The visual thread that weaves itself through the artist Edgar Orlaineta’s works is something we can certainly appreciate. Born and based in Mexico City, Orlaineta’s range of influences, which spans Charles and Ray Eames to Alexander Calder, Alexander Girard and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, are united by their iconic graphic language that he then uses to articulate the everyday details and cultural perspectives of modern life.
From intricately worked sculptures to colourful, eye-catching canvases, Orlaineta’s taste for design and art history infuses each of his pieces with an energetic sensibility. His latest body of work, which is newly available at RH Contemporary Art, riffs on Incantation, a series of abstracted, figurative hieroglyphics designed by the American graphic and typeface designer Alvin Lustig in 1947. Lustig, a pioneering figure in the design world, who is oft overlooked due to his death from diabetes at age 40, produced books, signage and fabrics. Rumour has it that he designed the iconic first cover of Industrial Design magazine in 1954 when already completely blind.
Employing artisanal printing methods, Orlaineta has produced screenprints of Lustig’s geometric pattern on brightly coloured raw linen and added brass-clad signets of certain motifs to bring a new dimensionality to the textiles. Orlaineta, who studied art at Mexico City’s Escuela Nacional and the Pratt Institute in New York, has also created a series of wood and brass sculptures inspired by Lustig’s book jacket designs. Each work is paired with an original Lustig-designed book as a fitting homage to his graphic design legacy.
by Pei-Ru Keh
via wallpaper.com
People interact with the Herman Miller brand in different ways, ranging from their everyday work chair to the coffee table they eyed for years before purchasing. How do you think about the customer experience?
Timothy Straker: Customers might come to us for performance seating for an office complex, or dozens of chairs for a clinic, or a lounge chair for their living room. When they interact with Herman Miller, they all experience the same gracious hospitality, attention to detail, and inspiring collection of settings. We’re focused on the people who use our products: What do they need to get done? And how can we design to support their activities?
Then who is the Herman Miller customer?
Straker: On the surface, we have two very different kinds of customers. Our industry customers are often facilities directors for large companies. They need large-scale office solutions at a certain price point. They might not care all that much about the icons associated with the brand, at least not as a first consideration.
On the consumer side, we see people with a strong interest in design—they might be familiar with some of our legendary designers like Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard and George Nelson, or one of today’s designers like Yves Behar and Studio 7.5. With the acquisitions of Maharam and Design Within Reach (DWR), we’re connecting directly with consumers at retail more than every before.
But on both sides of the business, what people want from Herman Miller are innovative products that help them do great things.
With a portfolio of iconic furniture, the Herman Miller portfolio is relentlessly knocked off by counterfeiters. How do you keep your focus on authenticity?
Straker: Productions like Mad Men have helped reintroduce the classics to a whole new generation—what was new is new again. But our core buyers have always been true design enthusiasts. It’s not just about aesthetics to them—they’re just as interested in the design itself. They view how they live and what they buy as an extension of their own brand, and wouldn’t compromise that with a fake.
What do the Herman Miller values mean to the customer experience?
Straker: Customers today have more information than ever about the companies they do business with. The terrific thing is that our values haven’t ever changed. Our policy on sustainability has been in place since before sustainability was a thing. Our values of curiosity and exploration are central to our strength in innovation. And our point of view in inclusiveness and diversity is how we earned a 100% score from the Human Rights campaign for eight years straight. Our values matter a lot to our employees too, which is important because we believe customer experience and employee experience are one and the same. When your employees live the brand, it’s easier for your customers to identify with the brand.
Matchboxes. Cardboard boxes that have been stamped all over. A slip box full of quotes. Countless tiny portraits – Alexander Girard was a passionate, almost manic collector. He found inspiration for shapes, concepts and ideas everywhere, whether in modern industrial design or traditional folk art. And the Italian-American architect knew how to turn his inexhaustible treasure trove of reference material into innumerable new and exciting things. Girard turned every project he worked on into an artistic synthesis, where everything was thought through, from coffee cup to plug socket – and these projects were as diverse as the corporate design for an airline or an interior for industrialist J. Irwin Miller. He collaborated with Saul Steinberg and Georgia O’Keeffe, Eero Saarinen and George Nelson. And with Ray and Charles Eames. With the latter he shared an especially close and productive friendship. They swapped ideas about radio design and apartment construction, went on trips together, and Charles Eames even photographed Girard’s interiors. The fact that works by both the long-time Vitra hero and the rediscovered gem are now reunited in “Home Complements” is, of course, anything but a chance encounter.
What’s more, Girard’s entire estate, including his extensive collections, is now housed at Vitra Design Museum, so the path from Weil am Rhein into the architect and designer’s world of images and ideas was not particularly long. It is a cheerful world, at times floral and delicate like the pillow, at others loud and flashy like the colorful things now enhancing “Home Complements”. Further neighbors in Vitra’s Mount Olympus of accessories: Hella Jongerius, Arik Levy, Jasper Morrison and others – but even in this youthful company, Girard never looks old.
by Andreas Kühnlein
via stylepark.com
http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/girard-meets-eames/361195
