Simon

I am the editor of Encyclopedia.Design. Encyclopedia.Design is website intended to provide accurate and detailed information directly relevant to the development of decorative and applied arts over the past 125 years regarding individuals, businesses, and materials.

Shiro Kuramata featured image

On:
Tagged: , , ,

Shiro Kuramata is a Japanese interior and furniture designer who has executed many interiors for Issey Miyake shops. His best-known pieces are his glass chair (1976) and homage to Hoffmann, Begin the Beguine (1985). His interior designs make use of expanded lattice metal and moiré effects. His portfolio includes furniture in irregular forms and large lamps made from milk-white plastic sheets heated in an electric kiln.Read More →

Lily Reich plans for Mies house

On:
Tagged: , , , ,

Lilly Reich was a German interior designer and furniture and exhibition designer who studied embroidery and collaborated with Else Oppler-Legband. Reich’s professional relationship with Mies van der Rohe began with the 1927 ‘Weissenhof-Siedlung’ exhibition, and she designed interiors and furniture for the 1936 of Dr Facius in Berlin-Dahlem and 1939 furniture for Dr Schäppi’s apartment in Berlin.Read More →

Genêt et Michon French Lighting Company

On:
Tagged: , ,

Genêt et Michon was a French lighting manufacturer founded in 1911 by Philippe Genêt and Lucien Michon. After testing, they found that thick-pressed glass increased the number of reflections and brightness of light more than other types of thin glass. They were pioneers of the suspended luminous sphere and made ceiling dalles, lamps, lustres, wall brackets, epergnes, and illuminated frieze. Their work was shown at the Salons of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs from 1922 to 1938, the Salons d’Automne from 1922 to 1924, and other events.Read More →

Wine Decanter featured image

On:
Tagged: , ,

When you serve wine in a decanter or carafe rather than directly from the bottle, you can completely appreciate its full potential, but why? The wine can oxygenate and aerate, allowing the wine to breathe after being sealed in a bottle for so long. A wine decanter has a reputation for being a formal and refined means of serving wine. However, this isn’t always the case.Read More →

Pavel Hlava featured image

On:
Tagged: , , ,

He was best known for his cut and engraved glass. Hlava enhanced a number of innovative technologies, both in terms of conception and manufacturing. These featured melted silver leaf and other materials, as well as skeleton moulds for shaping glass.Read More →

On:
Tagged: , ,

The Maeda family were hereditary feudal lords who founded and exclusively operated the Kutani Porcelain Factory, a privately owned Japanese factory in Kutani Mura, West Honshu, in the late cI7.Read More →

René Gabriel - French Interior Designer

On:
Tagged: , ,

René Gabriel was a follower of Francis Jourdain who made wallpaper, fabric, rugs, and porcelain for the Manufacture de Sèvres. He also designed bent-metal tubular seating and structures, and opened Ateliers d’Art, Neuilly. He taught at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués and was the director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. His work was shown at the Salon d’Automne and at the Salons of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs.Read More →

Sugar bowl and cover, William Adams & Sons Ltd, Tunstall and Stoke, Staffordshire, 1787-1805

On:
Tagged: ,

In the 1800s, three separate members with the Adams family name—William Adams (1748-1831), Benjamin Adams (1820), and William Adams—made Anglo-Saxon pottery. (1898-1865). William Adams and Sons is a company that has been around since 1769. It is based in Tunstall and Stoke, both in Staffordshire. It was noted for making high-quality things, especially blue-and-white pottery that looked like Chinese porcelain.Read More →

On:
Tagged: , , , , ,

She was best known for the eight banners commissioned by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst for the Great Hall in Dartington between 1934 and 1938. She was a spinner, dyer, and weaver and an outstanding teacher from 1940 until 1957.Read More →

Luminator Floor Lamp by Luciano Baldessari for Codiceicona

On:
Tagged: ,

Luciano Baldessari was an Italian designer and architect who collaborated with Futurist artist Fortunato Depero and published the 1929 Luminator torchère. He designed the 1929-32 De Angeli Frua Press building, Craja bar, Cima chocolate manufacture, Vesta Pavilion, Milan Triennale, and Breda Pavilion.Read More →

Henri Navarre featured image

On:
Tagged: , , ,

Henri Navarre was a French sculptor, architect, silversmith, and glassmaker who was influenced by Maurice Marinot and exhibited his work at Galerie Edgar Brandt and Maison Geo Rouard.Read More →

On:
Tagged: ,

Egdar Brandt was a French metalworker known for his innovative designs that incorporated traditional and modern techniques, and his work can be found in many public and private collections.Read More →

Installation view of the exhibition, _Organic Design in Home Furnishings_

On:
Tagged: , , , , ,

Eliot Noyes (1910 – 1977) was an industrial designer from the United States. From 1928 to 1932, he studied architecture at Harvard University, followed by stints at the Graduate School of Design from 1932 to 1935 and 1937 to 1938. Read More →

Rolodex

On:
Tagged: , , , , ,

The Rolodex is a card filing system for your desk.  Rolodex Design There are few office equipment products more iconic than Rolodex (the nameRead More →

Friedl Dicker featured image

On:
Tagged: , , , , ,

Friedl Dicker (1899 – 1944) was an Austrian architect and furniture, interior, and textile designer. She was active with Franz Singer in their Werkstätten bildender Kunst, Berlin, and amalgamated her studio with Singer’s, Vienna, designing houses, apartments, kindergartens, offices, textiles, interiors, and furniture. She was arrested during the Starhemberg Putsch in Vienna, practised interior architecture with Grete Bauer-Fröhlich, taught drawing, and was active as an artist and anti-fascist.Read More →

Tecno Nomos Table by Norman Foster

On:
Tagged: ,

Norman Foster is a British architect and designer known for creating neutral rooms and high-tech furniture systems. He was a member of the council and an honorary member of the Royal College of Art.Read More →

Spectrum 99 Poster by Alan Fletcher

On:
Tagged: ,

Alan Fletcher was a highly regarded British graphic designer who worked for IBM, Fortune magazine, and the Container Corporation of America. Fletcher was interested in visual ambiguity and added value, investing solutions with visual surprise and wit.Read More →

On:
Tagged: ,

Pitt’s Act of 1797, which taxed clocks and watches, increased demand for Act of Parliament clocks, which were displayed in public spaces and had large faces with easy-to-read numerals and striking mechanisms.Read More →

David Palterer Black and White Image

On:
Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

David Palterer is an Israeli designer born in Haifa. He is professionally active in Florence.Read More →

Nottingham Earthenware Style featured image

On:
Tagged: ,

Nottingham earthenware is English pottery from the thirteenth to the late eighteenth centuries. (The last authenticated piece was created in 1799.) Usually brown, with a faint metallic lustre. Often decorated with lines incised around the piece. Read More →