AMERICAN DELICACY

Fantastic color on this well kept Buick Riviera that appeared on a Gothenburg street this summer.
"Stunningly smart" as described in advertisements of its day.

The grill is an orgy in chrome.
The Swedish slang for this type of car used to be "dollar grin".

Fantastic details.

Whitewall tires

MONIKA MULDER INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER WITH A FLAIR

I usually do not pay any particular attention to the designers names at IKEA but in two instances I came upon the name of Dutch designer Monika Mulder. 
She had designed two products for IKEA that had become very dear to me. I thought it would be nice to to one day let her know how much I liked what she had designed. So when I found that she had settled in my own town, of Gothenburg we had a chat and I asked her about design.
This photo and below from Monikas earlier homepage and the present one: www.monikamulder.com

"FÖRSLUTA" GLASS FOOD CONTAINERS

I do not like to store food in plastic  so I always try to store food in glass containers, but they are hard to find, so I was very pleased when I found a new line at IKEA. some years ago. They were a bit heavy but being square, they contained a surprising amount of food. Cold-cuts and vegetables look beautiful in them -- in the fridge or on the table. The matt white plastic lid is elegant in its simplicity. The smallest container is a jewel, you can surprisingly, fit an electric beater in it and whip the  cream in it, put it in the fridge and then handily put it on the table and then back to the fridge if there is any left.

 Monika was given the assignment from IKEA to design glass containers and they had picked the glass factory in Spain that would have sufficient capacity to produce the large volumes IKEA requires. She worked closely with that particar glass factory in Spain. The shape had to be somewhat adapted to the manufacturing process. 

I really stacked up on these fantastic containers.

FIBBE PLASTIC TRASH BINS

The smallest  FIBBE trash bin is perfect for the bathroom. It can hang on the wall and you can easily clean the floor underneath. The plastic lid flips up very easily and the entire unit conveniently  lifts off  from the wall for emptying.
It was very inexpensive so I bought many of these. One must always buy a few extra of what you like at IKEA because the products come and go so fast. Suddenly you cannot get them anymore.

The larger FIBBE trash bin is really big (made square for this very reason said Monika) and stands on small feet that can be removed if one prefers that. 
FIBBE was Monikas intern job at IKEA  that gave her a full time job there. Having come right from school, she had done this design job by the book -- she spent time with people in their homes, interviewing them about their likes and dislikes. In Europe, they often have free standing thrash bins so this larger one looks very smart when it stands alone. I can fit one of the large size Swedish carry bags in it. Perfect. 

I like the simplicity in the design of the feet that easily can be attached or removed .

With IKEA, the designers have limitations and challenges -- the price is decided beforehand, the factory is chosen and the product must be stackable or packed flat. Monica's design of the watering can VALLO is an excellent example of how she met this challenge, it certainly is stackable. The design has been praised world wide. Few designers get such world exposure as designers for IKEA -- that must be very satisfying.

Monika Mulders comments at the IKEA website:
"The shape was extra important when I designed IKEA PS VÅLLÖ water can. I wanted to give it an organic, fluid shape so it would harmonise with plants and running water. By using different templates I was able to sculpt a prototype that felt completely perfect. The final water can has both a shape and colour that make you want to have it out on display, instead of hidden away. And if you like, you can also use it as a juice pitcher and a vase."

No air transported here. These watering cans are eminently stackable. 

Training mugs for children (IKEA SMASKA). What a clever and appealing design.
These children hooks (IKEA BÄSTIS) also show Mulder's clever, playful and truly original sense of design.

This is another bold design. (SÄVÖ for IKEA). 
I mentioned to Monika that this chair is obviously a design for young people. Older people could not get out of it and, has she thought about designing furniture for older people who need higher chairs they can get out off more easily? Maybe we will find some designs along those lines with the baby boomers moving on?

This chair for IKEA (LÖMSK swivel chair) is very popular. It must take very special insight in a designer to make a  fold down cover for a child to hide under. Maybe we adults would like something similar? 

 This chair is still for sale and at the IKEA website Monika Mulder writes this:
"When I started designing children's toys, I thought a lot about my own childhood. When I was little I found the big swivel armchair in the living room great fun! Too bad we children weren't allowed to play with it. That's why I designed IKEA PS LÖMSK, a swivel armchair made specially for children. It isn't just fun, it's good for developing their sense of balance too. And your child can hide in it or play peekaboo, by opening and closing the hood - as much as they like."

This is not most people's idea of a side table.(MYRÖ side table for IKEA) 
It is to me, a bold design you find at IKEA and not in other places. They can afford to take a chance like this.

This stool is a similar bold design. (SLÖINGE stool for IKEA).
Not exactly a place for an elderly person to sit on, but fun.

Pendant lamp called "Bulb". Clever play with shapes. 

Monica Mulder's latest designed product for IKEA is a metal flower pot called DADEL
It comes in an oval shape also and I can already imagine more uses for them.

“I was inspired by old milk jugs, which usually only have a decorative function these days. They have a beautiful silhouette, something that I wanted to give DADEL plant pot. The plant pot is made of metal and has handles – features that are also inspired by old milk jugs. You can use large plants and pots to create a room within the room and furnish with plants as room dividers.”
says Monica Mulder

Child high chair (LEOPARD for IKEA)

This design is again very imaginative, unusual and beautiful.

Monica Mulder's comment at the IKEA website:
"As a parent myself I know that a highchair is around the table for quite a few years. So when I designed LEOPARD highchair my main priority, besides good function and safety, was the way it looks. I wanted to give the highchair a modern look with a strong character. Plastic gave me the freedom to do that by making the chair all in one piece, with organic curves. I also concentrated on ergonomics so it would be comfortable for children from the ages of four months to three years. Children like round shapes and they will love LEOPARD; it's like their own 

Monika designed this (HOLMIA) serving trolley for IKEA.

Again, a very interesting and appealing design. It would work well as a bed table. Most bed tables are hard to reach and if you get breakfast in bed, or work in bed, or are sick in bed -- you need somewhere to put all your stuff. This table you could pull out a bit and have it all very handy. A few drawers could be added...

.

This chair for a dog is charming. I wonder how a dog knows that this particular chair is for him and not the other chairs he usually chooses.

This is SELJE, a bed table, Monikas recently designed for IKEA.
It is unusual for many reason --  it is made from steel and the legs are not straight.
The opening slit is charmingly sideways and wonderfully simple. 

 ***

Sir Terence Conran, the UK design wizard, thinks that knowledge of the materials and the manufacturing process is essential for designers: 
"I have always seen design from the point of view of 'how are you going to make it?'...All my life I've had the knowledge that comes from having physically used my hands to make things. It all starts with a technique, or the quality of a material, and the design decisions are made because I know how a certain material will behave or how a certain machine can be used efficiently or economically".  (From Terence Conran. Design and the Quality of Life by Elizabeth Wilhide 1999 page 14)

There is of course only one Sir Terence with his unique experience gained from working with wood and metal in his early life. His experience is highly personal and cannot be grafted on to other designers. Unless these designers gain a similar experience. The next best thing is perhaps the IKEA process where the designer works intimately with a particular factory, with a close eye on the economy of price, process and material. 

Read more:
Dialogue with Monica Mulder 2008 by Andy Polaine

MAPLE & Co -- A VICTORIAN "IKEA" ?

The similarity between Maple and Co and IKEA,  is in the world coverage and popularity but Maple and Co had their own manufacturing facility in one place in London. And it was enormous. Ikea has no production place of their own and they move their production to the factory anywhere in the world where they can do it the cheapest. That is how they can keep such low prices.
Picture from here.

"With a warehouse that was one of the “sites of London”, Maple and Co was once the largest furniture retailer and manufacturer in the world, attracting visitors from near and far. The company was most prolific in the late Victorian and Edwardian era, specialising in fine quality Arts and Crafts Furniture, designed and produced in their own workshops. However, they continued producing fine quality furniture up until the 1980s.

Maple and Co was established by John Maples shopkeeper from Horley, Surrey, who later opened a furniture shop in Tottenham Court Road. However it was his son, John Blundell Maple who made Maples and Co a success. With exceptional business skills, John B. Maple took over the company while still a young man. By the 1880s they were the largest furniture store in the world, exported their fine furniture to every continent.

Maples manufactured their luxury furniture entirely in-house, at a huge modern complex. A timber importer and furniture exporter, they landed prestigious contracts furnishing fine houses, hotels, embassies and palaces in Europe; among them Tsar Nicholas’s Winter Palace and the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna . With his own empire established, John Blundell Maple achieved further fame in politics and horseracing – some lines, such as the Atherstoke antique cabinet having racing connections in the titles." (The text above from here.)

Funny how one never sees these anymore. Did you have to duck to get in or what?

"Inexpensive Artistic Tableware"

One can get an old Maple & Co  calalogue on a disc here.

JASCHA OR JONATHAN?

Jascha Golowanjuk Picture from here.

Literary critics have a tremendous influence on book sales. But people cannot be forced to love a book they have bought on recommendation. When I grew up many years ago, the Swedish Literary critics were snobbish when judging the immensely popular Swedish writer Jascha Golowanjuk (1903-1974). He had a new book out almost every year for over thirty years. He was one of the most borrowed authors in Swedish libraries but that did not impress the critics who labelled him an "entertainer writer". But people did not care what the critics said, they bought and borrowed his books in masses.

I must admit that I was influenced by the American literary critics' love affair with Jonathan Franzen (his father is Swedish). I first read "The Corrections" and liked it,  and then "Freedom". I enjoyed it, but felt that the book was perhaps constructed to tickle the critics in just the right places. 
People cannot be forced to love a book they do not like. These days you can find out what people like on Amazon. You could at the time this was written see that 1.081 people had written a review of Jonathan Franzen's book Freedom. A rewiew can get 5 stars.

There are almost the same amount of 5-star reviews as 1-star reviews. This is an unusual proportion, possibly due to people being influenced by critics, then being disappointed. People are very harsh in their criticism. Tough stuff. Maybe that is the price one pays when one is the darling of the critics?  

Which is best, to be a Jascha or a Jonathan?

ALL I WANT IS A GREEK FISHERMAN'S CAP

For many years, I would see a small ad in the New Yorker Magazine  for a "Greek Fisherman's Cap". I always wondered who bought these caps in the US. Now many years later, just for the fun of it, I searched for "Greek Fisherman's Cap" on the net and lo and behold a mass of images appeared. That cap is popular. And there are a lot of places to get them too. Here and here and here. So there!

SPLENDID SWEDISH INTARSIA CA !930-1940

Read more about the Swedish company Mjolby Intarsia (Fanerami later) that produced the fine pieces below.

Göteborgs Auktionsverk

This picture from here.

Stockholms Auktionsverk

This table from here.

Details from the table above.

If you like these, you might also like to see some Swedish engraved glass from aroudf the same period.