The Sauherad collection of furniture consisting of a kitchen table and a chair is the result of a collaboration between the designer Øyvind Wyller and the cabinetmaker Truls Eilev Schia. The project has been going on since summer 2009 and the exhibition models were completed in December 2009. This collaboration gave the young and unestablished designer the possibility to go through a full process of refining the prototypes without waiting for some large producer of quality design furniture to invest in him. The young and newly established cabinetmaker, on the other hand, had a great opportunity to develop his business into small scale production of exclusive locally handcrafted furniture. The project has been a success so far and the feedback has been very positive both to the design and the idea of creating an independent local production.

Chair: 9.900,- NOK

Table: 19.000,- NOK

Order at: www.schiamobelsnekkeri.no

This is something brand new! A team of designers, including myself, have just founded a new exclusive club for Norwegian designers. Look out for our exhibitions, someday one might be close to you! The launch party/exhibition will happen in December. Dates will be announced.

If YOU are interested in being a part of the show, check this site: www.odl.no

Flea markets are surely the greatest thing since bread came sliced! I looked through some old LPs of Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and guys like that, but I only bought a couple of books… The best thing about flea markets is that people can for example change their furniture without buying new stuff all the time. You can get good quality for a very low price and as a bonus you feel that it’s more special than buying some standard crap at IKEA.

PLUS! – you support the kids in your local marching band!

My pilot project is about communication through form, and how to nail a certain expression to create the desired mood for a given setting. I want to master this skill to be able to create objects which makes a scene and includes visual poetry to products for everyday use. In the case of my pilot project, which resulted in the “Unit One”, I decided that the message should be “hands off”, the expression: serious, and the mood: reliable and strong. The “Unit One” is a personal container which is ment to keep diaries, secret treasures and the likes. The goal of the whole “nailing-the-expression-mission” is to make a longer lasting, more personal relationship between consumers and products. It was exhibited in Stockholm in february, but got little attention from the crowd; nobody dared to open it..

To see the rest of the Academy’s stand in Stockholm follow this link: http://www.underconstruction.khio.org/ (It’s sweet stuff…)

In the Academy in Oslo the art students learn a language that I don’t understand to feel clever. Then they make stuff that seems very confusing and claim to be geniuses. Sex is popular because it’s really provocative, and the amount of provoked people measures the success in art. To me the a-word is an invective you can use about any object (or anything) that makes you ask yourself: “What is this?”. So if something is somewhere it doesn’t belong (or belongs extraordinarily well) or somebody is doing something unusual (or incredibly usual), its probably art. Art is now a word you can use for everything and is therefore nothing.

2: Design now contains art!

“Design is the art of the 21st. century”, those words belonged to Ross Lovegrove, who is probably a little too famous for his own good, but still: It’s true! I wouldn’t use the a-word about design, but rather the expression: “The craft formerly known as art”. When art is reduced to be something vague that allows everyone to put their own meaning into it, it lost it’s sole purpose: To contain meaning. A telephone is just as suited to create a mood, or a scene in a bigger whole as an installation of trash spread on the floor, or empty cardboard boxes. The bonus, however, about the phone is that you can talk to people who is wery far away with it! WOW!

That’s all for now folks! Enjoy this illustration made with windows’ paint:

This chair is made of solid polished aluminium and leather, the shape is so fine tuned that even though the joints were ripped right off, it would be worth fixing. Later I found out that it wasn’t actually an “authentic” Vitra or Herman Miller, it was made by Italian manufacturer ICF . I found myself thinking if I should care to go through with this, the chair being a “fake” and all.. Maybe it wouldn’t fall apart in the first place if it was a “real” one.

Then I decided that I was not such a shallow person and that the aluminium, leather and shapes were real enough for me. The mending was easy enough (Being a furnituredesigner and all..) and now it works fine, as a matter of fact, I’m sitting on it right now! And, oh yes! It feels great!

This got me thinking that if the impression of the product leaves such an impact, even a “fake” broken sample in the trash, it is indeed good design.