The I-X Exhibition by Form Us With Love

In its first major retrospective, design studio Form Us With Love presents a number of early pieces, celebrated classics and new work—exploring a decade of industrial design consultancy, business ventures and civic projects.

As a studio, Form Us With Love has spent the past ten years repositioning brands through design. Utilising progressive manufacturing techniques and nurturing on-going dialogues with each client, the studio has sculpted innovative collaborations with the likes of IKEA, Muuto, Absolut, Menu, La Cividina Cappellini, + Halle, DePadova, FontanaArte, Bolon, Ateljé Lyktan, Design House Stockholm and Hem.

"For us this exhibition is about the alchemy of getting things right. There is a narrative element to all our projects, as well as a cultural side, and therefore many areas for people to get interested in. Take the Plug Lamp as an example—a light we developed during 2007/2008—integrating an electrical socket into a lamp as an answer to the increasing demand of charging laptops and phones," says Jonas Pettersson co-founder of Form Us With Love.

The studio describes its role as ‘design-led investors’, acting as a bridge between production challenges and behavioral patterns, a methodology growing in popularity but one at the studio’s core from the very start. Looking into this mix of smart, well-informed and warm hearted stories gives an insight into the potential for this approach to design.

"The design industry as a whole has matured. A new a stronger strategic sense is prevailing—as if the ‘yet another product’ designers, who were around when we first started, have finally been outgrown. Today, every product is a brand and that puts pressure on all designers to be lateral. This exhibition is about the lessons we’ve learnt," says studio co-founder John Löfgren.

About Form Us With Love | FUWL - www.formuswithlove.se
FUWL was started in 2005 by John Löfgren, Jonas Pettersson, and Petrus Palmér. They met studying Product Design at Kalmar University, in deepest, darkest Småland, a county in southern Sweden known to be the heartland of Swedish furniture manufacturing.

Even if the number of products that carries its name is big for a relatively young design studio, the biggest achievement for FUWL isn't the actual product, but the process of thinking, creating and communicating design. Through its relentless search for new opportunities and collaborations FUWL has shown that there are still great opportunities right under our noses. FUWL's ambition is to be part in creating the top design companies around and has a strong belief that holistic design thinking is the way to get there.

All photos Copyright © 2016 Form Us With Love

The BEACH by Snarkitecture

The BEACH is an interactive architectural installation designed by Snarkitecture for the National Building Museum. 

The National Building Museum presents a one-of-a-kind destination for visitors, an interactive architectural installation that brings the quintessential summer experience of going to the beach to downtown Washington, D.C. Spanning across the Museum's Great Hall, the BEACH, created in partnership with Snarkitecture, will cover 10,000 square feet and include an "ocean" of nearly one million recyclable translucent plastic balls.

The BEACH is contained within an enclosure and built out of construction materials such as scaffolding, wooden panels, and perforated mesh, all clad in stark white. Monochromatic beach chairs and umbrellas sprinkle the 50-foot wide "shoreline," and the "ocean" culminates in a mirrored wall that creates a seemingly infinite reflected expanse. Visitors are welcome to "swim" in the ocean, or can spend an afternoon at the "shore's" edge reading a good book, play beach-related activities such as paddleball, grab a refreshing drink at the snack bar, or dangle their feet in the ocean off the pier.

Enjoy our snack concession, operated through a partnership with Union Kitchen, a D.C.-based food incubator.

PROJECT:
Taking cues from the familiar experience of a summer day at the beach, Snarkitecture has abstracted both the natural and cultural elements of the beach to create a reduced, monochromatic environment inside the museum's Great Hall. Standard construction materials like scaffolding, drywall, and mirrors are utilized to create the enclosure that leads to an ocean of 750,000 recyclable plastic balls. 

The Beach welcomes visitors to explore, play and relax in a fully immersive and unique setting.

Photos by Noah Kalina - noahkalina.com

VISIT
401 F Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
202.272.2448

HOURS
Monday-Saturday:
10 am-5 pm
Sunday: 11 am-5 pm

The Building Zone closes at 4 pm.

ADMISSION
Free access to the Great Hall,
historic building tours,
Museum Shop, & cafe.

Exhibition admission:
$8 for adults
$5 for youth, students, & seniors
$3 a person for Building Zone only
Free for Museum members

WATCH | Web designer and photographer Andy Feliciotti's Vlog about "The Beach"

About Snarkitecture
Snarkitecture is a collaborative and experimental practice operating in territories between art and architecture. The name is drawn from Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of The Snark, a poem describing an "impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature." 

Snarkitecture investigates the unknown within architecture - the indefinable moments created by manipulating and reinterpreting existing materials, structures and programs to spectacular effect. 

Exploring the boundaries of disciplines, the studio designs permanent, architectural scale projects and functional objects with new and imaginative purposes. Snarkitecture's approach focuses on the viewer's experience and memory, creating moments of wonder and interaction that allow people to engage directly with their surrounding environment. By transforming the familiar into the extraordinary, Snarkitecture makes architecture perform the unexpected. 

Snarkitecture was established by Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham.

For more information please visit Snarkitecture - www.snarkitecture.com

Bolon and Mac Stopa Create Energizing Flooring for Milan Design Week

Swedish design company Bolon and acclaimed designer Mac Stopa have together created unique flooring that will be exclusively presented during Milan Design Week. 



Stopa, who was asked to develop a creative concept for INTERNI magazine's Milan exhibit, produced "Energy for Creativity" - a strong, color and pattern based three-dimensional environment in which Bolon's flooring is an important element of the execution.



As founder and chief architect of Massive Design, Mac Stopa is globally recognised for his innovative, unconventional interiors and design style. With a portfolio and client list that includes many global brands, his work in creating unique public spaces and within industrial design has received widespread acclaim. In collaboration with Bolon, Mac has created his own unique interpretation of their product for the Energy for Creativity INTERNI Press Room.

Consisting of two areas, the INTERNI Press Room integrates visitors in a creative zone, conveying the energizing and creative concept of mixing together multiple colours and materials. In consultation with Bolon's design team, Mac designed tessellating three-dimensional trapezoid floor tiles to form a key visual element of the space. To further optimise the flooring's potential, the tiles will be rotated over the period of the installation, creating multiple geometrical layouts. 

Mac explains - "Energy for Creativity refers to innovation in design, which involves constant experimentation in order to bring new solutions to life. It ́s about challenging existing thinking and technology and enriching it with an alternative and often experimental way of developing new designs and products. Driven by passion, sensitivity, and imagination, Energy for Creativity cures boredom by fuelling the need to experiment and find new alternative solutions."

During Milan Design Week, Bolon will also be installed in a number of places during including the stands of Missoni, Cappellini and Blå Station. In addition Bolon will be seen at the Elle Decoration 25 years exhibition, the Missoni exhibition at Maga Museum and in Luceplan's showroom.

Bolon is a Swedish cutting-edge design company managed by sisters Annica and Marie Eklund, the third generation of the family to own the company. They have developed the company from a traditional weaving mill into an international design brand, with a focus on innovative flooring and creative interiors. Bolon's list of clientèle includes Microsoft, Google, Mercedes, Adidas, Reebok and Sheraton, as well as leading architects and designers such as Jean Nouvel and Cappellini. All development, design and production is 100% made in Ulricehamn, Sweden.

For more information, please visit: www.bolon.com

Salone del Mobile 2015: MINI and Jaime Hayon Present 'Urban Perspectives'

A Fantastical Installation on the Future of Urban Mobility

For this year's Salone del Mobile, MINI has teamed up with Spanish designer and artist Jaime Hayon to present an installation that conjures up visions of tomorrow's urban mobility in the form of an imaginary world.

The focus of the installation is the MINI Citysurfer concept, a flexible electric kick scooter that provides a smarter and more personalised way of getting around town. For Jaime Hayon it is the starting point of a fantastical journey through a modern metropolis, for which he is designing two variants of the MINI Citysurfer concept. He takes visitors along graphic paths and challenging routes through a surreal space, within which he applies his strikingly creative aesthetics to showcase the future of mobility:



"I wanted to create an incredible and immersive experience that pays tribute to MINI's sophisticated design developments for future mobility," says Jaime Hayon of his vision, which goes far beyond any fictional mobility scenario. He sees his installation as a collaborative design process that espouses the MINI claim to pioneering materials and high quality. For the execution of the overall concept, Hayon is working closely with the MIN Design Team and specialist craftspeople.

'Jaime Hayon Urban Perspectives for MINI' is a further highlight arising from the ongoing creative dialogue that MINI pursues with leading international designers. "For us, collaborating with creative designers from a wide range of disciplines is an important format that allows us to view automotive design from a different perspective," says Anders Warming, Head of MINI Design. "Jaime Hayon is a partner whose sheer inventiveness and unconventional formal language are inspirational."

In Jaime Hayon's illustrated urban jungle, progress is bright and colorful: the designer has dreamed up a road made of Carrara marble supported by luminous blue pillars, while shiny brass lamps point the way to an imaginary destination. Accessories specially developed for the installation, such as a helmet - part high-tech object, part playful mask - and a jacket likewise designed by Hayon, symbolize the fantasy realm in which the Spanish designer dismantles familiar perspectives. They are indispensable accoutrements on this dynamic ride into the future which Hayon imposingly visualizes through his personal play with functionality fantasy and creativity.

The installation 'Jaime Hayon Urban Perspectives for MINI' will be on show from 14 to 19 April 2015 at the Laboratorio Bergognone in Via Bergognone 26 as part of the Salone del Mobile in Milan.

All images copyright and courtesy of BMW Group - bmwgroup.com

Salone del Mobile - salonemilano.it

Numbers in Nature: A Mirror Maze

From the delicate nested spirals of a sunflower's seeds, to the ridges of a majestic mountain range, to the layout of the universe, mathematical patterns abound in the natural world. Numbers in Nature: A Mirror Maze is a new permanent exhibit that will expose and explain the patterns that surround us.


MSI "Numbers in Nature" from Leviathan on Vimeo.

As you enter Numbers in Nature, lenticular images and an immersive large-format film reveal these repeating patterns hidden throughout nature: spirals, occurrences of the "golden ratio" (ɸ), Voronoi patterns, and fractal branching.

Photo courtesy of Leviathan.

The exhibit's centerpiece is the 1,800-square-foot mirror maze, where you'll find yourself in a sea of equilateral triangle chambers that repeat in a dizzying array of mirrors. Can you navigate the maze to find the secrets within?

Complete your journey through Numbers in Nature in a gallery of interactive digital displays and stations, where you can discover even more patterns and ratios in nature-including those found in your own body and in centuries of music, art and architecture. You'll never look at the world the same way again.

The Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, and contains such magnificent exhibits as an enormous U-505 submarine and a full-scale home of the future. Numbers in Nature, the institution's latest permanent exhibit and newest collaboration with Leviathan, explores the recurrence of patterns and mathematics in our natural world through artful film and interactive installations.

Photo courtesy of Leviathan.

Beginning with an ultra-widescreen theater, we help introduce these phenomena through immersive video content, combining original and existing photography with motion graphics and visual effects. To give guests some hands-on learning, a series of interactive installations (and a mind-bending mirror maze) further explain individual scientific principles touched on in the film. 

Guests can look into a two-way mirror and see their own natural proportions superimposed Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man in real time; or virtually explore 3D spirals, voronoi and other patterns that appear naturally using nothing but the wave of a hand. 

Combining simple analog controls such as knobs, wheels and blocks with cutting-edge technology such as touchscreens, Kinect cameras and Leap Motion sensors, our team designed nearly a dozen dynamic experiences to not only engage children and adults alike but also remain relevant well into the next decade.


About Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, one of the largest science museums in the world, is home to more than 35,000 artifacts and 400,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits designed to spark scientific inquiry and creativity.

Location
5700 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60637

Hours
through November 23:
Monday - Friday: 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday - Sunday: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas

For more information please visit www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/numbers-in-nature/


About Leviathan
Leviathan is a conceptual design company that creates engaging narrative content and experiences for brands and entertainers worldwide.

The bold images they conceive appear on stages and architecture, in themed destinations and on screens of all sizes, accompanying famous faces and household names. Leviathan teams build experiences to enthrall audiences, initiate conversations and keep the crowds coming.

Every day, Leviathan's artists and engineers help transform the worlds of commercial advertising, live events, film, television and environments. 

For more information please visit http://www.lvthn.com