Happy Birtday: Svensk Form Väst 25 and Ted Hesselbom 50

Lots of celebration in Göteborg last night. Took the train from Stockholm, which was of course delayed, and I just arrived in the middle of the celebration at Röhsska museet of Svensk Form Väst 25 years. Our active and growing regional society of Svensk Form in the west. Beautiful Svensk Form cakes, sparkling wine and Ted dressed as a king of the evening. (He soon had to rush over to yet another celebration, turning 50 himself the following day) Too bad I came so late, I hardly had time to take photos. Anyway, I got to listen to some of the many speakers, invited to talk about the future of design från Västra Götaland for 3 minutes and one images each. A sort of mini mini pechakucha. Amazing how much message you can transmit in 3 minutes. I ended the line by congratulating our child from the 165-old-mother, and also telling about the news with Form and our internationalization strategy, where the first step is to bring Västra Götaland to Milan in April 2011. Some 250 guests came to celebrate and 20 new Svensk Form members signed in for the evening. Svensk Form's David Leidenborg and Lars Mossfeldt gave the background of Svensk Form and Svensk Form väst. Other
3 minute presenters were Linda Spåman (konstnär), Iréne Stewart Claesson (industridesigner VD LOTS), Otto von Busch (forskare HDK och konstnär), Ted Hesselbom (chef Röhsska museet) Maria Erixon (Nudie Jeans), Andreas Kittel (AD Happy F&B) Pia Aleborg (smyckeskonstnär och AD), Erik Nissen Johansen (Creative Director & Founder Stylt Trampoli), Stina Nilimaa Wickström,( senior designer Volvo) Ewa Kumlin (Svensk Form) etc

Cake celebration - Svensk Form Yellow

Maria Erixon Nudie Jeans 

Andreas Kittel Happy

Stina Nilimaa Wickström Senior Designer Volvo

 

Matilda the moderator

Pia Aleborg, jewellery designer

 Otto von Busch, researcher and artist believs that the craft might again conquer the future of Svensk Form Väst

I was happy to meet Lars Mossfeldt, architect and talking memories from childhood in Dalarna - our parents were close friends. Started to catch up on old friends in Dala-Järna and Björbo. 

20 new members this evening  - special price for the evening 250 SEK - Svensk Form Väst happy after the party from the left Jesper Larsson, Per Dahlström from the museum and

David Leidenborg and Jesper Larsson packs the leftover cakes to serve HDK the following day

Beutiful winter right now

Stockholm is cold. Minus 10 yesterday, and getting colder they say. Anyway Skeppsholmen is a beauty in the cold, crispy and sunny with lots of snow already. Sunshine beaming into the Hotell Skeppsholmen , one of our favourite luncheon places and also partner.

Wonderful Stig Lindberg cups in a ray of sun

Design and Government - Haag, Helsinki and Stockholm in 2012

Speed visit from Haag and Helsinki. Informal dinner in my house on Monday night and continued meeting in our library at Svensk Form in the morning. Ed Annink, designer and initiator of the Dutch organisation Design Den Haag, who visited us earlier in August, was now back with a concrete proposal for collaboration in 2012 with Stockholm, Haag, Helsinki and also Eindhoven on the topic Design and Government. How nations and cities work with design in communication with society. Through visual communication, architecture and public design. Products and services in society. Yesterday and tomorrow. The idea is that this project, partly founded by the EU, and partly founded by the participating cities/nations, will continue until 2018, when a report of the inventory and the results will be presented to the EU. Including analyses and proposals for the future. Better communication with the citizens through design.  So far they have for instance worked with how political posters in the different countries have been used, another example was 27 different police cars, and police uniforms in our different EU countries. How do they transmit the same message service and order to us through their uniforms, cars and symbols. See more exhibitions and symosiums on their webb. Cities chosen by Ed is Haag, Berlin, London, Paris, Rome and Stockholm. Ed also brought with him his chairwoman Liesbet in't Hout, who is director of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. Kari Korkman founder of the Helsinki Design week also came over from Helsinki to discuss the collaboration. Lively and engaged discussions in the evening and also the following days. I had invited representatives from the city and organisations such as Konstfack, Museum of Architecture, Sveriges designer etc and individual designers and persons interested and involved in these topics. Svensk Form is ready to act as a coordinator for the Stockholm part, as long as there is a backup from city and government in Sweden. EU-money will be applied for. Total budget for the 2012 project is about 6 million EUR, to be applied for jointly from EU, and individual budgets in each city. One symposium and one exhibtion. Suitable venues for exhibition and symposium in Sweden could be the Museum of Architecture and Kulturhuset. I belive there is an interesting potential in this.

Anna Rygård, just back from Shanghai,  discusses with Thomas Herrström from Konstfack. Ed and Liesbet in the background

Harrie Rademakers, media & Pr communicator and strategist with architect Katrin Greiling

 Daniel Golling, former Forum now Form in conversation with architect Katrin Greiling

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 Kari Korkman from Helsinki with Ed Annink, unfortunately closing his eyes here. Both very elegant and movie star quality. 

 

Tuesday morning at Svensk Form - Ed explaining how we can collaborate in 2012

From the left Tomas Bokstad, Anna Gissler Stockholm Business Region and Anna Rygård

Anna Blomdahl, Liesbet in't Hout, Kari Korkman and Harrie Rademaker

Xerxes at the Royal Opera in Stockholm - go and see it!

Stage design and scenography we actually do not talk about enough in our work, despite it being so influential. Witnessed it again yesterday, when I was invited by a couple of friends to go and see Händel's opera Xerxes at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. I really do not see enough Opera either, but when I for once went, I was so lucky to catch a really good performance. Great singers, sometimes breathtaking, beautiful scenography and barock music. The director had chosen the setting in a 1930's Persia, in an amazing mix of time shifts - far and near - an opera from 1738 with barock music, talking about Xerxes King of Persia thousands of years before Christ, set in the 30's and played in 2011. Tradgedy and Comedy and the eternal love stories. Final message: No matter how much power you have, you can never force anyone to love you. Karolina Blix as Xerxes was perfect. The designer Robert Innes Hopkins from London has made both the clever scenography and the costumes. Swedish light designer Linus Fellbom has also done a great job. See it!

Trend guru LiEdelkoort in town

Listened to Li Edelkoort at Berns yesterday, inspiring and interesting as always, forecasting the trends for 2012 in fashion, design and lifestyle. Intelligently and well researched, presented in her characteristic artistic way, almost like a performance, with music, double images and colour palettes. This time our mother earth was in focus. From a back-to-nature approach as well as dealing with all the disasters and challanges of today. This year we have had more large natural disasters than ever before: 400 so far. Anyway, she used this in a creative and artistic way, "to pick our mother earth's brain for creative solutions" and think of how to improve our lives, and our production systems, at least starting on a smaller scale. She advised companies to try to produce less, but better merchandise, and to aim towards bringing production back to our own countries. Lets start on a small scale, 10 % of the production, sustainable and local, and then we can increase this movement. Many of her prediction were to confirm what we feel and already know with our intuition. I also learned some new words: that we are becoming more MONO-MINDED, that we see more and more of ECO-TECHNO textiles (for example recycled polyester - see Issey Miyakes latest brand 1235, and thirdly, THE MOUNTAIN GIRL - the new look we will see more of in fashion. Li Edelkoort's love and engagement in Scandinavian crafts and culture is still strong, and I was happy to join for a special luncheon with her before she took of for London and more trendcasting. We could not take any photos during her presentation, but here is the audience and her Swedish agent since many years Paula Malm,

Kick-off for the new advisory board for cultural and creative enterprises

So now they have met for the first time - the new advisory board for cultural and creative enterprises - as we could read from a press release from the government, with the Ministers for Trade and Culture present, Maud Olofsson and Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth. They were already appointed in June, as I have informed before, but it will be interesting to see how the work proceeds, the initiative is good, and there have been many preparatory meetings.

Chairman is again Sven-Olof Bodenfors and the other members are: 

Anna Carrfors Bråkenhielm, Passion for Business
Stina Lindholm, formgivare, Gotland,
Bea Szenfeld, modeskapare, Stockholm
Birgitta Svendén, VD Kungliga Operan, Sthlm
David Eriksson, VD North Kingdom
Dominic Power, Professor Uppsala Universitet
Lotta Lekvall, VD Nätverkstan Göteborg
Mattias Wikner, Wikners i Persåsen
Martin Q Larsson, tonsättare och musiker
Rasoul Nejadmehr, musiker, Dr i filosofi

As a part of the larger action plan for creative and cultural (total 73 million SEK in 4 years),  Innovation and Design is one section, concerning our target groups directly, which has already been launched. The first part concerned IT, design and sustainable development (Var dags IT - IT-demonstratorer 2010. Innovation och design med inriktning mot miljö och hållbarhet) Small and medium sized companies could apply for projects on Vinnova's homepage during four weeks (closed last week) for a total of 17 million SEK. Next year the focus is planned to stimulate young design.The aim is that small design companies should be able to develop their survival and profitability, since this sector is very important for the development and growth in our society. Big plans, small money, bit still a step forward, and good initiative.

Back in Stockholm

With my colleagues Emilia Hedman, Erika Zinders and Linnea Lindahl at lunch break.

Magic opening night of new space by Angela Carvalho - consciencious design

Not just another product! After many years as a successful product designer, Angela Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro decided it was time for a change. A transformation and a shift to a more consciencious and sustainable design process. All transformations are painful, but she felt it was a necessary change to make in this time of challenges. So she transformed her space, to open up as a warm meeting place, where designers can come and rent an office space for a day, a week, a month, while working on special projects. A space where she will create discussions, seminars and events on important topics within design. She also transformed her own logo, out from her name Angela (messenger) Carvalho (a tree) and let a young aquarel artist make a softer logotype of a tree, far from her usual graphic design. She has a lot of good clients and enterprises, whom she wants to involve in her new way of working. Her building is located in the middle of the square by URCA, and she has a small port and a small park just outside. Her ambition is to transform both the port and the park through good design and involvement by the citizens. She has already engaged young artists, graphic designers and a gardener to identify what is already in the park, and trying to enchance its value in various ways. As a radical action, and a symbol of this shift, she planted a new tree in her invited her designer friends, made a warm and moving party. I am happy I was there to see all of this and will be interested to follow the progress. This is going on in many places, but quite new in Brazil-

Angela Carvalho and her meeting room - with the famous Golden grass, and plants that can be used as molds for various shapes.

Her new logotype is a soft aquarel tree- Carvalho means a tree - and indicates her new nature and sustainable approach

 12 new free office spaces for designers who wish to come and work and join the process

View from the windows over the "praca" the square and the mini port

The guests were served corn and pop corn from traditional street sellers

 Angela inviting the guests to sit outside in the public area, where she gave her speech of intentions, introducing the young designers and gardeners working with her, and also inviting the "mama of design" from Sao Paulo and founder of the magazine Arc Design Maria Elena, to plant the tree in the park (without public permission)

Creative meeting at MAM - Museum of Modern art in Rio

ALEGRIA - happiness or joy, is the most important characteristic of Brazilian Design, says the owner Tulio Mariante of Loja Novo Desenho, The only shop with only Brazilian contemporary design object is located in the Museum of Modern art in Rio. We went for an unforgettable visit there, while he and his co-owner Christina showed all the unique pieces, telling about the characteristics of Brazilian contemporary design as the individual designers were entering the shop, all starting to participate in a fruitful discussion on how to develop Brazilian design, exchange with Sweden and Europe etc. There is clearly a very dynamic moment and uprising strength and confidence within the Brazilian design community. Their unique and fantastic own materials, the small scale production, the craftsmenship that still exists for small series - and growing interest for social engaged design and environmental concerns. More challenges however when it comes to technological delvelopment, industrial production costs and willingness to invest in local production - transportation costs are also an issue. However, the unmistakable energy, optimism are bound to have effect for the future. Later on came the famous design journalist and founder of magazine Arc Design Maria Helena Estrada, the "mama" of Brazilian design as well as Humberto Campana, one of the brothers of the internationally famous Campana Brother. A true meeting place for design in Rio.

Photos to come soon, and more reports from Match Making between designers and industry on day 3 of Rio Design + magic night with opening of Angela Carvalhos transformed studio Design Consciente.

 

 

 

 Laser cut nature shapes in wood by Ana Paulo Castro

Mama of Design in Brazil, founder of magazine Arc Design, Maria Helena Estrada and shop owner and designer Tulio Mariante