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.

Jordan Cammarata, an Industrial Design student at Philadelphia University,  recently earned top honors with his PULL lamp (above), winning the 2009 Collab Student Design Competition. Sponsored by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Collab winner was announced during last week’s Marcel Wanders opening at the Museum.

As Cammarata explains it, the PULL lamp is a contemporary interpretation of Harvey Hubbell‘s pull chain socket, patented in 1896. By pulling the chain (also the stand), the light glows from the pull chain itself. The off-center position of the pull chain, inspired by its natural orientation, is counterintuitive to the casual observer. Inspired by Wanders’ work, PULL embodies the creative use of materials and unconventional style so characteristic of the award-winning Dutch designer’s work.

*image courtesy of Jordan Cammarata

Personal Edition Crochet Chair by Marcel Wanders

The Philadelphia Museum of Art welcomes visionary Dutch designer Marcel Wanders in a self-designed, self-curated exhibition called “Marcel Wanders: Daydreams.” This dreamlike, multimedia installation of objects was personally selected by Wanders to represent pivotal points in his 20+ year career. Video images, lighting, and sound illuminate his creative development over the years.

New films—detailing Wanders’s design process and philosophy in projects ranging from manufactured products, hotel interiors, and design art—also make their public debut at the retrospective. The films’ soundscapes provide Wanders’s personal views on design.

“Marcel Wanders: Daydreams”
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Curated by Kathryn Hiesinger
November 22, 2009- June 13, 2010

For more information, visit Philadelphia Museum of Art.
And look for my interview w/Wanders in the winter issue of Clear Magazine!

I recently reviewed three great titles for Clear Magazine: Spacecraft 2, KarimSpace, and Marcel Wanders: Behind the Ceiling. Check out snippets from the reviews below!

Spacecraft 2: More Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts
Published by Gestalten / $75 / 280 pages
Pushing the limits of classical architecture and satisfying the changing spatial needs of modern life, the projects in Spacecraft 2 demonstrate innovation at its best…inspiring projects by young and little-known artists toy with conventional spatial design and reveal the genuine excitement and possibility that exist in architecture today.

KarimSpace
by Karim Rashid, forward by Daniel Libeskind
published by Rizzoli/ $86 / 256 pages
Karim Rashid is probably best known for his household designs for Umbra and Method. In KarimSpace, he shares real and conceptual interior projects for restaurants, hotels, residences, retail environments and public areas…his creative process and his ability to combine familiar shape and colors with unexpected materials…Sometimes space-age, sometimes almost biological, the work is always playful, and consistently lives up to Rashid’s definition of design as the “rigorous beautification of our built environments.”

Marcel Wanders: Behind the Ceiling
by Marcel Wanders
published by Gestalten /$70 / 320 pages
Wanders’ first monograph showcases a decade’s worth of provocative work: from personal art editions to textiles and furniture for clients like B&B Italia, Droog, Cappellini and Moooi, to architecture and interiors for Miami’s Mondrian South Beach Hotel and more. Photos, designer comments and sketches offer readers a first-hand account of Wanders’ world.

**Disclosure: links above are Amazon affiliate links.
To read the full reviews, visit book reviews on my Writing Samples page.