Best of 2009 List Fatigue…Not Yet !

One week into the new year and the best of lists keeping pouring in.

There is something that compels us to at least glance through these often daunting lists. Perhaps it is the deep psychological need to be associated with something that is the deemed to be the best. For the reason behind this we might look to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid. Right before self actualization is the “Esteem” level, a measure of our success and status.

Wallpaper Magazine’s best of 2009 lists are broken down into various categories with five nominees each. Next month’s issue will announce the winners. That’s one way to keep circulation up. The two groups that are of particular interest to me include; best domestic design and the other is furniture designer of the year.

I’ve narrowed the best domestic design to my two semi-finalists and we can see how my predictions fare.

Kitchen Tools for Men- by Mitsunobo Hagino for Prince Kogyo.

The tool set is comprised of 5 basic utensils. The manufacturer has avoided the use of rivets but rather welded each stainless steel part together to increase durability coated in a matt black heat resistant fluorocarbon polymer. Currently available from UK and Japanese retailers only.

More info. http://
www.nico.or.jp/hyaku/english/

Slowcooker- by Margriet Foolen for Royal VKB.

This product was launched in Paris at the 2009 Maison & Objet trade show. It is a simple reversible terracotta cooking pot with silicone pads that allow it to be placed directly onto a tabletop. Various web retailers show the item as sold out ‘til February.

A 30 second clip shows the simplicity of cooking:
aplusrstore.com/product.php?id=492


Furniture Designer of the Year
With only photographs of the designers faces and a description I immediately knew which two I would focus on for this post. James Irvine and Konstantin Grcic both worked on collaborations with MUJI and THONET. The reason why this is a brilliant idea is that in many ways Muji epitomizes what Thonet set out to do; streamline the production of reasonably priced products. Both channel a vision of simplicity and durability into an end result of timeless design.

Irvine created a series of chairs supported by one single bowed back panel and Grcic designed a collection of office chairs and desks for the Japanese company. The office collection is not for sale yet and both are currently on display in the Muji shops in New York.

www.muji.us/