Highlights from the ICFF 2012

This years International Contemporary Furniture Fair is currently under way in Newyork City this week. For those of you who havent been lucky enough to have the chance to be there, here is a glimpse of some of the designs trending at this years show.

The Hyphae Light designed by Nervous System

The Mood Broom designed by Peteris Zilbers

The Stickbulb Light designed by Rux Design

The Aurrelia Lamp designed by Qisdesign

Chandelier designed by Benjamin Rollins Caldwell

The Graffiti Cafe by Studio MODE in Bulgaria

The Graffiti Cafe located in a boutique hotel in Varna Bulgaria was creativly designed by Bulgarian based desigers Studio MODE. The same building houses a four story hotel, along with an art gallery, restaurant and nightclub, therefore the cafe needed to be a continuation of the hotel’s modern aesthetic. The overall look was ispired by the Esker work. The interior space aswell as focusing on the esker form, had to deal with complex acoustic and ventilation issues, meaning they had to find a way to mix materials throughout. The linear elements that begin on the curvy pillars and continue onto the ceiling are phenomenal and definitely help create the cohesive environment they were looking for.

"Light Fantastic Exhibition" opening night 17th May

Conceptual Development

Iv been very busy over the last couple of weeks pushing towards a solid concept for my new lighting design. After spending hours playing with paper and other flat sheet material to create a 3dimensional form that I was satisfied would work well and be pleasing to the eye I have found it. Taking influence from the mathematical geometric systems and sculpture by George Hart with an addition of sliceform, the finalised form I have produced contains 12 identical modules that are sliced at particular points which slot and interlock with each other to create a 3 dimensional sphere.

Now that I have the form I want to work with, I wanted to take it to another level.
"The language of visual expression defines various morphilogical agents of differentiation"
A combination of many aspects including form,composition and texture make up these agents.Now to introduce a surface texture through specifically choosen materials.
As a lover of fashion and fabrics which was influenced by my time working at Siopa Rince in my teens, fabric is my choosen material. I decided instead of choosing just any fabric I would choose a specific kind of fabric that had a meaning,a story, some nostalga behind it.
My first memory of working creatively with fabric was as a young child staying with my grandmother. Each night before bed we had the same routine, after the 9o'clock news, we would say the rosary together with my grandad then off up to bed. As I lay in bed my granny would sit on the chair next to me and together,everynight we would stitch a new line of crochet to the scarf I was making. From there I was crocheting anything from doilys to cardigans with her.
As crochet is a traditional fabric I am currently in the middle of experimenting with diffrent approches and techniques inorder to make it work within todays contemporary settings and to create fluidity betweeen the form I am working with and the crochet fabric.

Other influential designers that have worked with and been inspired by crochet fabric include Marcel Wanders and Louise Campbell.

Crochet Chair designed by Marcel Wanders

Felt Chairs Designed by Louise Campell

Hope you are all as excited as I am about whats to come :). Will keep you all posted.
Grainne.

International Contempoaray Furniture Fair 2012

The 24th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair will take place in New York this year at the City’s Jacob K.Javits Convention Center running from May 19th-22nd. The ICFF will map the newest frontier of what’s best and what’s next in design. Keep posted for the latest updates from the exhibitors showcasing there work over the 3 day fair.

Your Invitation to "Light Fantastic"

I would like to cordially invite all my friends, family, colleagues and readers to "The Light Fantastic Exhibition". An exhibition of modern lighting from some of the most exciting Irish designers working today.
18 Irish designers from all across the crafts sector have come together in The Malthouse Design Centre to launch Light Fantastic on Thursday 17th May at 6pm. This exhibition will showcase the work of all the designers in the form of lighting products. Top Irish designers including Shane Holland, Rachael O'Neill and Kooyong will be amoungest the exhibitiors including protoypes of my own work which I hope to launch soon after.
Guest Speaker Paul O'Hara, a world leader of social innovation, founder of Change Nation and director of Ashoka Europe will be here on the night to launch the wide range of innovative irish designs.

Look forward to seeing you all there,
Grainne

Inception Chair by Vivian Chiu

The Inception Chair by RISD student Vivian Chiu is a series of ten interlocking chairs made of ash, meant to mimic the dream within a dream concept from the 2010 film Inception. Each chair has hand cut grooves on the inside edges of its seat frame as well as notches in the seat back. The mechanism works so that the pegs fit into the grooves of the chair one size bigger and slides into place so that the horizontal edge between the chair seat and back line up. The simple mechanism allows the chairs to be taken apart and put together with ease. Although the concept behind Chiu's chair design is based on a dream within a dream, the chair displays a perception of perspective when viewed from the front and back elevations also.