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"The First Issue" The first magazine publication by The Nice Stuff - Featuring our monthly design highlight, a gallery of our top picks, an interview with a British designer and write-up of our design awakening.
Citation preview
All the nice stuff, in one place. Whether it’s furniture, lighting,
kitchen-wear or home related goods, you will find it here.
The Nice Stuff
p. 2
The Nice Stuff is the official spot for all things design, and all
things nice.
As a platform for publishing the latest and greatest, oldest and
boldest design work from in and around the design industry,
we aim to create a friendly and inviting community of design
lovers, thinkers and expressionists.
Design isn’t something that should be exposed, it is something
that needs to be expressed. To express design not only means
raising awareness of the latest concept creations, but also to
act as a root of inspiration, for future solutions.
The Nice Stuff is not only here to serve your interest, but as
the stage for design expression, inspiration and awakening.
p. 3
The Monthly Highlight
Design Awakening
The Gallery
Get In Touch
The Interview Corner
The Monthly Read
(p. 1-13)
(p. 46-51)
(p. 14-35)
(p. 52-57)
(p. 36-45)
(p. 58-59)
1
4
2
5
3
6
p. 5
Submit your design
(p. 60-61)
7
Recognising the bold, blue and dense cushioning, or even the seductive, sloping
arm support would be the least attentiveness one could execute, to salute the work
of Mikaya Kobayashi, and the HC-2 chair.
Standing (or sitting?) upright, rigid with it’s four-legged composure and rich in
colour, this chair expresses a persona of maturity and dominance, setting itself,
noticeably comfortably, within it’s situated environment.
p. 10
With it’s heavily contrasting and oh-so striking combination of lightweight/top-
heavy compositional weight, the designer has undeniably created with a product
with a purpose of durability and longevity in mind. `
It is clear to say that Mikaya Kobayashi has injected this furniture piece with strong
intentions that it is one to stick around for a while; this is not something we could
possibly argue with.
p. 11
Placed effortlessly aside a brotherly furniture article, the HC-2 chair appears to
portray it’s self distinctively on two separate aesthetic spectrum’s.
At one end of the spectrum, thick-walled, block-like and geometrically strong,
bodily shapes deliver a dominating and sophisticated aesthetic; a product with
reason, to be attended with consideration and appreciation.
On the other end of the spectrum, accompanied by luxurious, swooping forms is the
soft and delicate touch of perfectly stitched, cushioned upholstery. Neutralizing the,
initially perceived, aesthetic rigidity, the wholesome and textured material opens
up a warming and inviting opportunity for engagement and product attachment.
p. 12
Cornwall based designer and maker, Heather Scott, works
mainly with wood to create a striking range of products
for the home. Typically using locally sourced Oak, Heather
also explores an array of materials such as steel, offering an
impeccably high level of craftsmanship. Heather’s primary
products are a number of well-considered sushi boards,
but she states, “While sushi boards are the most viable and
versatile. I want to move more into furniture.”
Heather Scott
Designer & Maker
p. 38
“My parents told me I couldn’t have chickens unless I built
them a coop. So that’s what I did.” By only using the basic
tools her dad gave her, she managed to shape her passion for
carpentry. She humbly admits that she was lucky enough to
meet people that gave her the opportunity to work with them.
After volunteering for 2 years with a local wood worker, she
was able to start her own design business.
“Learning practically is what I wanted to do – I really just
wanted to be in the workshop. Working with your hands is
so intuitive. Wood has a natural beauty that speaks for itself
– it is really nice to discover that along the way. In a lifetime
of woodwork, you will never know it all. I have a consistent
opportunity to learn.”
“There is a difference in culture - In Scandinavia and Japan
there is a general appreciation and value for craft. I have
difficulty with designs that people are afraid to use – in
our culture that is a problem. Functionality for me is very
important. Something that people will actually use. If I see my
plates or boards in someone’s kitchen and they’re battered,
as long as they’re still working, that’s great. Scandinavian
design is often recognised for its ability to add beauty to
the everyday, in terms of aesthetics and functionality. In
somebody’s everyday they will have that moment of good
design – a moment to appreciate that. That’s vital to me.”
Why do you do what you want to do?
How would you describe and express your style?
p. 42
“For me, it’s just a matter of changing your measure of failure.
I don’t expect immediate success. Every penny I earn is poured
back in and at times it can be tough. I love being part of the
whole process; the making, the selling, marketing and even
the accounting. I thrive on the way of life down in Cornwall.
Despite occasionally missing the energy and city grit, I am
grateful of the beautiful surroundings. It gives me time to eat
great food and socialise – it’s a balance of good things that
really helps.”
What challenges have you faced?
Heather Scott
p. 45
This month’s design awakening focuses on the existence
of shapes within other existing shapes and how such a
simple assembly of forms can significantly impact the final
composure, expression and perception of a design.
What is shape? How many are there? What do they mean? How
are they made? These are just some of the many questions
raised in regards to the topic of shape; the compositional
arrangement of elements, to give something a visual and
physical identity. Shape exists everywhere, within and around
the world we live in. They also live within themselves.
It could be said that, when all of it’s lines are closed and a
solid state has been formed, a complete shape is the envelope
for external content. This could include colour, additional
shape or geometry, texture and purely a valuable meaning. A
complete shape is container for expression.
Shapes in shapes
p. 49
p. 50
Shapes can be found existing inside themselves via a variety of
approaches, due to the elemental arrangement of a product’s
composition.
There are those shapes which can found within the perimeter
of another shape’s outline. (In reference to the bottom left
image) Protected within the outline of the chair’s four-side
seating platform, circular geometry can be seen as a result of
the wood joinery. It could be said that the location of the shape
expresses a level of encapsulation, wholesome structure and
protection within it’s surrounding shell.
Secondly, there are those shapes formed into a geometric
formation via external element composition. (In reference
to the bottom right image and top image) The overall form
is based up on a diagonal compositional arrangement of
three four-sided (square) shapes. The three shapes have been
placed specifically in an overlapping manner and due the
diagonal formation, this has resulted in external geometry to
be formed. We are now presented with a total of six shapes,
of different size, situation and level. The intersecting and
penetrating positioning of the initial three shapes has created
a visual semiotic of strong connection, support, bonding and
unity within the product.
With a consideration for the symbolic connotations in which
shape structures, formations and locations portray, we can
apply the philosophy to our own design, thus producing
more meaningful design aesthetics.
In an artistic fashion,Ponty discusses phenomenology as
the experience of one’s own body or ones lived/living body,
the role of the body in experience and the significance of
the phantom limb. In relation to the ‘artist’, he expresses
thoughts of how the body is not in the mental or mechanical
physical realm, it is as it is, and develops his philosophical
understanding of the phrase: “I think, therefore, I am”.
With further reading, he develops an understanding of how
the human consciousness is embodied within the world and
how the body is infused with consciousness of the world. He
states that “not only does the body hold everything around it,
it is also an intertwining of vision and movement”.
In relation to the artist, he tells of how our body is responsible
for happenings of an experience. Just like a cat when falling,
movement it is not a decision made by the mind’s thought,
but by a decision made by its consciousness and conditioned
thought; movement is self-moved. When the artist looks at a
mountain, he does not appropriate what he sees, he merely
approaches it by looking, “he opens on to the world.”
p. 55
Both designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa, compile
a wide variety of everyday objects of which they believe to be
“Super Normal” and of “Super Normal Design”. On a quest to
find such species of products, both designs state that, in fact,
they already exist.
They are around us, we have seen them, and with much
likeliness, we have touched ,used and experienced them. It
is this experience which leads to the designers to expressing
their beliefs on the existence of the phenomenon that is ‘super
normal’. Fukasawa and Morrison state that it is located, as it
were, beyond space and time; the past and present of product
design both point to a future that has long since begun. In
simple terms, it would be the common and mostly anonymous
objects, which tend to go unnoticed and unrecognised, which
fall into the classified state of a “super normal” object.
Within the book, a diverse range of objects are displayed,
such as the likes of furniture, kitchenware, electronics goods,
and much more. With such a beautiful gallery, Fukasawa and
Morrison make “super normal” objects truly visible for us.
p. 57
The Nice Stuff is constantly seeking new content to publish,
and welcomes submissions from all areas within the design
sector.
`
Whether you are a product, graphic or furniture designer,
architect or illustrator and you would like to see your work
published, send us an email with:
-Your Name
-Product/Project Name
-Product/Project Description
-3-5 Product Images (JPEG Format / Max 5MB each)
We cannot promise that all submissions will be successfully
published, but all submissions will be viewed and considered.
p. 61
Disclaimer
The Nice Stuff does not, in any way, own or claim to own the
rights for any product image and gives full credit to owners,
photographers and those responsible for supplying such
resources. All images owned by The Nice Stuff are annotated.
We try to credit all images as much as possible (e.g. product
name, product designer, photographer), but it can be very
difficult to give complete credit to all content published.
p. 63