Before & After - State of Design Festival blog

Please contact Before & After at the following email address:
hello@beforeandafter.org.au

Acknowledgements

Before & After would like to thank the contributors and our partners: Brotherhood of St Laurence, Collaborate, A Shot Away, Decal Specialist and all other supporters of the project.

Before & After Chair Preview

The first of the chairs have been shot and here is a preview... chairs pictured include designs by Daniel Barbera, Brad Nicholls and Ross Gardam. All photography for the Before & After project was taken by Nicole Reed at A Shot Away.

Cutlery by Simon Rich

Through unification of a common element, the addition of a bandage or cast as a symbol of repair, has made the problem of random cutlery a problem no more. What could seem as just a temporary fix by Simon Rich has turned this discarded cutlery into eclectic new sets.

Before&After cutlery by Tim Collins

Cutlery by Tim Collins for Before & After. Through refinishing, Collins has injected new life into these objects.

Tyred?

Tyred is a concept by Spaceleft utilising bike tubes which are sourced from local bike stores.  Currently the tubes go to land fill as there is no practical use for them once punctured.  Tyred aims to give both the Delma chair and the old bike tubes a second life.  Tyred is a collaborative project by Ross Gardam & Daivd Sevior.  Visit www.spaceleft.com.au for more information.

http://www.gestalten.com/news/detail?id=2428
Maarten Baas is a little bit of an enfant terrible within the design scene. He had to try more than once to convince his teachers at Design Academy Eindhoven of his talent.
When he presented his Smoke series of furniture, all doubts went up in smoke and it immediately gained him a lot of attention, e.g. Marcel Wanders incorporating it into his design company MOOOI. After exhibiting in Milan, London and Paris the Smoke series became an iconic collection in contemporary design.
At the Salone del Mobile 2008 Maarten launched Clay Furniture. In fall 2008 he will present new exciting objects for Established and Sons and if that wasn't already reason enough to meet him for a filmed interview then it surely was the unusual down-to-earth atmosphere of the former car repair shop which he took as the ideal location for his various designs. (View Video link)

"Ornamented Life is a collection by designer Joana Meroz that applies unusual forms of decoration to everyday objects. Instead of throwing away a plate just because it chipped, Crackery-Crockery proposes to accentuate that moment in time by filling it with gold-luster. The meaningfulness of the golden crack is further accentuated by it becoming a golden stem connecting a flower to its roots – evoking continuity and development, instead of perfection and end-results." (Content provided by Thomas Coward)

Sharpei by Massimiliano Adami is a beech chair covered in folds of gobelin tapestry fabric. The name refers to a wrinkled Oriental breed of dog, the Shar-pei.
www.cappellini.com

Feeding Desire

The ‘Feeding Desire’ tableware range uses the industrial processes of waterjet cutting, laser marking and transfer patterns to create one-off decorative plates. Vintage plates are collected from charity shops, second hand shops and car boot sales, and their beauty and value is restored with the addition of the patterns from the ‘Feeding Desire’ collection.

cjoneill.co.uk

Do break by Tjep

Every vase eventually breaks. The Do Break cracks but does not shatter when it hits the floor. Not only can the vase still be used but it also gains in beauty as the cracks multiply to form a unique pattern. From now on, any lover's quarrel is an improvement.
Porcelain & rubber, 34 cm
www.tjep.com/things/dobreak/

Vivienne Westwood

Another example of a fashion designer putting their hand to furniture, Vivienne Westwood collaborated with Molteni & C. to develop a new fabric for the glove chair. The chairs are made to look like they are covered in old paper bags and newspapers.

Hedi Slimane, Dover St Market

Having designed for Christian Dior, Hedi Slimane created a limited edition range of furniture by combining typologies to create hybrid furniture for the Comme des Garcons space at Dover St Market, London.
www.hedislimane.com

Karen Ryan

Karen Ryan studied at RCA, London. She states that "the work encapsulates strong emotive narratives both culturally and creatively... I have been described as a design agitator".
www.bykarenryan.co.uk

Pieke Bergmans

Pieke Bergmans is a young product designer from the Netherlands. Her favourite modus operandi is to alter existing production processes to come to new forms and functions. A central theme in Pieke's work is the virus. It binds the many disciplines and materials with which she creates products and works of art. Manipulating standard production processes is by all means viral behaviour. In general mass production, a single form is endlessly and perfectly multiplied like a healthy cell. As she allows room for change and serendipity, Pieke aims to create processes in which products are never completely the same.
www.piekebergmans.com

Improved! crockery

This line consisting of cast-off crockery with various shapes has been given a new lease of life by re-printing them with new designs, using the screenprint-technique for ceramics. Images of dancers and athletes were chosen because of their flowing movement, which complement the contours of the crockery that is collected. Either next to, or on top of the original prints, they are always interrelating in a special way. Every design is chosen specifically for its particular shape to preserve the unique character of each cup and saucer. The images are being applied in the colours blue, green, yellow and red and finally fixed in the ceramics oven. Improved! crockery is not dishwashersafe!

estherx.nl

Din - ink

If you associate the affordable and ubiquitous ‘Bic pen’ with disposable, throw away office culture - think again, as Zo-loft design has added a whole new dimension to desktop utility. Their “Din-ink” series of Bic pen style tops allows you to instantly convert your writing tools into ready made cutlery. With one easy step that trusty chewed-up pen of yours can become a sleek spoon, fork, or knife for that classic dining ‘al desko’ experience.

zo-loft.com

Cutting up knives

Cutting Up Knives is a production of selected knives, modified to become bottle openers through the application of an industrial process.Each bottle opener is individually chosen and cut.

Beautiful name brand knives have been ruthlessly transformed, while factory rejects and second hand knives have been recycled, modified to become useful once again, functionally reassigned , yet still connected to their own unique history.

cuttingupknives.com

Recycled glassware

This stunning recycled glassware is designed by acclaimed Dutch designers Tord Boontje and Emma Woofenden.

Created from recycled bottles, the glasses and jug are made in Guatemala by a local artisan group who have developed skills in cutting and polishing glassware to create beautiful works of art.

The Guatemalan scheme is part of a Design with Conscience campaign that aims to use design to foster humanitarian and environmental causes around the world.

The glassware comes frosted, in various shades of green or in white, depending on the type of bottles used.

A great story and a great product too. We think these are a future design classic.

Pasta Fork

This fork was designed for a competition set by pasta company Barilla.

The trident form was chosen to solve the problem, especially apparent with penne, of the pasta slipping from the fork once pierced. By adding spear-shaped tines, the elasticity of the pasta helps keep it on the fork.

The lines of the fork make no attempt at a re-styling of the archetypal form, trying instead to embody it.

timparsons.info

Muji Mook

The Japanese magazine Casa Brutus invited electricwig to participate in a collaborative project with MUJI. The brief was to customise an existing MUJI product.

An object around the ritual of tea was of course chosen, an important ceremony both in Japan and England. The final idea was a knitted suit for a Japanese style tea pot, made from an old jumper.

electricwig.com

RD4 chair

The RD4 chair evolved from our early URE process experiments in to the use of domestic waste plastic as a design material. The piece is uniquely handwoven in recycled plastic waste, with no two designs alike. Produced in the UK from recycled domestic packaging waste and available in green, bright green, orange, red, purple, blue and black.

Cohda.com

higher market studio

Classic designs combined with modern ideas and techniques are given to well made pieces of furniture from the past ,given a new lease of life and enjoyed once again.

&made Putty

The &made Ceramic Putty is designed to bring back to life old, smashed crockery. By filling the cracks of damaged plates, bowls and other ceramic items with the coloured putty, objects are transformed as the cracks create new patterns and illustrations. As a focus on the re-use of objects, the 'Ceramic Putty' allows us to rejuvenate old and broken belongings rather than disposing of these items.

and-made.com

Peter Traag - Rubber chairs

2003 - ....
Miscellaneous materials, rubber

The Rubber Chairs are all chairs made and composed out of ready available or found materials and objects. For each chair the objective is to make a chair without being too concerned about precision: all of them are quickly built rough products. The pieces are then finished of with a thick dipped coating of rubber.

Recycled Ceramics and Dishware from Sarah Cihat

Brooklyn-based designer Sarah Cihat scours garage sales and thrift shops, looking for ceramics that she can give a second life to. She takes the discarded dishware and reglazes it, turning old and frumpy cast-offs into fun, funky, artful dishes. Fond of the silhouette, most of her work features animals, people and things like anchors and skull-n-crossbones in colorful contrast the ceramics' new glaze; says the designer, "Each piece represents a rejection of more brand new products filling shelves and storage closets. Rehabilitated Dishware is a subtle statement of the importance of recycling and the renewed value of unwanted things."

Welcome to Before and After. Here you will find information, ideas and works covering the project as part of the Victorian State of Design Festival 2008. Watch this space!