Photos By Gail
This week we are introducing a new, reoccurring feature, Eye on Design, with American Industrial Design Legend Raymond Loewy (1893 – 1986). Loewy was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Raymond Loewy, Lawn Chef Portable Grill
Billet 1: Extrusion 1 Bench, 2009 (All Photos By Gail)
Can you squeeze a chair out of a machine, the way you squeeze toothpaste out of a tube? Extruded aluminum, commonly used for double-glazed window frame systems, is made by squeezing heated metal through a shaped hole, or die. Intrigued by the warped lengths that occur during this process, the studio sought to make seating, formed in single extrusions, that makes imperfection part of the design.
Bench Viewed from its Right Side
The Heatherwick team worked with an Asian factory whose extrusion machine, used to make aerospace-industry components, can exert 11,000 tons of pressure. The result is a series of seats in which straight, clean lengths contrast beautifully with raw, disfigured ends.
Bench Viewed from its Left Side
This electroless-nickel-plated, aluminum bench was designed by Thomas Heatherwick in collaboration with contemporary art gallery Haunch of Venison.
Extrusion Bench, Rear View
Photographed in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City.
All Photos By Gail
This Moss Lamp (1999) exemplifies designer Gaetano Pesce’s use of industrial production techniques and materials to produce unique objects. Here, he pours silicone in thread-like trails to achieve a textured and translucent sphere that casts a soft glow through irregular gaps and varied thicknesses. The end result is dictated by the behavior of the material.
All Photos By Gail
For the famed furniture designers, brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana, startling materials are a hallmark of their design practice. Often evoking the rich street-market culture of their native Brazil, they utilize everyday elements in unexpected ways, such as this looped red cord for the opulent pile upholstery of this Vermelha (Red) chair (2007). Continue reading Eye On Design: Vermelha Chair By The Campana Brothers
Photo By Gail
The PH Artichoke Hanging Lamp (1958) was designed by Danish designer Paul Henningsen, and manufactured by Louis Poulsen & Co. It is made from bent copper, steel and enameled metal and looks just spectacular!
Continue reading Eye On Design: Artichoke Lamp