Herman Miller design exhibit at Milan Design Week celebrates company’s 100 years

Herman Miller, one of the most highly-regarded office chair designers and producers, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its brand name. To celebrate, they will have an exhibit of the rich history of their company’s graphic design journey. The exhibit will begin at the Milan Design Week and eventually go to Chicago in June. You would think that this exhibit is all about the furniture but is more the visual journey of their design and marketing materials.

Designer: Herman Miller

Founded by D.J De Pree, Herman Miller was launched back in 1923 and by 1930, they hired Gilbert Rhode to bring modern design sensibilities to their previously traditional furniture. His wife Peggy Rhode was his partner as she took charge of designing their marketing materials, matching the new direction that the company was taking. When George Nelson started designing for the company in 1945, pioneer graphic designers like Irving Harper and Tomiko Miho also brought in a new look to their designs.

Designer John Massey and eventually his protege Steve Frykholm then brought the Pop Art look to the designs in the 60s and 70s. Barbara Loveland and Linda Powell then brought postmodern sensibilities in the 80s and 90s. For the textile division of the company, Alexander Girard is the name to remember as he used “graphics to create motifs with meaning” during his tenure as the founding director. His designs will also be on display at the exhibition. They will also be selling limited-edition prints of the Eames Soft Pad Group poster which is an iconic look for the brand.

The exhibit not only shows Herman Miller’s visual design journey but also looks like a history of graphic design over the past 100 years. You can see the various design movements for every decade so it’s also interesting how the company was able to keep up with all of that. It makes sense that they would put on this kind of exhibit rather than just show off their chairs or furniture (although they’re mostly pretty nice as well).

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Artemide and Foster + Partners team up for flexible, dynamic LED lamps

Usually, when I choose a lamp, it’s more for how easy it is to use and not really how pretty it is. But there are also times when I’d like to have something that can either be a conversation piece or something that is more aesthetically pleasing than just a device that lights up my room or table. Artemide is a lighting manufacturer that has made a name for itself when it comes to functional and decorative design. We featured their recent Integralis line at the Salone del Mobile 2022 and in fact, named them as one of the best-designed products featured at the exhibition. Their new collaboration with Foster + Partners seems to be another win for those looking for functional and aesthetic lamps for their spaces.

Designer: Foster + Partners

The IXA line of high-powered LED lamps was inspired by American sculptor Alexander Calder’s mobiles and “stabiles”. They wanted to evoke “elegant balance” within the design alongside the technical, precise engineering you would need to come up with a beautiful but functional product. They played around with weight and movement and brought the human-centered approach that Artemide has become known for. There’s also a pretty flexible and personalized approach with their design as users are able to adjust the fixtures to their needs and preferences.

The first phase in the IXA collection, which are really pieces of kinetic sculptures, brings table, floor, and wall lamps featuring a 100-millimeter opaque sphere. It may be visually simple but these lamps actually have a technical complexity to them, giving “graceful motion” to the different lighting fixtures in the collection. Each head is actually connected to its stem with a magnetic socket which lets you rotate it in any direction that you need it to light up. The jack connectors meanwhile give you 360 degrees rotation. The wall and floor lamps have a counterbalance with matching weights at the opposite end of their stems.

The collection comes in four colorways: charcoal, slip, crane, and ink. When the second phase is eventually released, it will come with a larger translucent sphere and so it will fit more for ambient lighting rather than the more functional purpose of this first collection. These lamps will add not just add illumination to whatever room you place it in but also add some design sensibility whatever your theme may be.

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This self-sustainable cloud server is powered by the energy of growing tomatoes indoor!

Picture a post-apocalyptic future where human beings don’t have the liberty of dependence on power stations. Self-sustainable systems are the norm and utilizing every ounce of available energy is vital for survival. A dystopian tech-infused future world where computing systems don’t have any external source of abundant energy. Straight out from that sci-fi futuristic scenario is the Warm Earth server system by Ilja Schamle, a Design Academy Eindhoven graduate.

The DIY cloud server system embodies the symbiotic relationship between technology and nature. This project is all about utilizing the renewable energy extracted out of tomato vines to solely run the cloud server. In turn, the energy produced by the heat dissipation is cyclically used to maintain the optimum temperature for the vegetables to grow. As concept-like this might seem, the project was a part of the Missed Your Call graduate exhibition at the Milan design week.

The DIY project houses the tomato plants within the server racks and the server is mounted on the exterior of the rig. The ventilation shaft equipped with fans, channels the hot air to the interior of the cabinet – essentially turning it into a greenhouse. Tomatoes power the server courtesy of the plant-microbial fuel cell technology developed by researchers at Wageningen University, Netherlands. This turns vegetables into batteries – literally!

Nothing goes to waste as the plants perform photosynthesis – turning sunlight into chemical energy, and storing the sugars and proteins. The excess nutrition is excreted via the roots as waste, where the bacteria break it down to release energy. This energy is then leveraged as electricity. Since the servers are indoors, the solar-powered grow lamps act as a source of sunlight. The electrons released by microbes are attracted to iron and the activated-carbon grid functioning as a conductor is placed at the bottom of the pot. For now, the system can produce energy to sustain a single website, and we can expect this to develop into a massive system with more research and development.

Warm Earth is a self-sustainable geeky mashup that not many could think of before this. According to Schamle, the amount of content consumed at present and in the future is destined to rise and the energy required to run such systems is going to be colossal. The artificial ecosystem will change the perception of data centers as being mere dungeons for hosting servers. They will become an important entity of future homes, where they aren’t kept hidden from sight!

Designer: Ilja Schamle

Muji’s latest set of multifunctional storage solutions are designed to declutter your tiny living space!

Currently on display at Milan Design Week, ‘Compact Life’ is a line of home storage products from Muji designed in collaboration with industrial design students inspired by today’s movement to downsize and declutter living spaces at home.

For those of us who’ve been living tiny before it was popular, we know the right home accessories for storage make all the difference between a cluttered and clutter-free home. Today, majorly in response to the raging climate crisis, people are incorporating aspects of tiny living into their home spaces to dampen their overall climate footprint. Providing the means to do so, Japanese household goods supplier Muji released a collection of storage accessories called ‘Compact Life’ that makes tiny living seem a lot more attainable for all of us.

Documenting and taking note of their own living spaces, the students worked closely with Muji designers and the Swiss designer Michel Charlot to finalize an array of twelve home products that optimize storage space to make tiny living a lot more comfortable. Each product stays true to Muji’s minimalist personality and humanistic approach to design, keeping geometric shapes and multifunctional builds.

Amidst the catalog of accessories is a basket storage system that doubles as a wood-and-crate step ladder, ideal for the kitchen space or bathroom to store toiletries and reach taller heights. Then, there’s a series of photo frames that can store paper goods like notes and business cards in an integrated slot that traces the perimeter of each frame. Using their own homes and colleagues’ homes as their main source of inspiration, the design students even made niche items like an insect house made from wire and hollow bamboo that could be hung outside an apartment window for hummingbirds and honeybees to drop by and visit.

Each one of the twelve designs is on display at Milan Fashion Week and the home accessories that comprise the Compact Life collection span from a modest corner shelf designed for the shower to a mirror medicine cabinet that also functions as a whiteboard. Product designs like a valet stand for hanging clothing items and a pole storage system with compartments tailor-made for umbrellas would help organize home spaces like the entryway for a clutter-free welcome.

Then, there are products designed for office spaces, like a paper wall pocket that functions as a filing system for narrow office items such as notebooks and stationery and a folding chair that transforms into a small side table for impromptu lunch meetings. A steel-wire basket trolley tucks under the bed and stores clothing items to take some of the load off the closet. Finally, a bedside table with a concealed compartment for charging smartphones takes focus away from technology and brings us closer to a restful night’s sleep.

Designer: Muji

Entryway products like the multipurpose coat rack help declutter the home’s foyer.

An under-the-bed steel-wire basket trolley takes some of the load out of the closet.

The Stepladder Basket is a stepladder that also functions as a storage basket for smaller household items.

The Valet Stand is another entryway product that could help declutter crowded spaces.

Clip Hanging Frames allow for ways to hang your photos and also store paper goods.

A mirrored medicine cabinet also functions as a whiteboard for notetaking.

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Bang & Olufsen made a TV with dancing speakers because why not…

Bang & Olufsen’s design team sure knows how to defy all odds. This is the Beovision Harmony… a TV that “folds away to reduce its visual presence”. Yes, the TV literally shyly covers its face with its hands. With a display and two rotating speaker units, the Beovision Harmony, when closed, hides the switched-off display behind its speakers. Switch the TV on and the speakers fold outwards and downwards as the display emerges from its cocoon of sorts.

Displayed at the Milan Design Week, the Beovision Harmony comprises a pretty impressive 77-inch OLED display from LG, with Bang & Olufsen’s signature audio touch added to the mix. Crafted from oak and aluminum, the speaker unit has three-channel audio, 7.1 surround-sound compatibility, and the ability to work with up to 8 more speakers to give you a cinematic experience when you want it, and a shy, introverted, hiding television when you’re done.

Designer: Bang & Olufsen

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

The Bang & Olufsen Beovision Harmony is a TV with dancing speakers.

Panasonic wants to make displays more invisible and ubiquitous in homes

Panasonic Vitrine wants to make displays more invisible and ubiquitous in homes

It looks like a Samsung Serif TV (and it sort of made its first appearance at the exact same place, the Milan Design Week), which inspired a wave of hate in me, but that dissipated as quickly as it rose when I learned more about what Panasonic’s actually trying to do. This is the Vitrine. It isn’t a TV, but it’s more of a smart glass cabinet. With a wooden frame on the outside, and an angular glass on the front, the Vitrine, co-created by Panasonic, Vitra, and designer Daniel Rybakken, was developed post two long years of R&D. What it essentially is an innocuous display that doesn’t demand attention, or space. Built with a transparent OLED screen integrated into the glass, the Vitrine combines art, design, and tech. Unlike most televisions that become a big black mass when switched off, the Vitrine oscillates between being a screen when switched on, and a clear case for the things behind it (books, toys, figurines, trophies, photographs) when off.

Panasonic hasn’t really outlined any solid use-cases for the Vitrine yet, but that’s probably because it exists as a single prototype with no launch-date. If paired with smart speakers, the Vitrine could deliver notifications, play visualizations while listening to music, or just display ambient artwork along with information like the time, calendar, or weather. The Vitrine is currently on display at Vitra’s stand (Booth B07/C12, Hall 20) at the Salone del Mobile in Milan until 14th April.

Designers: Panasonic, Vitra, and Daniel Rybakken

Panasonic Vitrine wants to make displays more invisible and ubiquitous in homes

Panasonic Vitrine wants to make displays more invisible and ubiquitous in homes

Panasonic Vitrine wants to make displays more invisible and ubiquitous in homes

Panasonic Vitrine wants to make displays more invisible and ubiquitous in homes

Alleged ASUS teaser wants us to ‘Experience the Infinity,’ fails to explain how

Alleged ASUS teaser wants us to 'Experience the Infinity,' fails to explain how
This isn't the first time a mysterious bit of video has come our way with the promise of something new and fabulous from ASUS. The latest such clip comes from a third party, so take it with a hefty pinch of Morton's. It shows some slow motion footage of a drop of water falling into a bigger body of H2O, then a message emerges from the resulting concentric waves telling us to "Experience the Infinity." Whatever that means, it'll be "coming soon" -- next week, apparently, as the video finishes up touting Milano Design Week, which starts on April 17th. Is the video legit? Will some fabulous new device make its mark in Milan? We've no idea, but it certainly has a style similar to other teasers we've seen from the Taiwanese firm. You can make up your own mind once you've watched the vid after the break.

Continue reading Alleged ASUS teaser wants us to 'Experience the Infinity,' fails to explain how

Alleged ASUS teaser wants us to 'Experience the Infinity,' fails to explain how originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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