD APM.

A self-proclaimed “junk rat,” American designer Johnny Swing repurposes common materials (coins, bills, jars, leather swatches), to create new, nearly recognizable forms (couches, lighting, etc.) – each with a definitive, often ironic twist.

Swing’s coin furniture series, for example, translates coinage into seating: the Nickel Couch consisting of 7000 nickels, the Half Dollar/Butterfly Chair 1500 half dollars, and so on. His Jar Chair is made of 96 baby food jars and 400 pieces of hardware to stand at 14.5″W x 25.5″D x 40.5″H. The Leather Disk Furniture utilizes remnants of Italian leather floor tiles, and the technology developed through the jar chair research.

With his lighting and sculptural work, Swing uses materials associated with industry to create organic and playful pieces (some reminiscent of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, or even, on the other extreme, twisted ivy). For the self-standing Lightwings collection, Swing uses satellite dishes as reflectors and lampholders.

*above, the Nickel Couch

*above, the Butterfly Chair

*above, the Jar Chair

*above, stool

*above, “Pig”

*above, Lightwing

*above, Lightwing

*above, sculptural detail

To learn more about Johnny Swing, visit JohnnySwing.com.
All images courtesy of the artist.

British designer Tom Dixon offers us a sneak peak at his new wares for May’s ICFF 2010: INDUSTRY and Flash Factory. INDUSTRY is Dixon’s latest line of lighting and furniture (scheduled to appear at ICFF’s booth 1804), and was inspired by industrial processes. At Dixon’s Flash Factory (booths 1900 and 2000), visitors will be able to make and buy limited-edition pieces directly from the stand.

INDUSTRY’s lineup includes:
- Void, an almost musical-looking lighting object inspired by the vacuum flask, with a double wall construction.
- Peg, a minimalist stackable café chair in sold birch.
- Offcut Bench, a flat-packed design made from the waste generated by standard wooden furniture manufacture.
- and the return of Jack, the polyethylene ‘sitting, stacking, lighting thing’ now available in black for the latest generation.

Also launching Is the first in a series of self-published Tom Dixon books. Starting with the orientation for this year’s collection, Industry, the paperback outlines a critique of various production formulas followed by Dixon’s own proposal for a Future Industry. In the same spirit of Etch and Flash Factory, this publishing venture hopes to cut out the middle man by employing new, innovative printing systems. We’ve got an exclusive look at the cover below!

INDUSTRY can be bought from the stand at ICFF and at www.tomdixon.net.

*above, Tom Dixon’s Void lights

*above, Jack lights

*above, Jack lights

*above, Offcut Bench

*above, Peg Chairs

*above, Dixon’s new INDUSTRY book cover

*All images courtesy of Tom Dixon.