Video: Discovering Design Through Furniture

Irwin Weiner ASID - The thrill of designing a piece of custom furniture is almost indescribable. When I'm creating a custom piece for a client, I'm looking at many elements, including scale, materials, period, detailing, sculptural quality, and utility. I recognized this familiar (to me) process in today's featured video from the University of Tasmania (Australia); UTAS faculty and students in their furniture program put together an exhibition entitled Discovering Design Through Furniture. I enjoyed hearing each designer talking briefly about their discoveries, their process, how they chose materials, what inspired them, and what they learned in the process. One of these students just may be producing a piece for your home in the future! (Pictured above, program director of furniture design at UTAS and exhibit curator Simon Ancher's Clipped Wing bench.)

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6 Favorites from Mondo Collection

 

Irwin Weiner ASID - There are so many wonderful online furniture resources that I have a tendency to be jaded. It takes some real VERVE to shake me out of my online doldrums - "Not another iconic piece of furniture from another design icon!" So it was a small delight to run into the Mondo Collection in a recent issue of Dwell magazine (in itself, also a small delight), and here are five beauties like the fab-fabric-wrapped Opium Bench (above)  that really stood out for me. Click on each photo for more product information.

Conical Desk by Nada Debs

Graphics Ceramics by Kaiser SuidanZero Bed

Beetley Bridge Chair by Jaime Hayon

Tobi Side Tables by Terry Dwan

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5 Dramatic Furniture Shapes from Global Views

Irwin Weiner ASID - Regular Design2Share readers will remember me saying from the start that Global Views will someday dominate the interior design world. They cleverly combine startling, fresh style with unbeatably reasonable prices, and that's turning heads in the industry and sending a wake-up call to manufacturers who have always offered exclusive prices for exclusive pieces. There's a place for exclusive, but today's home requires a mix of price points that extend the decorating budget. Enough said. Here are five of my favorite sculptural furniture shapes coming from Global Views. Click on each photo for more information.

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Video: Doshi Levien Expresses the Joy of Fine Design

Irwin Weiner ASID - How refreshing to hear two designers talking about their work, stressing the importance of joy and fun in their designs.

Yes, good design is functional design, but form doesn't have to always follow function. Looking at cookware as an expression of culture and tradition, looking at shoes as a wrapping of materials around the feet, and drawing attention to the decorated backside of a usually-hidden part of a sofa - this is the wit that Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien bring to their Doshi Levien collaboration.

Design without a sense of humor is a sterile, bad business. Steer clear of it, and always look for that tongue-in-cheek touch for any design project to elevate your mood and put a smile on your face.

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