Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Harry Allen Design for Corian


For more information, contact Harry Allen Design at office@harryallendesign.com,
ph: 212.529.7239 or visit the DuPont Corian website www.surfaces.dupont.com.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Ames Hotel, Promotional Mailer

Designed in 2009. Asked by the Morgans Hotel Group to develop a promotional mailer and in-room decorative installation for the Ames Hotel, Boston, I wanted to develop a project that would tie together the historical provenance of the Ames building, its sleek new interior, and the city of Boston. I was looking for something that would respond to the hotel’s "Benjamin Franklin meets supermodel" motto. The idea of the souvenir plate in particular, struck me as fertile ground. The team liked the idea. After much exploration I chose to use an image of the exterior of the Ames building printed in metallic gold, a current map of Boston that has been manipulated to give it a more historic feel, a 19th century image of a codfish - historically important to the New England economy, and text from a historical account of a ship arriving in Boston Harbor from the book Picturesque America from 1874.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

New York Times: Appreciation for a Simple Pickup

Published July 30, 2009. The New York Times featured Harry and his 1964 Willys Jeep pickup in Auto Ego, the weekly automotive section. Click for the article or a special audio slideshow.


Icy Saucer

Designed in 2004 for Steuben as a martini glass, the Icy Saucer is also great for desserts and champagne. Four cut planes intersect the undulating of the blown glass stem and create a distinctive flower petal pattern. Cheers.

REALITY Products

Designed in 2004. The first series of Harry Allen Products is called Reality. The series consists of objects whose form is "sampled" from existing sources. Mr. Allen has long believed that original form should no longer be the driving force in design. Reality gives him the opportunity to further explore this idea by borrowing form from the world around him. Using a technique that involves casting polyester resin in highly-detailed silicone molds, Mr. Allen is able to borrow with precision. Reality Products by Harry Allen are manufactured and distributed by Areaware.


Photographs by Rune Stokmo

www.areaware.com

Moss

Designed in 1994 & 1999. Murray Moss decided to open a New York store offering the design objects that Europe coveted and most American retailers ignored. Working closely with the owner, Harry Allen designed a space to fit the merchant's specific marketing objectives. Products are displayed in a novel manner - by association, not category. In an effort of focus attention on the merchandise, the designer embraced the language of art galleries and museums. The natural white environment is an exercise in clarity. Every product can be seen, desired, and ultimately purchased. The store was expanded in 1999 by 4000 square feet. Working with the vocabulary developed for the original space, the expanded store also broke new ground. The product is once again behind glass, but now it is majestically displayed in pivoting cases, dioramas and walls of beautiful shelving.



Video footage taken of the original Moss interior for a competition entry.



www.mossonline.com

Dupont Corian Philadelphia Showroom

Designed in 2009. Dupont asked Harry Allen to design a showroom to showcase Corian, the solid-surfacing material. The designer responded with a series of installations each expressing a unique quality of the material. The showroom "events" include the thermo-formed lighting fixtures that hang in a standard aluminum ceiling grid, an organic conference table, translucent window screens with a photograph etched into them, pressure molded cabinetry, a backlit color photo that was printed onto Corian using a dye-sublimation technique, and two displays demonstrating the wide color palette. With the goal of inspiring other designers to work with Corian, Mr. Allen used the space to push the limits of this versatile product.