Milan Design Week 2023

The Smart List is a monthly list of multi-media recommendations on everything design, curated by Interwoven Design. As a group of aesthetically obsessed designers, there are a lot of beautiful products, objects and events we love and enjoy. These recommendations make our daily lives special and inviting and we want to share them with you. This issue is a guide to Milan Design Week featuring our favorite lighting and chairs!

Smart List: Milan Design Week Lighting

Cage Lamp

Lindsey Adelman

Ever since Lindsey Adelman opened her design studio in 2006, she has been producing lighting for upscale interiors made from metal and glass. These previous works had a specific goal in mind. The Cage Lamp featured at Milan’s Design Week design exhibition, Alcova, is Adelman’s experimental creation. This time around, the designer focused on creating the lighting piece without a specific agenda, departing from her traditional industrial design approach. This workflow allowed Lindsey Adelman to create LaLAB, which she describes as a platform to create each design individually without any specific aesthetic connection between the sculptural lighting pieces.

Mr. Bojangles Lighting

Anna Boch and David Engelhorn

By no surprise, German design couple Anna Boch and David Engelhorn got creative while in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic. Inspired by playing with a piece of rope, the two took interest in the flexibility and curvature. Fast forward to their creation, a flexible light fixture named Mr. Bojangles. Mr. Bojangles has an arm that swivels 360 degrees, an aluminum head that contains an LED bulb and a cloth cord that is attached to the steel base. Named after the famous tap dance performer Bill “Bojangle” Robinson, the piece can be found from April 18-23, 2023.

Cassiopeia Lighting

David Rockwell and Lasvit

Czech glass and lighting company, founded by Leon Jakinic in 2007 along with design partner, David Rockwell have partnered on multiple collections including Cassiopeia. The new lighting fixture was launched at the Euroluce Lighting Show during Milan Design Week. The Aluminum fixture, consisting of 5 orbs of light in the shape of a “W,” can be assorted as a chandelier or a wall sconce.

Chandeliers of Interconnectedness

Andrea Bowers

Andre Bowers is known for practicing in a variety of disciplines including fine art, installations, and video while at the intersection of art and activism. Bowers’ light fixture, Chandeliers of Interconnectedness, is made of steel and recycled neon glass tube that come together to illustrate a vision and literal quote along one of the branches, “EVERYTHING IS PART OF EVERYTHING ELSE.” Andre Bowers’ fixture was also featured at the Euroluce Exposition at Milan Design Week.

via The New York Times

The Smart List: Milan Design Week Chairs

Tortello Chair

Barber Osgerby Design Studio And B&B Italia

The duo of Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, who have made up the design studio Barber Osgerby for the last 10 years, have collaborated with B&B Italia to produce a chair for Milan Design Week that resembles stuffed pasta! The London based design tandem originally did not have the pasta dish aesthetic in mind. It wasn’t until they saw the full scale model from the northern Italian furniture brand that organic shape resonated.

PEEL Chair

PROWL Studio and M4 Factory

The PEEL Chair designed by the California based design studio, PROWL Studio and manufactured by M4 Factory, may not be recognizable if you saw it at the Alcova Exhibition. THe new product was disassembled , laying on dirt. The innovative introduction allows the Peel Chair to instantly make a memorable connection with compostable and biodegradable materials of which it is made. Prowl Studio’s founders, Lauryn Menard and Baille Mishler explain that no matter how beautiful a piece of furniture is, people move, their aesthetic tastes change. The team manufactured out of mixing bast fiber (a hemp byproduct) with a biopolymer to create an injection molded chair only lasts as long as it is intended to.

LOEWE Chairs

LOEWE

The LOEWE Chairs were featured at Milan Design week in the courtyard of Palazzo Isimbardi. These chairs have challenged our preconceived notions of what a chair should be like and how it should be made. LOEWE utilized artisans from around the world that explored weaving to create new textures and expand on its sculptural essence. These unique designer pieces stand out due to their craftsmanship and weaving embellishment that gives a new tactile experience.

LaVenus Lounge Chair

Luca Nichetto & Ginori 1735

Luca Nichetto first collaborated with porcelain manufacturer Ginori 1735 in 2019 when they produced candle holders and diffusers together. Now a few years later, Nichetto’s contributions have led to Ginori 1735’s first home furnishing collection. Dubbed Domus, the collection included a swivel armchair, a table and three lamps produced with glass lighting manufacturer Barovier & Toso. The LaVenus Chair is inspired by the famous Boticelli painting, “Birth of Venus.”

via The New York Times

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Design News N. 030

Design News Category Image

Design News is your tiny dose of design, technology and other important news, curated monthly by Interwoven Design. In this issue: we look back and honor Virgil Abloh’s life and impact on the fashion community, Pangaia and Officina+39 collab on repurposing textile waste, furniture design from Swedish forest inspiration and upcycled remnant product design in bags by Freitag.

Installation view, Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech.” Brooklyn Museum, July 1, 2022–January 29, 2023. (Photo: Danny Perez, Brooklyn Museum)

Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech”

Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition on Virgil Abloh’s career shares projects never before along with collaborations and insights from his past. These pieces are with a collection from his brand, Off-White, on display in the installation. “Figures of Speech,” dives into the need for a diversity across all lenses of art and design. 

Via Brooklyn Museum

Photo: Nao-cha

F707 Stratos designed by Freitag

Freitag has done it again. The F707 Stratos is a shoulder bag made from the upcycled remnants of used truck tarps and a truck truck’s airbag. The bag can be unfolded for multiple uses. Freitag touched on the involvement that goes into the prototyping and development for a product like this. From material sourcing and understanding characteristics to communication between design and sewing departments, we think it is an awesome accomplishment from the Freitag team.

Via Dezeen Awards

Photo: Dey Alexander

Pangaia’s Sustainable Pastel Clothing Line

Pangaia collaborated with Italian textile company, Officina+39 to utilize old clothing scrap into a plethora of colors in their new pastel sustainable clothing line. Officina+39 recycled clothing into a powder that is being used to color fabric in a bunch of ways. This isn’t the first time Pangaia has made products from pigments of other objects. They have innovated in ways including food waste and captured C02.

Via Fast Company

Photo: Andy Liffner

Furniture inspired by Swedish Forests

Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren, two members of the Swedish design studio Front, use observation of nature as theme exploration into form and texture. The designers explained how living in Sweden, they are constantly surrounded by nature and it has directly inspired their project, furniture seating, that was presented at Salone de Mobile 2022.

Via Wallpaper

Photo: Toshihiro Gamo

Issey Miyake, the Groundbreaking Japanese Designer, passes away at 84

The legendary Japanese Designer, Issey Miyake passed away at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer. This year marks Miyake’s 50th anniversary of being featured on the Paris Fashion Week. Fashion inspired from process, proprietary technologies and architecture allowed him to create wearable innovations and trends. People all over the world fell in love with his creative movements, along with Steve Jobs, who hired Miyake to design his distinct black turtlenecks. The designers community, collections and principles will be timeless contributions across all sectors of creativity and design.

via Vogue