"Hella Jongerius"

La Rinascente  ( Pt 1 / 2 )  @ Salone Milan 2016

La Rinascente ( Pt 1 / 2 ) @ Salone Milan 2016

Reflecting on the state of affairs in design and prompting a consideration of the meanings that hide behind a display, ‘A Search Behind Appearances’ by Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouwenberg proposed that we should move beyond commercial success, beyond style differences and beyond personal taste.

Resulting in a range of visual metaphors, ‘A Search Behind Appearances’ took over the famous La Rinascente department store’s eight Piazza Duomo facing windows during the Salone.

Beyond The New Manifesto @ Salone Milan 2015

Beyond The New Manifesto @ Salone Milan 2015

One of the main talking points of this year’s Salone Milan 2015, was Beyond the New, a strongly worded manifesto critiquing the design industry, written by designer Hella Jongerius and theorist Louise Schouwenberg that challenged the state of contemporary design.

Jongerius and Schouwenberg argue forcefully that industrial design has become stagnant, with genuine innovation replaced by too great a reverence for commercialism and the production of new products for newness’ sake.

Beyond the New suggests design has become “an empty shell, devoid of meaning and substance” and deplores “the obsession with the New for the sake of the New”.

Kettal @ Salone Milan 2014

Kettal @ Salone Milan 2014

Kettal, the Spanish specialist outdoor design company, is exhibiting in the Salone Fairgrounds, displaying its products in an expansive show

The stand displays full collection settings designed by international talents like Patricia Urquiola, Rodolfo Dordoni, Jasper Morrison and Hella Jongerius and for the first time Kettal has re-edited a modern classic – the basket weave chair by Nanna Ditzel.