Design Classics

This is a tale about a rock star (albeit a slightly ageing one) and a shelf (or rather a shelving system). It happened a couple of years ago, but is no less relevant for that. So the ARS (as he shall henceforth be known) rang me from his summer hideout, where he was, if truth

The BA3 chair    image from www.the-committee-of-taste.tumblr.com Ernest Race was one of Britain's most successful and inventive furniture designers.  This chair was one of his first productions for his company Race Furniture and was first exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s morale-boosting exhibition ‘Britain Can Make It’  in 1946. The chair, which has been re-issued

Named after Eileen Gray's summer house in Maison en Bord de Mer at Roquebrune Cap Martin, which she built for herself and her collaborator Jean Badovici, the name E1027 is in code. E is for Eileen, 10 for Jean (J is the 10th letter of the alphabet), 2 for B(adovici) and 7 for G(ray). Eileen Gray's E1027

Florence Knoll sofa from spacecraftint.com which sells authorised pieces As a pioneer of the Knoll Planning Unit, Florence Knoll created what she modestly referred to as the “fill-in pieces that no one else wants to do.” She referred to her own line of lounge seating as the equivalent of “meat and potatoes,”  adding, “I needed the piece of furniture for

Marcell Breuer's Wassily Chair from knoll.com So today's question is: What is the link between that chair and this bicycle? an adler bicycle The answer is that Marcel Breuer was a keen cyclist. He had an Adler bicycle which he particularly admired for its functional design. An apprentice at the Bauhaus school in Germany, he

  images from Knoll Harry Bertoia did not take a conventional route into the world of furniture design. Unlike many of his contemporaries who trained first as architects (Arne Jacobsen and Eero Saarinen to name but two) Bertoia had a metal workshop and also designed jewellery. He even made the wedding rings of Charles and

The Ant chair by Arne Jacobsen now comes in a variety of colours Designed in 1952, the Ant Chair was first produced with three legs and was not an instant hit. It was only in 1980 that a fourth leg was added and a variety of finishes and colours were included in the range that

image from New York Times magazine Charles and Ray Eames were responsible for some of the most iconic designs of the 20th century; that lounge chair and ottoman, those ball coat hangers you see everywhere and the Eiffel chair as well as several children's toys. The Eiffel was the first mass produced plastic chair. It

The perfect marriage of form and function Scandinavian design is known chiefly for its ability to combine form and function without one losing out at the expense of the other. This Finnish casserole pot is a perfect example of that design sensibility. Designed in 1960 by Timo Sarpaneva, the wooden handle can be used either

The familiar blue and white stripes of TG Green You might not know its name but you would certainly recognise its distinctive blue and white stripes. Perhaps from your grandparent's kitchen, or some distant childhood memory. Cornishware, as it is correctly known, has been in production since the 1920s when Tom G Green bought a

Before there were cars there were peppermills It looks like a classic wooden peppermill. You've probably used one without realising. But it is, in fact, a Peugeot peppermill. Yes, it turns out that the French company has been making pepper, salt and coffee mills for longer than it has been making cars. Who knew? It