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August 21, 2008
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August 21, 2008
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September, 2006 While several mini trends in interior décor have come and gone, the trend majeur in furniture and product design of the past few years has been to marry long, clean lines with sensual, fluid forms. Organic meets Bauhaus, if you will. It’s been dressed up (classic baroque, chandelier luxury) and dressed down (cottage chic, raw & natural) more ways than imaginable. Yet as with any trend, which generally peaks and crests within five to seven years, there comes a replacement – a latter trend that emerges, perhaps as the anti-thesis of the former. The Strategy story by Voice of Color yields elements of this new direction in design. BUILT IT UP Design trends are often formed when the style of a specific person, product, design, culture etc. grows wide enough to influence the styles of others. By this simple definition, it’s clear to see why product designers are inspired by fashion designers, why fashion designers are inspired by artists, and why artists are inspired by architects. Or vice versa. Perhaps fuelled by a combination of low interest rates and a sense of millennial futurism, the new architecture of the past decade has radically raised the bar for inventive design. Zaha Hadid - 2004 Laureate Pritzker Prize winner and esteemed architect responsible for masterpieces such as the Center for Contemporary Art, the Architecture Foundation of London, and Glasglow’s Transport Museum - is widely celebrated for her blend of structure and sinuous form.
The famed duo Herzog & de Meuron – whose most notable work is arguably the Gallery of Modern Art for the Tate Museum – celebrate a similar interest in the union between structural form and soft geometry. Their diamond-shaped bubble-esque vision of the Prada store in Tokyo is both smooth and striking, each piece of glass arranged in playful opposition to one another, imitating movement, as if the architecture is interacting with each individual shopper.
EDGY GEOMETRY While Hadid, Herzog, and de Meuron are only a few of today’s most influential architects, they highlight the early stages of the trend’s influence. The path of the trickle-down effect leads straight to the realm of product design, and it doesn’t stop there. A handful of creative thinkers are leading the way for edgy geometric forms to be the next big design shift. The 8.0 Chair by Omer Arbel is one such example, offering simplicity of form with nothing more than a framework. Although similar in influence, it differs greatly from the Morph Cubist Lamp created by Ant-Design group, which manipulates geometric shape to create surface interest and a sense of texture. Even the Polyvase by Dan Yeffet seems more like a mini architectural monument than a flower vase. Perhaps most telling of a trend on the rise, star designer Patricia Urquiola puts her stamp on the movement with Orloff, a stainless steel geodesic bowl she designed for Alessi.
The design of Strategy reveals this surge of architectural interest. Silhouettes are clean, strict, and geometric – exhibiting a slightly industrial and distinctly masculine energy. Shelflife by Charles Trevelyan and the angular dishware by Koichiro Kimura offer such strong-bodied silhouettes. Likewise, the Thin Seat by Montreal’s Periphere and the Zoo stool, by C.Gori for Green proudly emphasize the structural framework, the architecture, of the design.
The Strategy story plays on a retro-esque palette of milky industrial tones, baring the intensity of (almost) Black on (almost) White, the cool indifference of mottled greys, and the energy of crimson hues. Taking the palette as a whole, crème tones such as -----Dusty Trail and Camel act as stabilizers, calming the overall look with at touch of warmth. They are the dominant base tones on which the other colors become accents. The deep greys ----–recess and add depth to a room, while white and reddened shades of -----Burning Bush and Brick Dust bring pop and sophistication to the entire mix.
Posted by: Renée Labbé |
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