NYC Design Week Recap 1: RECAPITULATION
At ICFF and WantedDesign, Umbra and Alessi demonstrate downward scalability... and it works.
Design Week New York this year has seen a flurry of recapitulation: the re-introduction, re-packaging, re-imagining of materials, processes, and brand identities. This is not to be confused with any “retro” trend, but is rather an initiative by many of the major design purveyors to scale down from mass-merchandise to boutique formats.
Canadian houseware brand Umbra debuted Umbra Shift, a design research incubator and boutique product line, at ICFF. Down the street at WantedDesign, the Italian powerhouse Alessi showcased its own literal Research Lab, and a suite of multi-disciplinary product designs. Both these mass merchandise brands effectively showcase the power of scalability with prototypes that elevate their core competencies with new approaches.
The Umbra Shift showcase included pieces like the Hanger Chair (designed by Philip Malouin) and the Spoon Clock (designed by Albert Lee), which flexed the brand’s trademark knack for “clever” products, but according to Creative Lead Tom Chung, the Umbra Shift program was primarily an initiative to give young independent designers the opportunity to design things they might keep in their own homes. I certainly found that this added a level of precocity; the Umbra presence moved from bright contrasts we may be more familiar with in its corporate iterations, to more neutral and nature-based tones of unpainted earthenware and woods that would be welcome in any home stage.
The Hanger Chair, designed by Philip Malouin, on sale June 2014.
“We’re focusing on new ways to do things internally and using more real materials, so you’ll see things like ceramics, grass, cement and wood… instead of plastic, which is what we’re known for,” said Chung, who along with Design Director Matt Carr spent the last year and a half developing the line with design agency Post Projects, and will have product lines in stock by June.
Chung compared the process to managing a start-up. “This has been a real learning experience. As a designer, having to work on everything from product design to costing and sourcing… but it goes the other way around too, because there is so much we’ve been able to leverage from Umbra (proper) for Umbra Shift.”
Tom Chung and Matt Carr, Umbra Shift.
Working with younger designers and with new materials also gave Umbra the opportunity to reconsider presence in the independent design boutique; something many market industries are having to reconcile with in spite of e-commerce and the growing ubiquity of big box retailers.
New materials and generational shift were also key tenets of the Alessi Research Lab, where pieces included a portable LED lamp, as well as a cement bowl in an otherwise classic silhouette for a brand most famous for stainless steel, according to Paolo Cravedi (Managing Director, N.A.).
Alessi Lumi lamp. Photo by: Alessi
Concrete bowl by Luca Baldusera, winner of "Concrete in Design" competition sponsored by Italcementi and Alessi. Photo by: Studio Sessione
“Alessi isn’t a designer but a mediator between artists and the market,” noted Cravedi, adding that the research lab is just a new name for an old concept: the workshop. “Our factories only make stainless steel, so we welcome information from others about materials and design concepts. Cement, for example, which can be molded very thinly today thanks to new technology. We’ve discovered some great designs through competition and our own networks.”
Alessi has been workshopping new design since the 1980s with Laura Polinoro. In tandem with its suite of classics by maestros like Philippe Starck and Marcel Wanders, Alessi has nurtured new talents for discovery, because according to Cravedi, new problems may not be obvious to older designers. There is also, he says, something to be said about revisiting old discoveries. "Discovery can be multi-faceted. We used to get designs by fax, for example."
The PCH02 Basket by Pierre Charpin, takes a new approach to an old design archetype. Photo by: Torri Leo used with permission from Alessi.
Both companies are learning to navigate new tools for growth. Chung notes that they'd like to explore tenets like sustainability and local craftsmanship but have started by researching resource alternatives and workmanship in handicraft countries of Southeast Asia. As for Alessi, Cravedi says their commitment to change has been an evolution: “Fifty years ago if you asked if we were interested in new materials we might’ve said no, but then we tried plastic and color interventions in the 1990s, learned that design can imbue humor." Today, the big guys are saying yes to change.
The Umbra Shift showroom can be viewed at ICFF through Tuesday the 20th at the Javtis Center. Alessi Research Lab is viewable online.