Details

Tord Boontje

In 1968 Tord was born in the Netherlands. His education at the Eindhoven Design Academy, class of 1991, and the Royal College of Art London, graduate of 1994, set the foundation for Studio Tord Boontje.
Early projects involved creating studio produced low cost or free products such as Transglass in 1997, the Rough-and-Ready furniture in 1999 and the Wednesday Collection in 2001. He started to show his work in exhibitions, and institutions such as the British Council and the Design Museum recognised and supported his talent.

By 2002 the unique Garland light for Habitat was a widely recognised and distributed product and the articulate and beautiful Blossom chandelier for Swarovski was making waves; but it was an installation created in the Moroso showroom during the 2004 Milan Salone that sent the international media into a frenzy. Titled Happy Ever After, this was an installation full of texture, colour and imagery. This sensorial experience made the statement that design can be married with emotion. It established that the Studio’s work draws from a belief that modernism does not mean minimalism, that contemporary does not forsake tradition, and that technology does not abandon people and senses.

In 2005, a high profile project with Target saw Tord on USA television in his own advert surrounded by animated animals and nature and in 2007 Rizzoli dedicated a book to describing the first 10 years of Studio Tord Boontje.

Since 2005, Tord Boontje has worked with a range of international companies such as Shiseido, Yamaha, Hewlett Packard, Bisazza, Target, Philips, Kvadrat, Alexander McQueen, Perrier-Jouët, Nanimarquina, Artecnica, Authentics, Meta and has continued his work with Swarovski, Moroso, and Habitat. The range of products include lighting, graphics, textiles, ceramics and furniture. The work can be found in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, MoMA and Copper-Hewitt museum in New York, the Design Museum and Tate Modern in London.

This extremely creative and prolific studio responds to and leads trends. An interest in social issues grew into working with artisans in developing countries and led to projects in Guatemala, Senegal, Rio de Janeiro and Columbia. The studio has grown, evolved and travelled. They spent 5 years in rural France before Boontje decided to return to London in 2009 and engage with education, taking up the challenging appointment as Professor and Head of Design Products at the Royal College of Art.

An experiment to place the studio, workshop and retail outlet on one premises led to a move to Shoreditch in East London in 2012. From here the studio launches and makes new experimental collections of products. This independent and creative method of working also serves and inspires the still continuing long-term relationships with clients and initiates new ones.

Web-Site from Designer: www.tordboontje.com 

Bisazza

Bisazza is one of the top luxury brands in the design sector and the industry’s leading producer of glass mosaic for interior and outdoor decoration. Established in 1956 in Alte Vicenza, Northern Italy, the company has become a trailblazer, marked by a dynamic entrepreneurial spirit, a mastery of modern technologies with an ability to read and anticipate the needs of the global market.

Bisazza has twelve flagship stores in Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rome, Tokyo and, from December 2009, Miami. There are also seventeen branches worldwide in Australia, Brazil, Belgium/Luxembourg, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), France, Germany, Holland, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, U.S.A., and United Arab Emirates (Dubai). The distribution network includes more than seven thousands local retailers. During the past few years the company’s strategy has focused on strengthening the brand, widening the distribution network through direct commercial branches and producing the highest quality product.

For several years now, Bisazza has been part of Altagamma, an association supporting the best Italian luxury brands. In 2007, Bisazza was cited in a survey realized by Pambianco Strategie di Impresa, one of the most important consulting firms for strategy development of Fashion and Luxury organizations, with a second place ranking out of 250 top Italian companies in the design and luxury market. In keeping with the company’s strategy to continually increase the growth and development of the business, Mediobanca, Italy's leading investment bank, has become a minor stakeholder of Bisazza with a 14.3% share of the business. Since 2004, the Bisazza Design Studio, a team of young designers directed by architect Carlo Dal Bianco, has been coordinating the company's style designing its flagship stores and product collections. Over the years, Bisazza has worked with leading figures in architecture, design, art and fashion, notably Tord Boontje, Aldo Cibic, Sandro Chia, Romeo Gigli, Michael Graves, Jaime Hayon, Alessandro Mendini, Paola Navone, Fabio Novembre, Fabrizio Plessi, Andrée Putman, Ettore Sottsass, Studio Job, Patricia Urquiola and Marcel Wanders. In April 2006, during the Milan Design Week, Bisazza launched Home, the first collection of furniture and home accessories combining mosaic and other luxury materials designed by Patricia Urquiola, Carlo Dal Bianco and Marco Braga & Storage. Since then, the collection has been further enriched with new pieces designed by Jaime Hayon and Studio Job in 2007, Andrée Putman in 2008 and Tord Boontje for the Milan Design Week 2009. Conceived to expand the company’s offering for home interiors, the Bisazza Home collection is suitable for all living spaces. CO-MARKETING PROJECTS: MINI/BMW AND FRITZ HANSEN The “MINI wears Bisazza” project led to five personalised MINI cars decorated with custom made mosaic patterns. First showcased in 2005 at the Milan Design Week, the cars have been on tour ever since to design and fashion hot spots around the world. The first collaboration between Bisazza and the Danish company Fritz Hansen began in 2005, when Bisazza produced a personalized Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chair. The collaboration has since continued with Mosaic Super Ellipse, a collection of tables produced by Fritz Hansen and personalized with mosaic patterns from the Bisazza Mosaico collection which was showcased at the Milan Design Week in 2007.

Manufacturer site: www.bisazza.com