FRESH VISION
VOGUE LIVING ALESSI DESIGN AWARDS judges Alberto Alessi, president of the Italian design powerhouse, and French creative maestro Philippe Starck reveal the four Australian finalists vying for the top prize.
VL Alessi Design Awards judges Alberto Alessi and Philippe Starck reveal the four finalists vying for the top prize
“Music is magic. Bluetooth is magic. Now the loud speaker is magic” philippe starck
Two water bottles, a portable speaker and a pocket-sized device that holds a re-usable shopping bag are the Australian designs that could become the newest stars in Alessi’s world-renowned collection of home accessories. Famous for its playful, vibrant and colourful take on kitchen essentials, the Italian brand is championing a new generation of designers via the prestigious Alessi Design Awards. Now in its fifth year, the Awards offer local designers a careerdefining opportunity to travel to Milan to have their creations produced by the Alessi team. With the theme ‘objects-on-the-go’ in mind, four designers — Tom Fereday, Ikje Cheon, Kennyjie and Ketsa Jerome — have had their concepts short-listed. Over the next few months the creatives will take part in a mentorship with Alessi and Vogue Living, which will see prototypes of their designs produced for assessment in the final judging process. A winner will then be announced from each of the two categories, Established Designers and Emerging Designers, at a special event in Sydney in early March. “When I started, there were very few French designers — it was mostly Italians,” says design icon Philippe Starck who, together with longtime collaborator Alberto Alessi, selected the finalists of this year’s awards. “But I met people like Alberto Alessi, who trusted me. I always say that to make beautiful children, parents must be in love, and so share the same values. It worked this way for me with Alessi. When I created Juicy Salif and presented it to Alberto on a paper tablecloth — I’m pretty sure that he thought I was crazy but he did it.” The now-iconic Juicy Salif lemon squeezer has become one of the brand’s bestsellers and Starck says what’s important for designers today is to stand by their convictions. “Don’t listen to anybody, explore within yourself what is required for your job, ask yourself why you have to create, and do this well, in a slightly naïve, obstinate and very generous way,” he says. “At some point it will work because you will be original.” “I often use the metaphor of a design company as being like a good gardener,” adds Alessi. Since the awards began, he has witnessed a rise in entries focused on intelligent solutions with an ethical or health-conscious bent. “The Alessi Design Awards are important for us as a company to discover which new plants can be generated from the seeds carried by the Australian wind,” says Alessi. “In our experience Australia has turned out to be a very fruitful and seed-rich soil, capable of generating a wide variety of lush and surprising plants.” Here, Alessi and Starck present the finalists for the Vogue Living Alessi Design Awards.
Established designers
“An intelligent solution able to bring out the peculiarities of stainless steel” alberto alessi
Ikje Cheon >> LIPS WATER BOTTLE
“What if there was a water bottle that you could use on the move without opening a lid?” asks South Korean-born and Melbournebased architect Ikje Cheon. Cheon, who has previously worked in Singapore and Japan, has designed the Lips water bottle for Alessi. By cleverly utilising the natural spring-back action of stainless-steel sheeting, his design allows users to open the bottle with ease. “Simplicity is the result of efficient and logical thinking,” says the architect. “With simplicity, the beauty will naturally present itself, creating an intimate association between the user and the design.” For Cheon, an intuitive approach informed the bottle. “Lips began with the aim to use the simplest gesture to operate a water bottle,” he says. “When we are doing something, it’s not easy to open a bottle with just one motion. Lips can with a simple squeeze.” According to Philippe Starck, “this is a fantastic lesson in biomechanics. It will make anyone passionate about drinking water.”
<< Tom Fereday SUONO SPEAKER
Sydney-based industrial designer Tom Fereday’s star continues its ascent. With a new furniture collection launched earlier this year for Shanghai-based design giant Stellar Works alongside fresh work for Dutch brand Weltevree, Australian brand SP01 and his own unique creations that span the elegance of a 3D-printed ceramic pendant lamp and the functionality of a reinvented breezeblock, it’s little surprise Fereday’s Suono speaker was selected as a finalist. “It’s an essential project that combines technology, function and material processing,” says Alberto Alessi. The elegant bluetooth device is designed to sit atop a desk, be mounted to a wall or simply carried as a portable hand-held speaker. “More than ever people move and adapt whether they’re at work or home,” says Fereday. “I wanted to create a speaker that could be cherished and carried with you no matter where you move or travel to. I felt that it would be a really interesting challenge to look at how a portable wireless speaker could be re-imagined for a brand like Alessi.”
Emerging designers Kennyjie >> ROTOLO SHOPPING BAG
“There is an urgency for a practical and elegant solution for sustainability. One that replaces sacrifice with joy, delight and beauty.” So says the insightful Kennyjie, an Indonesian-born industrial designer who recently graduated from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology with a mission to make a positive impact on the environment. And Kennyjie’s Rotolo shopping bag design for Alessi is indeed a delightful step in the right direction. “Rolling is a very intuitive gesture of tidying up,” he says. “So I thought about how we could make a product that will facilitate this intuitive behaviour and encourage sustainable practices such as carrying a re-usable shopping bag.” The result — a super lightweight yet durable bag that can be unwound from a pocket-sized tablet — is as pleasingly proportioned, as it is pragmatic. Adds Philippe Starck:
“No more excuses for using pollutant plastic bags.”
THIS PAGE Kennyjie (top) and Ketsa Jerome, finalists in the Emerging Designer category for the Alessi Design Awards.
Ketsa Jerome >> JAANA WATER BOTTLE
“The name Jaana was inspired by my heritage,” says designer Ketsa Jerome of her Carlo Scarpa-inspired water bottle. “It means ‘to go’ in Hindi.” Jerome, an architecture masters graduate of Melbourne’s RMIT University who originally hails from a small southern Indian town, Kodaikanal, says she wanted to create an object that served an essential everyday purpose but didn’t look like a regular mundane item. “More than 60 million plastic water bottles end up in landfill every day,” she says. “As someone who is creative and sporty it’s been a struggle to find a water bottle that is durable, reusable and visually appealing. Jaana is your new everyday water bottle.” Alberto Alessi agrees: “It’s an original proposal that gives a new image to a consolidated typology.” VL
“Anything that encourages us to drink tap water is good, even a sculpture” philippe starck “A simple but well-conceived idea for a small but very useful object” alberto alessi