This monday morning i’m obsessed with a design icon. Found myself scouring the net for pics of the classic Eames La Chaise ~ “Charles and Ray Eames designed La Chaise in 1948 for a competition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, inspired by “Floating Figure”, a sculpture by Gaston Lachaise. It is the unbelievable elegance of this assertive seating sculpture that enables any number of sitting and reclining positions, which is so very appealing. It has long since established itself as an icon of Organic Design.” La Chaise by Vitra is made with two fused fiberglass shells with a chrome base and natural oak feet. It’s just so beautifully sculptural, fascinating, AND comfortable to lounge in… see more pics i found on the next page.

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - shopping

Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!

One of my highlights of this year’s 100% Design event would have to be finally seeing the amazing animal chairs from Maximo Riera in person! You may remember his octopus chair which we previously featured here and more recent rhino and walrus additions. These beautiful throne-like pieces of furniture are even more amazing to behold in person. The detailing on the animals is exquisite and incredibly realistic. Another feature that is evident upon seeing the chairs is their enormous size! Like the animals they are designed to reflect, these pieces are truly colossal. More photos of the beautiful walrus, rhino and octopus chairs on the next page!

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Tags: animals - art - chair - furniture - london - nature

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There’s something fun about pieces that take on such a mesmerizing yet sculptural form… like the The Limited Edition Melting Chair by Philipp Aduatz. It has a beautifully mirrored surface that captures a transitional state somewhere between solid and liquid. To capture this liquifying (or solidifying) effect, Aduatz studied the solidification of fluids as well as the melting of solids using 3D animation software. The chair is made from a fiber glass reinforced polymer that takes on a mirrored appearance due to a special silver coating and scratch resistant polyurethane lacquer. Feels very… terminator, doesn’t it? Take a peek at more pics on the next page!

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Tags: chair - gifts - home - shopping

Another find from Justine! - More fun from the architecture department at Show RCA 2011! My favorite, most unexpected piece was this gorgeous chair! The chair is a sample of one of the types of products that could be made in the Hackney Factory, beautifully capturing the process of recycling and reuse, i.e. junk being transformed into bespoke products through craft and digital processes. Love it! So pretty… also you have to take a peek at Hackney Factory project, which consists of a close loop of recycling micro-factories and market forum, essentially creating a micro-community model based on urban mining. Stunning stuff ~ check it all out on the next page!

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Tags: architecture - chair - concept - RCA

I’ve always been terrible at sitting normally in chairs ~ i end up cross legged, legs hanging off the sides sideways, sitting backwards… and sure, i’ve probably flipped a few chairs in my time. Haven’t we all? Well… given that, when presented the opportunity to try the Knoll Generation ~ that claimed to support ANY way of sitting with its tagline “The first chair that lets you sit how you want.” Challenge, accepted! They are even collecting up pics of HOW people are sitting in them at MyGeneration! So in true NOTCOT fashion ~ here’s a big unboxing on the next page ~ and a peek at my favorite details… from the mesh, to the wheels, to the bendable back that screams office-slingshot…

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - home - luxury - office supplies - shopping - unboxing

Another ICFF discovery from Anna of Sub-Studio ~ we’re loving the Ply Project’s Flex Chair created by Kenichi Sato. It takes full advantage of plywood as a material, using its ability to be both rigid and supportive and take on a soft, bendable, almost woven texture. Being made of plywood, the chairs are lightweight and easily moved as they can be separated into a flexible plywood membrane which attaches to a metal frame with embedded magnets, making it so easy to remove/clean off/swap/etc! The Flex series comes in both a chair and chaise lounge. Take a peek at some of Anna’s pics from ICFF as well as product pics on the next page!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - icff - materials - shopping - wood

Thanks, Veuve Clicquot, our Milano Design Week sponsor! We adore their new origami inspired ice bucket, Clicq’up.

Justine spotted the beautiful lamp (Gice) and chair (Moon) from The Dutch Standard while running around Milan. Mesmerizingly sci-fi, these reflective, woody spheres can’t help but draw you in… take a peek at the next page to see how the Gice light and Moon chair look!

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Tags: chair - furniture - lighting - milan - salone

That - up there - became a chair. As beautiful as the Tokujin Yoshioka Moon chairs for Moroso are, its the initial water color sketches that inspired the chairs that really grab me! There is a messy simplicity i just can’t resist… anyhow, starving and really ought to get to lunch, but wanted to share this one before running out! See how the chairs turned out on the next page, as well as more watercolors!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - home - shopping

WOW. Sometimes emails come in, sound too good to be true, then you click a link, and your jaw just drops. You can barely call Maximo Riera’s Octopus Chair, a chair. It’s more like an Octopus THRONE. This chair is first of a The Animal Chairs collection, consisting of more than 15 different pieces. A true art piece, it has evolved from sketches to 3D renders to CNC’d blocks which were assembled, glued, sanded, and painted by hand. A truly impressive artistic take on where the chair meets nature… one can only imagine what it must feel like to sit in such a throne! Or as Riera says “The Octopus Chair therefore becomes a powerful intersection of complex human design integrated with nature’s splendor.” Wow. You really must see more pictures of it (and the making of) on the next page.

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Tags: art - chair - furniture - gifts - nature - octopus - shopping

I love the way porcelain and wood come together… this is Pour Celain by gregorysung for CRISTINA GRAJALES GALLERIES, new york, at london’s MOET HENNESSY pavilion of art and design in berkley square in london. The seats are produced by Korean ceramic masters ~ and the legs by Italian artisans… fused together they are this beautiful stool! See more images on the next page! The underside is just stunning!

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Tags: art - chair - gifts - home - porcelain - shopping - wood

I love multipurpose pieces. There’s just something so smart and flexible about them! The new Case Study Day Bed Convertible Table Ottoman also doubles as a handled table when you remove the simply velcro’d on cushion! And as usual ~ over at Modernica you can pick your choice of woods, legs, and fabric colours! See more pictures on the next page…

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - home - shopping - table

Oooh ~ Artek goes BLACK GLOSS! … with their appropriately names Glossy Black collection, these classic pieces get even sleeker, simpler, and shinier! Also the photoshoot they did for this line was inspired (are they looking thoughtful? lonely? cold? they almost call for a caption contest). Beautiful beachy sunsets. Sleek glossy black seating. See it all on the next page!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - home - shopping

It is amazing how good the plastic version of a steel design classic can feel… you have to sit/lift this new 111 Navy Chair is! The Emeco classic remade in a special formulation of rPET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate- recycled plastic bottles) mixed with glass fiber for strength ~ where each chair contains 111 recycled plastic Coke bottles! Apparently over the last 4 years ~ Coke instigated this project, challenging Emeco designers/manufacturers to adapt the chair. While this launched in milan (frozen in a block of ice! - see pic on next page!) ~ the launch party for it at DWR NY in the meatpacking had so many fun design details, as well as lots of the chairs to sit on and play with ~ the experience had to be shared! From recycled coke glass bottle tumblers filled with rum and coke and topped off with paper straws ~ to fun graphics on walls/male models in tees/port-a-potties/coasters/pins ~ to a photobooth! And adorable bags with the Eames quote “Take your pleasure seriously.” (Words i definitely live by for NOTCOT!)… so take a peek at all the fun on the next page!

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Tags: chair - coke - dwr - events - furniture - icff - new york - recycled

Spotted across the street when we were in Milan ~ Fritz Hansen had an incredible display not only showcasing the new NAP chair by Kasper Salto… but the whole process, from inspiration boards to prototypes to failed tests and more! It’s an inspiring way to see how much work and testing goes into a product that ends up so simple, functional, and beautiful. See the full walk through on the next page!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - milan - prototype - salone - shopping

Magis was incredible this year, so many stunning pieces. Perhaps the most experimental and fascinating was the Sparkling Chair by Marcel Wanders. It’s like the PET water bottle chair of sorts… complete with mock-labels matching frizzante water… There was even a pop up space in Tortona with walls covered in prototypes, sketches, and more, and to see the process to find the perfect weight, colors, concepts were truly inspiring! This is his lightest chair yet, weighing in at under 1kg ~ and it finds its strength not in the material, as much as it does the air and pressure within (imagine your bottle of sparkling water before you open it?) While i’m not sure how i feel about the material chosen, it is interesting to see that its blow molded, and really that the concept plays on the idea of lightweight/minimal material usage in combination with the strength of air pressure… without having that terrible feeling of inflatable furniture? Take a peek at lots of angles of it in person, sketches, prototypes ~ as well as a video of him chatting with Fabio Novembre about it (while seated ON the prototype!) on the next page!

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Tags: chair - furniture - milan - salone - water

Perhaps one of our favorite finds while running around Ventura Lambrate ~ the amazing AXECHAIR! As part of the Made In Arnhem (Netherlands) exhibition Weltevree presented their beautiful AXECHAIR designed by Floris Schoonderbeek (whose Dutchtub, we loved and lusted after for some time now!) The AXECHAIR is a chair made of wood and cast aluminum, with a surprising use of existing axe handles by Swedish company Gränsfors, Gränsfors Bruks has manufactured axes and hatchets in Sweden since 1902. The unambiguous and powerful joints are directly derived from the way axes are made.

Floris Schoonderbeek on the Axechair: “Gränsfors is an inspirational company in terms of both its technology and its culture. The Axechair is actually a statement of identity - a statement about Gränsfors, the company and the village. And this has produced a practical chair, sturdy yet elegant.

On random ideas ~ i secretly wish they would do a version of this with the American Axes - Best Made Co! Can you just imagine how fun the incredible boxes would be? And the fun colored handles? Ahhh, a girl can dream! But firstly, check out the amazing pics (both from the booth, as well as making of pics!) on the next page of the AXECHAIR!

p.s. Just noticed the standalone page (with minimal information) on the Axechair: “The Axechair reflects this trip to Gränsfors with ice fishing, axe throwing and spending a Sunday afternoon on the ice. Back in Holland, Floris started to design the chair with the gathered materials from Gränsfors. Axechair, a romance between Dutch elegance and Swedish axe construction.”

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - milan - salone - shopping

Popped by the De Padova opening tonight and can’t get Patricia Urqiola’s Lavenham Executive chairs out of my head. They describe it as “For dining and meeting tables, or behind a desk. Lavenham Executive reprises the quilted pattern on the back of the chassis of the Lavenham chair. A versatile, transformable seat: nude, with a small cushion, or covered with a matelassé housse, put on or removed with a single gesture. The base plays with the materials and finishes. The legs are in oak-stained ash wood, while the swivel version has a base in aluminium, polished or with white or black satin paint finish.” It’s like hypermodern chanel quilting as you approach it, with a satiny eggshell matte when you settle into it. Each of the different bases give them such a different character… i’m craving them for a fun dining/conference table look. See more images on the next page!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - milan - salone - shopping

I currently have a thing for super multipurpose furniture… especially the type that is versatile and beautiful enough to fit in both inside and out! Launching at the Salone in Milan in a few weeks ~ here is a peek at Expormim’s new “Nido” by Javier Pastor. Isn’t it just perfect for the simple mod california house… or out on the deck? And it’s so very NOTCOT, coming in only black and white! See a close up on the next page…

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Tags: chair - furniture - salone - shopping

If i had a pool, i'd love to have it surrounded by a few of these Inflatable Pool Lounger/Chairs by PAD Outdoor. Such a sleek simple idea ~ aluminum frame (see it exposed on the next page!) ~ and although its only a prototype, you can buy them over at Ford & Ching and they will even customize them in an array of colors...

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Tags: aluminum - chair - gifts - inflate - outdoor - pool - shopping

I have had a thing for awesome classic-esque black wood chairs with a twist... i went through classics, was tempted, but wanted more. And then i walked into the Design House Stockholm event at NY Design week, and just gravitated to these 4 Family Chairs by Lina Nordqvist - and just FYI, i love almost all things DHS, so i knew i hadn't seen these before, and just kind of wandered past the door list and right over to them. They are such a fun twist on a classic! Here's their description:

"Not every chair is created equal. Especially not Family Chairs by Lina Nordqvist, a foursome of traditional Swedish stickback chairs. Separately they present themselves as individuals, unique chairs aspiring to be something more than just pieces of furniture. Together they form a boisterous family, with each one displaying a distinctive character. Even the horizontal spindles between the chair legs play their part in the game. "I'm fascinated by objects, and I like it when they have their own special individuality, something beyond mere technical function. That's why I decided on a graduation project at Beckmans College of Design in which I transformed something well-known and traditional into something unexpected." It's no surprise that Lina Nordqvist's Family Chairs seem to be made for the stage: she has already pursued a career as a professional set designer in the Swedish film industry for several years. Family Chairs will be available in natural wood and in a black-lacquered version."

See the many pictures on the next page! Which is your favorite? I also have a thing for playfully mismatched chairs...

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - home - icff - shopping

Amazing that Kartell is celebrating their 60th birthday this year! 1949 - 2009! To celebrate their design week party was "Kartell, 60 Years of Design! What a wonderful world!". Such a classic design powerhouse ~ it was fun not only to see some of their new pieces launched this year, but also their great color sorted displays, playful human cut outs, great use of mirrors, and perhaps my favorite unexpected detail... beefy guys in very tight I <3 Kartell Lights shirts, complete with their lighting collection on their backs. I couldn't help but as the nice server to pose for me to share his shirt with you! So click on to the next page to take a peek at the Kartell soho show room and the scene tonight!

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Tags: chair - desk - furniture - gifts - home - icff - lighting - shopping

There are some things you can read about and only when you play with it and get to take it apart in person do you fully understand how awesome it is. It also doesn't hurt to first see it in an awesomely large grouping arranged like a sculpture on the 3rd floor deck of the The Standard, New York with all of NYC as the backdrop... and then again back down on the ground in a shipping container both intact and taken apart...

Of course i'm talking about Artek's 10 Unit System by Shigeru Ban! Both Artek and Shigeru Ban are known for their love of beautiful simplicity, functionality, and sustainability ~ so it's no surprise that this 10 Unit System emobodies all of those qualities wonderfully. "Systematizing, Standardizing, Making It Accessible." This is the chair who's motto is boldly "One chair is enough"... and being constructed of 10 identical L shaped pieces, one can create chairs of varying designs, stools, coffee tables, and even combine them for benches and more. When feel like a quick change, simply rearrange the pieces! These are made from ProFi, an environmentally friendly wood-plastic composite - non-toxic, sustainable, and recyclable, it utilizes the surplus materials from the label stock production of UPM. (Artek also used this material for the Artek Pavillion that was sold by Sotheby's as well as floor tiles.)

Take a look on the next page for images from the The Standard, New York deck ~ in the Playful New Finnish Design 09 shipping container ~ up close ~ press photos ~ and even the really fun propoganda cut/paste/photocopy zine looking booklet!

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Tags: artek - chair - events - furniture - green - home - hotels - icff - luxury - modular - recycled - standard - travel

I was just looking for step stools, and got nostalgic thinking about those rolling ones from the libraries... and as i browsed the many colors of the classic Cramer Inc. Kik-Step Rolling Stools ~ i discovered that Kik-Step Stools had their turned 50 in 2007 (Cramer Inc. was founded in the 30's) and there's a special 50th Anniversary Library Edition Kik-Step Stool with quotes from classic literature molded into the non-skid tread!

The backstory behind this icon?

In 1940, Cramer sold its safe business, and in the 1950's, expanded their product line to include rolling ladders and step stools. With Cramer's capabilities in bending and stamping aluminum and steel, manufacturing ladders and stools was a natural extension of their existing products.

Cramer engineers invented the concept of the "ladder bell", the retractable caster with a circular housing, that they placed on a ladder to protect the casters and ladder legs. A few years later, an engineer had the idea to make a life-size version of the ladder bell itself for use as a step stool. That idea eventually bore the Kik-Step®, the original rolling-step stool.

See more images of the Kik-Stools on the next page!

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Tags: books - chair - furniture - gifts - shopping

Stingray by Thomas Pedersen for Federica Furniture... no it's not new, and yes i've been obsessing over the black one since last night so needed to collect up pics and post it to see if that gets it out of my system. It reminds me of a sci-fi evolved version of the Eames Rocker... This was actually designed back in 2002 ~ as his graduation project from the Aarhus School of Architecture... fun fact: "The name of the chair derives from the stingray. The Danish word for stingray is "rokke" which sounds like the first part of the word "rock" in "rocking chair" and the shell does resemble a giant stingray moving across the seabed. But it was the functionality that came first, not the design." and apparently even 6 years after its design it's still winning awards? Interior Innovation Award Cologne, Germany, 2008 - Red Dot Design Award, 2008

I also love the images of this chair ~ while it is still interesting covered in fabrics or in bent wood or bent wood and leather... my favorite is definitely the black shell ~ pairing that rigid gloss surface with the texture of the sheepskin just looks so cozy! See more pics on the next page!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - home - shopping

UPDATE!!!: CONGRATS to Lisa in Clifton, Colorado who won the Steelcase Leap Chair!!! And huge thanks to everyone that participated!

CES time! And since i'm off to vegas in the morning, i wanted to leave you with this fun giveaway! Maybe if dan takes over and does some driving, i'll even have time to approve some comments on the googlephone on the road!

The nice folks at Steelcase were so excited about the post about the Leap chair that they've offered to give one away to a lucky NOTCOT reader, and with generosity like that, how could i say no? This is pretty much the perfect gift/upgrade to kick off 2009 with ~ especially if you're just getting back to work... this Leap might help make the work weeks go by a little more comfortably (and ergonomically!) While the base model retails at $850 and really its an investment in our bodies when we're overworking at our computers... here's your chance to win one!

So for this first giveaway of 2009 ~ i ask 3 little things of you ~ 1) What would you do with the massive box (it's big, i could totally make a fort with mine!)? 2) What is your New Year's Resolution? 3) How will the Steelcase Leap improve your life? For question 1, you should definitely check out the pictures on the next page... for a chance to win, you have until the 31st of January to leave a comment!

UPDATE: Some have asked for more details on how you win ~ well if you answer all three questions (yes, actually answer them, no gibberish or skipping some!) ~ you're in the running!

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Tags: chair - furniture - gifts - giveaway - shopping