Icon: Iittala Tools Cookware by Björn Dahlström

If there is one set of cookware which fits all the requirements of a well-appointed kitchen, then the Tools collection from Iittala is the one to have. Designer Björn Dahlström worked in collaboration with world-class chefs and materials specialists to create attractive yet highly functional cookware whose features and construction lend themselves to a variety of cooking techniques. The in-depth research and attention to ergonomics has given us a set of cookware that is now seen in three star restaurants as well as the modern home.

Tools are built to scale, they are well suited for large dinner parties as well as for everyday use. The line consists of saucepans, sauteuses, and casseroles in various sizes, as well as rectangular oven roasting pans in two sizes. The saucepans and casseroles feature tight-fitting lids and have measuring marks etched on their interiors. The lid is designed with a little notch to allow steam to escape while cooking—a real advantage over the more common pots with lids that tend to rattle and boil over.

The Tools collection is made of fine stainless steel which is remarkably easy to clean. Iittala has decided to go with quality all the way, their philosophy “Against Throwawayism” is evident as the Tools collection will last a lifetime and you will be able to pass it on to your grandchildren.

Björn Dahlström, Iittala Tools Cookware, by Dahlström Design AB

Icon: Savoy Aalto Vases by Alvar Aalto for Iittala

(photos above) Alvar Aalto portrait and original design collages for the Savoy vase in cardboard and paper

For 70 years now the Iittala factory in Finland has diligently produced Alvar Aalto’s sinuous Savoy vase. Originally part of a housewares collection that Aalto submitted to the Karhula-Iittala design competition in 1936, the vase was first presented at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris, where the theme was “Art and Technology in Modern Life.” At the time of its conception, the vase’s graceful enigmatic form challenged the glassblowers who pioneered the making of it. Inspired by nature, Alvar Aalto simplified design elements and used a craftsman’s knowledge of the material to create design that allows for various combination’s of use. The mysterious form made a strong statement against industrial production that failed to meet human needs. Today it has become an icon of a design movement.

Alvar Aalto Vases, by Alvar Aalto, for Iittala

Icon: Scandia Series Chairs by Fjordfiesta Norway

One of the few furniture design icons from Norway, the Scandia Series chairs were designed in 1957 by Hans Brattrud. Popularity peaked in the 1960s and the chairs fell out of production in the 1970s when the original factory burned down. Enter Fjordfiesta, a Norwegian company that has since revived the range. The Company worked closely with Brattrud to bring these appealing chairs back into production, keeping careful attention to the original detailing and design.

Scandia Series Chair, by Hans Brattrud for Fjordfiesta

Buy it here: Scandia Senior, Scandia Junior, Scandia Nett Swivel

Origins of the Vitra Design Museum Collections

The Vitra Design Museum collections evolved from modest beginnings in the 1980s to become one of the world’s most important collections of modern furniture. It was founded on two furniture collections – one compiled by Rolf Fehlbaum and the other by Alexander von Vegesack.

Surveying the collections as a whole, the following areas emerge as focal points: the period from the 1850s to the turn of the century shows a focus on bentwood furniture, the designs of Viennese architects and pieces by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright. The first three decades of the twentieth century are most prominently represented by the work of Gerrit Rietveld, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the Bauhaus, as well as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret. Along with the sizeable holdings from American sources, particularly Charles & Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen and Harry Bertoia, the period up to the Second World War is also defined by the French ‘constructeur’ Jean Prouvé, whose work is superbly documented with his most significant furniture designs, as well as many of his facade elements. From Scandinavia, there are designs by such figures as Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Poul Kjaerholm and Verner Panton and, from Italy, pieces by Gio Ponti, Carlo Mollino, Achille Castiglioni, Studio Memphis and Alchimia. Furnishings from the Arts and Crafts movement along with Art Deco and Art Nouveau are represented, albeit with relatively few examples. Taking the position that subsequent developments in modern furniture can only be fully understood as the ideological and stylistic heirs of these late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century movements, the earlier periods would presumably be the mostly likely candidates for expansion within the collections.

Design Museum Collections, Vitra Design Museum, Read more: Vitra Magazine

Eames ES 102 Intermediate Swivel Arm Chair

The Mid-Century Modernist has unearthed a close relative of the Executive Chair, the ES 102 Intermediate Swivel Arm Chair is made of a bright polished Eames aluminum Eames Universal base, frame and arms; black painted tube. Black leather upholstery on the seat, back and arm rests. Introduced in 1968, discontinued in 1973 due to high production costs.

ES 102 Intermediate Swivel Arm Chair, 1968, by Charles and Ray Eames
via: The Mid-Century Modernist

Mid-Century Print Campaign for Knoll

Knoll Ads from the early-50′s and mid-60′s, part of a Flickr set.

Saarinen Chair, Don Albinson Stacking Chair, Charles Pollack Executive Chair, for Knoll
via: Monoscope

Kodak Bantam Special by Walter Dorwin Teague

Product design agency Teague, has an interesting post on the Kodak Bantam Special. Considered an icon in the classic design style of the 1930’s, the camera was designed by Walter Dorwin Teague in 1936. The Bantam Special is one of the finest examples of art-deco styling applied to any camera design. The Bantam Special had a 1937 list price of $110.00, targeting the affluent and fashionable set.

Kodak Bantam Special, by Walter Dorwin Teague for Kodak

Icon: László Moholy-Nagy Retrospective

László Moholy-Nagy became known in Germany through his formative work as a teacher at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1923 to 1928. In 1937 he went to Chicago, where he became the founding director of the New Bauhaus (later named the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology). The New Bauhaus, was the immediate successor to the Bauhaus dissolved in 1933 under National Socialist pressure. Bauhaus ideology had a strong impact throughout America, but it was only at the New Bauhaus that the complete curriculum as developed under Walter Gropius in Weimar and Dessau was adopted and further developed.
A retrospective at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt will examine the complex picture of Moholy-Nagy’s oeuvre in order to present the range of his creative output to the public for the first time since the last major exhibition of his work in Kassel in 1991.

Exhibition: László Moholy-Nagy Retrospective, October 8 – February 7, at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany.

LIFE Magazine Photos of Charles and Ray Eames at Home

The digital archives of Google Books now hosts over 1,860 issues of LIFE magazine, other unpublished photos are also available on Google, including seldom seen images of Charles and Ray Eames at their Pacific Palisades home, also known as Case Study House No. 8. Other LIFE features include Raymond Loewy’s Palm Springs Pad.

Photographs of Charles and Ray Eames, for LIFE
via: The Mid-Century Modernist

Icon: Molded Plywood Leg Splint by Charles and Ray Eames

During World War II, the U.S. Navy called upon Charles and Ray Eames to create a lightweight, inexpensive leg splint. The resulting design is a highly sculptural yet functional device that could be mass-produced and, being modular, conveniently and inexpensively transported. Access to military technology and manufacturing facilities allowed the designers to perfect their technique for molding plywood, which they had been working on for several years. In its three-dimensional, biomorphic form, the leg splint suggests the Eames‘ subsequent, highly influential plywood furniture designs such as the Eames Lounge Chair

Molded Plywood Leg Splint, Patent No. 2548470, by Charles and Ray Eames, Manufactured by Evans Products, Molded Plywood Division
more: Metropolitan Museum of Art