de Gournay Porcelain: Mouraviev, Flora & Fauna, Pseudo Tobacco Leaf

These are my three favorite de Gournay porcelain designs. Mouraviev, Flora & Fauna and Pseudo Tobacco Leaf. De Gournay has 12 standard designs and each one can be tailored or even completely customised. 'Each de Gournay service is entirely made and decorated by hand using centuries old traditional Oriental porcelain techniques. Every piece in a service may be considered a work of art while the service viewed as a whole is a unique and all to rare expression of an ancient craft that has survived almost unchanged into the 21st Century.'

Ramses Restaurant, Madrid by Philippe Starck

One of my favorite designers is without any question Philippe Starck. Theatre, hyperbole, drama, hidden messages, philosophy, poetry and amazing aesthetics, his work and strong style have become easily recognizable even by those not familiar with the field of design. Above are images of projects which are to my taste some of the most successful ones. Although I am not the biggest fan of his product design, (the furniture would be certainly an exception), I think he is one of the best designers for commercial interiors. This first series is of a more recent project in Madrid: Ramses Restaurant. I love the industrial edge of the project, something we have seen a lot over the past years in projects such as the Shoreditch House and especially the writing of the wall, an element Starck has been applying a lot in his restaurant and hotel designs.

Images from: http://www.ramseslife.com/  and http://www.a212.com

David Downton Illustrations

I'm sure many of you are familiar with these fabulous illustrations if not from the very recognizable style of the artist than from Vogue or fashion ads.

Seed Cathedral by Thomas Heatherwick

Seed Cathedral by Thomas Heatherwick will be ready for the Shanghai expo due in May.  This structure will represent UK. It is a pavilion holding 60,000 plant seeds individually encased in eight-meter-long  glass fibers. On the one hand one might imagine it as a museum to showcase the variety of flora of a given part of the earth, yet I think that it is also a very interesting concept of modern day cathedral with seed vaults holding a myriad of different plants, like noah's ark, ready for a natural catastrophe where all flora would be swept from the surface of the earth.

(Images from Bldgblog & Blueprint Magazine)

Fairytale furniture: Studio Job, Frederickson Stallard, Tord Boontje, Sebastian Brajkovic, Niels van Eijk, Vincent Dubourg, Atelier van Leishout.

These are furniture pieces from an exhibition i saw about a year ago in the V&A; Telling Tales. As I mentioned before when I introduced pieces by fabulous designers represented by the David Gill Galleries I worked for as a part time assistant two years ago,  it has become apparent that more and more designers push the boundaries between art and design. It was interesting to see that there was a lot of furniture at this exhibition which I have seen before, at the gallery. Not only the final products as they were at the V&A, but the pieces in course of production. I have to say, contrary to what one might think, it is for most items a very difficult and long process,  a lot of experimentation on behalf of the artist/designer as well as the gallery representing him. Some items were going through a production of several years before they could create the first prototype.. As it often happens, the designer might have an amazing idea which looks amazing on paper and 3D, yet how to make it is a totally different question..

The first set of photos are pieces by Sebastian Brajkovic (represented by Carpenters Workshop). There is certainly a dark edge to his work of mutations, a bit of Chapman Brothers. The image following these is of a wardrobe made by Tord Boontje, a table by Vincent Dubourg, a seat by Atelier van Leishout and a table by Demakersvan/Jeroen Verhoeven.

Images from Dezeen.

Fairytale furniture: feathers, skulls and magic. Part 1.

The beautiful gold feather coat in Alexander McQueen's amazing  fall/winter 2010 collection inspired by Byzantine art made me think how amazing it would be to create interiors and furniture pieces covered in feathers, something probably i will include in my current project. As usual, whatever a designer thinks of more or less exists and has been done before.. Although not entirely how I imagine it, this piece 'Portrait of George I' by Elyse Hochstadt is for sure not an ordinary one. What I find interesting is the use of various feather lengths, yet what I would definetly change is the legs of the chair.

Simon Costin

Simon Costin is one of the most talented set designers. As mentioned before to my mind the greatest creative people are the ones with endless imagination, capable of pushing the borders and to think out of the box.