Three Layer Cake

I'll admit it.  I've been dragging my feet on putting together a review of Salone Satellite 2007 because I hate it.  Unlike Grace over at designsponge , I'm not drawn to student work.  I chalk this up to my inexpertise at seeing diamonds in the rough.  I chalk this up to my growing impatience with endless production of unoriginal 'design' pieces, pieces which push the envelope (in a bad way), pieces which really serve little or no purpose at all not even as ornaments.  Maybe it's overexposure to the trade?  Maybe I just don't know what being a student is like.  It's probably all of these.  But somehow, the pieces I am often most drawn to happen to be the ones which get the most press.  So maybe I'm not so bad after all.

But of course, Salone Satellite is the place to display these for the most part neophytes. Some of the designers in Salone Satellite are not in fact neophytes, like Ryan Frank, Junior Phipps, Louise Hederstrom, and Nika Zupanc, to name a few.  We've seen them before and we've liked what they produce, and it may have taken us much longer to find their work without such a venue.

Really, what I like about design is the nice neat package.  I don't want to have to sit and figure out what a piece is supposed to do or represent, the purpose its supposed to serve.  I like to see a rocking chair.  I don't want to see a styrofoam and plastic flat pack contraption with convertible runners, spindles in the back rest that are flower vases, a fold out arm rest to put your remote control, ashtray, and viagra pills, all hooked up to a power source that rocks you if you're too tired to rock yourself-- called a new Millennium Rocking Chair [Please note:  This so-called chair doesn't exist really, it's just a representation of the kinds of things that appear at the Salone Satellite].  I think there's something to be said for making something attractive and simple, yet unique.  That's what wins me over. 

And what won me over with this year's show? The IN/D Label Design Collective, again. Titled much depends on dinner.  And how couldn't it??  The title fits in so well with Three Layer Cake...  But really, the pieces were class, well made, and they all fit together to tell a story.  Even though I put IN/D in its own class, the whole of the Salone Satellite seemed to demonstrate trends which followed quite closely those of the regular fair at large ...

IN/D *much depends on dinner highlights :

Elizabeth Callinicos "Mirror/Mirror" tableware which uses mirrors and 'empty frames' to play with the notions of the intimacy of eating and the relationships we build, both individually and collectively, with the utensils that we use. 

Andy Hale "Champagne Bowl" : made by bashing a piece of aluminum, one meter in diameter, with heavy round implements.  Patina  given by flagelating the surface.  Fill with ice, place twelve bottles of champagne into the ice one hour before serving...

  Marnie Moyle Green Oak Furniture.  Environmentally conscientious cabinet maker and designer Moyle had all the right characteristics in creating her engraved table for the Fair: simple, sturdy, witty.  Furniture engraved to commission.    Pictured below also garden labels.

Clavo (Japan) presents "Necobaco" bookshelf and cat-stand toy.  A nice idea representing a growing number of products which incorporate utility for humans and pets in one piece.

Out of Stock presented a wire-framed chair which doubles as storage for your stuffed animals, or not.  Someone next to me at the fair dubbed it a poor-man's Banquete (Campana Brothers chair).