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Rogier van der Heide's Dream Cloud, an installation showing the beauty of crystals.
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The Design Museum in London held a special talk about the tradition of commissioning design to stimulate creative excellence, technical innovation and the realization of artistic, non-commercial ideas, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento
Speakers at the event included Nadja Swarovski and Suzanne Trocme from Swarovski and designers Maarten Baas, Paul Cocksedge and Hilda Hellstrom.
Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, asked the speakers about their experience commissioning and creating works: "How do you commission design that is challenging and encourages designers to share their most radical ideas?"
The images below are examples of works specially commissioned from designers for the Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibition held in Milan during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.
All works were commissioned by Nadja Swarovski from five different artists to interpret the famous crystal, including Gwenaël Nicolas, Vincent van Duysen, Rogier van der Heide and Yves Béhar. The pieces were one of a kind and each design was exhibited in its own room creating the ideal atmosphere for individual creative expression.
For further information on the Design Museum: http://designmuseum.org
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Gwenaël Nicolas' ten metre long crystal rope which integrated LED lighting programmed to set off sparks from one end of the rope to the other creating an iridescent spectrum of lighting.
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Gwenaël Nicolas also designed Sparks, a free floating transparent balloon with small crystal sculptures inside lit by LED.
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Vincent Van Duysen's Frost, a glowing ‘beam’ encrusted with Swarovski crystals.
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Yves Béhar's Amplif, a series of deceptively simple ‘paper lanterns’ shaped like crystals, with Swarovski crystals inside casting patterns on the surface of the paper.
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