MINEHEART: Watch your steps- a Minefield of Creativity!!!

 

 

Picture above: MissChester sofa in yellow

Mineheart is a Cambridge- based studio, specializing in Home Decor design and more than that. Starters and crafters of pioneering ideas, such as lamps from recycled materials (bottles and wooden clothes pegs )- soon they expanded their scheme on soft furnishings and print. Past and present projects compose an entirely impressive portfolio, currently paying off with the company showcasing in important events and exhibitions of the international design trade, ex. Maison-Objet n Paris, France. Vanessa Battaglia, co-founder and head designer (first among equals;-),kindly illustrates for A4D-D4A, some key elements of a wonderful, cosmopolitan design puzzle.

Enjoy even more of Mineheart wonders, on their thriving website: www.mineheart.com and on :
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/company/mineheart
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lovabledesign
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lovabledesign
Google:https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/103841410074272859615/+MineheartStore/posts
Or subscribe to their newsletter: http://mineheart.us4.listmanage.com/subscribe/post?u=008a75965d6e35a61298bb207&id=872a72b63fn

All4Design-Design4All: You started a business, your design studio Mineheart in the U.K, you being Italian- what was the reason for you, choosing to operate from a british "platform”?

Vanessa Battaglia- MINEHEART: Honestly speaking I deeply love Italy but it is not the easiest place to start your own company. England is a great place to work from, it has lots of opportunities for young people (when we started 15 years ago;-) and has lots of support and appreciation for new creative businesses.

A4D-D4A: Humor, eco-friendly approach, futurism, graphics and perfect execution-finishing. Please define how these notions can be combined in the final product, throughout all years of your work experience.

V.B-MH: Humor or a twist is essential to our work,  it is the spark to our creativity, the stating point. Eco-friendly is a great aim but often difficult to apply.The perfect finishing is really important, we always try to find and use the right finishes for the right products and is a journey of trials and experimentations. When we manage to combine all of those elements in one product is great!

A4D-D4A: Which is your biggest influence as a designer-maker?
(It can be from design or any other field of your choice)?

V.B-MH: The creative people I love most are Leonardo Da Vinci (ideas and drawings are amazing),Tim Walker (I just adore his photos) and Alexander McQueen (early years creations).

A4D-D4A: Europe, as well as the international markets go through some major changes right now. In your opinion, how a massive, key- event such as the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy, can positively influence a possible stabilization, and eventually, growth of the design market, today?

V.B-MH: This is an interesting question, I really don't know how any big event like the Salone del Mobile could possibly stabilize and even grow the design market but I really hope that it does! In the last 15 years since my degree, the design scene has changed so much but I like the direction that is taking, we are going back to the basics: appreciating craftsmanship and uniqueness.

A4D-D4A: Would you like to express a personal dream or aspiration, as a designer and citizen of the world?

V.B-MH: I would love immensely if more people will start enjoying what they do every day.

Thanks a million  Mineheart!!!

Albert rug

King Edison pendant lamp

Milking stool


 

I HAVE A DREAM.( IT IS CALLED DONGDAEMUN)...

Picture above from http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/dongdaemun-design-park-plaza/

Design identity: Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, South Korea. Architect: Zaha Hadid. Project duration: 2007-2013. Client: Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Purpose: "...Vision “Communication of Design·Creation Industry”
DDP will become to be multiplex cultural space communicating design·creation industry by exchanging and cooperating with citizens, world's citizens and experts.
Mission “Design making and enjoying with citizens” - Design with People
DDP has been made together into communication center of creation industry, study center of future talented people and open space for working by pursuing new thought, various talents and more advanced life....."
(source: http://www.seouldesign.or.kr/eng/plaza/summary.jsp)

When you see projects like this, days like these, you end up dreaming of different possibilities. Also, as it is inevitable, you end up making comparisons. Like all normal human beings, design-savvy or not, you can simply distinguish the difference between the great, the adequate and the mediocre. Have a lovely month and a blissful spring start-up...;-)))

A4D-D4A



Piraeus Port Authority Central Building, by architects Giannis Liapis and Ilias Skroubelos, born in 1922 and 1942 respectively,  http://www.olp.gr/el/the-port-of-piraeus/image-gallery. Nice picture but...yet an uncontemporary building? 

ESTORICK COLLECTION Of Modern Italian Art : 17 YEARS already of great exhibitions, events and knowhow around...

...modern and contemporary Italian art, design and culture. Please find out more for the most exciting museum dedicated to Italian civilisation, outside Italy:

http://www.estorickcollection.com

In the picture above, a compilation of previous exhibitions shortcuts (from top to bottom and right to left):
- Giorgio Casali, Photographer: Domus 1951-1983. Architecture, Design & Art in Italy (2013)
- Pablo Echaurren, Iconoclast (2014)
- The Years of la Dolce Vita (2014)
- Workshop Missoni: Daring to be Different (2009, in picture Ottavio and Rosita Missoni photographed in 1989 by Giuseppe Pino)

Browse, subscribe to the newsletter, inspire yourself and daydream...
?-))))
A4D-D4A

NEW EU COPYRIGHT REFORM: the who-is-who-doing-what in the old continent's newest HOT FILE.

Picture above from: http://www.fischerappelt.de

Another "hot potato" is burning the hands of European administrators, forcing the higher ranks of the Europarliament to painkillers overdose...The new Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Günther Oettinger has promised an overhaul of the 2001 Copyright Directive -previously passed to Jean-Claude Juncker- the latter realizing the complexity of the task- he also seems to find extremely difficult to satisfy the interests of opposite camps. The competition is fierce, nowadays that all sorts of digital platforms are implemented, and the plot thickens seriously. Seriously enough to put Angela Merkel on the game (again) with some heavy-weight remarks, during the last national IT convention, in Hamburg, on 21st of October 2014: “Connecting digital technologies with industrial products and logistics - Industry 4.0 - Germany has a chance at taking the lead,”. The crucial and ambitious project of EU copyright reform will probably extend its time-frame. Recent interventions by members of Europarliement, such as G.Grammatikakis (responsible for Intellectual Property in the Europarliament Cultural Committee), on balancing out the interests of all contributors in the creative procedure (artists, makers, designers, internet providers, publishers, search engines, producers and mediators), made an impact about the importance of intellectual protection- insurance and the need for new, clear, legal guidelines.

For more information on the subject, leading to an essential revolution in data, intellectual and industrial protection in Europe, (which desperately needs it!), go to:

http://www.europarl.gr/el/greek-meps/meps-activity/meps-activity-2015/mepsfebruar2015/meps2015februar15.html

http://policyreview.info/articles/news/new-eu-commissioner-promises-copyright-reform-can-he-deliver/332

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/innovation-enterprise/merkel-calls-industry-40-german-it-summit-309376

100% CANADIAN MIRACLE!!!!

Surprise?-)))The Canadian Design Resource is a sensational database featuring every aspect of Canadian design you can possibly imagine. Designers, organisations, history,exhibitions, news, innovations, discoveries, schools, publishers, merchants----and more, concerning Creative Canada. A wonderful example for many ministries in mother Europe, struggling to put together a decent on-line network of local design affairs, going through millions of committees with zillions of design experts and journalists, recovering huge budgets---well in Canada they have it all done and it is a private initiative! Check it out please, you will be entirely absorbed by the most exciting virtual space on design, and learn about the cracking-Canadian design scene...Enjoy!!!!

http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca (picture bellow from the actual site)
Contact e-mails:
info@thecdr.ca
todd@thecdr.ca

Milan in a Van 2015* ! How SALONE DEL MOBILE in MILAN (Milan Furniture fair) will turn out to be (again) this spring?

 

Picture above from: http://salonemilano.it/it-it/
*The title of V&A, London exhibition regarding the Fiera, back in April 2002, remained a moto in design slang...

The beginning of a very turbulent year, will not overshadow the importance of the most radiant european event, concerning design...or at least it is scheduled so. Many, great things are organised again this year, but certainly the SaloneSatellite, (showcasing the work of 700 young designers under 35 years old, from prestigious designs schools and different countries) is the fair's most progressive part- a real catalyst and a key element to focus if you are a design scouter, heading south this year.
Another thing to note down: the 11th edition of Saloni Worldwide Moscow, kicks off again in October 2015, and will certainly raise some eyebrows once more, an "experiment", completing already a decade, and being one of the most interesting venues in the industry. Get ready for more news and criticism , regarding both events, in the following issues of A4D-D4A.

Stay safe and alert?-)))
A4D-D4A

http://salonemilano.it/
http://salonemilano.it/en-us/EXHIBITORS/SaloneSatellite
http://salonemilano.it/en-us/WORLDWIDE/Exhibitors

(Design) History is an Ellipse… Happy and New Year 2015!

In black-and-white, above: (by anonymous photographer), around 1921-1923.Members of the Weimar Bauhaus school: E. Hartwig (top from the right), W. Baumeister (bottom right), O. Schlemmer (second, top from the left), T. Schlemmer (bottom), C. Schlemmer (in the center, at the bottom), J. Albers (right from the bottom), G. Stölzl ( center), W. Gilles (above the latter). ©AKG Photo, Paris.

The happy company in the photo has many things to celebrate, working and living in a place, far more than just an innovative technical school: a modern Utopia[1]. Painters, teachers, architects, engineers, technicians, makers, photographers, designers, stylists, actors and musicians are developing together a different perception of how everyday life could be. A fresh approach to creativity, production and lifestyle is born, to establish a new simplicity, functionality, ethics, image, design. The design of 20^th century[2].

Less than 100 years later, here we go again. Different problems, challenges, threats, risks but not the same eagerness to reinvent the world, in a real way. Different battle, same war, but nevertheless , the hope to revive quality in contemporary urban living, by means of education, culture and justice, is not yet entirely extinguished. Struggling economies and unearthly wealth, condemn investments and interest on design education (and education at large) as  time-irrelevant and elitist. Similar voices tend to forget the contribution of design to growth, provided the current focus on raw commodities with immediate profit like mineral fuels or banking by-products. Toxic funds still haunt international markets, in a sort of blind man’s -buff game, leaving behind a poisonous trail of financial repercussion.

[R]evolution in materials, resources, services and needs can only be accomplished  by involving design and innovation ,practically in every solution. That’s what history taught us, up to now, again and again. “Geschichte ist elliptisch. Geschichte ist eine Ellipse”[3].

Attacking Bauhaus: The end of “bolshevist” Bauhaus while Nazis finally take control. Collage by Iwao Yamawaki, 1932. ©D.R.

Both pictures are taken from the book: Le Bauhaus, text by Xavier Girard, ©1999, Éditions Assouline, Paris, France (greek edition by ©2005, EKDOSEIS AGRA A.E., Athens, Greece- translation from the original: Anna Tsea).

 

 

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[1] Le Bauhaus, text by Xavier Girard, ©1999, Éditions Assouline, Paris, France (greek edition by ©2005, EKDOSEIS AGRA A.E., Athens, Greece- translation from the original: Anna Tsea).

[2] Le Bauhaus, text by Xavier Girard, ©1999, Éditions Assouline, Paris, France (greek edition by ©2005, EKDOSEIS AGRA A.E., Athens, Greece- translation from the original: Anna Tsea).

[3] “History is elliptic. History is an Ellipse”: A graffiti on the Berlin wall, soon after its demolition, 1989. [Elliptic: Obscure or ambiguous or repeating it-self. Collins Essential English Dictionary].