allard manyere’s blog

 

Born Oxford, England 1951.

Bsc (Naval Architecture), University of Newcastle – upon Tyne 1972 came to New Zealand 1986.  Lives in Havelock.

 

His passion about the philosophy of craft in relation to design and his love of wood is seen in his furniture.  His beautifully crafted products have been acknowledged in England, USA, Japan, Germany and Scotland.

 

David sailed for four years to New Zealand via the Carribbean and Tahiti.  This had a huge impact on his designs.  He made furniture for his use in the Carribbean and Tahiti.  His sail like form furniture evoked Polynesian vessels.  He received an award for this work and several other awards for other works.

 

David believes in making products which people would become emotionally attached to.  This provides the user with both crafted art and functional art.

 

David Trubridge’s work has also been inspired by Gauguin’s printing blocks.  Here Trubridge shifted the emphasis on structure to the surface of the table top . Marks revealed during the making process were left to be seen.  These were inked and the images printed on paper.  A connection developed between the supporting structure and the surface decoration of the table top.

 

The inking process of the newer works mutes the applied colour.  He wants to step sideways from the wood surface, allowing its characteristics to show without overriding the surface.  David Truebridge’s concerns are form, structure and detail.

 David champions the crusade in sustainable designing.We have had a 2 day workshop with him on sustainable designing.

reference google images 3-11-09

CARIN WILSON

Born Christchurch 1945

Ngati Awa Ngai Te Rangi houhiri

Professional Member of Designer Institute of New Zealand

Honorary Dip Art Design, Whitecliffe College of Art and Design. Lives in Auckland.

 

Wilson is a self-taught furniture maker and had an unorthodox career path.  He has been into designing and making sine 1974.  He has been president of the Guild of Wood workers New Zealand, of the Crafts Council of New Zealand, and of the Designers Institute of New Zealand, and a board member of the world Crafts Council.

 

 

Wilson has developed working relationships with the design industry and in education.  He works as a design maker and designer.  He has explored the boundary between functional and sculptural furniture.  An exhibition in 1995 took Wilson away from functional furniture than ever before.

 

Making sculpture made Wilson realize that the most successful furniture defines the space it occupies.  The sculptures were a way of making discoveries.

 

When he was presented with a brief for a bed and concept drawings, he designed a one base—single uninterrupted line.  The line starts on the edge of one leg and continues through the whole piece.  Wilson strives for conceptual simplicity.

 

Picture

 

Bed Sycamore 2800 x 850 x 2380mm Collection of Tulia Wilson and Greg Murrel.

 

PETER WOODS

 

Born in Etham 1952 worked for Jens Hansen, Nelson 1973 – 74; Elam School of Fine Art 1978.  Lives in Auckland and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

 reference:google images 03-11-09

Peter Woods is an exponent of genre not so common in New Zealand.  His contemporary silver hollow ware speaks to the viewer.  His work eschews the avant garde and trendy but celebrates the strong history of silver smithing.  These products are elegant and contemporary.  Many of which acquire content by reflecting the interests of their owners.

 

Peter Woods was involved in the development of the craft Design courses which were introduced to the polytechiques in the mid 1980s.Of late he has been involved in training artisans in Mexico, where silverware has a strong tradition.  In the 1970s he produced jewellery for Jens Hansen.  The jewellery comprised of large fabricated Scandinavian – inspired pieces, hollow bangles that were like vessels.  At this point he made a choice to develop the works as vessels and pursue silversmithing rather than jewellery.  In the 1980s he made antique silver restoration.

 

Since 1996 Peter Woods has been creating a dining set for James Wallace Charitable Arts Trust, starting with a sculptural centrepiece, moving to flatware and later to serving dishes.  He gradually replaced antiqi silver with a contemporary one.

 

Picture:

 

Tea and Coffee set sterling silver and puriri  220 x 400mm J.L. Reid Collection.

 

 

It was created in 1995.  It features slender silver handle details echoed in puriri on the tea and coffee servers.  The tray has small feet using the same detail.  Each part of the set is beautifully crafted and together they form a harmonius grouping.

 

In the making of his products Peter Woods has embraced lapidary and bronze casting.  In 1993 he became a founding member of the New Zealand Contemporary Medallion Group.

 

He makes the pieces, does his own foundry work and casting.He also delegates.  His role now is to undertake larger, more comprehensive commissioned projects that need more designing.  He is constantly in touch with all projects, checking methodology and the high standards he requires.  He creates the wax forms for casting.  Woods involvement ensures that the resulting works are beautiful, functional and carry his personal imprint.

 

 

MARC ZUCKERMAN

 reference:google images  03-11-09

Born in Brooklyn, New York 1945

Geological Engineering degree, Colorado School of Mines 1969.

MSC (Mining and Exploration Geology) James Cook University, Northern Queensland 1975.

Moved to New Zealand 1971 started designing and making furniture 1977.

Lives in Kowhitirangi, out of Hokitika.

 

Marc Zuckerman's  furniture is not affected by trends.  His focus has been on minimalist functional furniture for over two decades.  His furniture’s aesthetics is dominated by the Scandinavian wooden furniture.

 

Designing and making  solid timber kitchens led him to making furniture and having a strong interest in design.  Classical designs interest him.  He wanted to create work with depth  and substance.  He taught at Christchurch Polytechnic from 1988 t0 1996.  He is less interested in breaking new ground.  He prefers small refinements.  He does not seek to identify with Pacific Culture.  Zuckerman’s aesthetic and philosophy reflect his cultural roots.  He brings a functional approach to his work as evident in the ‘glass settle, 1996, made of sycamore and glass.  The joints are beautifully expressed, with the use of thick glass as a seat and back offering pleasant seating experience.

 

Marc Zuckerman works with rimu matai and sycamore making tables, chairs, desks and coffee tables.  In 1985 he became a founding member of the thriving Hokitika Craft Gallery.  In 1987 after the financial crash he started making gift and tourist items like clocks, dishes, serving implements and furniture.  With everything he makes he applies the same well-considered design values.  Features of clocks occasionally appear in pieces of furniture.

 

Quality of crafting and hand-sanding as the ultimate finish remain constant in Zuckerman’s work.

 

 

www.gooogleimages.com-------------21-09-09

In 1993 Droog Design arrived and was recognized and acknowledge by the design fraternity.  This was at Dutch outfit.  The iniators were Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker.Droogs first artefacts were Tejo Remy’s accumulation of drawers without a cabinet and his “Rag Chair”.

 Accumulation of drawers

www.googleimages.com------21-09-09

Rag chair

 

 www.googleimages.com----------------21-09-09

 

Droog means dry in Dutch.Minimalism could be found in Droog products made with standard or mid tech processes,such as in Oval’s  inflatable lamps,Ed  Annink’s multipurpose hooks, and Arian Brekveld’s “Soft  Lamps”.Marcel  Wanders’s “Knotted Chair''.    www.googleimages.com------------21-09-09

,.Hella Tongerius’s “Knitted Lamp”.

Droog’s work brought  in the neo-minimalist era. Healthy ,very hygienic and a cleaner life-style was the goal for Droog.

 

Droog’s object’s are modesty and are what political correctness in design should be.The collection is

reference: www.googleimages.com-----21-09-09

representative to the “less is more” approach.

 

Droog’s objects are also very dry.They  look misleadingly impoverished.These products are sometimes made of recycled mass-produced objects but their composition is carefully handcrafted and produced in limited series.

 reference: www.googleimages.com------21-09-09

Droog’s collection are about the synthesis of past shapes and new techniques or the synthesis of the image of the image of old techniques like knitting or knotting  and advanced materials.

 

DROOG COLLECTION ICONS-LOW TECH APPROACH

This is best represented by some of the first Droog milestones.Tejo Remy’s “You  Can’t Lay Down Your Memories” chest  of drawers and his “Rag Chair”,his “Milkbottle Lamp” and Rody Grauman”s 85 Lamps.Arnout Visser’s  Archimedes letter scale and “Salad sunrise oil vinegar bottle.

A defiance  of political correctness and on elementary sense of humour bring popularity  to Droog.

 

Ramaker’s and Bakker work within a flexible network of small ateliers,manufacturers,craftpeople and high-tech transfer centres maximizing the resources appropriate to each item in the collection.

 

Dutch desjgn is up there today.It is cleansing and blow-drying the world .

 

GIJS BAKKER

reference:www.googleimages.com-----21-09-09

reference:www.gooogleimages.com------------21-09-09

reference:www.googleimages.com---------------21-09-09

Gijs Bakker was born in 1942 in Amsterdam.He studied Jewellery and  Industrial design in Amsterdam between 1958 and 1963.

 

Bakker has undertaken commission as a freelance designer for Polaroid ,Castelijn,Artifort and Artimeta,as well as lecturing at various institutions such as the Technishe Universal.

 

Droog works with Rosenthal,Mandarina Duck and Levis.

 

Apart from challenging his energies into Droog,Bakker stages exhibitions,lectures and workshops all over the world.

 

His work

 

“Flow” cheese dome for Royal Van Kempen and Begeer (2000).

REFERENCE:DROOG DESIGN spirit of the nineties edited by Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker

010Publishers ,Rotterdam 1998

THE WORLD WIDE WEB

Tim Berners - Lee invented the web in 1989 (a universal space of information). 

 

 www.googleimages.com-----21-09-09

Web publishing, in which a few write and many read, has benefited from exponentially rising numbers of readers and writers.

 

 

SCANDINAVIAN DESIGNS

 

 

Ref:  Scandinavian style – classic and modern scandinavian design.CARLTON PUBLISHING GROUP2003 LONDON

 

Nordic countries adopted the ideas of Modernism.  The ethos behind this movement was that functionality is inherently beautiful and that, when it comes to adornment, “less is more”.

 

Names such as Gunnar Asplund, Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, were among the Modernist pioneers, others included Kaj Franck, Bruno Mathsson and Wegner.  Their work is still prominent, and has continued to be an inspiration for later generations.  Asplund died in 1940 but the others brought  Scandinavian Design to its popurarity world – wide in the 1950s.

 

ALVAR AALTO –dominated the Functionalist era in Finland.  He had a clear organic touch.  He started experimenting with the bent plywood furniture.  He excelled in unconventional uses of Finnish birch and pine.

 

KAJ FRANCK (Finnish Designer) exemplified everyday goods and  ‘beauty for everybody’ which  means designs that function for the elderly and disabled.

 

ERGONOMIC DESIGN GROUP – was established in the late 1960s.  Among the groups international successes are tools for Bahco ballpoint pens for these who suffer from rheumatism and arthritis.

 

 

 knife with ergonomic handle for Ikea                 www.gooogleimages.com-----21-09-09

 

Knives with ergonomic handles for Ikea.

 

 

 

Ideal kitchen knife for those with weak arms.

 www.gooogleimages.com----21-09-09

Tough barbecue utensils by Finnish designer Harris Koskinen for Hacknaan, elegantly combining functionality and simplicity.

 www.google images.com------21-09-09

 

 

Danish SOGRENI bicycles

 

www.gooogle.images.com-----------21-09-09

-         More classic

-         They are still outstanding in finish and design.

-         Everyone of them is individually crafted.

-         They have unique flat, wooden mudguards, practical stylish bells, lights and trouser leg clips.

 

 

 

 

“Urban” bicycles such as MN Extravaganza model was developed and manufactured by BIOMEGA.

 www.googleimages.com---------21-09-09

Key Characteristic

An organically shaped frame that has been shaped from aluminium.

 

SONY ERICSSON

The Swedish firm Ericsson has been a pioneer in designing and manufacturing phones.  The company’s Sony Ericsson division specialises in manufacturing mobile phones.  All models are considerably smaller that the first mobile phones of the early 1980s.

 

T68(i)    P800 and T300

 

www.googleimages.com--------21-09-09

NOKIA

The Finnish firm Nokia is a leading international producer of mobile phones.  Design has been an important element in the success of the Nokia phones from the late 1980s.  The company was aware that mobile phones were personal gadgets as well.  The philosophy is manifested in the colourful 5100 model.

 

www.googleimages.com-------21-09-09

BAHCO

A Swedish company.  One of the world’s largest manufacturers of tools and has considered ergonomics.  In collaboration with Swedish ergonomic Design Group, Bahco has developed tools with extra functional and precisely studied grips.  The company is deeply engaged in the prevention of work related injuries.

 

www.googleimages.com--------21-09-09

FISKARS

www.googleimages.com------21-09-09

The Finnish Company specialises in scissors and cutting tools, with a history dating back to the seventeenth century.  BERTEL GARDBERG designed their cutlery.  OLOF BACKSTROM designed a pair of scissors with brightly coloured plastic grips.  These are ergonomically well analysed and visually striking Finnish originals.

 

The tools are light weight, ergonomically designed and cleverly designed.  The tool does the work for you not the body.   

 

 REFERENCE:SCANDINAVIAN STYLE-CARLTON PUBLISHING GROUP 2003 LONDON

 

 LA CASA DELLA FELICITA-The house of happiness 1980-88

La Casa Della Felicita is the architectural project undertaken by Alessi.  It was developed by Alessandro Mendini, Francesco Mendini and Giorgio Gregori (Atelier Alchimia) from 1980 – 88, with contributions from other architects connected with Alessi : Andrea Branzil (a small outside fountain), Achille Castiglioni   (fireplace) Riccardo Dalisi (gables), FrankGehry (the conservatory) Milton Glaser (railings), Aldo Rossi (tower), Ettore Scottsass (fireplace) and Robert Venturi (library).

 Casa della Felicita was intended as a house of happy projects, an ideal and stimulating place for the experimentation with, and generation of a collection of furniture accessories from Alessi.  A trolley, tongs, folding chair, table, lamp, small table by Ettore Sottsass, a lamp by Alessandro Mendini, fireplace tools and a barbecue by Stefan Maraxez.

 This was an intellectual dwelling.  The intervention of other architects would respond to the clients needs, with an experimental and literary style.

 www.google images.com   08-09-09

KETTLE WITH A BIRD – SHAPED WHISTLE

Michael graves (1985)

 Michael Graves intended to elaborate an American design by making it ‘softer’ less intellectual, closer to the taste of average Joe public.  He hoped to achieve this by blending Art deco, American Pop, preColombian culture and the language of cartoons.

When the kettle with a Bird-shaped whistle was launched on the market in 1985 it cost $75.  Despite this price it soon became a best seller in America and worldwide.  Subsequently there was the ‘Graves family’ a typical American series of tableware, consisting of a milk jug, sugar bowl, butter dish, mug and demitasse. 

 NEAPOLITAN COFFEE MAKER (Riccardo Dalisi 1987)

 www.google images.com                                    08-09-09

The research into the Neapolitan Coffee maker began in 1979 and ended in 1987.  It began with a vast socio-anthropological survey on the way in which the coffee maker was used and how coffee was perceived in the small towns of the Neapolitan hinterland.  Many pages of writing and sketches were produced over the years.  Heaps of prototypes each different, all perfectly functional, all made of tin by Riccardo Dalisi working with Don Vincenzo the craftsman.

First reaction from Alessi colleagues was of both surprise and scorn because of the use of tin, a poor, low – grade material, the ingenuous approach to designing coffee makers, with the useless philological attention to construction detail.  This was also not able to be mass produced.  Prototypes of the caricatural products were produced.

 Over the years the many prototypes began to stack up on shelves and on tables of the Alessi Office.  These coffee makers mimicked little man saints, animals.  They were bizarre coffee makers.

 www.google images com                                08-09-09

Reference:

ALESSI – The Design Factory

London 1994

Academy Editions.

 

During the 1980s the Alessi company emerged at the forefront of desing activity.Founded in 1921 to produce crafted products in metal for eating and drinking.

Alberto Alessi launched the company into the design decade through his collaboration with designers and architects such as Ettore Sottsas,Richard Sapper,Achille Castiglioni and Alessndro Mendini and creation of two trade marks.Alessi geared towards mass production and Officina Alessi towards more experimental limited editions.

This postulation shows how Alessi flourishes and developes into the 1990s.

Alessi typified the eighties design decade .Alessi does things in full with workshops,metaprojects,seminars,lectures and philosophical discussions in abundance generating prototypes.

Alessi is encouragjng the growth of new talent with workshops such as 'memory containers' bringing together new designers in brainstorming design sessions.

Alberto Alessi's philosophy and stress on the need for good design has become a personal push.He passes on his sense of fun and wit onto an equally enthusiastic audience.

This ability to change, to experiment ,to diversify, to respond to social, political and economical vagaries will allow the company to maintain their repution.

In 1979 Alessi introduced glass and stainless steel which later became an international best seller for Alessi.

Alessi came to international fame in the early 1980 with the Tea and Coffee Piazza.This coincided with of the Apple Macintosh and both have had an effect on the design process.REFERENCE:ALESSI-The design factory.Academy Editions London 1994.