v. design museum
Issue 27 The Swiss Edition
Don’t Miss the Swiss The history of Swiss design and designer biographies.
The details are not the details. They make the product.
PROCESS INPUT Contributed design determination, focus, and overall insight. Contributed overall vision, perseverance, and design wisdom. Contributed candid design views as well as print production services.
We are Team drei Katzen
The Swiss Edition Vitra is a Swiss, family-owned company. It not only makes furniture and creates retail environments, but also has its own Campus with buildings by leading international architects. Vitra Design Museum is proud to be celebrating Vitra’s heritage through the upcoming Swiss History and Design Exhibition. It will feature designs by the founders of the International Style as well as modern designers that continue to be inspired by Swiss Design. Read more about Swiss Design and the new exhibition on page 36.
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The Vitra Design Museum numbers among the world’s leading museums of design. It is dedicated to the research and presentation of design, past and present, and examines design’s relationship to architecture, art and everyday culture. In the main museum building by Frank Gehry, the museum annually mounts two major temporary exhibitions. Smaller parallel shows are presented in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery, a neighbouring exhibition space. Often developed with renowned designers, many of the museum’s exhibitions cover highly relevant contemporary themes, such as future technologies, sustainability or questions like mobility and social awareness. Others address historical aspects or protagonists. The work of the Vitra Design Museum is based on its collection, which encompasses not only key objects of design history, but also the estates of several important figures (including Charles & Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard). The museum library and document archive are available to researchers upon request. The museum conceives its exhibitions for touring, and they are shown at venues around the world. On the Vitra Campus, they are complemented by a diverse programme of events, guided tours and workshops.
Recent and current exhibitions across the Vitra Campus.
DON’T MISS THE SWISS
Designer interviews with an exclusive tour of Eric Speikermann’s home.
THINGS TO SEE
THE COOL KIDS
CONTENTS
The history of Swiss Design and designer biographies.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
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ROUND OF APPLAUSE
FUTURE GLANCE
Upcoming shows and events across the Vitra Campus.
Credits and acknowledgements.
45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83
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THE COOL KIDS The world’s leading designers talk about design.
THE COOL KIDS
KONSTANTIN GRCIC
8
“I WANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW DESIGN IS CONNECTED TO LIFE.”
Konstantin Grcic is one of the most influential designers of our time. Serious and functional, unwieldy and occasionally disconcerting, his works combine an industrial aesthetic with experimental, artistic elements. Curator Janna Lipsky spoke with Grcic about his understanding of design, his inspirations and the beginning of his career. Can you describe what design is? Design is the adventure of not exactly knowing what a given creative process will yield. I refuse to have any preconceived notions of functionality, any preconceived ideas of comfort and beauty. I want to understand how design is connected to life. The fact that life is not perfect makes it all the more interesting; it is therefore all right if products are a bit unruly. My designs do not immediately reveal themselves. They do what they are designed to do, are functional, but at the same time, they question their own functionality and call upon the user to do likewise.
shown on Achille Castiglioni. I wasn’t familiar with Castiglioni but my sister sent me the exhibition catalogue, which really made an impression on me. The catalogue not only covered his works but also Castiglioni as a person. He was already quite old but still so curious and spry! At the time, I was thinking about what I wanted to do. I believe people not only need to find something that interests them, but also role models. Castiglioni was such a person for me and it suddenly clicked that I could become a designer.
Why did you aspire to become a designer?
And what is a typical working process like? Is there a central theme that defines every project?
In the 1980s, I apprenticed as a cabinetmaker in England. At the time, my sister was living in Vienna, where a retrospective was being
Yes, a project needs a strong idea. That may sound like a formula, but it’s not. The process is somehow different and more complicated,
but at the end you always look back and realize: “Ah, yes, this was the idea that carried the whole project.” The idea, or whatever you want to call it, can’t be forced. That’s the challenge and simultaneously the great unknown. Good ideas come from a mix: from research, experimentation and reflection, but then there also needs to be that moment of brilliance. The materials and the ideas come together and produce something like a chemical reaction. The whole thing intensifies and somehow all these fragments turn into something much bigger. The exhibition »Panorama« presents your work to date, but also ventures a look into the future of design. How did this project come about? I was never interested in a classic presentation of works. Instead, I wanted to understand the exhibition as an independent work, as a design project. In dialogue with Mateo Kries, it was decided that the show should involve a discourse on the future. As an industrial designer this isn’t all that unusual, but the exhibition provided an opportunity for a much more programmatic and comprehensive investigation of the theme. VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 9
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The show could become an expression of my personal view of the future. At the same time, such a subjective statement prompts great consideration of other such interpretations. Clear images of the future are clichĂŠs of the past. Today, engaging with the future means confronting a multitude of more subtle issues.
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THE COOL KIDS
ERIK SPIEKERMANN
12
“GOOD INTERIOR DESIGN MAKES ME FEEL AT HOME.”
Erik Spiekermann’s name is ubiquitous in graphic design and the world of typography. Perhaps he’s best known for the signage Berliners see everyday – he created the passenger information for the BVG (Berlin Transit) and the current Deutsche Bahn aesthetic – as well as campaigns for Audi, Volkswagen and Nokia. The list goes on and spans decades of collaborations and clients. As the founder of FontShop, the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts, and namesake of Berlin’s Edenspiekermann agency, Erik remarks that he’s worked with everyone in the Berlin design scene and their brother. “Someone made a map of at least 600 people in Berlin who have worked with me at some time. It just means that I am old,” he muses. Erik Spiekermann is prolific, even famous, in some circles. A winner of three lifetime achievement awards needn’t brag, and Spiekermann doesn’t, though he is aware of his worth through and through, speaking with enthusiasm and no remorse for his spirited and unflinching rules and ideas, like his famous dictum: “Don’t work for assholes. Don’t work with assholes.” Of course it has its own poster and can be found around Berlin (even at the Buchstabenmusuem as part of an exhibit). Retired, yet active as ever, when he’s not traveling to speak at conferences, creating new work at P98a, his letterpress design studio, or spending time with his wife, he might be found cracking away at multiple projects and
ideas in their seven-story townhouse uniquely separated by floors rather than walls. Walking through his airy home, one gets a feel for Erik’s personality. With large windows on every floor of the narrow space, natural light floods in, bestowing the rooms with a feeling of calm retreat in the center of Berlin. Floors one and two are rented to an office, and the third is Erik’s personal workspace, where a simple desk with drawers supports his computer. A project is clearly in progress: there are several metallic silver suitcases, which Erik laughs about, “Why do I need so many?” There are documents and boxes of archived materials on the long table from
Erik’s former colleagues, who lent them for use in the book, Hello, I am Erik, written and compiled by Johannes Erler about Erik’s life and work. His collection of Braun stereo equipment is stacked six elements high. Pinned to the board by his desk, a black and white strip of photos shows he and his wife striking comical poses. The posters and artwork throughout all have a story behind them, either created by Erik himself, or gifted to him by friends. For example, the typographic map of Berlin that just arrived. Cut in linoleum and made by Erik’s friend, artist Mark Andrew Webber, unrolled it takes up the entire living room floor. The fifth level is a living room and kitchen space, where Erik prepares espressos for friends, and might offer them marzipan candies from a glass jar. His dining table is surrounded by Eames Plastic Side Chairs DSR, which Erik loves, adding “We have some Eames Aluminium Group in our house in San Francisco and I would love to have them for our home office here. One day – white leather.” The chairs, and all the furniture in the house VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 13
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Type Works, he says, “The digital age and the analog have totally started overlapping. What I’m doing with my letterpress is not nostalgia. I’m trying to work out how modern digital methods are, for example, capable of making originals. What I’m trying to achieve Because he doesn’t see himself as organized and has a chaotic workflow, he says that he is bringing the analog process together with comes up with a new creative process daily. the digital. With digital, the quality I can do with my Mac is better than anyone could do Yet a look around his tidy, if eclectic, home begs to differ with the idea that he is disorganized, on metal, ever.” offering an eye pleasing sampler of the designer’s interests on display. One of his home’s main The designer’s household has throughout the years suffered one fire, two floods, one attractions is his two-story bookshelf, mostly burglary and one willful destruction, as Erik filled with titles pertinent to his profession, describes it. There was the 1977 fire in and only accessible by the seated pulley London that destroyed his hand-collected system Spiekermann developed for one of printing press machines. Followed by the his favorite leisure activities – browsing his first flood in Berlin in 2002, which affected massive library and getting lost in his passion his archives, in the cellar of what was then for words and images. the United Designers Network office (also founded by Erik). Seated in one of his Eames Plastic Chairs at his kitchen table, bare except for his espresso He continues, “The burglary was on April 1, 1990 (taken without milk or sugar) and two books, at MetaDesign’s offices on Potsdamer Platz, one is the heavy orange coffee table book just after the Wall was opened. The office written about him, and the other a title he was right next to the Wall and things were wrote, Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How for that matter, match each other. “It’s a mix of different models, but that is one thing about classics: they all mix well with old and new stuff. Good interior design makes me feel at home.”
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messy. We lost all our computers, which in 1990 wasn’t as traumatic as it would be today. In fact, it turned out well for us because we got brand new computers paid for by the insurance. The worst incident of all was when my ex-partner at MetaDesign had two plan chests full of samples of my work – posters, record covers, books, newspapers, manuals, etc. – thrown away as they moved to a new office. It was described as an unfortunate mistake, but one doesn’t just lose two large pieces of furniture like that by accident. The second flood in Berlin was in 2004 in the cellar of SpiekermannPartners, where what was left of my archives got very wet.” Though he has his own strengths, he largely credits his success to the network of good friends and colleagues he’s built over a lifetime. They’ve supported and worked consistently beside him, like the internationally famous branding and corporate identity expert and co-founder of the Wolff Olins Agency, Wally Olins, who took a chance on Erik and gave him one of his first jobs during his years in London, after Erik sent
him a card poking fun at his own German-ness. It’s what caused Wally to hire him the next day. When sizing a person up, he has no qualms about making quick judgements, but is lenient to a degree, saying, “Judge people for what they can do, not what they have done. Really look after your friends and your colleagues. You always meet again, if you treat someone badly now, he or she, at some point, is going to come back to you.” He’s made a living and a life out of always following his interests, whether that means trying his hand at something new, like designing a metal coin or a ship’s flag (both recent projects friends have commissioned him for), or aggregating news and articles he finds most interesting into a digest of sorts, a dream project he has in mind. “I’ve always wanted to know why things looked the way they did. That’s what interests me.”
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ERWIN WURM
16
“I DO NOT MAKE JOKES!”
The Austrian sculptor and installation artist Erwin Wurm is one of the most successful and popular artists of our time. In a unique presentation for the Vitra Design Museum Gallery, he will display several familiar works as well as new pieces that were specially created for this temporary exhibition. The curator Mathias Schwartz-Clauss talked with Erwin Wurm about his works. Do you intend for the humour in your work to have a liberating effect, or should the laughter catch in our throats? I do not make jokes! The perspective from which I examine our times may seem bizarre and comical to some people, but in fact, these are topics that should get under one’s skin. So yes, the laughter should catch in your throat. After all, laughter can easily cause us to neglect a more serious engagement with something. For me, therefore, humour is primarily a method for getting people’s attention — it should ultimately prompt people to look at things more carefully. Your work revolves around utilitarian objects and everyday situations. Do you regard yourself as a contemporary Pop artist? I wouldn’t object to that term, because I have always attempted to practise my profession
in relation to the here and now of our current existence. Andy Warhol was one of the first who significantly expanded art to include the topic of consumption. Things that were previously taboo within art—car crashes, the dollar sign, gossip—were brought into art by Warhol. This probably had something to do with his origins as a decorator of shop windows: the protagonists of Pop Art were simply closer to everyday life than all of those who came from the art academies, where traditional themes were prescribed. If my work is seen as a continuation of these questions, that is certainly not erroneous. The public sphere is a central theme in Pop Art, and sculpture in particular is predestined to have a public effect. What is the relationship between the public realm and the types of individuals that you characterize, as well as your own presence in some works?
What I explore in my work is, above all, the breaking points or fissures between private needs and the way that they present themselves to the outside world — or the opposite, namely what society demands of people and how societ y changes our needs. Let’s take the example of advertising or photography: for well over a hundred years, both have significantly altered the image that we have of ourselves. More and more, today’s media are making everyone into a public person. We constantly see pictures and representations of ourselves in all sorts of different places, and that is not just the case for celebrities. On Facebook alone, 900 million users actively contribute to the increasingly sensational publication and generalization of privacy. I do not number among these users, and I tend to remain in the background in my work as well. Even with respect to performative pieces like the socalled ‘One Minute Sculptures’, I am typically the director or author. But when the artist has been my subject, I have brought myself into play — simply because I was the most accessible specimen.
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Your major motifs are clothing, furniture, cars and houses — objects that are closely associated with people’s personalities, and things with which we like to identify ourselves. Why do you take these things, in particular, to such absurd extremes? I can’t really say why, but that’s precisely what interests me. Certain men adorn themselves with certain cars, certain women with certain men, or with objects or clothing. People choose how they want to be presented, and there are a hundred thousand possibilities for inventing oneself. All of this not only says a lot about ourselves, but also about us as political creatures and our relationship to society as a whole. There is permanent interac tion here, which is not ver y far removed from Beuys’ ar tistic concept of social sculpture. A few years ago you worked for Hermès, one of the world’s most prominent luxury brands. Where do you see the border that warns you, as an artist, against selling out to consumerism? 18
Of course such borders exist. I thought a long time about the request to create an artistic interpretation of the ‘Monde Hermès’. I finally decided to do it, because it’s different now than it was twenty or thirty years ago. The fashion world has gained a much greater affinity with art, and the world of art is steeped in fashion. In my eyes, fashion designers like Alexander McQueen are brilliant artists. But most importantly, I did not do any advertising for Hermès, and not a single photograph or image may be used for advertising purposes; they are only permitted to display the works and reproduce them in a company magazine. I was intrigued by the firm’s position in the absolute luxury segment. At the outset I couldn’t even imagine how bizarre and unfathomable it all is. I was totally fascinated by one example in their product line: hooded sweat jackets, so-called ‘hoodies’ — which of course are a synonym for the youth movement and rebellion — are made of Nile crocodile skin and sold for an outrageous 80’000 euro apiece. I found that extremely interesting, since you don’t even need to say anything about a jacket like that, you can just display it — and that’s what I did.
If design can also be art, can art be design as well? Product design has a certain orientation and aim. It is about shaping an object in such a way that form and function have some kind of correspondence. Sometimes the function is predominant, in other cases the form. But design can emancipate itself from this and create something different, something that has an artistic character. For essentially the same reason, however, art cannot be design, because it would become restricted rather than liberated. When dealing with design themes, art remains art only as long as it retains this freedom.
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ALEJANDRO A R AV E N A
20
“IT IS ABOUT BEING HUMAN.”
Alejandro Aravena (born 1967) runs his own architectural office in Santiago de Chile. As executive director of the company Elemental, he has been engaged in social building projects. In conjunction with the exhibition “Louis Kahn – The Power of Architecture”, we spoke with Aravena about Kahn’s work and his relevance for contemporary architecture. Which of Kahn’s buildings and books made the strongest impression on you and why? When I arrived in India, in Ahmedabad, for the first time in 2009 – and actually I was not aware of which building was I visiting – I just stepped out of a car and was in this building and my first reaction was, “Fuck! What the fuck is this?!” And, of course, after a couple of seconds you realize this must be Kahn. It was the Indian Institute of Management. And that was a kind of »hit in the face«. A raw thing. A building that could have been two thousand years old, or could have been built in the present decade, it was so hard to tell. So finetuned and so appropriate for the context, for the weather, for the use, for the level of development in India, in the sense of being able to live with poverty, but simultaneously raising the standard of the quality of life, even
in very simple terms. That was one of those major impressions that makes you go back to the office and say, “Stop; we have to stop what we’re doing.” You also went to visit Bangladesh. What impact did the Capital Complex in Dhaka have on you? In Dhaka, I think the entire journey was important to judge the building: the fact that you arrive in such a poor country and at a building that is one of the highest points in the body of knowledge that architecture has been able to accumulate. One of the biggest impressions was that jump in scale from detail to the overall volume. Another was this extraordinary capacity of the building to work well against everyday life. On Sundays entire families are around, using it as a place
for enjoyment. While it is such an abstract element that is studied as a piece of art, it also resists that careful attention and has the capacity to be just in the background of life. It has the capacity to be a piece of high and global culture while interpreting the local condition of a specific group of people. This building synthesizes both. That happens very rarely in the history of architecture. You have called your office Elemental. Could you elaborate on that? Dealing with scarcity you have two choices: complain about not having enough resources or try to transform scarcity into a filter against arbitrariness and the superfluous. While dealing with low-income housing or with urban projects in a developing country such as Chile or Latin America in general, we are forced to leave out everything that is not strictly necessary. And we think that is a privilege because it eventually allows us to approach life and its most archaic needs. This is timeless. It is not about survival but about being human in its most pure state. VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 21
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Like having a good conversation. How do I relate to my family? How do I create relationships with my neighbours? I know Kahn was looking for those states of relationship. Every programme was connected to an old notion of an institution. Like a school being ultimately a good conversation between two people under the nice shadow of a tree. But, of course, Kahn is Kahn and I wouldn’t even attempt to try to compare us with that. We are just trying not to lose the opportunity to follow that path.
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THINGS TO SEE A look into recent and current exhibitions.
THINGS TO SEE
#itsalldesign 26
IT’S ALL DESIGN The Vitra Design Museum presents an extensive overview of the design of the Bauhaus. The exhibition includes a number of rare, partly unseen, exhibits from design, architecture, art, film, and photography. They faced the design of the Bauhaus with current design trends and with numerous plants of current designers, artists, and architects. In this way, “The Bauhaus #itsalldesign” reveals the surprising news of the one legendary cultural institution. Among the companies represented in the exhibition designers of the Bauhaus are Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky and many more. Current Exhibition Contributors include Adrian Sauer, Enzo Mari, Lord Norman Foster, , Konstantin Grcic, Alberto Meda and Jerszy Seymour. The aim of the Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius in
historical and social context at the Bauhaus. In a second region, both iconic and thus less known design objects of the Bauhaus and genesis between art, craft, technology and industry are examined. Another section deals with the subject area and shows how many designers were involved in the formulation of the design sensibilities of the Bauhaus, including performing artists, architects with their reflections to the minimum housing and artists, color and spatial models developed. Here, the Bauhaus was disclosed as the first open artistic “Total Experiment” of modernity, in which the proliferation of design was intended to be tested in all areas of life. The last section of the exhibition deals with the communication of the Bauhaus, with typography and exhibitions on experimental cinema and photography up to the - often systematically planned - creation of those myths and stereotypes that surround the famous Bauhaus until today.
“Designers at the Bauhaus had an understanding: He should make not only objects for everyday use, but actively participate in the transformation of society. [The exhibition] shows how interested designers were at the Bauhaus in social contexts, experiments and processes.” Weimar, Germany, in 1919, was to create a new type of designer form. This new style should acquire craftsmanship and artistic foundations, as well as knowledge of the human psyche, the process of perception, ergonomics and technology at the Bauhaus, a profile that characterizes the profession of designer today. Designers at the Bauhaus had an understanding: He should make not only objects of everyday use, but actively participate in social transformation. Thus, the Bauhaus was the beginning of a comprehensive understanding of design that is requited again today with a new vigor; under new open headings such as Social Design, Open Design, or “design thinking”, is also discussed again, as new designers present their work in a wider context to help shape society. Starting out from this current perspective considers the exhibition the Bauhaus as a complex and multi-layered “laboratory of modernity”, which is closely related to today’s design trends. The exhibition is broken down into four groups, starting with a look at the
The current perspective on the Bauhaus, mediated by historical exhibits from the Bauhaus era, are compared to the works of today’s designers. Among the works are digitally produced furniture made by Minale Maeda, Van Bo Le-Mentzel, and Hartz IV furniture, but also manifests in designers Hella Jongerius and OpenDesk, interviews with designers such as Lord Norman Foster, Enzo Mari, Sauerbruch Hutton; the Boss Womenswear Creative Director Jason Wu tributes to the Bauhaus designers such as Mike Meiré, Studio Miro or Dokter and Misses. The bandwidth of the Bauhaus influence is visible from automotive design at Mercedes-Benz up to the furniture series Pipe (2009) by Konstantin Grcic for Muji and Thonet, which overall is inspired by Marcel Breuer. Four projects play special roles in these current contributions play that were commissioned especially for the Vitra exhibition and submitted by the famous Leipzig artist Adrian Sauer, the stylistically conceptual artist Olaf Nicolai, and the architects and authors Joseph Grima and Philipp Oswalt. VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 27
THINGS TO SEE
In the comparison of historical and current exhibits resulting in a new, more nuanced picture of the design at the Bauhaus. It does away with the stereotype that the so-called Bauhaus design was primarily minimalistic, cool and geometric, but shows the interest of designers of the Bauhaus in social contexts, experiments and processes. It revealed, first, that many of the current debates at the Bauhaus are similar in a surprising way, whether those of the possibilities of new manufacturing processes and materials on the role of the designer in the company or on the advantages of interdisciplinary cooperation. On the other hand is a sign that the Bauhaus contributed its open design concept absolutely vital role that design today pervades our entire living environment - a connection, alluded to the subtitle of the exhibition: “#allesistdesign.” The exhibition is accompanied by a more than 400-page catalog containing essays by renowned authors such as Arthur Rüegg and Patrick Rössler, along with a glossary of basic concepts of design at the Bauhaus 28
in addition to a detailed, illustrated catalog section. Is supported the contemporary view of the Bauhaus by numerous short articles by renowned designers, artists and architects from around the world - including Lord Norman Foster, Tobias Rehberger, Arik Levy and Hella Jongerius - that reflect the topicality of the Bauhaus with ideas, projects and theses. The Bauhaus “#allesistdesign” is an exhibition of the Vitra design Museum and the art and exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the first presentation at the Vitra Design Museum exhibition from spring 2016 is shown in the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn. The curator of the exhibition is Jolanthe Kugler.
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THINGS TO SEE
Portrait of Otti Berger with Bauhaus facade, double exposure, Judit Kรกrรกsz, 1931
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Photograph from an instruction manual for the usage of tools, Thonet brothers, 1935
Water colour sketch study, Max Bill, Der Eilbote, 1928
Marianne Brandt, Student on the atelier balconies, Bauhaus Dessau, 1928
Manifesto and programme of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, Walter Gropius, 1919
Water colour line study, Max Bill, Der Eilbote, 1928/1929
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THINGS TO SEE
YATZER DESIGN REVIEW Vitra Design Museum presents their all new exhibition The Bauhaus #itsalldesign, the first comprehensive survey of the design from the legendary ‘Staatliches Bauhaus’ school, founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius. More than just a showcase of the aesthetics and philosophy developed at the Bauhaus, the exhibition also seeks to expose how the school’s legacy remains influential nearly eighty years after the school was closed by the Nazi regime in Germany. The Vitra exhibition features original objects and documents from the fields of design, architecture, art, film and photography both Bauhaus teachers and affiliated artists (such as Marianne Brandt, Marcel Beuer, Wassily Kandinsky and of course, Gropius), displayed next to contributions by contemporary creators of the likes of Sir Norman Foster. In addition to existing objects and artworks, four new artworks were commissioned by the museum especially for the Vitra exhibition, created by artist Adrian Sauer, conceptual artist Olaf 32
Nicolai as well as Joseph Grima and Philipp Oswalt, who are both practiced architects and authors. A 400-page exhibition book has also been published, which includes an extensive illustrated catalogue with essays and shorter contributions about the Bauhaus school and its contemporary significance. According to the exhibition’s curators, the real Bauhaus designer was not just expected to “fabricate objects of daily use, but should take an active role in the transformation of society”. As the hashtag in the exhibition’s title suggests, the whole project is meant as an opportunity for Vitra to add more voices to this discussion, though the contribution of the general public.
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A CONTINENT OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN Beginning in March 2015, and currently ongoing, a design exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum yields fresh light on contemporary African design. Showcasing the work of over one hundred and twenty artists, craftsmen, and designers, “Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design” illustrates just how modern design accompanies and fuels both economic and political changes within the continent. Africa is now presented as a bright hub of experimentation generating new approaches and solutions of worldwide relevance – and as a driving force for a new discussion of the potential of design in the twenty-first century. When the African boom comes up in the media, the reports tend to focus on the continent’s fast-paced economic growth or the rapidly expanding middle class
media, such as the eyewear sculptures by Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru, the furniture of Cheick Diallo from Mali and the photography of Mozambican Mário Macilau and Nigerian Okhai Ojeikere. It showcases the architecture of Francis Kéré, David Adjaye and Kunlé Adeyemi,city models by Bodys Isek Kingelez, and animation art by Robin Rhode, a South African artist based in Berlin. The collection of works presented are sought by a quest to address questions of material culture and everyday aesthetics – in short, questions of design. The objects show that design in Africa is understood on a much more inclusive level than Western societies and can produce innovative new approaches to design. The cultural and historical foundations of “Making Africa” come from a retrospective look back at early postcolonial Africa. Back in the 1960s, photographers like Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, or the South African
“The exhibition focuses on a new generation of entrepreneurs, thinkers and designers from and within Africa, who – as ‘digital natives’ – address a global audience and provide the world with a new vantage point of their continent.” phenomena that will remain at the root of fundamental changes in coming decades. However, another development has already altered the everyday lives of all Africans and yields a significant influence upon the work of artists and designers. At present, there are already 650 million registered mobile phones within Africa, more than in Europe or the US. Many of these devices have access to the Internet and thus create a platform for communication and the exchange of information. This portal to the world has “enabled the shift in perspective that lies at the centre of “Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporar y Design”. The new exhibition focuses o n a young generation of entrepreneurs, thinkers and designers from and within Africa, who as “digital natives”, address a global audience and provide the world with a new vantage point on their continent. They often work across several disciplines simultaneously and break with conventional definitions of design, art, photography, architecture and film. “Making Africa” features work from across a wide variety of
magazine “Drum” showed a continent beyond wars, crises and catastrophes. The architecture produced during those initial years of independence also epitomizes the emergence of a new era of self-confidence that largely dissipated over the following decades. These historical documents run through the entire exhibition where they are systematically paired with contemporary works. These comparisons demonstrate how the young generation can of ten consciously refers to this early body of work and creates a link to the positive sentiment of this past era. An especially distinctive feature of the exhibition is its development process. Over a two-year long research period, numerous think tanks and interviews were held in major African cities such as Lagos, Dakar, Cape Town, Cairo and Nairobi. During these sessions, some 70 designers, artists, researchers, architects, gallerists and curators were consulted. Throughout the process, a unique resource of primary research material on African design was compiled, which further VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 35
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supports and enriches the exhibition and accompanying catalogue. The exhibition was curated by Amelie Klein, Curator at the Vitra Design Museum. Consulting Curator was Okwui Enwezor, Director of Haus der Kunst in Munich and Director of the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Following its premiere at the Vitra Design Museum, the exhibition will be presented at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao from autumn 2015. The exhibition is accompanied by a 352-page publication, which offers a first-ever comprehensive overview of African contemporary design. Contributions include Okwui Enwezor’s new definition of a design vocabulary and Koyo Kouoh’s examination of social design. Other features are interviews with the renowned urbanist Edgar Pieterse, founder of the African Centre for Cities in Cape Town, and with Mugendi M’Rithaa, Professor of Design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, who speaks on object and material culture within Africa. The second part of the publication shows 36
all of the exhibits in a comprehensive listed catalogue of objects, and contains summaries of interviews conducted during the exhibition’s research phase. An extensive events programme will be held throughout the duration of the exhibition, and will feature talks, symposia, workshops and film screenings. Among the guests are lead curator Okwui Enwezor, photographer Iwan Baan, the founder of Lagos Photo Festival Azu Nwagbogu and designer Cheick Diallo.
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Skhayascraper, Rendering, Justin Plunkett, of 2013, Kapstadt/ Cape Town.
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Making Africa, exterior view, © Vitra Design Museum, 2015
“My Africa Is”, limited edition poster, Studio Riot, 2012
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THINGS TO SEE
YATZER DESIGN REVIEW Currently on display at the Vitra Design Museum is “Making Africa : A Continent of Contemporary Design”, an exhibition dedicated to a younger generation of artists and designers leading a fast-paced creative boom in many countries across the continent. Developed over a full two year research period with a contribution of some 70 creative professionals, the exhibition focuses on a community full of digitally connected entrepreneurs and creatives who despite the fact that they create and work locally, address a much wider, global audience. From experimental eyewear sculptures to furniture, and photography to animation art, ‘Making Africa’ showcases work from 120 artists and designers from Kenya, Mozambique, Mali, South Africa, Nigeria, and more. As the curators of the exhibition point out, art, fashion, architecture, and design all have proved to be elements that can be accompanying, reflecting and even fuelling the economic and political changes observed 40
all across the continent today, and more specifically the rapid expansion of the middle class in many African countries. The exhibition makes the point that design in Africa follows a unique paradigm that is fundamentally different from that of western and westernised societies, an approach that evidently leads to innovation and a rethinking of design aesthetics and material culture in general. It also looks back at the postcolonial era: a brief period of optimism and hope for African peoples after they gained their independence from European colonialists (mainly during the 1960’s-70’s) that soon dissipated into the violent conflicts and civil wars of the following decades. In the exhibition’s well designed sculptural set that partially looks like a stylish boutique, historical documents from Africa’s postcolonial period enter into a dialogue with contemporary exhibits — to demonstrate how a young generation of a diverse and widely misrepresented continent is not only well aware of its past, but also knows how to transform it.
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SCH AUDE POT 42
A MODERN DAY COLLECTION The Schaudepot was initiated with the goal of making the constantly growing collection of the Vitra Design Museum more accessible to the public. The cornerstone for the collection was laid by the museum’s founder, Rolf Fehlbaum. In the 1980’s he began assembling a collection of furniture, which he transferred to the Vitra Design Museum upon its founding in 1989. Ever since, the collection has been expanded by the museum’s directors Alexander von Vegesack (1989 to 2010) and Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner (since 2011) together with Rolf Fehlbaum and the collection now numbers among the largest of its kind. Today the collection of the Vitra Design Museum encompasses a total of over 20,000 objects. The core is formed by the furniture holdings, with some 7,000 pieces covering almost all important epochs and protagonists of design from 1800 to
Detailed information on the housed objects is communicated in a digital catalogue that Schaudepot visitors or guests can call up via smartphone or tablets that can be loaned. While the permanent exhibition in the main hall of the Schaudepot is structured chronologically, the glimpses of the other collection holdings on the lower ground level present thematic focal points and offer a view behind the scenes of the museum where conservators and curators deal with objects from the collection on a daily basis. Other aspects of the Schaudepot also serve to make museum work more comprehensible and accessible to the public. From the café, guests can see into the museum offices and the library, which is open to researchers and students on request. The restoration workshop can also be viewed on guided tours. The Schaudepot thus creates a “transparent” design museum, which opens up the research of design in all its many facets to a wider public.
“Contemporary design surrounds us in all aspects of life – from iconic furniture objects to digital communication and social processes. A design museum in the twenty-first century must ...communicate the significance of design beyond the individual object.” the present. A second focal point is the lighting collection, which contains more than 1,000 objects by such designers as Gino Sarfatti, Achille Castiglioni, Serge Mouille or Ingo Maurer. Eames, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. The goal of the collection is to document the past and present of the interior and foster research in a broader context. The presentation at the Schaudepot is divided into three areas with a total of around 1600 square metres The ground floor contains the main hall where the extensive permanent exhibition is shown. The central focus is a selection of more than 400 key pieces of furniture design, including rare works by such designers as Gerrit Rietveld, Alvar Aalto, Charles & Ray Eames or Ettore Sottsass, but also lesser-known or anonymous objects, prototypes and experimental models. The selection reflects the main areas of emphasis and key pieces of the museum collection while simultaneously providing a comprehensive overview of the history of furniture design – from stylistic and technical innovations to the societal transformations reflected in the objects.
On one hand, the Vitra Design Museum is raising the awareness of furniture design as the focus of its collection and making it accessible to visitors and scholars. On the other, it is responding to a characteristic development in the world of design and museums today. A contemporary design surrounds us in all aspects of life – from iconic furniture objects to digital communication and social processes. A design museum in the 21st century must therefore not merely collect and exhibit objects, but also needs to communicate the significance of design beyond the individual object by initiating discussions, demonstrating social correlations and establishing references to other areas such as architecture, art or new technologies. With the expansion related to the Schaudepot, the Vitra Design Museum is specifically addressing this development and disseminating design in the same breadth and diversity with which it presents itself in our world today.
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ECAL DES IGN 46
TYPE, PRINT, DIGITAL STORIES We encounter graphic design every day – whether in magazines and books, on posters or on the internet. From 22 October 2016 to 8 January 2017, Vitra Design Museum shows the exhibition “ECAL Graphic Design. Type, Print, Digital, Stories” at the Gallery. The ECAL/Universit y of Art and Design Lausanne has long been recognised as a world reference in terms of graphic design. Be it the design of books, catalogues, magazines or posters – ECAL students are able to embrace all facets of the discipline. This success is largely based on a unique framework of workshops allowing students to learn directly from leading Swiss or international graphic designers such as Ludovic Balland, Bibliothèque, Mirko Borsche, Veronica Ditting and NORM.
“...Success is largely based on a unique framework of workshops allowing students to learn directly from leading Swiss or international graphic designers such as Ludovic Balland, Bibliothèque, Mirko Borsche, Veronica Ditting and NORM.” The exhibition and accompanying book “ECAL Graphic Design” look at projects developed in the Graphic Design Bachelor’s and the Art Direction Master’s programmes at ECAL over the course of five years. At the centre of the exhibition are typographical works. They show the various ways in which type can be used as an independent tool in visual designs. Full-tone colour fields, geometrical forms, patterns and symbols as well as grids also figure in the canon of traditional basics in graphic design. These typical features are transformed by the students using multimedia and digital technology. Discourses in current design are shown in their different facets and interpreted – an approach that results in expressive visual storytelling.
on current tendencies. A selection of ECAL publications, design compendiums, and introductory volumes on the topic of Swiss graphic design facilitate an understanding of the environment the students work in a n d from which they develop their own individual stances.
In addition to the students’ output, the exhibition shows the context in which ECAL designers work. Swiss education in graphic design is internationally renowned and builds on a long tradition. In inter views, professors and lecturers speak about this heritage and demonstrate the stance the school and teachers take on histor y and VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 47
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University of Art and Design Lausanne
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ECAL Graphic Design Exhibition Overview
University of Art and Design Lausanne
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New Design Exhibition: Swiss History & Design 12.01.2017 – 31.05.2017
Vitra Design Museum Vandvier Hall
This special feature includes a short history of Swiss Design and a few of the artists whose work will be part of the upcoming exhibition on Swiss History and Design.
SWISS DESIGN
SPECIAL THINGS FEATURE: TO SEE DON’T MISS THE SWISS
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Often referred to as the International Style or the International Typographic Style, the style of design that originated in Switzerland in the 1940s and 50s was the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid 20th century. Led by designers Josef MĂźllerBrockmann at the Zurich School of Arts and Krafts and Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of Design, the style favored simplicity, legibility and objectivity. Of the many contributions to develop from the two schools were the use of sans-serif typography, asymmetrical layouts and grids. Also stressed was the combination of typography and photography as a means of visual communication. The primary influential works were developed as posters, which were seen to be the most effective means of communication.
THE STYLE OF DESIGN THEY CREATED HAD A GOAL OF COMMUNICATION ABOVE ALL ELSE.
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ARMIN HOFFMANN
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Born June 29, 1920
By the age of 27, Armin Hoffmann had already completed an apprenticeship in lithography and had begun teaching typography at the Basel School of Design. His colleagues and students were integral in adding to work and theories that surrounded the Swiss International Style, which stressed a belief in an absolute and universal style of graphic design. The style of design they created had a goal of communication above all else, practiced new techniques of photo-typesetting, photo-montage and experimental composition and heavily favored sans-serif typography. He taught for several years at the Basel School of Design and he was not there long before he replaced Emil Ruder as the head of the school. The Swiss International Style, and Hofmann, thought that one of the most efficient forms of communications was the poster and Hofmann spent much of his career designing posters, in particularly for the Basel Stadt Theater. Just as Emil Ruder and Joseph MĂźller-Brockmann did, Hofmann wrote a book outlining his philosophies and practices. His Graphic Design Manual was, and still is, a reference book for all graphic designers.
“FOR AFTER ALL, A POSTER DOES MORE THAN SIMPLY SUPPLY INFORMATION ON THE GOODS IT ADVERTISES; IT ALSO REVEALS A SOCIETY’S STATE OF MIND”
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EMIL RUDER
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1914–1970
Emil Ruder was a typographer and graphic designer who, born in Switzerland in 1914, helped Armin Hofmann form the Basel School of Design and establish the style of design known as Swiss Design. He taught that, above all, typography’s purpose was to communicate ideas through writing. He placed a heavy importance on sansserif typefaces and his work is both clear and concise, especially his typography. Like most designers classified as part of the Swiss Design movement he favored asymmetrical compositions, placing a high importance on the counters of characters and the negative space of compositions. A friend and associate of Hofmann, Frutiger and Müller Brockmann, Ruder played a key role in the development of graphic design in the 1940s and 50s. His style has been emulated by many designers, and his use of grids in design has influenced the development of web design on many levels.
“TO DESIGN IS TO PLAN, TO ORDER, TO RELATE, AND TO CONTROL.”
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WALTER HERDEG
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1908–1995
Walter Herdeg was very much a graphic designer. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zürich, created many different corporate identities (just as the practice was beginning to become a standard), and even formed his own design company with Walter Amstutz. What he is best known for, however, is the creation and publication of Graphis. An international journal of visual communication, Graphis was first published by Herdeg towards the end of the second World War. The magazine showcases work and interviews from designers and illustrators from all over the world in an effort to share their work with other audiences. In the beginning it served as one of what were, at the time, only a few vessels which exposed the western world to the design work being done in Europe. Herdeg served as the editor of the magazine for 246 issues (the magazine is still in publication) as well as the Graphis Design Annuals which showed the best and brightest work from the year prior to their publication. Graphis was a seminal force in the shaping of design culture and it continues to educate, expand and foster the world of graphic design today.
“I HAD TO CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE THAT GIVES ONE THE DESIRE TO BREATHE FRESH AIR, SOAK UP WARM SUN AND SKI.”
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JOSEF MULLERBROCKMANN
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1914–1996
As with most graphic designers that can be classified as part of the Swiss International Style, Joseph Müller-Brockmann was influenced by the ideas of several different design and art movements including De Stijl, Constructivism, Suprematism and the Bauhaus. He is perhaps the most well-known Swiss designer and his name is probably the most easily recognized when talking about the period. He was born and raised in Switzerland and by the age of 43 he became a teacher at the Zurich school of arts and crafts. Perhaps his most decisive work was done for the Zurich Town Hall as poster advertisements for its theater productions. He published several books, including The Graphic Artist and His Problems and Grid Systems in Graphic Design. These books provide an in-depth analysis of his work practices and philosophies, and provide an excellent foundation for young graphic designers wishing to learn more about the profession. He spent most of his life working and teaching, even into the early 1990s when he toured the US and Canada speaking about his work. He died in Zurich in 1996.
“THE GRID SYSTEM IS AN AID, NOT A GUARANTEE.”
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WIM CROUWEL
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Born 1963
Crouwel is a graphic designer and typographer born in the Netherlands. In 1963 he founded the studio Total Design, now called Total Identity. His most well known work has been for the Stedelijk Museum. His typography is extremely well planned and based on very strict systems of grids. He has also designed expositions, album covers and identity systems. He has published two typefaces Fodor and Gridnik, digitized versions of both are available from The Foundry.
“THE MEANING IS IN THE CONTENT OF THE TEXT AND NOT IN THE TYPEFACE, AND THAT IS WHY WE LOVED HELVETICA VERY MUCH.”
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GYORGY KEPES
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1908 –1995
Kepes is indeed a man of many faces. In his career he has been a designer, painter, sculptor, filmmaker, teacher and urban camouflage theorist. He has been widely revered for his teaching practices and his book, Language of Vision, was used as a college textbook for the arts for many years. He ran the Color and Light program at the New Bauhas in Chicago (at the invitation of his friend Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and founded the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. In 1974 he retired from education and returned to painting. His teachings and the work of his students (whom included Saul Bass) greatly influenced an entire nation of budding American designers.
“OUR HUMAN NATURE IS PROFOUNDLY PHOTOTROPIC. MEN OBEY THEIR DEEPEST INSTINCTS WHEN THEY HOLD FAST TO LIGHT.”
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FUTURE GLANCE Upcoming shows and events across the Vitra Campus.
FUTURE GLANCE
EXHIBITION Rudolf Steiner Everyday Alchemy
Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
EXHIBITION Alvar Aalto: Second Nature Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
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Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925) was one of the most influential – and also one of the most controversial – reformers of the twentieth century. He founded the Waldorf schools, inspired artists such as Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Joseph Beuys, and is regarded as one of the key initiators of organic architecture. In commemoration of the 150th anniversar y of Steiner’s birth, the Vitra Design Museum presents the first major retrospective on his oeuvre and has assembled a wealth of artefacts, encompassing 45 pieces of furniture, 46 models, 18 sculptures, over 100 original drawings and plans, as well as dozens o f additional documents ranging from posters to letters to Steiner by Franz Kafka, Piet Mondrian, and Else Lasker-Schüler.
The architectural critic Sigfried Giedion called him the “Magus of the North”: Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) one of the best known Finnish architect of this generation, chief proponent of a human centred modernism. His buildings, the Paimio Sanatorium, or Villa Mairea, (1939) embody a masterful interplay of organic volumes, forms and materials. Aalto’s Paimio Chair (1931–1932) and his Stool 60 (1933) were milestones in the development of modern furniture, and his emblematic Savoy Vase (1936) has become the symbol of Finnish Design. With “Alvar Aalto – Second Nature”, the Vitra Design Museum is now presenting a major retrospective exhibition on this legendary architect and reveals many new aspects of his oeuvre.
TALK (EN)
The Vitra Collection:
1800 to the Present Thursday, January 26th, 2017 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION. REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
EXHIBITION Álvaro Siza: Alhambra Project Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
The Schaudepot was initiated with the goal of making the constantly growing collection of the Vitra Design Museum more accessible to the public. The cornerstone for the collection was laid by the museum’s founder Rolf Fehlbaum. In the 1980s he assembled a collection of furniture, which he transferred to the Vitra Design Museum upon their founding in 1989. Ever since, the collection has been expanded by the museum’s d i r e c t o r s Alexander von Vegesack (1989 to 2010) and Mateo Kries. Today, the collection encompasses a total of around 2000 objects. The core is formed by the furniture holdings, with some 7000 pieces covering almost all most impor tant epochs and protagonists of design from 1800 to the present.
The Alhambra palace complex in the southern Spanish city of Granada is one of the most eminent monuments of Moorish culture and officially recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. With the exhibition “Álvaro Siza – The Alhambra Project”, the Vitra Design Museum is now presenting the design scheme by renowned architect Álvaro Siza for the new Alhambra visitor centre. The design was produced in collaboration with the Spanish architect Juan Domingo Santos and emerged as the winner of an international competition in 2010. The exhibition is a joint project of the Aedes Architekturforum in Berlin and the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife.
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FUTURE GLANCE
GUIDED TOUR (EN) Vitra Campus: Architectural Tour
Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION. REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
GUIDED TOUR (GE) Children’s Tour: Design Museum Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION. REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
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The buildings on the Vitra Campus are unique architectural icons; it was here that Zaha Hadid executed her very first built structure, for example, and American architect Frank Gehr y constructed his first building in Europe. For this reason, the Vitra Design Museum not only offers guided tours of its exhibitions, but also tours of the buildings on the Vitra Campus. The first tour includes the VitraHaus by Herzog & de Meuron (2010), the geodesic dome after Richard Buckminster Fuller (1975/2000),the Petrol Station by Jean Prouvé (1953/2003), the factory buildings by Nicholas Grimshaw (1981/1986), Frank Gehry (1989), Álvaro Siza (1994) and the Fire Station by Zaha Hadid (1993).
For children, we offer guided tours though the current exhibition and the Vitra Campus which are specially adapted to our young guests. The participants are introduced to the theme in an entertaining way, interact with the guide and are made familiar with the huge importance of design and architecture in their everyday environment. Also, many of workshops for children and pupils include a guided tour, followed by a practical workshop under the direction of experienced teachers.
EXHIBITION Shiro Kuramata: Design as Poetry Thursday, January 26th, 2017 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
EXHIBITION Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
From 19 October 2013 until 12 January 2014 the work of Shiro Kuramata is shown at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery. Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991), one of the most important Japanese designers of the twentieth century, combined the traditional aesthetic of his native culture with the western design principles of Postmodernism. His works are made of industrial materials such as expanded metal mesh, glass and acrylic, bear poetic names like “How High the Moon” and “Miss Blanche” and seem to defy gravity. The exhibition presents select furniture and objects by Kuratamata, complemented by his at times surreal-seeming design sketches and photographs of interiors.
Le Corbusier’s impressively wide-ranging oeuvre covers a period of 60 years – from his early works in his Swiss hometown of La Chaux-de-Fonds, proceeding to the white, cubic buildings of the 1920s, such as the iconic Villa Savoye (1928 - 31), and culminating in the late works of the 1950s and ’60s, for which the Chapel of Ronchamp (1950 - 55) and the buildings for the Indian city of Chandigarh (1952 64) are prominent examples. With a rich variety of media, the exhibition illuminates the most important factors in the creative process of Le Corbusier’s projects by identif ying their historical sources and revealing some of their underlying technical, formal and philosophical preoccupations.
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FUTURE GLANCE
TALK (EN) Bompas and Parr: Designing for Dining
Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION. REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
TALK (EN) Formafantasma: Experiments with Materials Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
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Alexander Girard had a keen interest in the entertainment of guests and the art of dining. His restaurants and interiors facilitated social interaction. By fusing culinary enjoyment and lavish decoration he created places of true sensual pleasure. The design studio Bompas & Parr is a leader in contemporary food design and creates flavour-based experiences that merge the borders between art, architectural installation and dining. In this unique event, Sam Bompas will provide the audience with a taste of their sensuous work as well as some culinary surprises!
The Italian design studio Formafantasma sees itself as a mediator between craft, research and industrial design. For works such as Botanica, Craftica or the Charcoal project, launched for the Vitra Design Museum in 2012, designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin experiment with conventional materials some of which are unusual in design, such as leather, stone or coal, and come up with innovative and surprising applications and production processes. They were nominated for Wallpaper magazine’s award in the Top 20 under 40 category in 2015. In their presentation, Formafantasma will present their work and talk about the importance of materials as an inspiration and starting point.
TALK (GE) Martin Heller: Show and Tell
Thursday, January 26th, 2017 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
TALK (EN) Swiss History & Design Exhibition
Thursday, January 12th, 2016 at 6:30 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
The Humboldt Forum is scheduled to open in the rebuilt Berlin Palace in 2019. Among other things, it will present the outstanding collections of the Ethnological Museum Berlin and the Berlin Museum of Asian Art in a new way. To prepare for it, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem was a place to experiment with exhibitions for four years from 2012 – 2015. Its projects concerned postcolonial ethics, cross-cultural knowledge transfer, and much more. At its core, however, it dealt with the question all museums face today: how to make collection objects tangible in a world of complex realities. Martin Heller was the initiator and co-director of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem; he will report on its activities, on the ambitions of the Humboldt Forum and the necessity of experimenting.
Often referred to as the International Style or the International Typographic Style, the style of design that originated in Switzerland in the 1940’s and 50’s was the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid 20th century. Led by designers Josef MüllerBrockmann at the Zurich School of Arts and Krafts and Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of Design, the style favored simplicity, legibility and objectivity.
REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
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FUTURE GLANCE
WORKSHOP (GE) ReDesign: Light and Lamps
REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
Light shapes our environment and has always fascinated creatives. Designers like the Brazilians Fernando and Humberto Campana create impressive light sculptures and lamps by creatively reusing everyday objects and recycling materials. After an examination of the phenomenon of light, participants will design and create their own light objects by using different recycling materials like PET bottles, leather and fabric remnants, electrical pieces, scraps of wood or packaging materials. Participants can also experiment with modern light technologies such as LEDs or solar cells.
WORKSHOP (GE +) Himmelis and Golden Elephants
Drop by the Schaudepot Lab this Advent Sunday and decorate your Christmas tree with a homemade Himmeli (Swedish and Finnish Christmas decoration) or a golden Eames Elephant made out of paper.
Sunday, December 18th, 2016 at 12:00 P.M.
This event is recommended for families. Meeting point: Schaudepot Lab.
FREE ADMISSION.
Workshop available in German, English, and French.
Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 10:30 A.M. ADMISSION: 65 â‚Ź PER PERSON
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WORKSHOP (GE) Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec: Rêveries Urbaines
How do you imagine your city? Be inspired by the Bouroullecs’ exhibition! We will explore their ideas during the guided tour and build our own models afterwards.
Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 2:30 P.M.
The recommended age is 8–12. Meeting point: Schaudepot.
ADMISSION: 7 € PER PERSON REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
WORKSHOP (GE) Print! Designing a Textile
Saturday, January 14th, 2016 at 10:30 A.M. ADMISSION: 65 € PER PERSON REGISTRATION: events@design-museum.de
Alexander Girard (1907 – 1993) was one of the most important textile artists of the 20th century. During his time working for Herman Miller, Girard designed over 300 textiles. Due to his meticulous planning, his fabric patterns radiate a calmness and balance despite the vivid colours used. After a short introduction to Girard’s textiles in t h e ex h i b i t i o n “A l exa n d e r G i ra rd . A Designer ś Universe” participants design their own motifs for printing. Using thermal screen printing, participants create their own fabric prints for pillowcases, bags and other home textiles.
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ROUND OF APPLAUSE
THE COOL KIDS
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DON’T MISS THE SWISS
HTTPS://S-MEDIA-CACHE-AK0.PINIMG.COM/ORIGINALS/64/ED/2E/64ED2E7CA12740A 164B0A6B14AB706CB.JPG HTTP://4.BP.BLOGSPOT.COM/-R5KHZU8PCS0/UMGQF1RT8KI/ AAAAAAAABW4/8XOWVQMX-GW/S1600/GRAPHIS_COVER.JPG HTTPS://WWW.AIGA.ORG/MEDALIST-WALTERHERDEG HTTPS://S-MEDIA-CACHE-AK0.PINIMG.COM/ORIGINALS/D8/9B/72/ D89B72FC9ED906E1516BA4DD1F93BE2B.JPG HTTP://ANALOGUE76.COM/MEDIA/IMAGES/BLOG/6_ JUL_14_NEU_ALPHABET.JPG HTTP://WWW.INTERNATIONALPOSTER.COM/DOWNLOADS/IMGS/EX_ MIDCENTURYMODERN/WENIGER_LARM_MULLER_BROCKMANN.JPG HTTPS://S-MEDIA-CACHE-AK0.PINIMG.COM/ORIGINALS/3B/69/9A/3B699A0A27F261D 833DE82EE3E235908.JPG HTTP://IMAGE1.SHOPSERVE.JP/SOKKYODO.JP/PIC-LABO/CCF20140709_00001_ EDITED-1.JPG?T=20140709175515 HTTPS://UPLOAD.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/WIKIPEDIA/COMMONS/THUMB/2/28/ HELVETICASPECIMENCH.SVG/2000PX-HELVETICASPECIMENCH.SVG.PNG HTTPS://WORKPLAYCREATES.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM/2012/01/3.JPG HTTPS://VEPCA.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM/2012/03/ST-MORITZ-DOWNHILL-SKIER.JPG
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THINGS TO SEE
HTTPS://WWW.YATZER.COM/BAUHAUS-VITRA-DESIGN-MUSEUM HTTPS://WWW.YATZER.COM/MAKING-AFRICA-MEET-CONTINENTS-NEWGENERATION-ARTISTS-AND-DESIGNERS HTTP://ADRIENROVERO.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2016/03/ECAL-GRAPHICDESIGN-BOOK-EXHIBITION-ADRIEN-ROVERO-STUDIO-6.JPG HTTP://WWW.ECAL.CH/UPLOADS/WEBMEDIA/ C13C984237BA2B7A6786AD3766840BBD.JPG HTTP://WWW.ECAL.CH/UPLOADS/WEBMEDIA/ E591292C73340AFC8AF9BC9A0B6F80AA.JPG HTTP://WWW.ECAL.CH/UPLOADS/WEBMEDIA/ FCF0EC3E78C635CEC9A23208949876DC.JPG HTTP://WWW.ECAL.CH/UPLOADS/WEBMEDIA/A31DCA9306E5E4BFB251F46EE2CFA378. JPG HTTP://WWW.ECAL.CH/UPLOADS/WEBMEDIA/F9F6FF6EC5DB8EF1F775A54067E05584. JPG HTTP://WWW.ECAL.CH/UPLOADS/WEBMEDIA/ B077EA9F38639FAF683A63230E5D5520.JPEG HTTP://CAROCOMMUNICATIONS.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2015/09/ERB_2015_ VITRA-BELLEVILLE_13_HDF_926646_MASTER.JPG
FUTURE GLANCE
HTTP://WWW.JAPANTIMES.CO.JP/NEWS/2016/07/17/NATIONAL/TOKYOS-LECORBUSIER-BUILDING-MAKES-UNESCO-HERITAGE-LIST/ HTTPS://WWW.WRIGHT20.COM/AUCTIONS/2016/05/DESIGN-MASTERWORKS/7 HTTP://CONCRETE-HUB.COM/POST/FRANK-GEHRY-VITRA-DESIGN-MUSEUM/ HTTP://WWW.SCANDINAVIA-DESIGN.FR/TABLE-ALVAR-AALTO-ARTEK_EN.HTML HTTP://WWW.JOHNNYTIMES.COM/LE-CORBUSIER/ HTTPS://GSHAWKS.WORDPRESS.COM/TAG/RUDOLF-STEINER/ HTTPS://TOKYOWING.WORDPRESS.COM/2011/02/01/MISS-BLANCHE-1988-BY-SHIROKURAMATA-21_21-DESIGNSIGHTTOKYO/ HTTP://WWW.SCHWEIZGEIST.COM/EVENTS.HTML
HTTP://WWW.LIZ-FARRELLY-VISITS.ORG/2015/08/15/VITRAHAUS-DISPLAYING-DESIGNFOR-SALE-IMPLICATIONS-FOR-DESIGN-MUSEUMS/ HTTPS://WWW.DEZEEN.COM/2014/03/10/ALVARO-SIZA-NEW-ENTRANCE-THEALHAMBRA-GRANADA/ HTTP://WWW.LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK/IMAGE/SAM-BOMPAS-HARRY-PARR.JPG HTTP://DESIGN-ENGINE.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2013/02/CRAFTICA_ MAKINGOF_FORMAFANTASMA01.JPG HTTPS://PHOTOS.SMUGMUG.COM/HUNT-18/I-5W6P74B/0/X3/SHAGGY%20BY%20 MARTIN%20HELLER-D7K_0748-164-20160327.JPG HTTPS://WORKPLAYCREATES.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM/2012/01/3.JPG HTTPS://KARMATRENDZ.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM/2012/02/VITRA_DESIGN_ MUSEUM_21__R.JPG HTTP://WWW.INTERNIMAGAZINE.COM/CONTENT/UPLOADS/2016/05/BINDER1. PDF_PAGE_1_IMAGE_0001.JPG HTTPS://THESTRAWSHOP.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2013/03/PER-%C3%85KEBACKMAN-THE-GOLDEN-CROWN-.JPG HTTP://CATESTHILL.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2014/09/SMUG-THORNBACK-ANDPEEL-5.JPG HTTP://BLOG.DESIGNFOLIA.COM/FILES/2016/06/FULLSIZERENDER-113.JPG
VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM | ISSUE 27 | 81
ROUND OF APPLAUSE
MAGAZINE DESIGNERS
ARTICLES DESIGNED
Alexis L. Caldwell
Bauhaus, Making Africa, Swiss Spread, Upcoming Events
Haley J. Ard
Cover, Intro, Table of Contents, Designer Interviews, Swiss Articles
Stefan C. Cupka
Schaudepot, ECAL Graphic Design, Upcoming Events, Credits
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PROCESS INPUT Contributed design determination, focus, and overall insight. Contributed overall vision, perseverance, and design wisdom. Contributed candid design views as well as print production services.
We are Team drei Katzen
v. design museum
Issue 27 The Swiss Edition
Don’t Miss the Swiss The history of Swiss design and designer biographies.
The details are not the details. They make the product.