Vincon! Barcelona, Paseo de Gracia

Established in 1934, this gift, design, furniture and home goods store is the most inspiring retail establishment I have walked into in at least 10 years. I think I could outfit my entire home with items selected exclusively from this large yet finely curated collection.

Is this a museum or a store?

Its a store...that you want to live in.

Here I think they're just showing off. In addition to having the best football (soccer) team in the world the Barcos are also raising the bar for the rest of us in the design and retail world. If I didn't see it myself I might not believe it was possible.

Vincon today.

http://www.vincon.com/web/en/infogeneral/historia.htm

Father & Son Design Team

More on the obvious talent that this family has shortly. Whether it is genetic or learned is not clear. The genius of their work is quite clear.

Features!

Measurable, tangible features combine to make a cabinet of enduring quality. These details make a cabinet maker or manufacturing engineer proud. And isnt it refreshing how this literature lacks the ubiquitous branding of the modern pitch? Oh, the old days.....

Jean Prouve

Jean Prouvé apprenticed as a black smith before opening his own workshop/studio where these designs were produced. Most of his designs show his amazing intuition for the material properties of wood and metal. Practical efficiency and accessibility without compromising aesthetics was of primary interest in his work. These are values also shared by Eames, McCobb and Frankl, some of his mid-century American contemporaries. He collaborated with architects and other designers throughout his prolific career and the results are even more impressive a generation later .

Jean Prouvé (8 April 1901 - 23 March 1984)

all images from Jean Prove, Gallerie Patrick Seguin Paris

Eisler & Hauner

I am still discovering old designers that inspire me that I have never heard of before like these guys Eisler and Hauner who worked together to make the chairs shown in the pic below for Forma. To me it shows a beautiful balance between efficient use of material and the beauty of form. And I love the contrast of warm rich organic wood and cold rigid steel.

Picture from MetHome.

The Science of Product Design

Rarely applied to items for which sales are driven by fashion and fickle trends, there are many rigorous methods that have been developed to make products better. Better is usually wisely defined by customer satisfaction over the entire life of the product.

In my early years as a design engineer, the American manufacturers were just learning, or re-learning about Statistical Process Control, "six Sigmas", Concurrent Engineering and Value Engineering. We were desperately trying to catch up with the quality of our Japanese and German counterparts. Harley Davidson began applying modern principals like Just-In-Time manufacturing and the quality and reliability of the American classic began to rise from dismal levels.

Later while working for a division of Sony Electronics, I learned about a product design method called Quality Function Deployment. It includes a rigorous vetting and evaluation of all of a products characteristics from the point of view of the customer as well as the organization making the product. One tool in the process is something called the House of Quality.
It requires more patience than most people have but it is really effective and one of the reasons you don't see a lot of Toyota's on the side of the road. I mean really.....sometimes I think I could design the whole product before I finished building the House of Quality.

At Empiric when we say,

[that we] "...apply analytical and rational values to the often elusive, vague and ambiguous world of furniture. Determining the merit of a particular piece of furniture would focus on observable qualities like materials, construction quality, functionality, condition and value. Fashion and feng shui would take a back seat."

this formal application of design methodology is an example of what we are talking about.

Jacques Adnet

Jacques Adnet (1900-1984) was a French art deco modernist designer, architect and interior designer. He is known for his furniture designs in leather. (from Wikipidia) Jacques pieces have become increasingly collectible lately as people realize both the lasting beauty and the importance of his contributions to the modern design movement. You can see his influence in our line of furniture as we share his fondness with the juxtaposition of warm organic materials like like leather against cooler, more industrial steel.

This chair was in the inventory of ModernOne, one block down from us. Ben has the eye of a passionate collector and seasoned curator.

He designed for Hermes and, in my opinion, helped define what makes them great.

Frank Lloyd Wright

No true modernist can get through the day without being influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. And can that man make a drawing......



I don't care what the floor plan looks like, Ill live in anything that he designed. In my mind, this is one of the most compelling reasons to visit Chicago and the surrounding areas.

One of my favorite quotes of his (and don't get me wrong, I respect Dorthy Draper and really like her work) is when he called Ms. Draper an "inferior desecrator". Maybe I'm reading into it but it seems to me like FLR had a little ego, was perhaps a little bit of a professional misogynist or maybe just a stubborn designer who felt he knew what was best for everyone. It just sums up all the "glamour" of the design world doesn't it?

Robsjohn-Gibbings Walnut Slipper Chairs

This man is the master of taking everything good about the past and making it even better. Seriously, a moment of silence for our favorite English designer. Deco on its way to austere modernism.....thanks dude with three last names.

Paul McCobb

Photo: www.architonic.com

Paul McCobb, (1917-1969) was a prolific designer with no formal training and an intuitive understanding of materials and efficiency. Like many of his contemporaries in the 50's, Paul McCobb designed practical and affordable furniture for the pragmatic values of Americans after WWII. We appreciate his values today and especially like his use of brass with wood to provide structural strength in his pieces and provide hardness at vulnerable edges while maintaining their visual "lightness". His thin drawers, brass accents, efficient diminutive hardware and frugal use of wood became his signature in the Planner and Directional lines that we see most often in Southern California. Below are some classic examples of his work taken from Bond&Bowery (a sensible alternative to the skyrocketing prices on 1stdibs.)
Paul McCobb did so much work that was consistently great and accessible to middle class Americans that we applaud him and will continue to search for and restore his work for years to come. For all these reasons and more, we're adding Mr. McCobb to our Standing on the Shoulders of Giants column.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

We have a great deal of respect for the designers that have come before us and their work. From time to time we will point to some people that inspire us in the area of furniture design under the heading "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants".

There are countless hundreds of thousands of chair designs out there. Some designers try to make their mark with a revolutionary design. Three legs, cardboard, whatever. Some take what is obviously great already and try to make it just a little bit better. Edward Wormley is a designer with a healthy appreciation of classic design as you can see below.


“Modernism means freedom—freedom to mix, to choose, to change, to embrace the new but to hold fast to what is good.” -Edward J Wormley

In 1926 he went to study briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago. Funds ran out and he went to work as an interior designer for Marshall Fields & Company department store. During the Depression, Wormley was introduced to the president of Dunbar Furniture Company of Berne, Indiana, who hired him to upgrade their product line.

His eye for quality and the exacting craftsmanship at Dunbar made for furniture that was elegant, understated and exceptionally well-made. Wormley was never really at the forefront of Modern design. Instead, he took the best elements from classical, historical design and translated them into Modern vernacular. The result was furniture that was sophisticated, yet mainstream and very successful.