The Interwoven Design News is your tiny dose of design, technology and other important news, curated monthly by Interwoven. In this Interwoven Design News series we share the latest on our favorite topics, including product design, installation design, furniture Collaboration, sculpture and AI generated images. This issue includes: Varmblixt by Sabine Marcelis x IKEA, Watches & Wonders 2023, Janny Baek at Culture Object, Isamu Noguchi: Sculpting the World and AI generated images!

Watches & Wonders 2023

Watches and Wonders Geneva, the international watch and jewelry show that takes place in Geneva, Switzerland features the newly introduced the breathtaking Hermès H08 existing in the sculptural installation, The finesse of time, by artist Clément Vieille. 

The Hermès H08 is a collection that was originally released in 2021 and designed by Creative Director, Philippe Delhotal, on 3 different head watches. The new line’s new aesthetic combines a perfect mixture of texture, material usage, and geometrical shapes on the Chronograph. The H08’s function does not take a backseat while the watch’s mechanical self-winding movement is framed by a light carbon fiber and composite shell along with careful highlights that color matches the watch’s band perfectly. 

Clément Vieille explains his inspiration for the environment which he designed for the trade show’s location. His carefully designed flowing sculptures are suspended from the ceiling while exploring the potential of controlling time. Even though impossible, can time be captured, can it be tamed? All these motivations are shared between Hermès and Clément Vieille, the two design collections complement each other in a beautiful way.”

via Design Boom

Varmblixt by Sabine Marcelis x IKEA

Award winning designer, Sabine Marcelis has recently released a collaboration with the Swedish furniture retailer, IKEA! Their collection named, Varmblixt was revealed at Milan Design Week and features a beautiful plethora of homeware that includes sculptural lighting pieces and a glassware collection. The Dutch-Kiwi designer showcases her aesthetic by, “embracing vibrant, playful hues and employing pure forms to highlight the often unique materiality of her pieces.” An impactful feature to a viewer is Marcelis’ use of material combinations that cause people to want to take a closer look. Traditionally, the products that provide light have been designed with a utilitarian mindset. Sabine Marcelis strived to rethink the way lighting pieces live in a home and how it exists in space. Taking a more artistic approach, the team was able to step away from functionality as the only trait to design with a different perspective in mind. Overall, the collection aims to bring a warmth to the home atmosphere.

Varmblixt’s glassware collection refrains from using color. The designer explains that she wants the drink of choice to activate the use of color. The specific collection had been dreamt up in the past, years ago to be exact, and has finally come to life! Check out the collaboration at the link below.

via International Contemporary Furniture Fair

Janny Baek at Culture Object, New York

Janny Baek, a Korean-American artist and architect is presenting her first solo exhibition from March 22, 2023 to May 20, 2023 at Cultural Object in Manhattan! The artist studied ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design and then pursued a master’s degree of architecture from Harvard University. Baek along with her husband, Thomas McMahon, founded McMahon-Baek Architecture in 2014 and she continues to help run along with her ceramics practice that she revamped in 2019. 

When creating her striking ceramics, Baek uses a traditional process that involves stacking clay and later slicing cross-sections to expose a hidden interior pattern. She sometimes alters this process, called Nerikomi, by treating the colored clay as a pattern or colored sheets on the surface of the form. Using different aesthetic techniques including colored layered surfaces producing gradients. Baek explains how creates with a purpose, “my sculpted ceramic forms are based on the themes of growth, flux, and other various states of in-between.” This effect helps the artist express vibrancy, pleasure and hope through artificial coloring but with clay. The artist shared, “ultimately, I hope that my work communicates the wonder and importance of questioning assumptions and being curious: about ourselves, our world, and our future.”

via Wallpaper

Isamu Noguchi: Sculpting the World

The Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM) is featuring Isamu Noguchi for its 40th Anniversary. The LaM is one of the most influential museums in Europe while being positioned between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Luxembourg and London. 

The Exhibition is currently featuring over 250 of Noguchi’s works spanning sculpture drawings, designs, photography and other forms of art. From an artist who has continued  to make an impact throughout art history even after his death in 1988, “Noguchi embodies an open and decompartmentalised vision of art, which even today, influences contemporary creation.” 

Noguchi’s mother was from the United States while his father was Japanese. He spent his childhood in Japan and later living in the United States and moved to Paris to become the assistant sculptor to Constantin Brâcusi. The artist struggled to find an identity while living in multiple cultures and dealing with the dramas of his time. This motivated his exploration and work as he submerged himself in different art genres and movements. Isamu Noguchi’s passion was to go beyond art and attempted to study connection and relationship with space and body.

Via Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM)

AI images take the Internet by Storm

If you have spent any time on social media in the last few months, we are sure that you have come across some type of AI generated art. Whether they are portraits of friends or family members morphed with historic or fiction themes. These realistic looking images are so believable that only some can actually validate an AI generated image at first glance. One image in particular that has caused an uproar from people on social media dubbed, The Pope Drip. The AI generated image features the Pope wearing an iconic puffer full length jacket. He is even holding Mate! A traditional herbal tea from his home country of Argentina. 

There’s no doubt that AI generated images are very entertaining and interesting to see how people will utilize this technology with their own creativity. Where will this technology inspire us to go? Will it provide us with a new continually used tool or will it be abused? Only time will tell.

via Designboom

That sums up this month’s Interwoven Design News, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for design news, multi-media recommendations, and to learn more about product design and development!