Product Placement

Roll & Hill, Jason Miller’s Contemporary Lighting Company for the U.S. Market

Julie Taraska — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:05:50 +0000

Miller's Modo Lights, one of the debut pieces for Roll & Hill.

As a designer of contemporary furniture and lighting, Jason Miller has experienced the lack of opportunities for American talent firsthand. So he’s done something about it. Last week he officially unveiled the first collection for Roll & Hill, his New York City-based company that manufactures high-end contemporary lighting products for, as he puts it, the underserved U.S. market. The first batch of pieces—from such homegrown designers as Miller, Lindsay Adams Adelman, Paul Loebach, Rich Brilliant Willing, and Sara Cihat and Michael Miller—intend to appeal specifically to American consumers in their use of familiar cultural references and materials. Costing between $2,000 to $10,000, the fixtures are made on demand in Brooklyn with a lead time of two to three weeks (as opposed to the usual two to three months). And unlike most contract goods, the lights will be available to the public directly through the company’s web site, rather than through a third-party agent.

The Agnes Chandelier, by Lindsey Adams Adelman. The design is also available as a candelabra.

Paul Loebach's Himmeli pendant light. Chandelier and floor versions are also in the works.

The Excel by Rich Brilliant Willing, available as a sconce, a table lamp, or a floor lamp (as shown here).

Miller's Superordinate Antler chandelier, which was the inspiration for forming Roll & Hill. The company has several new versions of the light, including as a sconce and in a fetching bright red.

Trends in Tile

kimberly — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:33:36 +0000

On February 22, Product Placement 2.1: Explorations in Italian Tile Design took place in front of a standing room only audience at Nemo Tile Company in Manhattan. In a slight variation on the usual format, Julie Taraska and I took over as presenters, and highlighted four trends in tile design, with a featured tile for each trend. The first trend was “Texture”, with a product highlight on Patricia Urquiola’s Dechirer for Mutina. Texture was followed by “Size Matters”, which encompassed the increased availability of tiles in massive and micro sizes, as well as ever-decreasing thickness. The highlight in this category was the colorful micro-tile Anthologia, designed by Davide Pizzigoni for Appiani. Tiles that look like snakeskin, cork, horn, linen, sisal and wood illustrated the trend of “Material Trompe L’Oeil”, with the featured tile being Emilio Mussini’s Bioessenze for LEA. The last trend was “Shades of Green”, referring to increased sustainability in tile design, and the highlighted design was Area’s photovoltaic tile Tegolasolare (the design team consisted of experts in solar energy, ceramics, and engineering, but they credit the 19th-century Italian architect Corinto Corintini with the shape of the tile).

Corinto Corintini's Castle of Acquabella in Vallombrosa - the inspiration for Tegolasolare.

Area's Tegolasolare tiles installed.

The teams from Product Placement, Nemo Tile, and Novita PR.

Our thanks go out again to our sponsors, Nemo Tile Company and Ceramic Tiles of Italy, and to the entire team at Novita PR for their help with coordinating the evening (including translation services from the Italian designers).

Look for our next installment in May!

Product Placement 2.1 Postponed

kimberly — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:55:11 +0000

It’s official. Due to the predicted blizzard of February 10, 2010, we have pushed the date for Product Placement 2.1: Explorations in Tile Design to Monday, February 22. Same time (6-8pm, presentation at 7pm), same place (Nemo Tile Company).

Join Us Wednesday for PP 2.1: Explorations in Tile

Julie Taraska — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:53:18 +0000

Don’t think tile is sexy? Think again. Product Placement 2.1: Explorations in Tile will school you on the latest trends, the newest products, and the designers behind these gorgeous slabs of ceramic and porcelain. Co-hosted by Nemo Tile and Cermaic Tiles of Italy, the event will run 6-8 p.m. at Nemo’s showroom and feature Product Placement’s usual mix of inspiration, networking, and fine wine. The event is free; RSVP to thisisproductplacement@gmail.com

Molten Metal Coal Tables by Jim Zivic

Julie Taraska — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:33:28 +0000

Jim Zivic's coal tables, with molten metal poured in the cracks.

For the past decade, Jim Zivic’s métier has been coal, which he sculpts, hones, and polishes into massive tables for clients like Lou Reed and Salma Hayek. “It’s a little romance with the muck,” he says of the anthracite chunks, which he buys 14 tons at a time from a mine in Pennsylvania and stores in the backyard of his upstate New York home. The coal’s earthiness and anti-preciousness appeal to Zivic, but the irony of his situation doesn’t escape him. “The same stuff my neighbors are burning for heat, Ralph [Pucci, his agent] is selling for thousands of dollars” a piece, he says. His latest coal tables show him experimenting with the material’s texture and physical properties. Some of the chunks he has coated in silicone, playing up the anthracite’s natural luster; others he has left in their rough state, when they’ve just exited the earth. He’s poured molten metal into the cracks of a few, mimicking the butterfly joints and barbell-shaped repairs common in woodworking, and dumped plain epoxy in the deep cuts of others, to keep the fragile matter from falling apart. “They’re all in different stages of finish,” he says of the works, “because I want to show people there is beauty in roughness, too.” The pieces, along with his other new commodities-based furniture, including benches made of cotton bales, aluminum dining tables, and upholstered steel-framed chaises formed from hexagonal bars—are on view at Pucci’s Gallery Nine New York showroom through April.

Zivic's cotton bale bench features a leather top and straps, the latter with handmade buckles.

A square coal table and campaign chair by Zivic.

Tidal Ossuary Vases by Julia Lohmann and Gero Grundmann

Julie Taraska — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:55:10 +0000

Some of the bone vases comprising Tidal Ossuary, an exhibit commissioned by Gallery Libby Sellers

Julia Lohmann’s interest in design began during childhood walks with her father, during which they’d collect abandoned objects to create small figurines and creatures. In the past, her interest in the natural world centered on our relationship to animals as sources of food and materials (consider Flock, a series of translucent lights made of sheep’s stomachs, and Cow Bench, a boar-shaped leather bench she dubbed “a bovine momento mori”). Tidal Ossuary, which debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach and will be shown Feb. 5 – March 4 at the Jacqueline Rabun Gallery in London, continues the theme of elegant objects of beastly origins. For the exhibit—commissioned and financed by Gallery Libby Sellers—Lohmann and her partner, Gero Grundmann, created a series of vases from bones they discovered while walking along London’s river Thames. The relics’ location, when figured in with the water’s current, suggests that they were by-products from London’s Smithfield meat market, either thrown into the water or washed up from the city’s Victorian-era sewer system, which emptied into the river. Once deemed as rubbish, these remnants from meals long past have survived their supposed use-by-date and, now in Lohmann’s and Grundmann’s hands, return to objects of use and even greater worth.

Flock (2004), a series of lights made from sheeps' stomachs." title="jl_flock" width="320" height="230" class="size-medium wp-image-622" />

Lohmann's Flock (2004), a series of lights made from sheeps' stomachs.

Woolly Pockets by Miguel and Rodney Nelson

kimberly — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:21:00 +0000

Woolly Pocket "Knoll" in brown

There’s good news for urban dwellers longing for a patch of green in their small space. Brothers Miguel and Rodney Nelson have created portable, flexible, breathable gardening containers dubbed Woolly Pockets. The pockets come in a number of sizes, ranging from the Wee Woolly, which can host a tabletop herb garden, up to the Knoll, which can hold a 15-gallon fruit tree, or Meadow, a 4’ square oasis of vegetation suitable for a small garden. For those who are especially space-challenged, Woolly Pockets offers Wallys, containers that can be hung on walls or other vertical surfaces for aerial gardening. Wallys come in one, three, or five-pocket modules, and can be used to create living walls of any size. Not just for home use, the Pockets have a number of potential applications, including bringing gardening to urban kids. Woolly Pockets has teamed up with School Nutrition Plus to install edible gardens in public schoolyards throughout Los Angeles and is working with the city to create community gardens in other parts of the city. If the product story wasn’t green enough, Woolly Pockets are handmade in the U.S.A. from recycled plastic bottles. And while the company offers the pockets on their site in neutral tones of black, brown, and cream, Miguel Nelson assures us that any color is possible (with a significant order), so if you want your Pocket to complement your posies, that is an option.

Massive living wall made up of multiple "Wally" units

Product Placement 2.1: Tile - Feb. 10, 6-8 p.m. at Nemo Tile

Julie Taraska — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:51:33 +0000

Bioessence porcelain planks from Nemo Tile

Mark those calendars: Product Placement 2.1 will happen Feb. 10 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Nemo Tile Company, Inc., located at 48 East 21st Street in New York City. This installment—which we’re organizing in conjunction with Ceramic Tiles of Italy and Nemo—will focus on those fab porcelain and ceramic slabs, the designers who make them, and the processes and trends in the field. And if you’ve never thought about the artistic value of tile, prepare to be schooled.

The event will be free, with the presentation starting at 7 p.m.; networking and drinks will happen before and after. Beat the rush and RSVP, as this one is going to be especially crowded: thisisproductplacement@gmail.com.

Full details about the featured products soon!

DIY Design by/from Lindsey Adelman

kimberly — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:48:45 +0000

In an industry where designers typically struggle to protect their work against unauthorized or low-cost reproductions, Lindsey Adelman has taken a bold step. The talented artist/designer recently relaunched her web presence, and there, among the hand-blown glass and custom metal ceiling fixtures that sell from $3,600 to over $20,000 (depending upon the number of globes desired), is the “you make it” chandelier. Adelman provides detailed drawings, step-by-step instructions, and a materials list complete with recommended sources so that fans of her work can make their own Adelman-designed piece. At least two have done so successfully, and one estimates the cost of materials at $120, plus their labor. Comments in the shelter blog world have been unanimously positive in response to Adelman’s generous gift to the DIY community, but we’re curious as to how other designers and design retailers, especially those whose product offering is readily “knockoffable”, will react to this foray into open source product design. From the Product Placement perspective, it is an illuminating insight into Adelman’s approach to design, but we do wonder if it may lessen the perceived value of her custom work. In other words, this artful experiment may not serve her long-term business well.

Ribbon Light by Eric Chan for TBT

Julie Taraska — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:40:56 +0000

A bevy of Ribbon lights.

The first domestic lamp to incorporate Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lighting technology, hitherto used to backlight flat-screen TVs, the Ribbon is a technological marvel wrapped up in an unassuming plastic package. boasts bulbs that can last for 15,000 hours—twice as long as CFLs and 15 times puny incandescents. The Ribbon’s light can be dimmed without flickering (a hazard of LEDs) and its color adjusted to any custom mixture of warm and cool. The lamp’s bendable, elbow-like arm also means its can do triple duty as a task, ambient, and night light. And all for about half the price of a comparable LED model.