Interior Design and Milking Stools

Francois Chambard always keeps us updated on his new design projects with his firm UM Project! Thanks Fracois! UM Project’s design team is amazing and their work are always evolving and creating something new and exciting. His fabulous Milking Stools are so colorful and have been recently improved with new colors, sleeker finishes, lighter weight and have a more palatable price point! What that is exactly I don’t know (sorry), but you can find out – they are available at ABC Home; and supposedly they have a little surprise when you flip them. Sorry I don’t know that either, but come back to DT, as I promise we’ll get the details from Francois! I’m just so excited about his work, my goal was to get this information up on DT as soon as possible.

Materials: 17″high x 11″ diameter Solid birch, Duotone: Solid color & Natural wood, Matte lacquer finish, Custom colors availble

Photo by Francis Dzikowski/ Esto

Let’s check out some UM Project’s work that was in the September Interior Design series.  The table was manufactured for Ghislaine Viñas’ downtown project and on the magazine’s cover (click here to learn more about Ghislaine Viñas’ awesome work).

Photography Francis Dzikowski/ Esto 2010

Photography Francis Dzikowski/ Esto 2010

Table Materials: Broad White Corian Surface (the above table and chairs have beautiful modern lines)
Corian is more than just counter-tops, Corian can lend itself to imaginative uses, innovative interpretations, and enduring applications.  It can be cut, routed, drilled, sculpted, bent, or worked like a fine wood.  There’s a wide palette of colors now which extends to more than 100, so for you design enthusiasts working on your projects with your designers – remember, if you can envision it, chances are you can create it with Corian.

More than just counter-tops, Corian lends itself to imaginative uses, innovative interpretations, and enduring applications. It can be cut, routed, drilled, sculpted, bent, or worked like a fine wood. The ever-evolving color palette now extends to more than 100 colors. If you can envision it, chances are you can create it with Corian.

Let’s look at a few more products manufactured by UM Project.  The tables were designed by Ghislaine Viñas for her downtown design project and showcased in Interior Design Magazine and he interior  design work following – isn’t this room simply mystical!  Absolutely Wonderful!

Photography: Francis Dzikowski/Esto 2010

Photography: Eric Laignel 2010

Just a little something I like a lot – UM Project and their vast creative services and design sensibilities!  Click this link to read more about UM Project (an older post we did).  Ciao!

Museum of Arts and Design

I went to the opening reception two weeks ago of the must-see exhibition, The Global Africa Project on view at the Museum of Art and Design at Columbus Circle New York (exhibiting through May 2011). I anticipated this show for a while, due to a good friend of mine Cheryl R. Riley’s participation in the exhibit. The focus is on Africa and its diaspora, the curator for the show Lowery Stokes Sims said she wanted to stress the “global” far more than Africa. She and the co-organizer, Leslie King-Hammond, Founding Director of Center for Race and Culture at MICA (Maryland Institute Collage of Art) chose artists who are African or of African descent no matter where they were born, but they also selected artists from all over the world who in some way reflected Africa and in some way incorporated Africa and its diaspora in their work!

Black Coffee Winner: Jacques van der Watt and Danica Lepen, “Mercedes Benz South Africa Award Installation,” 2009.  Polyspandex robe, wood on elongated mannequins.

Most of the exhibition showcased more than 250 works made by 170 artists and collectives devoted to jewelry, textiles, furniture, architecture, ceramics, and some fashion.  Click on this link to read more about the individual artists.

As an example, the artists participating in the show were very diverse, i.e. Janet Goldner, an American Sculptor of Eastern European descent who draws on her frequent travels to Africa, and Daniele Tamagni who while on assignment for the Italian magazine Africa in 2007 discovered a group of Congolese men, members of the Society for the “Advancement of People of Elegance” dressed up in tailored and brightly hued suits.  As a result he published  photographic book titled Gentlemen of Bacongo (see tile below).

Gentlemen of Bacongo

He was intrigued with the way these Congolese men where dressed to the nines and just fascinated by their high-style in tailored brightly hued suites.  He said “they mixed a hot pink suit with a red bowler hat or a snow-white suit with a brilliant turquoise shirt” using various hues of bright color to adorn themselves with lavish styled clothes.  Tamagni discovered that these men are a part of a subculture and some people think of them as jokers and not serious, but others say they are successful men, style aficionados and respect the fact that they are popular.  ”They’re like actors” they are invited to parties because they give an elegant look to them and are paid to attend these events like weddings, funerals and birthday parties.  The colors these men use in their attire is amazing design and flare is obviously very important to them!

Works By Other Artists:

The Lovers

Iona RozealBbrown, “my e.a.s.y. – for Octavia” (after Kitagawa UtaMaro’s ’The Young Daughter of a Townsman and Her Lover with Shamisen Beside’ and ‘The Lovers’ from Utamukura’s ‘The Poem of the Pillow) 2009. Acrylic, pen on wood panel.

Learn more about Iona’s work by clicking onto her name (above). Her latest body of work has been published and is based on a complex mythology that explores the pressures and obstacles facing young women today. Ranging in various playful and whimsical tones and includes samplings of African American hip hop culture and Japanese art history taken to new levels. The 96 page, hard cover catalogue features 43 color images of brown’s work, and details her residency at MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Featuring an essay by MOCA Associate Curator and Director of Education Megan Lykins Reich and an interview by Isolde Brielmaier.

Xenobia Bailey and her “Zulu Queen Harvest Coat,” 1991, Acrylic, cotton 4-ply yarn, glass beads, mirrors, buttons; single-stitch crocheted. Check out Xenobia’s Crochet work on her web site by clicking onto one of the links.  Wearable art with intricate detailing an artisan’s work at its best!

Zulu Queen Harvest Coat

New Yorker Cheryl R. Riley, “Dogon Chair 1,” 1997, Poplar, amber, beads, brass tacks, copper pipes, pennies, wire; Cheryl was previously a 6 year member of the board and instrumental in planning the relocation of the former American Craft Museum from their Lincoln Center location to the modern space on Columbus Circle and renaming it The Museum of Art and Design. Details on Cheryl’s remarkable “Elevation Mirror I: Arizona/New Mexico 2000,” made of Honduran mahogany, beveled mirror, brass tacks, found and made objects can be found by clicking on this link!

New York Design Week 2010 – Coney Island Design

The collection is inspired by (to quote) “the duality of Coney Island – whimsical, colorful summers and melancholy winters.” You can also read more about Uhuru’s collection on “inhabitat” check them out I love this site. Let’s showcase more of this unique collection that’s making its launch debut at New York Design Week!

Brooklyn based furniture design company has dedicated itself to sustainability and local craftsmanship, by using reclaimed wood taken from the demolished iconic Coney Island boardwalk.  Read more about it by clicking on “Coney Island Line.”

CYCLONE CHAIR

DRUM LAMP

DROP-END-TABLE

BOARDWALK-CONSOLE

NEW YORK DESIGN EVENTS 2010

MAY 6           |Design Within Reach’s Modern Design Functioncompetition.

Reception 7-9pm at the Flatiron Studio. Uhuru’s Summer
Snow Line is a finalist, and will be on display.
MAY 7 – 9      | BKLYN Designs in DUMBO, Brooklyn.  Check out our entrance
installation made from reclaimed chairs, then visit our booth
to see the new line.  Register for tickets here, and trade
registration ends May 6.
MAY 12 – 26  | Uhuru’s 1×1 Show at Eastern District, the first show of a
series of artist collaborations combining fine art and furniture
design. Opening 7-9pm on May 12.
MAY 15 – 18  | NoHo Design Disctrict Festival. Stop by our pop-up showroom
as part of the NoHo Next, located at 350 Bowery, to see the
Coney Island Line andcheckout art/design collaborationsin the
area at thisfirst annual ICFF satellite festival.
MAY 16         | NoHo Design Disctrict Block Party, 7-10pm. Click here for a map
of what’s happening, and come by our party sponsored by
Macallan Single Malt Scotch.

Emerging New Artist

She’s amazing!  I feel really special about this artist not only because she is truly talented, but she’s a family member!  My partner’s niece – my niece!  Shannon Moran!  Remember her name, because this young lady is going places.  She’s currently studying at Savannah College of Art & Design and recently got accepted in an exclusive program to do a semester in Paris!

Look at the details in her work; oil on canvas and just spectacular detailing in a way that’s just wonderful!  We have some of her work in our home.  She’s always a little Gothic, strange in a beautiful way, and exudes mysterious messages in her artistic delivery!

Stay tuned-in for works of art by SHANNON!

I’m Back!

I’m back! Okay, for those of you who are wondering (with the small amount of traffic we get) who is the guy behind DT? Well look no more this is me doing what I do when not posting, which by the way have been a long time coming! I’ve been busy working in the publishing arena; what I do on a full time basis and just working my butt off doing integrated marketing stuff – in other words keeping a job!

Anyway stay posted for more interesting things on design!  We promise to pick things up and get back in-touch!  Until then; know that we are always thinking and experiencing design even when we’re missing in action here at DT!  With love for design!  “E”