custom tables by eccola

"On your back with your racks as the stacks as your load
In the back and the racks and the stacks of your load
In the back with your racks and you're unstacking your load"

"tre gambe console, parchment top with pallisander veneer base"

"Eccola is Italian for "here it is" and it is the eponym of this Hollywood showroom that is filled with eclectic imports, Italian modern and a smattering of custom contempoarary pieces.

The merchandise in-cludes pieces by Gio Ponti, Franco Albini and Osvaldo Borsani, as well as Italian and Spanish foosball tables from the 1950s and Soqquadro tables by the architect Raniero Aureli.

Husband and wife team Maurizio and Kathleen Almanza take regular trips to their house in Rome, which they use as a base, to scour the continent for unique antiques, accent pieces and architectural elements.

Kathleen White Almanza, a former Hollywood set designer, has long called Italy home and knows how to find every fabulous flea market and estate sale. Don't expect a typical dusty antique shop: Eccola stocks extraordinary centuries-old pieces but also gives a whimsical nod to modern design."





Eccola
7408 beverly blvd
los angeles, ca 90036

lyrics by bon iver.
(june gloom in full effect here in los angeles.)










-----------------------------------------



-----------------------------

rich brilliant willing
pro forma: for the sake of form + more

"cardboard models" of RBW current show at VOLUME.
Go see the real works!

When Theo Richardson, the "rich" of Rich Brilliant Willing, sent me 6 cardboard images of the upcoming works at VOLUME Gallery, I was instantly mystified by their simplicity. The transformed octagonal forms captured my psyche in the first 27 seconds. The models' simple & straight forward cardboard presence brought to mind a utilitarian nature. Stacked ontop of each other & carefree.

The press release states:"Pro Forma draws inspiration from the curious forms of AIR SHIPPING CONTAINERS, the corners of which are heavily chamfered or rounded to facilitate their fitting economically into an airplane’s curved fuselage."

Later in the week, seeing these works realized, my mind shifted completely. The materials of brass, leather, lacquer and American hardwoods utilized to the fullest, complimenting and befriending the lines of the octagons.

Shipping containers oh my! Take me to the shipyard now...

These works demand our attention with their quiet demeanor & confidence in the details. One work contains a leather shelf, almost appearing as a fallen gesture, a place perhaps to hold one's leather bound journal before turning in for the night.

Utilitarian, sure, but that's only the start. These works are in small editions, and is hosted by the ever fascinating VOLUME Gallery in Chicago. So looking forward to seeing these works in person!























Volume Gallery Presents Rich Brilliant Willing: Pro Forma
March 18 – April 3, 2011, Chicago, 328 S. Jefferson St, 1st FL



“For the sake of form”

"In Pro Forma, their first solo exhibition of limited edition work, Rich Brilliant Willing debuts a collection comprised of a series of personal storage pieces inspired by international air-shipping containers and what RBW identifies as a transient nature in the contemporary idea of home.
Well known for their appropriation of ready-made components, Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams (Rich Brilliant Willing), Pro Forma draws inspiration from the curious forms of air shipping containers, the corners of which are heavily chamfered or rounded to facilitate their fitting economically into an airplane’s curved fuselage.

With Pro Forma, Rich Brilliant Willing borrows from the archetype of globalization and transposes it onto icons of the home: the credenza, the coffee table, the bookshelf, side table and bar cabinet. By stripping the container shapes of their original context and the furniture objects of an overly specific function, a dialogue of abstraction emerges.

First and foremost, Pro Forma is a MATERIAL-RICH INVESTIGATION. The rugged and deliberate shapes of commercial transport are tamed by the more lavish palette of home furnishing and antique luggage: brass, leather, lacquer and American hardwoods; steamer trunks in an age of global logistics."



















Founded in 2007, Rich Brilliant Willing is an internationally renowned design studio and one of the most exciting firms currently working in the United States. They consult for an international clientele including SCP, Innermost, Artecnica, Areaware and Urban Outfitters as well as producing a self-branded collection of furniture and lighting. Designing at various scales from packaging & products to interior spaces and installations, their methodology is evident in all their work. With a combination of technical sophistication and old-fashioned sleight of hand, they appropriate existing components and strategically rethink them. The moniker Rich Brilliant Willing, is exemplary of this process; re-imagining what was there to begin with: Theo Richardson, Charles Brill, Alexander Williams.










go to rich brilliant willing here
go to volume gallery here...

----------------------------

Y H B H S (card catalog) selection 4

Jason Roskey, furniture designer, Fern NYC














The Catalog of Robert Rauschenberg's 1970 show - Currents



Jason Roskey writes, "I picked up this catalog of Robert Rauschenberg's 1970 show - Currents: Dayton's Gallery 12, Minneapolis - from Village Books in Tivoli, New York a few years ago. The show consisted primarily of collages and silkscreens of then present-day newspaper clippings. The onslaught of visual information is remarkable, and while this body of work isn't as relevant and well-known as his "combine pieces", it still manages to resonate in the same way."




-------------




"To create these works, Rauschenberg first juxtaposed and overlapped imagery appropriated from photographs, scientific diagrams, newspapers, and popular magazines. In two of the series, he unified his collaged designs with scrawled drawing and animated brushwork. The provocative collisions of images and ideas are layered in meaning, reflecting the energetic rhythms and contradictions of the country at a critical point in its history. "



-------









Fern is a Brooklyn-based furniture company crafting heirloom quality furniture from American hardwoods, reclaimed antique timbers and salvaged objects. The company strives to create contemporary yet timeless designs using sustainable practices whenever possible. Fern also provides design services and produces sculptural objects in limited editions.

Fern was founded by Jason Roskey and Maggie Goudsmit in 2009.



go to Fern's site here..
read an interview with Jason here from YHBHS.

















---------------

"the adjustable spanner
aka "the french key"
&
triplex telescopic lamp."

Johan Petter Johansson
December 12, 1853–August 25, 1943

Swedish Inventor and Industrialist

Johan Petter Johansson eventually decided to start his own business and, in 1886, moved to Enköping where he started "Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad" (the Mechanical Workshop of Enköping) which quickly became a successful venture.



It was during the years in his workshop that he invented the adjustable spanner and the pipe wrench. In 1890, B.A. Hjort & Company agreed to distribute his tools worldwide under the "Bahco" trademark. The Bahco tools became greatly successful, and the company is still in operation and has manufactured over 100 million wrenches to date.

Triplex Telescopic Lamp
1930's.....

Painted metal extending and adjustable wall or ceiling lamp.
This example very unusual, with detachable shade. In 1916 he founded the Triplex Factory.
In the mid twenties, Alvar Aalto used this lamp in his interiors.
Also, widely used in interiors at the Stockholm Exhibition 1930...

detail....

Johan Petter Johansson

"the adjustable spanner
aka "the french key"
&
triplex telescopic lamp."




--------------------------------

Good taste really bothers us a lot.












We are not at war against any aesthetic movement. We act for ourselves without any will to prophesize. Our hope is to give people the feeling of freedom in the choice of forms.

Good taste really bothers us a lot. What we care about is implanting doubt. We don't have any rules. What interests us is a personal and artisanal putting together of things.

- Mattia Bonetti








Mattia Bonetti
"Alu"chair, 2009
lacquered aluminum, upholstery with applique

I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.

- Jack Kerouac, letter to Ed white, 1950

------

Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti, table lamp
BGH Editions, France, c. 1995
bronze, plastic, glass






-------

"Over the past two decades Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti have become one of the most recognizable and sought after names in international design. Rejecting functionalism and standardization in favor of a marriage of primitivism and elegance, their furniture, objects and interior designs are extravagant, theatrical, baroque, surreal. Their projects include the headquarters for Christian Lacroix, perfume containers for Nina Ricci, textiles for Bouchara, the famous Barbare chair, Montpelier's tramway, and Beverly Hill's La Maison du Cigar. One of their most outrageous pieces - The Extroverted Kitchen - a gigantic bean-shaped block with integrated oven and sink covered entirely in gold is part of the permanent collection of New York's Guggenheim Museum."











-------------------------

when
paintings
become
tables,
we all
celebrate.

"Polygons with Progressive Sides,
1.2.3.4, 1.2.3.4.5, 1.2.3.4.5, 1.2.3.4.5.6.7"

I was recently attracted to this screen print by Getulio Alviani (1939 ).
He is an Italian painter born in Udine. He is considered to be an important International Optical - Kinetic artist. And then this morning, I came upon this table!

"Moving to Milan, he became friends with Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana, who was very interested in his works and bought some of his "surfaces". He also worked with other famous artists like Max Bill and Josef Albers. In 1964 he was invited to show at the Venice Biennale, successfully sharing a room with Enrico Castellani. In subsequent years Alviani won international acclaim: at Kassel's Documenta he exhibited a big vibrating surface; in [1965] he took part in what was considered to be one of the top exhibitions of the decade: "The responsive eye" at the New York MoMa, together with all the world's most famous artists of Kinetic and Programmed Art.

trans-forma

His work was so successful it was purchased by MoMa itself and chosen as the cover image representing the museum's next exhibition: "The New Acquisitions". Throughout the 1970s he travelled continually, mainly in South America, and accepted, upon request of Jesús Rafael Soto, the directorship of the Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela.



He was again an invitee at the Venice Biennale in 1984, 1986 and 1993. Among his works the most appreciated by the market are the "Superfici a testura variabile" where the polished aluminium reflects the light in different hues according to the angle at which they are viewed. Other works by Alviani are the "chromodynamic surfaces", where primary colour interactions are studied, and his "mirrors" with their illusion of rings created on reflecting metal surfaces."




----------------------

Laurel Broughton, of WELCOME

YHBHS Interview
with
Laurel Broughton,
of WELCOME

"Often overlooked as architects, the Eames were really good and serious at making their whole lives seem like a giant picnic. There is a joy in their design process as much as in the products themselves. That is much closer to what I want."

-Laurel Broughton

brief bio?
I grew up in Santa Monica at the beach. I moved to NYC to go to college and somewhere along the line I started working at Zing Magazine and then became the managing editor. Zing was an amazing experience both for the places that it took me and the people I got to work with. I studied comparative literature and critical theory with a focus on semiotics in college and the more I was involved in the art world and in the production of an object—the magazine— the more it was a natural evolution to the thinking about the design of objects and environments and buildings in a narrative way.

Eventually I moved back to Los Angeles to study architecture ending up at SCI_arc. After that I worked with a few of different architecture and design offices but most consistently for Johnston Marklee. Right now I'm focused on WELCOME as a multi-disciplinary design practice- and I am teaching in the School of Architecture at USC.










I was so inspired by the whole wall unit series. It is so interesting on so many levels. Can you talk about where the idea came from?
The first Whole Wall actually came out of my thesis project at SCI_arc called folk- it was a body of work produced around ideas about the relationship that the avant-gardes typically have to "newness" and thinking about folk culture as a movement that can create "newness" without demanding a break from the past. I produced prototypes for a number of furniture objects using traditional crafts and commonplace building techniques and materials as a jumping off point but often using new methods or technologies along the way.














The original Whole Wall was one these prototypes. In someways the basic idea is there in the title— Whole Wall- I've taken the notion of a type-V or balloon frame wall construction-studs, insulation, sheathing etc and have given it well—a girth, a thickness and a collage of textures, making something very standard into something decorative but still functional. I'm interested in ideas of appropriation, craft, layering, and also about how we use space and how (in this case) a piece of furniture can actually act as a "wall" or a divider of space. The Whole Wall Shelf is designed to be "in the round"- a screen on one side and a shelf on the other or it can be part screen part shelf on each side. The user can organize it to suit their space or to change their space. Right now I'm translating it from the prototype into a series of pieces that can be produced and sold on a wider scale- adding a desk, a bench and ideally a cabinet to the family. I've also been wanting to make a really big one...a wall literally.




how long is has taken to complete?
Since I finished my thesis in the fall of 2006, I guess you could say I've been working on the Whole Wall Family for 4 years but really in its latest incarnation, just for the last few months. I'm hoping the Shelf, Desk and Bench will be ready by the Fall.

Whole Wall Family

I find it so interesting that your background is in architecture, and this piece of furniture is almost a play on that.
I think of architecture as a way of thinking about things and a way of having a conversation with what's around us— a narrative as a communicative device. I'm interested in ideas about scale and space making that architecture deals with. So can a piece of furniture create space in the way that architecture does, or what happens when a piece of furniture relies on similar systems either- in the case of the Whole Wall, a building system or a material organization or a pattern or geometric system.









Did you ever have difficulties with the seriousness of the architect community?
Yes, I often find most of the architecture community is too serious— architecture doesn't need to be a tragedy. Often overlooked as architects, the Eames were really good and serious at making their whole lives seem like a giant picnic. There is a joy in their design process as much as in the products themselves. That is much closer to what I want.

Atelier Bow Wow

I know so little about contemporary architecture, anyone you could turn me on to?
Hmm...I really appreciate the Japanese firm, Atelier Bow Wow. They have a way of being both serious and playful at the same time... finding and documenting amazing occurrences in the built environment of Tokyo and then using those observations in their own work. Their houses are lessons on making the most of small spaces.














Your pieces seem to celebrate "PLAY", almost a melting pot of Ettore Sottsass, Pee Wee's Playhouse, Roy McMakin, and others. Anyone you are specifically inspired by in your life?
You've hit the nail on the head! Definitely Ettore Sottsass and Roy McMakin play a huge roles and they make for strange bedfellows...Sottsass's use of color and shape and McMakin's subtle play with the domestic everyday. Pee Wee's Playhouse use to really creep me out as a child but now I think about Gary Panter's work all the time. I've been thinking a lot lately about the way we create relationships to objects sometimes by giving them personalities— anthropomorphizing our belongings- Gary Panter on the Pee Wee's Playhouse set took that super far.









Did you have a favorite board game as a kid?
I loved Clue...the board with the plans of all the rooms, the different floor materials and the little game pieces...- the language that was involved—"Cornel Mustard in the drawing room with the candle stick."












Plans for WELCOME for the upcoming year?
Yes I have tons of plans! Next month, Wagon, my first product is launching which I'm really excited about. I'm also working on a commission for a small group of jewelry for a friend who is launching an online store. And there is the aforementioned Whole Wall Furniture Family in the Fall.







What were two things you wanted to be when you were a kid?
I think I wanted to be a writer and an architect...kinda boring that I actually am both. I'm realizing in my old age that I'm pretty single-minded, as much I as think I'm off track I'm not...a good and a bad thing I suppose.

Knotted in the style of loose macrame or net,
Knot Security Curtain echoes the diamond pattern of a chainlink fence
or security grate and provides a softer side of security.
To be hung inside or outside!!!

A native Angeleno, Laurel explores her interests in the roles of material culture, craft, and style within architecture and design through collaborations and publications with and without WELCOME. She received her B.A. from New York University (NYU) and her M.Arch from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI_arc), she is a certified LEED AP. Prior to her architectural training, Laurel was managing editor at zingmagazine in New York City. Laurel has experience working with a diverse group of architects, designers and artists including Johnston Marklee, Greg Lynn, Sussman/Prejza, Bestor Architecture, Taalman/Koch and Jeffrey Inaba as well as the artists Ester Partegas and Devon Dikeou. She teaches design studio in the USC School of Architecture. Her writing and designs have appeared in a variety of forums including, Volume, North Drive Press and the Storefront for Art and Architecture. She is also a partner in Euneveuver.

Thank you Laurel!
Go to Welcome site here...

YHBHS Interview
with
Laurel Broughton,
of WELCOME

-------------------------

Olivier Gagnere,
Designer

Olivier Gagnere, Designer

"He breaks the conventions of geometry and evokes
a new balance that gives his creations a unique personality."

cafe marly, paris

Olivier Gagnere,
Designer

W E L C O M E

Upcoming:
Interview with
Laurel Broughton
of Welcome.

I recently spent an amazing afternoon
talking with Laurel Broughton of WELCOME about our fascination
of objects, art, architecture, and everything else under the sun.

I was blown away at the projects she is working on in her
Los Angeles studio, and I am really excited about
the upcoming interview and pictures of her work.

Stay tuned! And thanks again Laurel for the tour of your studio.
A pleasure chatting with you!

WELCOME is a multivalent practice focused on the production of discursive sensibilities. WELCOME enlists craft and grassroot mores to fabricate meaningful design toward the explication of cultural ideas.

WELCOME Work is accessible and fun but also gravely, practically serious. WELCOME Consultation offers Architectural, Design and related Strategy and Conceptualization Services.

Whole wall furniture series.

"whole wall furniture family is a series of modular storage and display pieces loosely based on balloon frame wall construction traditionally composed of wood studs, insulation, lath and sheathing. Taken as inspiration these materials are genetically refined for new modern living: FSC certified pine; pure wool felt, colorful acrylic and re-purposed emergency blankets.

Each piece is designed to be viewed from any side, to function flexibly and to divide space as needed. Meet the whole wall family, Whole Wall Shelf, Whole Wall Desk and Whole Wall Bench."

WELCOME
at
1497 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026




---------------

the light will be eternal, eternal, eternal.
2010, 1960, 1936, 1930.

new rich, brilliant, and willing!
continually amazing me
with colors, and forms, and their choices
in design..

4 table lamps. seventy years apart.


1. Rich, Brilliant, and Willing, 2010. go here... (one of the top designers today in my opinion!)
2. Yngve Ekstrom, 1960 ash plywood and steel
2. marianne brandt, 1936, table lamp... can also be mounted on wall!
4. Donald Deskey, 1930 table lamp, nickel-plated brass, nickel-plated steel, lacquered wood






the light will be eternal, eternal, eternal.
2010, 1960, 1936, 1930.






-------

Jesse Visser

the light clamp and questions.

Jesse Visser, Light Clamp


I became obsessed when I saw this light on the ATELIER blog last week.
Jesse was kind enough to answer some questions when I emailed him about the specifics,
and we briefly bonded over electronic music!
(see you at Trouw next time.)
How perfect would these be over a bar / restaurant?
Go to his site to see so much more of his work...
thanks jesse.... looking forward to seeing more work!

















"The Light Clamp shows us a creative and clear use of functionality. The hinge is closed by gravity and provides the llightsource with power. The orange colour make it looks like an industrial tool. The lightsource had an internal reflector for efficient downward lighting."

The light clamp? In production? Can people order it?
I produce it myself for the moment! So you can order it!



----------

Inspiration for the lamp?
Clamp to pick up curbs


----------

Favorite lamp designer?
Olafur Eliasson


----------

Music you listen to it in your studio?
Henrick Schwarz (listen..)


----------

Favorite city to travel, for design or other reasons?
Berlin for the moment

----------

Future projects? dream jobs?
Designing a new club or restaurant!

----------

If you weren't a designer, what would you be?
Professional cyclist (hopefully)

----------

Morning person or late nite? And for those headed to Amsterdam, any must visits in the city?
Late night!
Visit club Trouw! (go here!)

----------

"the cross table"

xx xx
xx xx xx




The ‘Cross Table’ is part of the TM collection and was originally designed for the Trade Mart Utrecht. The produtcs are distinguished by their architectural character, the low weight and durability. For in and outside use.

In collaboration with Geke Lensink (www.gekelensink.nl)





-------

Jesse Visser (Ysselstein 1974) received his BA at Utrecht School of Product Design in 1999 in 3D Design. In 2000 he set up his own designstudio. He has been working on a variety of projects including furniture, lighting, products, interiors, stands and exhibition design. In 2003 he enroled at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam for an MA in Retail & Interior Design to develop his interest further.... Currently he works on commission and on self-initiated projects. Recent clients include Trade Mart Utrecht, Cineac, Opium club restaurant, Wisepeople, DAY creative business partners, city of Tilburg, Summum Reizen and 100%Licht. go to
Jesse Visser's
site here...


------

F O R M

form
marblewood/mater

Todd Bracher
go here..

Native New Yorker Todd Bracher, founder of Todd Bracher Studio, is a Designer and Educator currently based in New York City after ten years working in Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and London. His works have been curated by some of the most prestigious brands around the world from furniture design and table top, to interiors and architecture. His work has been included in major exhibitions around the world and has been pinned as “America’s next Great Designer’ by the NY Daily news among several nominations for Designer of the year in 2008 and 2009. His experience ranges from working independently, heading Tom Dixon’s design studio, acting as Professor of Design at L’ESAD in Reims France, to co-founding of the experimental collaboration ‘to22’, to most recently his appointment as Creative Director of the luxury brand Georg Jensen.

----




----------

Garden of Cosmic Speculation

.....
"The role of play in the creative process is to free up the habitual links between things and allow new ones to occur; the role of directed research is to provide an ordering principle. "

"The garden is inspired by science and mathematics, with sculptures and landscaping on these themes, such as Black Holes and Fractals. The garden is not abundant with plants, but sets mathematical formulae and scientific phenomenae in a setting which elegantly combines natural features and artificial symmetry and curves. It is probably unique among gardens, and contrasts nicely with the historical and philosophical themes of the less spectacular but equally thoughtful Little Sparta."

""The role of play in the creative process is to free up the habitual links between things and allow new ones to occur; the role of directed research is to provide an ordering principle. So, in a successfully creative institute, or individual, both these contrary impulses have to be cultivated"

- Charles Jencks

"Charles Jencks is an American architect, landscape architect and architectural theorist. His books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Postmodernism were widely read in architectural circles and beyond. Although not inventing the term postmodern, his 1977 book “The Language of Postmodern Architecture” is often regarded as having popularised its use.

Charles Jencks has become a leading figure in British landscape architecture. In Edinburgh, Scotland, he designed the Landform at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. He is also a furniture designer and sculptor, completing the DNA Sculpture in London’s Kew Gardens in 2003."

watch charlie rose interview him here.

------------

Mattia Bonetti,
New Work
Paul Kasmin Gallery

"Debris" Lamp, 2010
bronze lamp

Mattia Bonetti

__--__--__

"Since the beginning of his pioneering career in the early 1970s, Bonetti has approached the distinction between contemporary art and design not as a barrier but as a wellspring of creative dialogue. As Carol Vogel writes, "Bonetti's work captures a particularly imaginative moment at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st Centuries when historical forms are freshly translated and familiar materials are pushed to new limits. Every design, whether it be a sofa or a simple box, combines a sense of whimsy and glamour with a distinctive intelligence and originality."

"Broken Pearl Necklace" Desk, 2010
gold and chrome plated brass and lavastone

"This exhibition showcases the balance of exuberance and rigor that has become the definitive signature of Bonetti's transformative hand. In it, a gracefully draped pearl necklace becomes a table, a broken vase is reborn as a lamp, and a house of cards is reconfigured into a gleaming chest of drawers. Bonetti juxtaposes traditional bronze, gold leaf, wrought iron, and blown glass techniques with resin, acrylic, and mirrored stainless steel technologies to form expertly crafted objects that are a pleasure to use and behold."



go to site here.














.