Partners & Spade is not your typical shop. It is open only on Saturdays and Sundays, and the items for sale include, for example, a drawer full of tiny toy telephones. Further investigation reveals that the store is only one half of the equation–Partners & Spade is also a studio which produces films, books, apparel and conceptual products as well as marketing and branding for corporate clients.
There are so many quirky touches to the space it is hard to convey in words.
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The Design Brief is always thrilled when art and design combine–it makes us very, very happy. Roberto Giulio Rida is therefore the perfect treat, an art designer. Rida makes unique and limited edition pieces of furniture with no concern for trends or mass production. His lamps and furniture are bold and modern, and usually covered with glass and crystal. As quite the collector (Rida is known as an important dealer in 20th century Italian decorative arts), he also incorporates vintage glass and objects d’art into his own creations. He describes it as a collision of science-fiction, the Italian Renaissance and the intensity of mineral light. His work can veer from the sublime to the fantastic to, frankly, wackiness. His work, however, always maintains a very strong point of view, and the Design Brief respects that.
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The Art of Craftsmanship Revisited: New York exhibition is based on a beautiful concept. Groups of students from Parsons, the New School for Design have been teamed with New York artisans sponsored by the luxury brand LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The resulting collaborations are intended to celebrate the work of these skilled craftspeople, and to ensure that their unique knowledge is understood and carried forth by the next generation. Enhancing this gorgeous premise, the exhibition is being shown in the idyllic historic houses of Nolan Park on Governor’s Island.
This show is a wonderful forum to explore bite size samples of really fine craftsmanship–here are some highlights:
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The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) swept through the Javits Convention Centre recently and it was design overload per usual. It can be exhausting traversing all those booths so here are the Design Brief’s top five picks from the show.
Roll & Hill
Launching at ICFF, Roll & Hill is the brainchild of Jason Miller, who is already famous for his antler chandeliers. Focused just on lighting, Roll & Hill will produce fixtures from some of the who’s who of American contemporary design talent. Standout pieces include the Excel floor lamp by Rich, Brilliant, Willing with adorable matching sconces. The lights use compact fluorescent bulbs with a gold diffuser to banish that pasty fluorescent glow. Ingenious.
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