The book Less and More about Dieter Rams for the publisher Gestalten has been a nice companion for the last couple of weeks. We are constantly browsing through it, happy to find great products by a great designer in a very nicely, Japanese inspired, designed book. In addition to the complete visual presentation of his designs, new texts by international experts reevaluate his work in a contemporary context.

In the more than 40 years that he spent working at Braun, Dieter Rams established himself as one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century. His elegantly clear visual language not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of what design is and what it can and should do.

Dieter Rams created ten rules of design more than twenty years ago. Sometimes referred to as “the ten commandments,” they are just as relevant today: Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design helps a product to be understood. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is honest. Good design is durable. Good design is consistent to the last detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.

Less and More elucidates the design philosophy of Dieter Rams. The book is the ultimate collection of images of all of Rams’s products as well as selected sketches and models – from Braun stereo systems and electric shavers to the chairs and shelving systems that he created for Vitsœ and sdr+. In addition to the complete visual presentation of his designs, the book contains new texts by international design experts that explain how the work was created, describe its timeless quality, and put it into current context. In this way, the work of Dieter Rams is given a contemporary reevaluation that is especially useful in light of the rediscovery of functionalism and rationalism in today’s design. Less and More shows us the possibilities that design opens for both the manufacturer and the consumer as a means of making our lives better through attractive, functional solutions that also save resources.

Less and More is edited by Professor Klaus Klemp and Keiko Ueki-Polet. One of the leading experts in the field of product design, Klemp has been acquainted with Dieter Rams for many years and is an authority on his work. Ueki-Polet is one of Japan’s most renowned design curators. She is well acquainted with design developments in both Asia and the Western world and works at the Suntory Museum in Osaka.

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Below follows some monetary proof why authenticity and storytelling matters and makes a difference. They give soul to otherwise ‘dead’ products. The products below were sold at the Bukowskis auction of properties of the late Swedish director Ingemar Bergman held a couple of month ago.

Bedside table with sketches and notes from mr Bergman’s dreams. Price when new probably around SEK 1000 (EUR 100). Price at the auction SEK 340.000 (approx. EUR 30.000).

Chess pieces which were used in the movie The Seventh Seal in the famous scene were the Knight and the Death plays a monumental game of chess by the ocean. Sold at the Bergman auction for SEK 1.000.000 (approx. EUR 90.000).

David Report is featured in Luxury Society, a global community for luxury professionals. We are presenting an outtake from the 2007 Future Luxury report. It is interesting to see that the eight trends that we brought forward back then are as relevant today. The trends we pinpoint are: Timeless Quality, Security and Safety, Emotional Branding, Good Karma, Seize the Day, Supreme Regionalism, Food and Health and finally Individual Editions. Read the complete report about Future Luxury.

Stitch is a new wall and ceiling lamp by Swedish designer Mattias Ståhlbom for Zero. The construction and the appearance of the lamp are inspired by the same principle as an embroidery frame.

When attached on the wall or in the ceiling it is possible to adjust the frame in different angles to direct the light and gain the most effect out from the light source and the lamp. Stitch is made of roller milled aluminium with a diffuser of matt acrylic.

It exists in two sizes and in various colors.

Probably you saw our yesterday update with Lomo and their new analogue system. Today we report about a brand new 24 karat gold plated camera body wrapped in finest leather called Lomo LC-A Gold. It is a crispy collectible with only 130 piece limited edition with engraved serial number and certificate of authenticity. It is a celebration  of25 golden years with Lomo. The camera comes with the legendary Russian Lomo LC-A+ lens for vignetted and super saturated photos.

It’s specially designed to keep this bling safe, it holds two Lomography 800 ASA films in gold-coloured anniversary tins. To round this package up a hard cover book tells everything that has to be known about Lomography.

Celebrating its 25th birthday with a big bang last year, the Lomo LC-A was the first member of an ever-growing circle of Lomographic cameras built for creative infinity and spontaneous joy. In 1991, a group of Viennese students re discovered this little fellow and the Lomographic bug began to spread fast around the globe. For 25 years, the Lomo LC-A has been a reliable and robust travel companion and its resurfacing reaffirmed for thousands of Lomographers that the perfect tool for artistic, everyday life photography was here to stay. It was only a matter of natural evolution until the Lomo LC-A would take the next step to instant photography and capture its characteristic vignetted and super saturated shots on instant film. This result of Lomographic evolution will be a powerful tool for all instant-fanatics out there to let their creativity loose and shoot away with the Lomo LC-A Instant Back+.

Using Fuji Instax Mini Film with the Lomo LC-A Instant Back+ the super saturated colours of the Lomo LC-A have found their perfect match to glow in an instant. To enjoy instant fun, the Lomographer only has to exchange the Lomo LC-A back door joint with the interchangeable joint that comes with the Lomo LC-A Instant Back+ once to attach the Lomo LC-A Instant Back+. After this simple procedure the Lomo LC-A will be ready for instant or regular film any time.

The Vitra Home Collection has got a new home – the VitraHaus by Herzog & de Meuron. The VitraHaus is a place where you can explore your sense of design. The products in the Vitra Home Collection are arranged according to a variety of living and working situations – classics by designers Charles & Ray Eames, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, Jean Prouvé and Verner Panton along with contemporary designs by Maarten Van Severen, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Antonio Citterio, Hella Jongerius, Jasper Morrison and others. Here you can find inspiration for your own home furnishings and also try out, order and buy furniture and other objects on site.

In the VitraHaus you’ll find information about our production and quality control. You’ll also learn about Vitra’s attitudes to sustainability and its approach to the world of work and to its office chairs. Our colour laboratory will assist you in choosing the right colours. In its exhibition “Ein Blick in die Sammlung des Vitra Design Museums” (A Look at the Vitra Design Museum Collection), the VitraHaus showcases a selection of 19th and 20th century chair designs. The Vitra Design Museum Shop features items, accessories and books that may be purchased on site, and you may enjoy fresh local specialities every day at the VitraHaus Café.

So the VitraHaus is a place to learn, to try out, and to consume – an experiential space in which furnishing is accorded the importance it deserves as a means of providing your private life with a place where you feel safe and secure.

Follow this link for a 3D panorama of the VitraHaus.

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Precise and conceptual, the first womenswear collection designed by Masataka Matsumura for Giuliano Fujiwara leaves no space for casualness: it looks deeply rooted in  the ancient Japanese tradition of origami, whose key elements are interpreted through a contemporary and personal vision. Expert cross contaminations between eastern sensitivity and western culture turn this first ladies collection into the full and coherent expression of the brand’s evolution, as well as of the young creative director’s personal training.

The collection is extremely focused: it includes 20 ready to wear items , 7 shoes styles, 9 bags styles and 8 jewellery pieces.

As in the origami, the volumes of each garment are unusual, with extremely structured cuts and pleats that help defining them with precision and geometric rigour: at times strips of fabric line the skirts, strips of leather extend the shoes silhouette, as if they still had to be folded to turn into the actual items women will wear. Proportions meet and cross, in a harmonious alternation of opposites, tiny skirts are worn over extra long jumpers, whose hems sneak out of the skirts that, in this way, look like belts at a first glimpse. The focus is on the shoulders, important, geometric, often enhanced thanks to the addition of pleats.

Knitwear is super soft and feminine, thus contrasting openly with the rigorous silhouettes of the outerwear. In the materials range, technical fabrics with a thick and consistent texture, wool crêpre, leather and a very light silk/cashmere blend are outstanding.

Accessories, following an unusual creative path, are not perceived as a mere complement, but rather as  central elements of utmost importance, around which the whole womenswear project rotates: the origami concept blooms in the bags collection and develops through the shoes collection, where pleats and overlappings give shape and structure to each and every item, and includes also the jewellery collection, where metal is folded to contain extra bright and extra big crystals.

The colour palette is essential, and perfectly in tune with the brand’s philosophy: only black and dusty pink for the clothing line, for the accessories black is mixed with a light shade of grey and a warm champagne tone.

The exhibition 18 YEARS OF PLAYING at The Design Museum in Gent, Belgium will be the biggest, but more important the nicest, retrospective about the work of Richard Hutten Studio, which was founded oktober 1991.

Richard Hutten, a self declared Homo Ludens, will show a cross section of his work of the past 18 years, varying from his well know pieces such as the Table-chair and the Dombo/Domoor mug up to relative unknown and recent work, such as This chair and the Book-chair.

In the playful setting, which is also designed by Richard, you can see unique, unknown pieces, limited editions, mass produced work as well as a selection of interiors. The exhibition will be up and running between 26 February and 6 June.

Claesson Koivisto Rune was founded in Stockholm in 1995 as an architectural office but soon added furniture and product design to the practice. Books and exhibitions about both the buildings and the furniture design have been made previously. But for the first time, the smaller objects; things that can be put on a table, have been gathered and presented.

With photos by Anthony Hill and graphic design by Gabor Palotai the exhibition took place at Hotel Skeppsholmen during Stockholm Design Week.