Furniture

The Lamp That Wasn’t

Click takes minimalism to a whole new level by allowing you to turn your computer screen into a lamp. Just make a donation of your choosing, download the lamp, and watch an image of an incandescent bulb appear on your screen. You can choose your favorite light colors—up to 36 at a time—and the order they change from one to the next. “As a lamp, you’re not going to use it to light a space,” says Patrick Marinez, the designer behind this project. “It’s a subtle presence—more like a mood lamp.”

But even if you can’t read a book next to Click, you do get the chance to experience an object that’s not really an object at all. “Click challenges our idea about what constitutes a piece of furniture or an industrial product,” says judge Jerry Helling. And as fellow judge Todd Bracher adds, “There is an honest elegance that the designer has defined the experience and the body has become irrelevant. For me this is a sign of things to come.”

Description: Click is a downloadable mood lamp that uses the computer screen as a light source to diffuse color sequences at various speeds.

Project website: www.blankbubble.com

Designer: Patrick Martinez
Website: www.patrickmartinez.net

Developer: Julien Gardair, www.juliengardair.com

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Street Scenes

The green movement’s already turned walking, biking and catching the bus into sexier choices. But now Metro40 gives people another incentive to embrace alternative transportation: style. Designed for the urban core, this public furniture collection ranges from a sleek bench that takes cues from the Mobius strip to a bike rack, transit shelter and LED pedestrian lights. Each piece marries function with head-turning good looks.

Judge Todd Bracher appreciated the collection’s environmentally responsible design approach as well as its cohesive design language—the pieces look more like siblings than identical twins. “The Metro40 collection is a well done response to today’s needs to not only bring greater interaction for the public, but also a greater quality of that experience,” he says. And as fellow judge Jerry Helling adds, this is the first time he’s ever wanted a park bench for his home.

Project website: www.landscapeforms.com

Description: An integrated collection of site furniture and accessories for modern transit.

Design: BMW Group DesignworksUSA
Website: www.designworksusa.com
Vice president design: Arno Yurk, Landscape Forms

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“A clear, straight forward solution to decoration versus structure.” --Judge Todd Bracher

Description: The technique for this piece relies on the close interlocking of seven curved wooden laths assembled in decreasing height. Stacked Air Chairs save space and provide graphic and colorful animation.

Materials: Solid wood and laths
Dimensions: L. 50 x D. 45 x H. 75 cm
Designer: Samuel Accoceberry
Website:www.samuelaccoceberry.com
Photo credit: M. Flores

3 Photos

“It gives a door an entirely new three dimensional appearance and a personality, for that matter. Blow is sleek, fluid and gives you the ability to work with color in an interesting way. It is definitely a transformative product.” --Jerry Helling

Description: The Blow door is distinctive for its handle design. The concept is a semi-elliptical decoration placed vertically on one side of the door. This system of opening/closing is rounded in the central part and thin at the ends, which interrupts the linear presence of the panel in the form of a wave.

Designer: Karim Rashid
Website: www.karimrashid.com
Senior designer: Chris Granneberg
Client: Albed

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“Somewhere between lighting and furniture, keeping the essence of both.” --Judge Todd Bracher

Description: The steel base, aluminum neck and spun shade keep Eileen balanced when leaning against a wall or in a corner. Machined stainless steel fittings allow the neck to pivot smoothly.

Designers: Vincent & Paul Georgeson for Misewell
Website: www.misewell.com
Client: Misewell

3 Photos

“In many products you can pinpoint where design, engineering or manufacturing won the development battles, but in this case, they all seem to have won and in turn the real winner is the user.” --Jerry Helling

Project website: www.hermanmiller.com/setu

Description: Setu is a family of multipurpose seating that sets new standards for simplicity, adaptability, comfort and value.

Design: Studio 7.5
Website: www.seven5.com
Client: Herman Miller, Inc.

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“Tress is extremely successful in the fact it balances contradictions on many levels. The form of the product is classical, but the overall result is fresh and relevant. Tress has a very natural organic feeling, which is balanced by a very defined structure, and has the appearance of being handmade or crafted, even though it is created through a highly engineered mechanical process.” --Jerry Helling

Project website: www.foscarini.com

Description: Tress is made of interwoven resin filled fibers that recall the texture of baskets, and its unique design process aims to break new boundaries in material research.

Designer: Marc Sadler
Website: www.marcsadler.it
Client: Foscarini

7 Photos

Description: Bacterioptica is a modular dining room light fixture that portrays the biological life of a family and its environs.

Design: MADLAB (Jose Alcala and Petia Morozov, partners; Marissa Gregory)
Website: www.madlabllc.com
Project team: Iain Kerr (SPURSE); Jared Grobner (Grobner Metalcraft); Andy White (Del-Lighting); Mike Novack (Ultimate Spinning and Turning) Client: Cathy and Gideon Asher

6 Photos

Project Website: www.artemide.us

Description: This is a large series that changes scale very naturally, primarily as a vertical device for capturing light. It appears as a digital leaf from another world, embedded with scales like a reptile or an insect to gather light and shadow on its body to seduce a mate.

Designer: Ross Lovegrove
Website:www.rosslovegrove.com
Client: Artemide

5 Photos

Project Website: www.martinelliluce.it
Description: LED Table Lamp. The arm of the lamp behaves as a switch.

Designer: Brian Sironi
Website: www.briansironi.it
Client: Martinelliluce

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Website: www.knoll.com or sithowyouwant.com
Design: Formway Design for Knoll

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Description: The One Night Stand is a sleeper sofa that doesn’t look like one—just remove the back cushions and flip the seat forward to convert the sofa into an instant queen sized mattress.

Price: $1799
Design: Blu Dot
Website: www.bludot.com

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Description: Powder-coated steel panels come together to create a beguiling form and a cloth-covered cord seals the deal. Available in two sizes and your choice of three colors: black, ivory or yellow. Floor: $299. Table: $149.

Design: Blu Dot
Website: www.bludot.com

5 Photos