Despoke

Image:“Bulb” Design: Ingo Maurer. Photo:Tom Vack.

Ingo Maurer is one of the world’s best-known lighting designers. Over the past four decades he has developed and produced lamps, light objects and lighting concepts. Always committed to handcraft, full of creative ideas and distinguished by technical innovations, they have become milestones of lighting design. In 1966, Maurer made the light source itself into the subject of his designs with the ‘Bulb’ lamp, which brought his international breakthrough. The light bulb has remained a leitmotif in his work up to the present day. With the introduction of a silicon sheath (‘Euro Condom’), he is currently protesting against the sales prohibition of incandescent bulbs. In addition, he is working on the development of a new type of light bulb, called ‘WonderLux’, in an effort to bring his enthusiasm for the incandescent light bulb into harmony with energy-efficient light sources.

This past February, Maurer was honoured for his life’s work with the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany. To mark the occasion, the Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design is presenting a comprehensive exhibition of his work through 30 August 2010 under the title ‘Complete with bulb – Lighting by Ingo Maurer’.

When one orders a lamp by Ingo Maurer, it is delivered complete with the bulb – be it a conventional incandescent lamp or a halogen lamp. This clearly illustrates his understanding of the overall effects and uses of light: Maurer does not just design lamps – rather, he creates lighting concepts that are directly related to the individual living space or the public environment.
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For 40 years, from 1955 until 1995, Dieter Rams designed or oversaw the design of over 500 products for the German electronics manufacturer Braun, as well as furniture for Vitsoe. Audio equipment, calculators, shavers and shelving systems are just some of the products created by Dieter Rams, each item holds a special place in the history of industrial and furniture design and has established Dieter Rams as one of the most influential designers of the late 20th century.
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Beautiful and practical products for everybody! This idea is almost as old as the industrial fabrication of furniture and interior decoration itself. The furniture manufactory IKEA founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad held up this ideal from the very beginning. The huge success and international reach of the biggest brand name in furniture worldwide is the motive for the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe to investigate how far the furnishing company has been successful in realising the promise inherent in the idea of “Democratic Design for everyone” propagated by the Deutsche Werkbund, the Bauhaus and their successors. FENOMEN IKEA shows some 250 exhibits, including IKEA products spanning six decades as well as many examples of massproduced goods and high-quality product design which were made long before IKEA and apart from it, such as design classics by Thonet, Panton, Henningsen and others, or the celebrated Frankfurt kitchen from the year 1926 and the most commonly found German living room in 2009. NON IKEA is the name of a special section within the exhibition devoted to the reactions of international artists such as Thomas Schütte, Tobias Rehberger, Morten Steen Hebsgaard and others as well as designers to the phenomenon IKEA.
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