marcel wanders: tulip armchair + flashback for cappellini

What the hell has happened to the coolest brand in design ? Ok I see its the egg chair redone in a tulip shape, but who cares, its looks tacky & dated. Quite frankly most of their collection this year is piss poor.

I say contact the 'fresh & inspired' designers to do 'fresh & inspired' projects & not just ride on the names of the clearly, creativly exhausted big guns who have too many clients & not enough ideas.

Frustrated young talent   04.26.10

Tough times for Cappellini. They really have to find a way to extract themselves from the Charme hell. Now that Alias is gone, poor Cappellini looks totally lost between Cassina (which became Lissoni Land) and Poltrona Frau... Pretty sure Mr.Cappellini has his hands tied up and is pushed by the owners to go for the quick money.
I really hope he will find his independence again soon.

Just one question to designboom (but it also works for all the design press/media) : I am always surprised how neutral you are and how you just release press releases without adding any point of view. I do check your site very often and I like it but sometimes I really wish it would be more critical.

june   04.26.10

june,
thank you for your very good questions.
feedback is a vital part of any creative process.

you asked us about our personal opinion, we feel that we can defend cappellini, because they did a good job this year and the tulip chair is quite nice too.

we almost never republish press releases, you might have confused us with another site.
for example, when we state 'original content' it stands for a feature that we have produced,
usually with many of our own pics and/or our own research.
we publish only things that we find interesting. not necessarily good as a total expression,
but we are passionate designers and easily find quality in a detail.
this does not mean designboom operates with a laissez-faire approach, we're pretty radical as individuals,
but we are also conscious that critics are an instrument of power.

regarding criticism -
'nasty people say nasty things'...
criticism uses the opportunity provided by someone else's work to make the critic feel smart,
superior or better about themselves. it takes a big ego to be convinced that there is right or wrong
and that it is you to be able to discern it.

we understand that people wish to view the world in perspective, but the reasons for creative work
are very complex and true understanding does not like categorizing.
we are not sure that, even after more than 20 years experience as designers, that we know it all.
we don't think that we should tell our readers what we personally like or dislike.
designboom transcends personal taste and is different from other publications because we don't want to
influence opinions. our goal is to distribute useful information, in order that readers can form their own opinion.
(honestly we don't really care about opinions, more about people who make something,
who translate their vision into form).

we do see the bad aspects in the field of art, architecture and design and our publishing policy is to omit it.
naively thinking that if we don't talk about it, maybe it will not survive?

birgit/designboom   04.26.10

Thank you for your long answer. It does make sense.
True that you don't publish full press releases like dez--- does ;).
I am not expecting you to say bad things or start being negative about some designers or some products, but sometimes I feel it's a bit too 'dry', with no explanation (even short) about the company background, analysis, etc. But after all, perhaps it's not your aim, and that I would totally understand.
Thanks.

june   04.26.10

Where avant-guard from Cappellini?????

Bicubic   04.26.10

Last summer I saw Wanders walking on the street wearing shiny golden shoes. That says it all. This design could easily be part of the Bretz catalogue, renowned for their curvy and to be honest tacky designs.

Airborn   04.27.10

This new tulip armchair really surprised me. Unfortunately not in a good sense, because it seams so heavy, ungraceful and not balanced. Its backrest is so tall and looks like an added element to the chair which does'nt form a whole. This shape does'nt allow that people communicate each other, as they remain isolated. Therefore a composition with those armchairs is impossible because they work separated, without any relationship with other furniture in any kind of room. Would anyone waste his/her money with such a thing? I think so! I'm affraid people would buy it just because almost nobody wants to tell the readers what they personally like or deslike. And so, how can people form their own opinion if they never listened to or read any opinion at all? By the way, in my opinion, including bad works in this site is already an approval. Actually, the hope that omitting opinions about design bad aspects would contribute for them not to survive, this is really naïve. Nowadays, criticism died. The number of nonsense objects is increasing so vertiginously and almost everybody is standing up to clap hands. Don't you agree with me? Just take a look at some designer's site or at many objects in the Milan Design Week 2010.

Célia   04.30.10