Monthly Archives: February 2010

We Found You, We Appreciate, We Will Follow…

Now that the 2010 edition of the Stockholm Furniture Show has come to an end we are taking some time contemplating our many impressions from the week including all the interesting people we met, the positive atmosphere, media coverage of OFFECCT’s stand and display but we are also – which is becoming more important for us – digging deep into the social web since so many bloggers and alike have written nice and interesting things about our new products, etc. Here is a list of some social media findings related to OFFECCT’:

We are grateful for your interest, we appreciate your work and we will continue to follow you.

Social Media Splash

Social Media Splash

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Ripple Effects: The Droplet Table by Ingunn Eikeland Bjørkelo

Equally excited, OFFECCT and Norwegian Ingunn Eikeland Bjørkelo present the Droplet coffee table. Eikeland Björkelo is about to gratudate from Bergen National Academy of the Arts, and Droplet is her first piece of furniture to enter production. 

Above: Droplet table by Ingunn Eikeland Bjørkelo. Below: Ripple effect illustrated in Wikipedia

Above: Droplet table by Ingunn Eikeland Bjørkelo. Below: Ripple effect illustrated in Wikipedia

 

The ripple effect is a term used in several fields such as economics (increased income of one individual eventually increases the incomes of others), sociology (social interactions affect situations not directly related to the initial interaction), information theory (where information is disseminated and passed on to broaden its impact). 

The Droplet table illustrates a very nice interpretation of the ripple effect from a designer’s point of view, where the table has been inspired by the oceanfront of Bergen, Norway, with a tabletop shaped in a gentle wave formation reminiscent of the ripples created on water by a falling stone.

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…with a humble sense of pride…

Now that the Stockholm Furniture Fair slowly comes to its end, we share the opinion that this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair has been very successful. Not only in terms of shere numbers of exhibitors and visitors, but more importantly the fact that there has been a very positive feeling during the week.

It is with a humble sense of pride that we share with you the fact that the largest daily in Scandinavia, Dagens Nyheter, has singled out OFFECCT as one of the major players.

“The 2010 edition of the Stockholm Furniture Fair has been larger than ever, even in terms of visitors and business deals. Somewhat impressive is the Swedish design company OFFECCT that, in the middle of an ongoing financial crunch, presents a bunch of new products, designed by a large part of the Swedish design elite: Claesson Koivisto Rune, Monica Förster, Björn Dahlström.” (freely translated from dn.se by us)

OFFECCT Impress

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Stackable Austerity – Dahlström’s New Canti Chair

Canti by Björn Dahlström

Canti by Björn Dahlström

The Canti chair is a product of participation between Swedish designer Björn Dahlström and OFFECCT that has been going on for a while.

Björn and OFFECCT have discussed the possibility of a joint project over a period of time, and now that Canti has arrived we couldn’t be more content with the final result.

Canti combines the typical graphical traits of Dahlström’s design with OFFECCT’s high quality production, and much effort has been made to create a stackable chair without losing comfort.

The Canti chair has been described as austère as well as humorous, and the comfortable austerity make this chair perfect for creative and important meetings.

Swedish designer Björn Dahlström started out as an industrial designer has recieved a lot of Design Awards, for his design of furniture, bicycles and toys.

Austère, from Old French austère, from Latin austerus sour, from Greek austeros astringent; related to Greek hauein to dry. Words as stern, severity, grave, siber, serious and self discipline come to mind.

  1. Pingback: OFFECCT Designer Profile #4: Björn Dahlström | OFFECCT

  2. Pingback: New Versions of Björn Dahlström's Canti Chair | OFFECCT

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Sustainable Design #2: The Amazonas is Saving the Amazon

Amazonas by Eero Koivisto

Amazonas by Eero Koivisto

In a previous post we presented how we achieve sustainable design throgh the Nordic eco label; the Swan. One of our Swan labeled products is the Amazonas table, designed by Eero Koivisto. The Amazonas table series originated when Koivisto saw aerial photographs of the rain forest where the tree crowns created kind of a dense ceiling. Eero then wanted to create a table with the same effect, or, rather, he wanted to create several such tables that could be combined to form a cluster.

With the launch of the Amazonas table in 2008, we started up a long-term collaboration with a Swedish environmental organisation called the Children’s Rainforest. Parts of the proceeds from the Amazonas tables goes to this organisation, and up-to-date 188,878 square metres of rain forest have been saved by Amazonas.

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Sustainable Design #1: The Swan, a Nordic Eco Label

We believe that there are two aspects of sustainable design, and both are equally important. Firstly, we make innovative and contemporary design that should stand the test of time. We aim at producing sustainable high quality products that are contemporary and timeless at the same time. Secondly, we have a strong environmental commitment, where we implement ecological values in all aspects of our sustainable product development cycle.   

One way to achieve this is to eco label our products, and we at OFFECCT are proud of the fact that several of our products have achieved the Nordic Eco Label called the Swan. The criteria for achieving the Swan label are hard to meet and concerns everything from material, production to recycling. Thus, the Swan label is aiding ourselves as well as our customers in our common objectives for promoting sustainable design. We strongly believe that it is an ongoing process to achieve sustainability, and are continuously working hard to develop an environmental friendly production with even more Swan labeled products.   

Below some of our Swan labeled products.

swan-Svanen-logo

The Swan Eco Label
Amazonas by Eero Koivisto

Amazonas by Eero Koivisto
Bond by Jean-Marie Massaud

Bond by Jean-Marie Massaud
Cornflake by CKR

Cornflake by CKR
Playback by Eero Koivisto

Playback by Eero Koivisto

Propeller by Eero Koivisto

Propeller by Eero Koivisto
Quilt by Olle Anderson

Quilt by Olle Anderson
Soundwave (flo)

Soundwave (flo)
Eco Labelled Production

Eco Labelled Production

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Swedish Daily Picks OFFECCT’s Snowflakes as Stockholm Furniture Fair Favorite

To our pride and joy, Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s largest daily newspapers, picks our Snowflakes table designed by CKR as one of its favorites from this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair.

Swedish Daily Picks OFFECCT's Snowflakes as Stockholm Furniture Fair Favorite

Read more about the Snowflakes table in yesterday’s post: Our Design is Unique and Cool.

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Swedish TV reports from OFFECCT’s Stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair

Mainly in Swedish, international visitors at the Stockholm Furniture Fair are interviewed in English in this clip from Swedish television. Please notice OFFECCT’s stand and our Snowflakes tables – presented in an earlier blog post – in the first scene of the video below.

Not yet published on SVT’s web site; our design partner Eero Koivisto of CKR conveyed a very positive message in a short interview. And we agree with Eero – the future looks bright, indeed.

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Our Design is Unique and Cool

Up until now it has been a challenging task to combine unique design with serial production. This year OFFECCT proudly presents an innovative production method where every single item of our new Snowflakes table is completely unique.

Snowflakes is designed by our design partner Claesson Koivisto Rune, who got creative inspiration from photographer Wilson Bentley. Bentley – dubbed the Snowflake Man – devoted his career to capture snowflakes with his camera, being fascinated by the fact that “every (snow)crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated.”

The same goes for our Snowflakes table, where our computer aided production method make sure that we achieve the same variation as that found in snowflakes. Snowflakes is a small, useful table available in three different heights in order to increase the possible variations and usages.

Snowflakes by Wilson Bentley (1901)

Snowflakes by Wilson Bentley (1901)

Snowflakes by CKR (2010)

Snowflakes by CKR (2010)

This year CKR is nominated in the category of “Designer of the Year” in the prestigious ELLE Decoration International Design Awards in Italy. At the beginning of 2010 CKR won another four international awards, including “Good Design 2010” and “Wallpaper Design Awards 2010”.

This winter Sweden has experienced a lot of snow, and since the Snowflakes table is introduced at the Stockholm Design Week, you have a perfect opportunity to discover the fascinating world of snowflakes both outside in a chilled Stockholm and inside in our warm – yet cool – stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.

  1. Pingback: Swedish TV reports from OFFECCT’s Stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair | OFFECCT

  2. Pingback: Every Snowflake Is Unique… | OFFECCT

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Innovation + Sustainability + Quality + Imagination = the Robo Chair

OFFECCT: Luca Nichetto's Robo chair

Our new Robo chair by Italian designer Luca Nichetto is a perfect intepretation of OFFECCT’s core values: combining genuine Swedish craftsmanship with qualitative, innovative and sustainable design.

Venetian born designer Luca Nichetto is indeed a rising star on the design horizon, and we are very happy for and proud of our joint efforts. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Luca’s design is on display in our Stockholm showroom, but can also be found on his web site. In 2009 Luca was chosen as Young Designer of The Year at the ELLE Decoration International Design Awards in Milan.

The Robo chair is indeed a design innovation with its completely new and unique look with separated seat and legs. One way to describe the Robo is to think of a Meccano set that can be built on site.

Since the parts fit into a 50x50x20 cm box - pictured below –  it “consumes” less transport and therefore meets OFFECCT’s environmental goals.

OFFECCT: The Anatomy of Luca Nichetto's Robo Chair

The image above pictures a Robo chair ready for transport. It is a thought provoking image which might lead your thoughts astray. You might think of sustainability and Meccano, of course. But if you’re a fan of the TV series Dexter connotations such as anatomy and dismemberment comes to mind. However, that is not the case for the designer of the Robo chair, Luca Nichetto, who was inspired by the combined work by artists Björk and Chris Cunningham in the video for Björk’s song “All is Full of Love.” Thougt provoking indeed; Chris Cunningham describes the end of the video as “Kama Sutra meets Industrial Robotics.” We could continue our imaginative travels, but we stop here. Better you take the opportonity to try the Robo chair in real life in OFFECCT’s stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair (stand # A16:20 – welcome!).

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