Red, architecture and food design

© Frigor Carrés (image: AJN), source http://www.an-architecture.com

...Continuing the research about colors and their application in design..Today- colors in Jean Nouvel's designs-2005 packaging competition for the chocolate brand Callier and The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London-two designs with application in different fields but linked by the same gesture: 100% red.

©  source http://www.londondesignguide.com

                                           

Who’s afraid of red, yellow and blue?

  Extract; Low resolution, fair use image of

 ''Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?'', 1966, by Barnett Newman. 

Oil on canvas, source Wikipedia

Did you ever wonder why all the designers have a preference for black and grey shades? It doesn't matter if is about what they create or what they dress but neutral and dark shades are most of the time present …Yes, black is a symbol of elegance, nobility and minimalism … but are these the only reasons for giving black such an important role? 

We do love black and grey tones; we use them a lot in our designs and daily life but still try to discover more about the other colors and integrate them as much in our designs, but somehow it becomes a more complex task... 

So many things had been told about colors and design; there were so many studies done about the significance of every color and how colors should be used in order to create the atmosphere, effect or just to send the message we want. The truth is, after all, colors and their application in design will remain very subjective. It is a matter of personal perception, cultural background and even a matter of mood. 

As designers we are still interested to address our products to a wide range of people and get the effect we want, so the question about how, when, which and in what proportion shall we use the colors will always be an actual subject of debate…

So, as Barnett Newman series of paintings asks: who's afraid of red, yellow and blue?

THE CUBE

Lab’process project was started at the end of summer 2010. And there is one product (that you may already have discovered on our website) that marks somehow the beginning of our collaboration: the model of concrete lamp called the CUBE.

We already spoke about our interest for concrete and how fascinating this material is for us. We love its simplicity and complexity in the same time, the range of different textures it can get, the shades and all the variety of shapes we can create with it. So is not a coincidence that our first product was made of concrete.

The CUBE has a unique story since it was designed to ‘accessorize’ the house of one of us. The need was for a lamp that could be used both as a floor lamp and on the bedside, that could fit more than just one setting and could create a nice atmosphere for the long, grey rainy Dutch days; one simple yet interesting object with multiple uses –lots of requirements not easy to find in an object after a quick scan of what is available on the market.

Having a pretty clear idea of the design in mind, we thought it was worth giving it a shot and so, to create the object exactly how we wanted it to be: simple, at the right dimensions to fit multiple use, neutral material and color, providing diffuse light that reflects on a rough surface, creating a multitude of shades…

That was sort of the beginning of Lab’... Back then we were already speaking of joining our professional experiences and try to bring our ideas under one structure but we were still thinking how and in which form. The CUBE gave us somehow a direction. It was our first successful experiment and probably the item that really helped us decide to start what is now Lab’process...

http://labprocess-design.com/index.php#!/?page=shop&product=1

Paris, Les Journées Particulières and Christian Dior Haute Couture….

                                                                                                                                        ©  Dior website

Last month we spent an incredible week-end in Paris- 3 days of gastronomic highlights, culture, design, great architecture and a visit to Dior's ateliers. 

There are so many stories about the interesting things that we have seen and done in just 3 days, but today we shall tell more about the ‘Les Journées Particulières’ event and our fabulous visit to les salons Haute Couture de Christian Dior. 

This year for the very first time, the luxury conglomerate LVMH had organized a special event - “Les Journées Particulières” – offering the public demonstrations and intimate tours of 25 houses of history, creation, exceptional savoir-faire and tradition of excellence.

On October 16th, we got the chance to visit the traditionally off-limits Haute-Couture Salons of Christian Dior at 30 avenues Montaigne. This emblematic house is where Christian Dior founded his label in 1947 and showed his first collection in 1947 - an event that was attended by Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth and Jean Cocteau...

Christian Dior went down in fashion history as the inventor of the "New Look" in 1946, a revolutionary style that influenced fashion and other designers for many years. What we find fascinating about Dior is the visionary concept of what has become a true empire. Christian Dior would never define himself as a simple fashion designer. He thought that there were several ways to magnify a silhouette and, above all, that they could complement each other without opposing. For him, perfume was for example "the indispensable complement of the female personality, the finishing touch to a dress".

Our visit consisted in a tour of the Dior ateliers in the heart of Avenue Montaigne- one and a half hour of elegance, outstanding techniques and incredible crafting traditions to produce items for one of the most appreciated fashion brands. It was just as we expected and more..From the suits line for men, to the jewelries, perfume, shoes, bags and the iconic Dior Bar suit, every item is designed, studied and adjust until it reaches ‘perfection’- an incredible process which makes a great lesson for any designer….

'Structure, surface and feminine silhouette are cultivated at the house of Dior for Autumn/Winter 2011-12 to capture the spirit of la Rose Moderne.Architectural exactitude inspires new cut and construction to bloom, as fabric techniques are innovated by the studio to create an elegant new Haute Couture.

………….. 

Frank Gehry inspires shimmering soft metallics with glass sequins, neutrals and a new Dior rose. Modern waves are constructed in light mille feuille forms of natural beauty, frayed iridescent lamé and muted taffetas. Metallic embroidery, circular layering and light deconstruction twist a new Dior Gehry rose of pure elegance.'

( Dior website- autumn-winter collection 2011 )

3D vegetal imprints

Reversed volumes, By mischer'traxler

'Reversed volumes' are bowls that are shaped by capturing the imprint of a fruit or a vegetable in ceramics. This project was developed by Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler from Studio mischer‘traxler for Food Marketo, a pop up shop organized by Design Marketo, Apartamento Magazine and Marion Friedmann during Milan Design Week 2010. 

The designer duo played with volumes, shapes, textures and colors to realize a new direction for art of the table. The bowls are 3D vegetal imprints from cauliflower, cabbage, red beet, fennel, green apple, orange and yellow pepper etc. Once un-mould, each bowl keeps the unique imprint of the fruit / vegetable that has been used. The bowls also integrate the color of the fruits / vegetables. 

The goal is eventually to see the fruit / vegetable from a different angle, but not only… This design plays with the inside textures of the bowl instead of the outer surface. Real "reversed volumes" indeed... 

It is an interesting experiment about our relationship with food and nature in general- natural colors, interesting organic shapes that make a link between the raw cooking material and food recipients’...-perfect ingredients that make us think more about the food design and imagine…

http://www.mischertraxler.com/projects_reversed_volumes.html

pictures copyright mischer'traxler

THE BLACK BOX THEORY

Today we want to speak about how our Blog-The Lab’- works.

Lab’process is a hybrid identity based on a process formed by research, creation and finally a concrete product or idea. While we reveal our products on our website, our blog acts as an interface where we reveal more about our creative process, news, projects that we like and inspire us.

We organized the blog in three sections: input, black box, output .This organization comes from the BLACK BOX theoretical concept. Indeed, as stated by this concept, research and experiences processes are uncertain systems whose internal structure/operations remain unknown most of the time… One knows where it starts (INPUT), but not always where and what it leads to (OUTPUT). And this is precisely what is interesting. 

That’s why we invite you to pass through this blog and to discover the three sections:

Input

We believe that as designers having a good idea of what is happening in the creative world is really important. It keeps us up to date, present, aware of the society needs and more ready for reacting properly……

This is what Input is about- a selection of themes, ideas or things from different creative fields that we find interesting and want to share. There are also some of the ideas we want to explore.

Black box

The black box reveals some stories of our experiments, thoughts or themes that we are exploring in our Lab’. It is the place where we make the connections, put together the puzzles, compose or decompose different ideas and concepts, while the mystery of the final outcome remains.

Output

Finally the output is the place where things get more shape; processed ideas are close to finalization and, most of the time, turn into materialized items that can be found on our website or just into conclusions for ideas and concepts for future experiments.

02/11/2011

Day number one after the website launch… still excited after the big step but somehow more relaxed. Today is another big day for us as we just got the keys of our new office!

In the coming days we shall tell you more about this blog- The Lab’- and what it means for us.


Have a nice evening!

www.labprocess-design.com

WEBSITE GRAND OPENING!

www.labprocess-design.com _ Online tonight at 8:00pm!

The big day has arrived! We are very pleased to announce the grand opening of Lab'process website tonight at 8:00 pm! 

This is the completion of one year of hard work for us. Because even if “It's not the  destination, it's the journey", it's still good to reach destination sometimes...

We thank all of you who helped us during this preparation time. Thank you for your help that manifested itself in so many ways, for your encouragement and your support.

Launching this website, nonetheless, is only one step in a longer trip. Follow our peregrinations daily on our blog and feel free to talk about Lab 'process around!

Thank you and see you tonight online at 8.00 pm!

ONE!

"It's not the destination, it's the journey"

After ideas, favorite materials and tools, what could have possibly been hiding under number 1?

This mannequin, present in our workshop, represents pretty well our place of work and experimentation. There we think, try, build, deconstruct and rebuild all over again until we get the expected result. It is the invisible side of our work.

At the time of long distance communication and immediate responses, we realize less and less the amount of work and time required for any achievement. However, for designers perhaps even more, "it's not the destination, it’s the journey". For us the journey takes place in our laboratory. There we experiment and develop new ideas and concepts that could potentially turn into new entities. 

In the "online" world, this blog is the place to show this invisible research. Here is our ambition for this blog where we hope to find more readers day after day.

See you tomorrow for the big day!

TWO!

Techniques...

At the beginning there is the idea and the material to be processed. Next is to adopt the right techniques.

Gradually developing our "laboratory of ideas", we take care of all areas personally and at the moment, all our products are handmade in our studio. Our techniques evolve and grow rich while we seek to develop new designs. Cutters, scissors, sewing machine, as many other accessories, are tools we use daily to give relief to the "ideas" processed in our laboratory to shape up our designs...

The handling of a product at all stages of design and production gives us an overview and a special knowledge of the materials we use.

Techniques that we use are also, and above all, an integral part of the final design. We attach particular care and attention to techniques and keep a special place for innovative processes.

THREE!

Food and design

Design is everywhere. We are discovering it every day at different scales, in different environments. It is a matter of proportions, matching textures, chromatically balance and sometimes great technology- it’s basically something that require a presence of most of our senses. In most cases though, we do not use our taste.

As Marc Brétollot - pioneer of culinary design - said, "eating is the only act that stimulates simultaneously the 5 senses. Everything contributes to modify the organoleptic perception - the environment, the space and the tools for tasting ... not to mention the knowledge and the culture. It is a global act".

Food as a design material offers a field of exploration with no limit. Another testing ground for our laboratory and for the two gourmands that we are!

To be continued!

FOUR!

Concrete...

More and more materials mainly used initially in construction, become ubiquitous in fashion magazines, shops, restaurants and homes. We discover new boundaries every day but, somehow, in most cases, the materials get a more friendly approach or even a complete turn of perception. 

Concrete is an amazing material-there is something intriguing about its strength and weakness, the way it can shape and how it reacts to different external factors. As a material, it made its way through the years, transforming from a monotonous, depressing, intrinsically tough or sterile, quite institutional, into a fashionable, fabulous, widely spread material, a ‘tool’ for architects and designers. Its simplicity, complexity, the range of different textures, shades and shapes it can get is simply fascinating. 

We are interested in developing ideas and products where concrete or other materials (that find their application at a larger scale in architecture or other fields) are used for ‘accessorizing our life’ in a different way …

FIVE!

Hybrid structure

Lab’ was started from an idea; an idea to create a structure that would embody different interests we share for fashion, design, architecture, food design and culinary arts -a laboratory for experiencing, processing and bringing new ideas gathered under one structure. A structure that can react and adapt to the contemporary economical and social changes, by redrawing the contours, by defining the new limits and designing news shapes and junctures- cutting and dividing to better assemble the pieces, to make a better formula.

We believe that hybrid structures can represent a way of defining the tendencies of creativity in nowadays society and somehow be an answer for them. Thinking and acting in a hybrid manner, at different levels of the design process and in different design fields gives us, designers an opportunity to understand better the society in which we are living, as well as the contemporary human needs, and in consequence, have the ability to re-act properly.

To be continued...

SIX !

FELT

As designers we have to adapt our tactics to be able to give answers to the constant changes of our society. Observing and understanding the different aspects of design gives us a better overview of the context that surrounds us, its needs and what can be done to shape it better.

Experiencing boundaries of the materials we work with is a challenge. Felt is one of the materials we explore and use in our designs since it offers a multitude of possibilities in terms of color, shapes, rendering and applications.

Its presence can be found in many cultures and civilizations through the ages and yet it keeps this timeless contemporary touch. Constantly renewed, the color palette is limitless.

Felt is a woolen fabric with exemplary qualities in terms of sustainability, ecology and flexibility of use. This noble fabric is a material of choice for designers.

Attracted by the advantages of felt, we will be pleased to present our designs, our favorites and maybe even our "moments of madness."

To be continued...

SEVEN

At the beginning of every project there is an idea, a desire. There is also one lucky encounter between people...

Lab'process is a project we started a year ago. Twelve months of work to launch our "laboratory for processing ideas". And at the end of this journey punctuated by encounters, some difficulties and doubts, but also nice surprises, here is the light...

It is with great pleasure that we reserve you a nice surprise few days from now (long awaited by some). The count-down starts today!

Today = 7 days before D-Day!

Be ready and stay tuned...