Dunja Weber

Same client – same location – same size (7×10 m) but a lot more furniture to display.

I have elaborated the step idea from last year only that this time around the steps have the full width of the stand. Also they don’t run perpendicular to the stand but at a slight angle, with the effect of creating different sized product areas at each end of the step. In order to give the different product groups a defined area the steps change alternatively from black to white. To create extra display space without interfering with the main product groups I have added some protruding elements which contain display niches and neonlighting to light wash the walls.

I keep my fingers crossed that next year we’ll manage to finally get a bigger space!

Yet another stand for Maxdesign, this time in Rotterdam for 100% in the wonderful Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek. Again I was asked to display the complete collection of Maxdesign in a very reduced space without making it looked too crammed. Using the full available height helped me to get some chairs “out of the way” but making them also very visible.

This year I designed for the 3rd time the exhibition
stand for Maxdesign for the Salone del Mobile in Milano. The space the fair gave us was only 7 x 10 m but with the idea of the steps I managed to make the most out of the available height of 5m. In this way Maxdesign managed to display the complete colour range of the “Tototo” and “Zed” chairs both designed by Hannes Wettstein.

During my time with James I have followed the realization of various exhibitions and exhibition stands. One of the first ones was “The View from Domus” an exhibition about 75 years of photography for Domus which took place in the Armani Teatro a building by Tadao Ando in Milano. The exhibition consisted of huge “lightboxes” with backlit photography. The funny thing was that the architecture was so clean and rigorous that there was no power supply available. This is why James came up with the idea of bringing the power in from the ceiling (the only point where it was available) and passing it through the coloured tubes.

The same concept was employed for “Kuramata’s Tokyo” (also organised by Domus) the following year.

The most important exhibition I have followed for James was when he was nominated guest of honour at the Interieur fair in Kortrijk in 2004. Instead of showing his own work he decided to design an exhibition called “Design Anatomy”. It consisted of a series of products ranging from upholstered, wooden and plastic furniture to a Ducati motocycle, a washing machine and a toilet. All were shown complete and “exploded”. This way James wanted to illustrate the production processes that are behind different products. The exhibition was conceived in collaboration with Marimekko. This is why we had a ceiling with glow-in-the-dark Unikko flowers.

The concept for the book publishers company Phaidon is interesting in so far that it was designed and manufactured in order to be modular and reusable. The elements can be reorganized to fit different stand sizes and locations. This was not only a good intention but has actually worked over several years now.

When Olivetti decided to launch itself into the world of consumer products, James Irvine, teamed up with Alberto Meda, was comissioned to design the first product for this line. I think this was the most important project I have followed with James.

I realize thst it was a very rare occasion to being able to take part, right from the start, and to every aspect of the product development of the new area of Olivetti. Everything had to be defined. In a very Italian way Olivetti involved us into everything from the design strategy, the discussion about the product functions to the definition of the interface and icons (which were studied together with IDEO, London) down to the product logo and the product communication. We worked together with the marketing department as well as the engineering department. Since the project was very important for Olivetti even the highest levels of managment took part in many meetings. The amazing fact is that Olivetti is the only European brand that produces consumer inkjet printers! The competitors are Epson, Canon, Hp and Lexmark!

James was involved so much into this new project of Olivetti that he also ended up designing their product manuals and their fairstands at IFA Berlin, Smau Milano and Cebit Hannover. Since I was his Olivetti assistant I followed all of these projects with him.

In 2006 I designed the very minimal exhibition stand for Maxdesign in collaboration with the office of their art director Hannes Wettstein.