VCR Home Page Blog: December 2006

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Above link redirects to the Value+Created Review (VCR) website

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Québec Designers

The current issue of Canadian Interiors reports on nine prominent Québec design firms. VCR has featured two of the firms and their principals, Patrick Messier of Messiers Designers Inc. and Frederic Galliot and Vincent Hauspy of Erratum.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/21/2006 10:52:00 AM

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Italian Furniture Design Competition

The Italian furniture manufacturer, Pircher Oberland Spa, has announced its outdoor furniture design competition titled "Garden Oasis." Winning projects will be exhibited in Milan during the 2007 furniture fairs, as part of the Zona Tortona design initiative. A prize of € 7.000,00 will be awarded to a professional designer and € 3.000,00 to a student designer. Deadline January 15, 2007.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/13/2006 02:19:00 PM

Effective Design Awards

Newsweek's Helen Walters details how Britain's Design Effectiveness Awards, run by the Design Business Association, are targeting the bottom line.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/13/2006 02:17:00 PM

EU Furniture Eco-label

"Development of Eco-label Criteria for Wooden Furniture," a preliminary report published by the Centre for Technique du Bois et de l’Ameublement (CTBA) for the European Union (EU), describes EU criteria. Email VCR to receive a PDF of the report.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/13/2006 02:16:00 PM

Furniture Design Copyright

Design Italia outlines that an Italian Court has taken an important step toward the copyright protection of furniture designs. The court awarded Vitra a "precautionary measure" against producers of fake copies of its plastic S-shaped chair designed by Verner Paton in 1959.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/13/2006 02:14:00 PM

GDR Design

Designboom reports on product design in the former German Democratic Republic. German readers can access more information at the exhibition website.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/13/2006 02:12:00 PM

Monday, December 04, 2006

DX Awards

The 2006 Design Exchange Awards, recently announced in Toronto, gave an honourable mention to the Vox® FlipTop™ table, designed by Mark Müller for contemporary Canadian office furniture manufacturer, Nienkämper.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 12:01:00 PM

SCP Scene

The UK's Independent newspaper interviews Sheridan Coakley, founder of SCP, the design-led London furniture store. Since its opening in 1985, the store has launched the careers of several contemporary furniture designers, including Matthew Hilton and Jasper Morrison.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 12:00:00 PM

New York Sources

Published in May 2006, The Residential Furniture Market in the New York Tri-State Area reports on contemporary furniture retailers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and provides useful contact information. It is available to Canadians who register with International Trade Canada.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:59:00 AM

Simplicity Please

When logging out from Windows Vista you have to choose between nine options: two icons and seven menu items. The Microsoft interface gurus and other "designers" addicted to bells and whistles should visit Simplicity, a website (and book) authored by MIT professor, John Maeda.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:58:00 AM

Design Limits

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) has launched its newly redesigned website. Unfortunately, the small text font in pale grey communicates that design is not about being inclusive. Fortunately Firefox users (not IE users) can increase the text size for better readability.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:57:00 AM

Green Particle Board Announced

Marketed under the PureBond trademark, Columbia Forest Products will start production of a particle board panel with a soy-based adhesive at its plant in Hearst, Ontario, in the first quarter of 2007.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:56:00 AM

ICFF Prototype Deadline

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and Bernhardt Design invites submissions from designers for ICFF Studio. Selected designers will be awarded space to display their prototype products at ICFF, May 19-22, 2007. Registration deadline December 15, 2006.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:55:00 AM

Draw Free

Looking for a simple online (or off-line) software to make diagrams and charts? Try Cumulate Draw, available free from Cumulate Labs.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:54:00 AM

More History

The "Aero Club" dining chair (circa 1946) is the latest addition to VCR's online History of Furniture Design in Canada 1945 - 1985. VCR welcomes additional entries. Images submitted must be copyright-free, with an appropriate source and/or photo credit.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:44:00 AM

Logs Leaving

A recent Centre for Policy Alternatives editorial, by Ben Parfitt, highlights the negative effects for British Columbia of the softwood lumber agreement between Canada and the United States. Parfitt claims British Columbia will collect fewer stumpage dollars, employ fewer sawmill workers and see more logs exported to the U.S.

Parfitt is also author of the report Getting More From Our Forests (PDF format) and (with Michael M'Gonigle) author of the book Forestopia.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:43:00 AM

Shermag Cuts Losses

The CBC reports that Quebec-based furniture manufacturer, Shermag Inc., has cut its second-quarter loss to $1.1 million, from $2.1 million a year ago, although cost-cutting was offset by lower revenues. The company employs 1,500 workers and manufactures about 35 per cent of its products outside Canada.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/04/2006 11:42:00 AM

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Finishing Online

The Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) at the University of British Columbia introduces a unique industrial wood finishing training program. It comprises 100 hours of web-based self-study and an intensive practical session at CAWP, April 23 to 28, 2007. Registration deadline December 20, 2006.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:57:00 PM

Blog Reactivated

Due to technical difficulties, this blog was not publishing during November 2006. The dates of the entries above this post will be correct, and, because of the down time, the six entries below were published on the VCR home page in November.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:42:00 PM

Uganda Design

David Stairs of Designers Without Borders reports for the Design Observer on furniture manufacturing in Uganda.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:40:00 PM

Good Guide

The Woodworking Machinery Industry Association provides useful area and volume conversion charts, electrical formulas, drill charts and more in their workshop guide in PDF format.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:39:00 PM

Calming Complaints

This Furniture World article about handling customer complaints suggests you put yourself in your customer's shoes and ask, "What would I want to hear?"

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:37:00 PM

Obituary

Giulio Castelli, the chemical engineer who founded Kartell in 1949, passed away on October 6, 2006. Kartell's initial production was plastic household items, which later expanded to furniture in collaboration with prominent designers, including Joe Colombo, Castiglioni brothers, Marco Zanuso and Philippe Starck. Castelli was involved with several contemporary Italian design institutions and launched the Kartell Museum in Noviglio, Milan, in 2000. Courtesy Design Italia.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:34:00 PM

Eco Design

The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal presents Environment: Approaches for Tomorrow, featuring Gilles Clément and Philippe Rahm. The exhibition theme addresses the ethical relationship between humans and the environment and between nature and culture. To April 22, 2007.

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 02:03:00 PM

History Conference

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, hosts the Twentieth-Century Furniture Research Group Conference on November 17, 2006. The conference includes a description and tour of the V&A collection of twentieth-century furniture by curator Gareth Williams. Read the conference brochure (Microsoft Word).

# posted by Value-Created Review @ 12/03/2006 01:18:00 PM