Scenes. Thalen & Thalen
€29.95Silversmiths Rob and Jaap Thalen, who enjoy an even greater reputation in the United States if possible than in Europe, are now ready for their second book.
€29.00
It is difficult to compete with the beauty of trees, with their tall grandeur and high tops. And yet, the ambition of the Parckdesign project call lies in the challenge to use urban furniture to emphasise the age-old bond between man and nature, between his artificial interventions and his relationship with plants and flora. Placed in a contemporary context, park furniture expresses the desire to experiment, to test, and to value and discover green spaces in a quest for a more specific identity.
Silversmiths Rob and Jaap Thalen, who enjoy an even greater reputation in the United States if possible than in Europe, are now ready for their second book.
Surrealism may be best known as a movement within literature and the fine arts, but the influence of this 20th-century artistic movement in other fields should not be underestimated. Even the world of design and contemporary design does not escape a healthy dose of surreal humour.
In 2008, Design Flanders is organising the Triennial of Design for the fifth time, a prestigious exhibition in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, which puts Flemish design in the limelight on the basis of a chosen theme.
Unconstrained, poetic and timeless. That is how we can characterise the designs of Jean-François D’Or. The Belgian Designer of the Year 2013 does not put himself in the spotlight with large showpieces, but with his special talent he leaves his own mark on the field of smaller home and interior accessories such as bowls, lamps, vases, coat racks, door handles, mirrors,… Small touches that in all subtlety colour an interior and at the same time very ‘democratic’ design that can seduce a large public.
The work of self-proclaimed ex-designer Martí Guixé (°1964) can aptly be described as ‘beyond design’. Creating new objects he finds rather ‘superfluous’ and ‘boring’; he prefers to concentrate on ideas, systems and living matter such as food and human behaviour. As a ‘global designer’, Guixé constantly travels back and forth between Berlin and his native Barcelona, analyses situations, rituals and movements and proposes radical solutions with a minimum of ergonomics – simple, immaterial, humorous and often iconoclastic.
Contemporary jewellery design is undoubtedly the result of thousands of years of craftsmanship, tradition and research. Contemporary jewellers still use the same precious metals and gemstones as their predecessors, but continue to experiment with techniques, innovate with new materials and create their own unique concepts.