furniture

Object Stories: Shaker Family Cabinet by Trent Jansen

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By Penny Craswell

Sydney-based designer Trent Jansen takes a research-led, anthropological approach to his work that often involves delving into the history of materials, movements and mythologies, and also includes cross-cultural collaboration.

Shaker Family Home by Trent Jansen. Photo: Romello Pereira

His most recent work, which is being exhibited as part of Local Milan at the Milan Furniture Fair in April 2019, is the Shaker Family Home. This piece is simultaneously a single work, and also a collection of works, with each part folding away into the structure of the main piece.

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Design and maximalism: the anti-Minimalist movement

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By Penny Craswell

There is no doubt that the world of architecture and interiors has been under the calming, ordered influence of modernism and minimalism for a long time. Especially in Australia, the majority of designers prefer clean lines, simple colour palettes and form follows function – there’s even a magazine about it. But if you sometimes like breaking rules and shaking things up a bit, Maximalism may give you the licence to follow your patterned dreams.

Maximalism is a direct response to Minimalism – it layers bold pattern and colour on top of each other. Fabulously expressive, Maximalist interiors and designs offer the designer to get really creative – to explore play and to indulge in an orgy of extremes.

Drake Commissary in Toronto, mural by artist Alex McLeod. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

The Drake Commissary in Toronto includes the work of a number of artists in an evolving exhibition called “Fast Forward”. Most spectacular is a huge mural by artist Alex McLeod called Ancient Hills, which spans 10+ metres and depicts an incredible fantasy landscape created using 3D modelling tools. Other works include textile works, sculptural pieces and video art.

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Object stories: Beraking table by Jack Flanagan

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By Penny Craswell

This unusual design replaces traditional table legs with three large balls that allow the table to roll across the floor. Perth furniture designer Jack Flanagan was inspired by ball bearings, and in particular by the spherical stones that make up the gravel roads in Western Australia and create a slippery surface for rally car drivers.

Beraking table by Jack Flanagan. Photo: Toby Peet. Image: The Design Writer
Beraking table by Jack Flanagan. Photo: Toby Peet

“[These stones are] completely unique to the south west of Western Australia,” Flanagan explains. “I was interested in the way in which, when driven on, it becomes very slippery due to the spherical stones rolling over the hard compact base. I became well experienced with this sensation in my past as a rally driver.” Read more →

Object stories: Botanical planter screen by Helen Kontouris

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By Penny Craswell

It seems that us city-dwellers have gone crazy for all things green over the last couple of years, and Melbourne designer Helen Kontouris has responded with an inspired take on the screen that also acts as a planter, creating curtains of vertical greenery that will suit the smallest interior space or balcony.

Wattle, Acacia and Banksia Botanical planter screens by Helen Kontouris for LEN Furniture. Image: supplied

Designed for LEN Furniture, the  Botanical Planter Screen is self-watering and suits climbing plants, with only one plant per screen required for the full effect – you can even plant climbing vegetables like tomatoes, passionfruit or snow peas.  Read more →

Object Stories: Toku furniture by Gavin Harris

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By Penny Craswell

The production and sale of Australian design by Australian furniture retailers continues its magnificent rise with the release of several new ranges this year, including Toku, a furniture collection designed by Sydney-based Gavin Harris for Schiavello.

Toku designed by Gavin Harris for Schiavello. Image: Schiavello

The range is low-lying, available in a range of materials, most prominently a blonde or coloured timber and upholstery including some soft secondary colours, marking the move away from the bold primaries that used to dominate the workplace – almost playground-like in their bold colours and shapes as if we were not adults after all. Read more →

Highlights from Milan Design Week 2017

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By Penny Craswell

This year, for me, Milan Design Week is all about The Milan Report 2017, a self-publishing venture that I’m launching along with the excellent Giovanna Dunmall (London design expert and writer) and Marcus Piper (multi-talented graphic designer, designer, typographer and writer).

We’re currently putting together a range of design week Q&As, themed features, diaries, picks, contributions from experts, as well as original photography, graphic design and typography – to see for yourself, pre-order here.

And, while I dedicate my time to that, check out a few highlights in picture form as follows – all photos taken by me.

A string quintet plays in the garden of Casa degli Atellani, where Da Vinci lived while painting the last supper – really! – thanks to AirBNB.

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26 Original Fakes for Melbourne Design Week

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This exhibition text was originally written by Penny Craswell for 26 Original Fakes, an exhibition curated by Dale Hardiman and Tom Skeehan of Friends & Associates as part of Melbourne Design Week.

26 Original Fakes, Melbourne Design Week

Fake furniture takes the original design and perverts it. The image in the magazine might look the same, but the object is fundamentally different – not just in quality, longevity, function and aesthetics, but also in its very essence. What makes the original authentic is stripped away and all you are left with is an empty simulation. Read more →

Object stories: Etched memories by Penelope Forlano

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By Penny Craswell

The work of Perth-based designer Penelope Forlano explores memories, heirlooms and intergenerational meaning. En_Case (Engraved Casegoods) is a modular furniture piece with a series of patterns laser engraved to form texture on timber. These patterns act as visual snippets of memory; new combinations can be selected from a wide range of patterns to create a personal, customised version.

Hong Kong pattern by Penelope Forlano engraved on timber. Read more on The Design Writer blog
Hong Kong pattern by Penelope Forlano engraved on timber. Image: supplied

For this particular piece, Forlano conducted an interview with a family about their personal and ancestral past, going back as many generations as they knew about. Recurring or overlapping themes and stories, including significant places and experiences, were then translated into patterns. Read more →

Marlu (kangaroo) furniture by Nicole Monks

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By Penny Craswell

Marlu (kangaroo) is a new range of furniture by Indigenous Australian designer Nicole Monks that draws on her rich cultural heritage in a highly crafted, bespoke series of design furniture pieces that are profoundly Australian. (See my previous article on Lucy Simpson and Nicole Monks)

Nyinajimanha (sitting together) stool and table with kangaroo skin by Nicole Monks. Photo: Boaz Nothman
Nyinajimanha (sitting together) stool and table with kangaroo skin by Nicole Monks. Photo: Boaz Nothman

Launched at the Australian Design Centre in Sydney last week, the range features three seating elements: ‘wabarn-wabarn’ (bounce) inspired by the movement of a kangaroo, ‘walarnu’ (boomerang) inspired by the shape of the boomerang used to hunt the kangaroo and ‘nyinajimanha’ (Sitting Together) inspired by the gathering around a table or camp fire to eat kangaroo tail stew. Read more →

Memphis: Avant-garde and the celebrity designer

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By Penny Craswell

The news that David Bowie was a big collector of Memphis (over 100 items will go on auction at Sotheby’s in London on 11 November) makes sense – both were on the cutting edge of style in the 1980s and there is a little something of Ziggy Stardust in many of the designs.

Metropole clock, Memphis, designed by George J. Sowden, 1982
Metropole clock, Memphis, designed by George J. Sowden, 1982

Reflecting on Memphis, the Milan-based collective led by Ettore Sottsass that launched onto the international design stage in 1981, it is interesting to note its place in design history.  Read more →