Jars by Guillaume Noiseux for Baccarat

Under the direction of Ed Barber and Jay Osgerby, students of ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne) created a series of crystal pieces for Baccarat. Guillaume Noiseux added functional tops and lids to seal in freshness.

Jars, Tops, by ECAL/Guillaume Noiseux, Baccarat

Hanno the Gorilla & Hanno Jr. by David Weeks

The Brooklyn based designer David Weeks has unleashed Hanno, a gorilla with elastic band muscles that pop and lock into a myriad of poses. He is named after Hanno the Navigator, a Greek voyager who explored Africa 2,500 years ago and discovered gorillas. Made of sustainably harvested beech, Hanno is one with the environment. Hanno’s powerful hardwood frame can hold many poses. His elastic-band muscles and durable wood limbs make him almost impervious to breakage.

Hanno the Gorilla, Hanno Jr., by David Weeks

Skullrilla Ashtray by David Weeks

Robotrilla, Gorilla and Skullrilla make up a collection of ashtrays designed by David Weeks. Smokers can watch smoke come out of Skullrilla’s eyes and nostrils; if you quit, it works as an incense burner or a nut tray for guests, either way, it’s bound to spark conversation.

Skullrilla Ashtray, Robotrilla Ashtray, Gorilla Ashtray, by David Weeks

Porcelain Vase by Thomas Feichtner

Porcelain Vase is a formally convincing and almost technical-seeming cone. Divided by three legs, its conical body provides an ideal base and remains stable even when used with long-stemmed plants. Its legs are not add-ons, but rather integral parts of the vase itself. The constructive interplay between the basic body’s consistency and the vase’s overall formal freedom gives rise to a highly distinct aura.

Porcelain Vase, by Thomas Feichtner Produced by Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur Augarten, Austria

Timo Sarpaneva’s Claritas Collection Reborn by Iittala

As the Iittala glassworks celebrates its 130th Anniversary, the Claritas collection by Professor Timo Sarpaneva (1926–2006) is being blown back into life – with all the unattainable colours, which Sarpaneva could only dream of in the 1980s, now glowing in statuesque forms. The Claritas collection was born at the Iittala glassworks in 1983. This happened in a workshop where new methods of mouth-blowing were being developed and new glass blowers trained. Timo Sarpaneva led the work, together with master blower Reino Löflund.

Initially, the glassblowers made pieces of glass jewellery with a small air bubble inside. When Sarpaneva saw these pieces, he posed the blowers the challenge of creating the biggest bubble possible inside the glass. This is said to be the Claritas collection’s moment of birth. In a burst of creativity, Sarpaneva created the Claritas method of embedding air bubbles, which reflect light like concave lenses, in glass.

The original collection included 63 different works of art, all approved by Sarpaneva. Three different versions of these pieces have been available in Iittala’s present-day selection. To celebrate its 130th Anniversary, Iittala will introduce Claritas art pieces never seen before, these will include seven delicate pieces of glass art and one special, numbered version.

Iittala Claritas Collection, by Timo Sarpaneva

L’Oiseau by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra

French designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec presents a wooden bird called L’Oiseau, at this years Salone del Mobile in Milan. The bird will be a companion to the Eames House Bird which the Eames’s discovered on their travels and whose original designer remains unknown.

“It is a simple bird without any other function than trying to propose a caring presence, a pleasant company. We have always been fascinated by animal representations whether they are primitive or more contemporary — from ivory bears made by the Inuit community to the Finnish birds made in blown glass. It could seem outdated to be interested in such subjects however we truly think that it is a necessary fantasy to continue supplementing this symbolic bestiary.”

L’Oiseau by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, for Vitra

Sé Collection Side Tables by Jaime Hayon

The Sé / Jaime Hayon collaboration is the result of an idea from founder Pavlo Schtakleff to create ‘haute couture’ furniture by carefully sourcing only leading experts to create unique styles and finishes. This enabled Hayon to create a full range of pieces that would, in Schtakleff’s mind, undoubtedly result in this perfect coupling of design originality with Sé’s now firmly established basis of superior craftsmanship and technological expertise.
The materials chosen for the collection are a selection of the finest woods, metals, marbles and fabrics – the edit of these, resulting in a richness clearly demonstrated within each piece. Shapes within the collection are dynamic and light. They are objects of comfortable luxury, each with a strong identity yet classic in their ability to work within a variety of environments.

Sé Collection II, Time Piece, by Jaime Hayon, for Sé

Fruit Bowl by Thomas Feichtner

Fascinated by the history of Viennese Silver, Thomas Feichtner created a fruit bowl for the renowned Wiener Silber Manufactur. This bowl is not a rounded body, instead, it is a sophisticated interplay of internal and external surfaces. At first glance, it appears as if the fruit might fall out through the openings in the legs, but actually, it becomes wedged and therefore stabilized. This, at one and the same time, is both an intended irritation and its most significant functional element. This way, the interface area between bowl and fruit is kept to a minimum, thus reducing the size of pressure area and potential damage to the fruit. Simply bending the silver sheet produced a self-supporting structure, supported by three legs. Thus, in marked contrast to the organic shapes of the fruit, an almost ‘technical’ effect is achieved, formally pointing to the style of Feichtner’s previous works.

Fruit Bowl, Silver 940/000, by Thomas Feichtner Produced by Wiener Silber Manufactur

The Committee by Auditorium Toy Co.

Six business-attired figures, viewed from above in diagrammatic form, are passengers in a vehicle on a relaxing outing. However, one of the passengers is restrained. The trunk reveals various instruments and tools (length of rope, tape recorder, baseball bat, shovel, etc.). While each element in this scenario is individually innocuous, together they make up an undeniably sinister collection. The Committee exposes the risk to the potential of an idea when driven by a collective will — when the original motivation and criteria take a back seat to the impulsive decisions of individual committee members. You are the ultimate driver in this unfolding narrative of control.

Meticulously handcrafted from industrial grade materials in a limited production of 25 units. Handmade archival storage box, provenance, rotary engraved serialization included.

The Committee, by Auditorium Toy Co.

Ash Bowls by StokkeAustad

The bowls are an exploration into the different qualities of wood. The whole bowl is turned out of a single piece of ash, and we wanted to see how thin we could make the wood, and how it would contrast with the solid base. The bowls were designed for Norwegian Prototypes 2010, where the brief was to design something that could be carried onto an airplane. Besides the dimensions we were completely free to do whatever we felt like. It was a great opportunity for us to work formally also on a theme we have been exploring for a while, the meeting of different shapes, and how different shapes are perceived when carved out of a single block of matter.

Ash Bowls, by StokkeAustad