Prototypes 4 Sale

Prototypes and first production pieces by Harry Allen and Brunno Jahara for sale:

Eclipse 1: $300
Also available in white.
By Harry Allen

Eclipse 3: $400
By Harry Allen 

Neorustica Mini Closet: $3,830
By Brunno Jahara

Neorustica Side Table: $1,200
By Brunno Jahara

LOT Coffee Table: $5,000
By Harry Allen 

All of this furniture was on display at our show Black River Fever last May during Design week. Now we must clear out the showroom, so make an offer! Contact: office@harryallendesign.com.

PROJECT WAFFLES

On August 18 I will work with the Corning Museum of Glass glassblowing team on a new project.                                                                                                                                                                       

I do not normally blog about ongoing design projects, but since this one if self-instigated, based on a fun premise, and involves some skillful glassmakers, I thought it might be fun to share. If you are in Corning area on August 18th, 8:30 -11:30 am, you are welcome to come watch. We will be making glass waffles!

REALITY is my line of goods that are cast from existing objects; most of the products are made by Areaware, but recently because of my work with Steuben and Glasslab, I have been thinking about how to make REALITY products out of glass. It is difficult to give glass a truly realistic form. There is a very labor-intesive process called Sag casting, which is how I made my Sticks and Stones decanter set for Steuben. The other way is to make a metal mold - which is very expensive. The difficulty forced a search for a pre-made mold, anything made of steel that could be used to give a realistic form, and lead me to the waffle iron. It was just there for the taking - a waffle iron is basically a two part mold.

I have a love of waffles that goes back to my childhood. It was the breakfast that my Dad made, I love their texture and taste, and it is associations like this that make for good REALITY products; they are more about ideas and less about just being pretty. Ultimately, however, they need to function too, and it seems to me that a glass waffle will make a very useful trivet. In addition, I am hopeful that glass waffles will look amazing, like a reflector, or cut glass. So I brought the idea to my friends at the Corning Museum of Glass and they invited me up for a waffle making session as part of their Hot Glass Show on August 18th. 

Making a REALITY product is not traditional product design, and it is never a sure thing, it is more about finding the right thing to cast and coaxing it to be a new product. Making glass waffles trivets will be a fun experiment, and you can follow the process here. Look forward to a few more postings before the big day, and of course a full report on the glass fabrication  - maybe even a movie or two. 

Core 77 Best Product Design

 

Harry was part of the team that judged Products/Equipment for Core 77 Awards. They named the Load Carrier for Labour (as seen in images above) as the winner.

The designer was inspired to create a comfortable device that would help workers transport goods on foot. The most common way for workers to carry loads in India are either on the head, back, or by pushing/pulling. Vikrahm created a clever device that would be a solution for all three methods!

Read more about the project on Core77.

Color Report: GREY BUG

I spotted this fantastic vintage VW Bug on the Bronx River Parkway last week - it was primer grey.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I know, I know, no photographing while driving, especially in the Bronx, but I had to capture it for this color report. The bug was almost entirely grey, including some of the original chrome details. I say spray all the chrome grey.

Maybe this car is headed for restoration, or maybe this guy took his auto paint repair into his own hands. I've seen more than one spray-painted matte black car in NYC, and I love the concept. In this age of the super-sleek finish, a matte car is a breath of fresh air. 

In addition to the color, I just like the whole notion of extending the life of our consumer goods. Of hacking them, and re-thinking them and extending their life rather than sending them to the trash heap. 

Of course this is my blind interpretation, no interviews were conducted while driving. The guy behind the wheel might have a very different tale to tell, but he looked pretty happy in his grey bug.

Gilbert Lesser

My friend Tim, in Ptown, had an Equus poster on his wall. Reminded of Gilbert Lesser, it's creator, I went to Strand and bought this book on his work:

                                                                                                                                                           

In the late 80s, I was introduced to Mr. Lesser, before I even had a design degree. He was a friend of my friend Henry Baker, and Henry arranged for an informational interview. Lesser was heading up the promotional department at Life magazine, and I think I still have a Life tote bag he gave me in a drawer somewhere. 

I have always admired his clear bold vision. He went for the jugular; distilled his subjects down to the essential and present it boldly. He died too young, in 1990, at the age of 55.

The book is from a show of his work at the Louvre that concentrated on his theater posters. It was a pleasure to reacquaint myself with his amazing graphics - like the Equus poster (I think I need one for my "collection"), the Elephant Man poster (which I saw with David Bowie in 1980), and the logo and invitations he designed for Studio 54. His work embodies 1970/80s New York, yet looks so fresh today. 

Hand Hooks in SoFo

Our Hand Hooks featured in Swedish magazine, SoFo!

CONVERY TAPE-SCAPES

If you are in Provincetown, MA on Friday evening (7/29), check out my friend Tim Convery's new work from 7-10pm at Foc'sle, 437 Commercial Street.

Tim is a graphic visionary, and last weekend he gave me a preview of his new work. The poster-sized artworks are rifts on travel posters. They are constructed of colored duct tape and employ traditional 2D design mediums (now lost to the computer) like acetate overlays and hand cut graphics. They reminded me of Matisse, but upon closer inspection they are even more gridded out than Swiss-school posters. 

Back in the 90s, Tim and I worked at Prescriptives cosmetics together. He has an amazing sense of style and beauty, and I learned alot from him. One of my criteria as I design is often, "what would Tim think of this?" It is a high bar.

His new body of work is smart and compelling. I loved them so much that I bought one. I hope to bring some of this work to the Harry Allen Design Showroom in the fall.

Home Decor Trends

Our LOT Dining Chair and Banana Bowl were recently featured in Homedec. Homedec is a quarterly magazine published in Malaysia. 

The Prince and the Pig

I'm so happy when my products are adopted into good homes. This little gold pig won the lottery: New York Social Diary 

Core 77 Design Awards Results

I was a juror for the Core 77 Design Awards in the Products and Equipment category. The results will be broadcast live today at 4pm EST a Core77 Design Awards.

Color Report

I love this image for a few reasons.

1) It demonstrates how well our platinum grey kitchen sets off other colors.

2) I believe in design dialogues and I love when two inanimate things in my life start communicating. Our rosé was definitely talking with our snapdragons this evening.

3) In order to really appreciate a color you need to dance around it. On first glance these snapdragons are orange, but when you get into it they are yellow, orange, and light pink. The wine's subtle blush color and transparency compliments the flowers beautifully. Sometimes it is nice to experience a color in all of its variations.

Thomas Dybdahl

I thought everyone knew about Thomas Dybdahl, the young Norwegian singer-songwriter. I raced to get tickets when John's brother called from Norway and told us he would be performing at the Mercury Lounge, but they were still selling tickets at the door.

It turned out to be one of those amazing NY shows where you feel very special. The Mercury lounge wasn't crowded and the music was incredible. The show only lasted an hour, but it only cost $15 and he played many of my favorite songs. Only a couple of new songs were thrown in to whet the appetite.

I love the performing arts for their temporal quality. Design is often very static, but every time music is played it is different and the audience reacts anew. Having only ever heard Dybdahl's recorded songs, the live performance took on a new life. I was surprised by the human interpretation, and I heard lyrics I had never heard before. 

Concerts like this make me realize how different design is from the other arts. I'd love to design things that engage the user like music. To design a chair that stirred emotions, that made people sway, weep, and appreciate life in all of its complexity. Many designers have tried, but it always seems sort of forced. Design as an art form has its limitations and maybe it is best to keep it simple, to restrain ourselves, to be content accommodating others. All I know is that when I put on Dybdahl, he goes beautifully with everything. He even when well with the beer stained floors at the Mercury lounge.

However, there is one more interesting design fact about Thomas Dybdahl. A couple of years ago Philippe Stark, fell in love with his music and offered to art direct the album Science. It wasn't my favorite album musically, but it had a very nice cover. 

Culture Breakfast

I saw 3 unique shows this morning with Kurosaki-san - Alexander McQueen, even more amazing the second time around - the Richard Sera drawings at the Met, the antithesis of McQueen, but no less incredible - and Stephen Burkes' "Are You A Hybrid?" at MAD - a very contemporary commentary on the new world order of design, a great edit. My mind is still processing it all.

Kurosaki in NYC

Teruo Kurosaki is a friend of mine from Japan. I always refer to him as a design impresario, which he is. For years he owned a store in Japan called Ideé - they produced my Daylight lamp and were one of the original distributors of my REALITY series. 

Last night we had dinner at Momofuku with his nephew, Coby, designer Stephen Burkes, and Coby's girlfriend, Carrie. 

Kurosaki has been a mentor and supporter to many product designers. These days he is less involved in design, and more involved in design culture. He is working on the branding and design direction for some big developments in Tokyo and Hong Kong. It was nice to meet his family, and good to see Stephen, who in addition to being one of NYC's finest designers has a show up at the MAD that he curated called "Are you a hybrid?"

Big Green & Big Red

John has been lusting after one of these for a while now, but this weekend he took the plunge. The Big Green Egg is the Rolls Royce of outdoor grills. 

Admittedly it is a yuppie grill fantasy, and from an aesthetic point of view it is sort of funny looking, but its beauty is in its function, and in John's hands it will be well used. We've already had smoked ribs (Fri), and smoked chicken (amazing on Sat eve) and some grilled steak tonight. Based on a traditional asian Kamado, the BGE is ceramic inside and out, like a little kiln for your food. It smokes beautifully, and the ventilator on the top allows for efficient cooking at accurate temperatures.

And nothing goes better with some BGE cooked steaks than a robust bottle of Meerlust Rubicon from the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. We visited the winery a couple of years ago and just found it at our local liquor store. Yum, and such a classy label.

Color Report

It's a roadside weed, but what a beauty.

The pale blue violet  flowers of wild Chicory (Cichorium intybus) line the roads near my home in Bedford NY at this point in the summer. It is a color sure to induce nostalgia.

When I was kid, we called this plant Flax. I only just now learned via a web search that it is in fact Chicory. This explains the murky results I got from an attempt to make linen. Somewhere I learned that linen was made from Flax plants. Further research revealed the manufacturing process that involves soaking the dried stems in water. Apparently if Flax plants are used, the process dissolves the pithy part of the plant and leaves the linen fibers. If one uses Chicory it just makes a smelly bucket of goo.

My childhood disaster notwithstanding, it is a color I would love to use on an interior project at some point. I see it paired with dark woods like Walnut, or a dark steely gray.

McGenius

Alexander McQueen @ the Met blew my mind.

High Life

If you have not seen the Highline, ignore me and go. It is an amazing new addition to New York. I am however a bit conflicted about it.

John and I, and our friends Cathy and Jeff went to visit the newly opened section on Tuesday evening. It was busy, a freeway of sorts. Beautiful planting and views of the City, but I have yet to relax up there. Maybe if I wasn't so hungry, it was way past dinnertime for me.

It seems more promenade than park to me. 

And dare I say the design feels a little self-conscious. I don't love all of the swooshes, and references to movement. 

I do love all of the remnants of NYC history, and the new views of West side architecture that it provides. 

The new "lawn," is tiny. Not sure why they even tried.

And the birdhouses ... not a bird in sight. 

Hey, I'm a critical New Yorker, and a design snob. The plantings steal the show. 

I cant wait for it to settle in, to see what it becomes, how it really contributes to the City. 

Starving, we ended the evening at the Fatty Crab. 

Oy. Too cool for me. Loud music, small plates, and "... you are going to want to share everything (we will?), and all of the plates will come as the chef makes them in no particular order..." etc, etc. 

I feel like my mother, but do you mean that you won't serve me a normal meal or you can't. Interesting Malaysian flavors, but I am yelling at my friends and making a mess. Eating with my hands, and the waiter could at least learn to pour water in the glass without spilling. Oh, and it was $80 a head.

Live and learn.

LOT IN TIMES TODAY

Our LOT collection for NDT Brazil is featured in the Home section of the NY Times today. Read the story here.

Core 77 Design Awards

A lot of interesting conversation went down while judging the Product and Equipment category of the Core77 Design Awards.

These awards pick up where the ID Design Awards left off when ID Magazine folded. My fellow judges and I, (below L to R) Zoe Coombes, Rama Chorpash, Maria Popova, and Julie Lasky, took all day to wade through the many entries. 

There were some amazing and beautiful entries, and discussing the ever-changing boundaries of design was fun and challenging.

Beyond Design

On Wednesday and Thursday I participated in a design conference called DesignBoost. I didn't know much about it except that it was curated by a friend of mine, David Carlsson of David Design and more recently the DavidReport. He is a multi-disciplinarian design impresario and I like what he does so I agreed to participate in his program at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and it proved interesting.

In general there is a lot of metal masturbation around the design community. We like to debate our role in the world, and critique ourselves. It can be fun; it can be an eye roll, but this conference had an interesting format.

First, on Wednesday afternoon, I participated in a group discussion around the theme of how designers can be more proactive when it come to social responsibility. Many of us acknowledged that ultimately many of the decisions to be more socially responsible were not up to us. We all agreed to do our best. Davin Stowell of Smart Design spoke about trying to frame the context of the design work. Involvement in the planning stages obviously provides more opportunity to do good - make products greener, more efficiently, etc etc. This of course requires that clients ask you to do the framing, and more often than not I am not involved in that part of the process.

In the evening I attended the "speed dating" dinner. A networking dinner that took its format from speed dating. It was lively because a) it started with a whiskey tasting, b) everyone moved one seat to the right every four minutes, and c) they served a lot of wine. It was more of a drunk dating dinner - a pretty good way meet new people, and David had assembled and interesting group of participants. Unfortunately it seemed every time I moved they served a plate of calamari two places to the left. Just out of reach. 

The "dating" begins:

And then we got down to business. I met some nice people.

And finally on Thursday I spoke to the group, presenting my work in the context of "Design Beyond Design," or the future of design. The future as I see it anyway. I think at some point it may be posted on their web site. Unfortunately I missed all of the other presentations because I had double booked - in addition to DesignBoost, I was judging the Core 77 Design Awards and I had to run back to finish up.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HARRY ALLEN

Or at least part of it. Check out the interview Harry did with Living Etc.

Color Report

I was inspired by the mounds of fresh strawberries at the farmers market yesterday. Red is delicious.

Hand of the Designer

The Hand Hooks, from our REALITY line, were cast from Harry's hands, so it is fun to see where they end up. They were recently spotted in the home of Anthony Almaguer and Steven Burgert, owners of I.D. Chicago.

Harry's hands are all around the world - offering, grabbing, holding, beckoning, and making themselves useful where ever they go. Check out the frosted Offer Hook used as a soap dish, right below the My Brothers Mirror! These guys have amazing taste.

Rhodie Warriors

Last weekend John and I decided to add some large Rhododendron Maximum to the border around our yard - for privacy sake. On Thursday morning I used the truck - one of its few useful missions so far this summer - to pick up three 7-8' tall native Rhodies.

Please note the new wooden rails on the truck bed, they are another small design project a long time coming, but they look great and are very useful when carting large plants around.

The atmospheric photos are thanks to dirt on my iphone lens.

Here is John with one of the new additions.

The first planting presented the biggest struggle. We discovered three large rocks right where we wanted the shrub - strategically placed to block out the neighbor's driveway. We wrestled the rocks and won. Ben obviously does not see what all the fuss was about.

And those three big, flat rocks that we removed will turn into next weekend's project, as we expand the rock garden that runs along the base of our rock wall...

Suite Friday

I have been working on a few residential projects - I know, yikes - it involves a lot of specifying and shopping, but I am enjoying the research. Last Friday, late in the afternoon I swung by Suite NY to see what they have. They carry some of the best European furniture brands, from Alper to Foscarini to dePadova, and the new showroom at 419 Park Ave is incredible, up on the 17th Floor with views of the Empire State Building.

Kris Fuchs and Maria Sepulveda who own the place are friends and since it was the most amazing Friday, after I saw all I needed to see, we hung out on their balcony for a bit. Right across from them is this amazing new glass-balcony bar in the Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel. Looks like a great place to visit.

I have the greatest respect for anyone in the front trenches selling design, and Kris and Maria are two of the hardest working gals in the business, but we were not working very hard on Friday afternoon.

Shiro Kuramata

Harry's piece on a forgotten icon for W Magazine - "Design Hits, Revisited".



Designer Harry Allen believes that Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata (1934–91)—who in reality was more unloved than merely forgotten—has been overlooked because his favored mediums (mostly wire and Lucite) are out of fashion. “He had a great sense of experimentation and playfulness, and was a master of rethinking materials,” says Allen. “Why shouldn’t a chair [above] be made out of metal mesh?” Allen also cherishes his Kuramata acrylic vases, which he bought late one night at a museum in Tokyo. “I’ve only put flowers in them a couple of times,” he says. “They really don’t need to be accessorized.

By Mark Ellwood
May 2011

Spasso Mascot

Our blue-chrome Bank in the Form of a Pig is frequently at risk of theft by customers at one of the "impossible-to-get table" restaurants in New York City, Spasso! Read the article here!