It was a nice surprise to find this Japanese company named TEORI this week, they’re producing some superb items that also have a nice story and concept behind them. TEORI was founded in 1998 as a manufacturer of wood products in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. They specialise in making modern design objects out of bamboo, an eco-friendly material that grows much quicker than wood. Not only that, it’s also very durable and flexible, having high antibacterial properties and healing effects. TEORI have coined it “laminated bamboo lumber”, which is where thin strips of bamboo are placed down to create a board or block. Bamboo is actually a difficult material to process due to its high density and the variance in strength depending on the direction. However, the technical expertise of TEORI has enabled them to design bamboo products in a similar fashion to that of wooden lumber, which in turn means they can explore a wide range of ideas and applications.

What I find interesting about this project is that they’ve selected six designers in collaboration with engineers to challenge the various issues surrounding bamboo laminated lumber. As you can see above and below, this has led them to create goods with the balance of beauty, uniqueness, functionality, and a massive plus in my eyes is the cost. Bamboo is pretty cheap, and with effective manufacturing these can be made at a great price without sacrificing quality and design. That’s just what I like to hear!

You’ll find a selection of my favourite pieces above and below that I thought would fit in to the home nicely, they’re also pretty innovative. Check out the chair further down for example, it’s quite hard to believe that this has been made using bamboo as it’s so beautiful on the eye, also very polished. Funnily enough, it’s a bit like oak or a material of that kind. Obviously you would tell up-close but I don’t think that takes away from the finish itself, it just gives a totally different vibe to the furniture, maybe a more natural and responsible one at that.

teori.co.jp

English artist and ceramicist Romy Northover has been on my radar mainly thanks to potter Shino Takeda, who we’ve wrote about here on the blog before. It became apparent that this week would be a great time to highlight Romy’s work as she’s recently collaborated with Shino on opening a lifestyle/design brand named KATAKANA. Part of the project includes a fantastic online shop, which you should definitely browse through if you have a few spare minutes.

KATAKANA was formed late last year by the pair as they share a studio in Manhattan, New York. The name Katakana is the Japanese character set that is used for transcribing foreign and western language (‘kata kana’ means ‘shape?’), so this design/lifestyle collaboration takes on projects that reflect their energy through ceramics, accessories, home ware design and supper clubs. Overall, a great venture that will be worth checking back on as they build and expand the line. I’m sure with such creative minds on board there will be some experimental stuff taking place.

Romy herself is from England and holds a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London and has spent time living and working in Hong Kong, Venice and Berlin before opening her studio in New York. She started off making traditional European ceramics, but she’s now turned her attention to Japanese techniques of Kinuneri, a traditional Japanese kneading skill, Tebineri, hand building, and Rokuro, wheel work. As you can see above and below Romy has already got a great base to work with, her newest series titled ‘Mountain Bolt’ has to be one of my personal favourites. Exquisite little vessels with great colour and a pure/natural look about them, you won’t be disappointed when you click through her portfolio. Lets hope she keeps producing work like this as I’ll be sure to import some for my own collection, enjoy.

romyno.com

Secretly I’ve been saving up for a gift, a treat for myself that I’ve been umming and arring over for some time. To be honest, I don’t know why I’ve been debating as it’s a worthy investment, and it was designed by one of my favourite designers, so that’s a definite seller for me! The “thing” is the Vitsoe shelving system. I’m hoping to buy a few shelves and some rails to start off with and then develop from there, I think it’s fantastic how you can add and subtract at will, it’s basically something that will last a lifetime and that can travel around with you to different locations when needed.

So as you can imagine with my recent purchase in mind I’ve been attracted to anything storage related, when I bumped in to this project by Studio Mieke Meijer it definitely rang a bell in my head. This is from a series called ‘Frameworks’ that’s a system based on lattice constructions; extremely stable structures which enable large spans with minimal use of materials. The Frameworks system consists of oak slats connected by steel plates and rivets, in addition to glass shelving that makes a light-weight storage opportunity. It’s also interesting how these small structures can be used to create partitions in a home, as the more objects it holds the better job it does of creating a barrier between rooms.

Personally, I love what the Mieke Meijer studio have thought up and how it’s so diverse in scenarios, it’s also customisable and could be altered to add and subtract sections. I think it’s important to look at design in this way now as in the modern world we now live in we’re constantly having to rearrange and make things relevant, so this concept pretty much transcends time (even in its materials). I’ve tried my best to summarise the idea through model photos, but it would be better for you to check out these on the Mieke Meijer website as a series. Plus, they’ve got a fantastic array of other work that all take in to consideration function, craftsmanship and high quality finish.

miekemeijer.nl

My fascination with the Japanese tea ceremony isn’t anything new, I suppose it comes from my general attraction towards the lifestyle and mentality over there. I also quite like the idea of Buddhism and zen, this is also a theme that I tend to see in other designers that I admire, it’s sort of weird how everything links together in a way. Charles and Ray Eames for example had definite ties with Japan, even holding a Japanese tea ceremony at their famous house in Los Angeles. The guests included sculptor Isamu Noguchi, poet Iris Tree, and actors Charlie Chaplin and Ford Rainey.

Outside of the mainstream design world, even though they’re linked in more ways than one might think, you have someone like Bernard Leach in the pottery field who really promoted Japanese crafts over here in the UK and Europe specifically. He was also a link between the two countries where he would often bring back styles and also implement Western ones in the Japanese field, educating those over there with Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi. These folks achieved some amazing things in their time and if it wasn’t for them we’d probably have a nonchalant attitude towards handmade products, they are still inspiring creatives and makers today with their books and writings. It’s also just generally inspiring to hear about the ethos that they had and to take a bit of this traditional thinking back in to our own working way.

Some like Sori Yanagi, Soetsu Yanagi’s son, really epitomise great design in my eyes. He’s used all of knowledge passed down from his father, and his respect for craftsmanship, to become someone who could mix both traditional methods and modern manufacturing. This is not easy to do, but it means you can design objects that are authentic and that will stand the test of time. Sori has proven it over the years as his products are still relevant and are sold all over the world, which follows his ideology: true beauty is not made, it is born naturally.

Today I thought I’d pull up some classic Japanese tea inspiration, which is all thanks to art gallery/shop Kamon Engineering. They have a unique selection, selling craft work from a variety of different fields and in a mixture of materials. One of my favourite items has to be in the photo above, a beautiful handmade metal bowl where you can see all the little hammer marks, quite exquisite. This is one of those stores that I’d love to visit as they look like they have a vast amount of knowledge and a lot of information inside, such as historic context to the products. An individual like myself is passionate about the details so this is sure to excite me.

kamon.info

I’ve spent most of my time at the pottery studio lately experimenting with a mixture of glazes, also testing a variety of application methods to see what effect they have on the finished pot. This includes sponges, brushes, also just standard dipping. The problem I seem to be having is that I’m a stickler for functionality, so instantly the form has to be both easy on the eye and, more importantly, nice to hold in the hand. But what I’m coming to realise is that I need to be a little less precious with what I’m making, to let things fall naturally in to place rather than pushing the issue. I’ve come across this in other facets of design as well, projects don’t tend to work as intended unless they’ve gone through a long process of perfecting and adjusting, only then do you make work that can stand the test of time.

So with my new mentality, also my interesting affair with colour, I picked out the ceramic works of Young-Mi Kim as inspiration. I preferably like solid colours, or just the texture of the clay showing through, but Young-Mi has showed that you can use a selection of colours and textures in different ways and still have a pot that’s functional and eye-catching at the same time. This specific series by Korean ceramist Young-Mi is titled ‘Through Landscape’ and was inspired by living in Sweden, white nights, long and dark winters. Her idea was to use porcelain to convey the feelings she had when moving from one culture to another, you get this interesting combination of oriental with a Scandinavian palette, which are two styles that are very distinct but actually quite close in aesthetic. I personally think she’s done an amazing job.

As any good creative would I’ll be taking a few tips from Kim and maybe I’ll implement some of these ideas in to my own works, just to test what looks good together and what doesn’t. Hopefully you’ll also do the same, that’s the intention of this post anyway. I think it’s also important to note that we should be supporting young makers and designers, Young-Mi Kim is another one who’s really breaking through with her ceramics and should surely be awarded some attention. I’ll trust you’ll check out her website now and share her fantastic collection.

youlmoo.com

Anything Dieter Rams is sure to captivate me, I’m constantly reminded of his design ethos thanks to a poster on my office wall referencing the famous ‘ten principles for good design’. It’s been a bit of a godsend when facing certain design tasks, I can always look back at that and get a few visualisations of what I should be aiming for, usually it gets me back on the right track.

I’m not sure if you’ll remember but I previously wrote an article late last year on sdr+ furniture and about Vitsoe taking over the production of the Dieter Rams furniture range. As with any project, particularly one that’s quite high profile in the design sector, these works are going to take time to translate over to the Vitsoe range, especially since it involves manufacturing and other production tasks. As with all things Dieter Rams and Vitsoe, perfection is at the heart of everything they do, so they’re not going to produce anything that’s not thought out well enough for the general public to use. Plus, it will be great to see some of Dieter Rams chairs in the limelight instead of hidden away somewhere unknown.

It seems like the first chair that they’ve decided to release is the 1962 design titled the ’620 chair’. Dieter Rams wanted to create a piece of upholstered furniture that was comfortable but also quite light on the eyes, interestingly the seating is an adaptable kit of parts. This means it’s like a big box of Meccano, interchangeable castors for feet (available for hard or soft floors) or a replacement swivel base, also the back of the seat can be replaced between a low and high version and an arm can be removed so that multiple chairs can be added to make a long sofa. All of this just to suit the needs of the user, incredible!

So now that this model is available to purchase from Vitsoe they’ve produced a short video and have created a section on their website dedicated to chairs from the Dieter Rams collection (only this one so far). You can watch the short film below where they highlight the different problems they had when making the chair and the elements that you might not notice until up-close. If you’re interested in purchasing head over to the Vitsoe website for more details.

vitsoe.com/chairs

Japanese designer Oji Masanori has been of major interest for many years now, he mainly designs ‘living’ products, this includes furniture and other smaller goods for the household. One of his most popular series was that designed for metal casting company FUTAGAMI, he made a selection of goods such as a small set of office trays, paperweights and a few pieces of kitchenware. I’ve touched on his works previously, so for all those interested you should check out our archive for more.

Since Oji works in a variety of fields and with a mixture of materials, there’s not too much that he hasn’t had success with. I had a nice surprise to see on his website that he’s designed some beautiful lacquerware objects for Wajima Kirimoto, one of Japan’s most prestigious lacquerware brands. Kirimoto are well-known for using the Makiji technique, which applies a special powder to fix the lacquer to the wooden core, the result is a beautiful matte finish and very durable surface. One so tough that even a metal spoon on the item will not damage it. A finely powdered mineral called jinoko is used for the undercoating, this undercoating is much more durable than the rice powder, which is most commonly used to fix the lacquer to the wooden core. The special undercoating and up to 8 layers of lacquer make Wajima lacquer the most durable out there to date.

One thing I certainly appreciate about Oji’s series of lacquerware is the simplicity and traditional elements kept in the design, often this crafted aesthetic gets lost in some of the modern simplistic lines. I think he’s let the craftsmanship itself do the talking and has just added in some slight curves here and there and has tried to let the grain of the wood emerge naturally. Some of my favourite pieces are the darker versions, and I’m also drawn to the ‘raw lacquer’ boxes made from chestnut (seen above and below), they look ideal for storing food and would be perfectly functional for any household. Plus, they look very beautiful indeed.

At the moment I’m working hard to put together a selection of lacquerware in our shop that represents the variety of uses covered. I also think it’s of value for our society to implement some of these functional wares in our own life. Take for example these boxes and containers, their nature is not just to blend in to one specific society, they’re made to be used by all. So it baffles me how works like this aren’t in use more over here. Hopefully these nice pieces will inspire you to look in to lacquerware as an option for your own home, enjoy.

o-ji.jp
kirimoto.net

Often a company’s product line-up is dictated by the type of designers that they get on board, individuals like Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa are synonymous with a simplistic / functional ideology, so it’s obvious when they’re hired what sort of ethos that company is striving for. Companies like Plus Minus Zero and MUJI, for example, are intriguing to say the least. Although I love the fact that everything is based on functionality and has limited branding, I’m constantly troubled by the idea of downgrading quality for profit.

Actually, whether it is profit (I’m pretty sure it is!) is something for the big businessmen and accountants sitting inside the corporations to squabble over. Unfortunately, when the creative influence is not at the top of the pack you lose meaning and purpose, if the idea was based on making affordable wares that look good, someone like MUJI might be winning the race, but if quality and functionality were thrown in, I’d say they were losing. I’ve owned various objects in my lifetime that look beautiful on the eye, but when in use in the home obvious flaws become apparent after such a short space of time, in the end the product is just another one for the landfill. It just shows, even with good intentions as a designer your product can be manipulated in such a way, via low-grade materials and cheaper manufacturing, that it’s no longer what you originally intended to end up in this world.

These thoughts and considerations bring me on to a little company that goes by the name of KINTO, and for me these are actually tried and tested. I own a few pieces personally. When I first set eyes on this beautiful kitchenware I was slightly skeptical, mainly through previous problems with other works of the same nature. But I’ve been more than pleasantly surprised by the UNITEA set of teaware designed by the ever so talented Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S, so I picked out a selection from the new range at KINTO for all of you to admire. They have some classic shapes alongside those that are slightly more intriguing, as with all tableware I’m looking for alternatives to existing solutions, and KINTO are definitely one company pushing this way of thinking.

kinto.co.jp

Next week I think I’ll get myself down to The Midcentury Show taking place at Lords in London. It wil be my first time but I’m looking forward to seeing some nice furniture and other goods up-close, preferably the classics that have aged well and have stayed modern over the years. To me it’s always more interesting to see the older models rather than newer models, although manufacturing has changed over time I’m always curious by the methods they used back in the day and if they also stood the test of time.

A recent exhibition at the Design Museum really kicked this thought in to gear as I was admiring the talented design work of Marcel Breuer, his old models are spectacular when seen in person! I did view quite a few of his chairs at a Bauhaus event last year but it was hard to get within reaching distance as most things were roped off, which is a bugbear of mine at these sort of shows. Luckily at the Design Museum you can get pretty close and see the construction, I was pleased to see not much has changed in terms of how the chair is put together compared to the newer models. It’s interesting to think that this would technically mean that machinery and other equipment wouldn’t need to be re-designed, so in the end saving some environmental issues and costs, maybe keeping the wastage down also.

One designer that I’ve always admired throughout is Hans J. Wegner, his furniture is well structured and looks both contemporary and traditional, no matter what the year. I was watching these videos last night by film company BlackBird for Carl Hansen & Son and the production methods are extremely simple in comparison to others and haven’t changed much over the years, so it just shows the design used was solid from the get-go. The CH24 (Wishbone) chair is obviously a favourite amongst design aficionados, but Wegner designed all sorts of pieces over his career and I’d definitely recommend researching more if you want to be inspired. I’m personally an advocate of a ‘hands-on’ approach when it comes to learning, especially in this day and age where most designers step on to the computer and don’t actually consider the little intricacies in person. No surprise then that Hans J. Wegner was a trained carpenter from a young age and went on to be an architect in his later life, you can see all of these experiences and learnt skills in his finished works. Enjoy the videos below and hop over to the Carl Hansen & Son website to see more.

carlhansen.com
blackbird.dk

When it comes to pottery I like the look of simplistic vessels that are pure in form, when it’s obvious that they’ve gone through a process of elimination, reducing any unnecessary elements. With me this has to come through in all aspects of craft and design, often the best designs, whether that be architecture, furniture or smaller works, all have this common trait and the output means that they’re fit for human interaction. The looks just end up being a secondary thing. When I say secondary people get the misconception that I mean there’s no thought when it comes down to the look, that not necessarily the case, it’s just the fact that function plays a central role. Saying that, crafted pieces can be more of an expression that anything else, but as a designer who’s classically trained I’m often struggling to find a balance, so I tend to be drawn to tableware specifically.

One thing I personally like about pottery and ceramics is this ‘ethos’ already built in to the working method, for example on a wheel the clay is literally trying to escape from you via momentum, so you’re pulling the clay and reducing the form. Plus, you’re working with natural materials, so the basis for the craft is the human working earth in to a functional form. You can’t get anymore direct than that. A company that’s a nice example of this is Koishiwara Pottery who I spotted a little over a month ago online. The mixture of simplistic collections on their website really intrigued me, I also liked the fact that they’ve been producing new work for 2013 and they’re keeping their website updated regularly. So I knew you guys and girls would appreciate that. As with all things that inspire me, I decided to showcase some pieces that took my fancy and talk about the project to make people aware of the good work that’s been taking place.

Koishiwara Pottery was launched as a collaboration between Tokyo-based food coordinator Tomoko Nagao and potters in the village of Koishiwara in Japan. They’re well-known for their practical yet distinctive design which has since been lauded as the ‘you no bi’ (beauty in utility). Under the concept “Tableware to Enhance Your Meals”, they’ve been creating modern tableware that goes with any kind of cuisine. Although they may look simple and unadorned, these still all carry the spirit of Mingei and not one is exactly alike, so you’ll have that handmade feel throughout. It looks like they’re still in the process of setting up an online shop, but hopefully you’ll be able to purchase some pots even if you’re from Europe. These would be fantastic as a set for any kitchen. To see more click over to the Koishiwara Pottery website below and admire the different ranges that they have on offer.

koishiwara.jp