Design companies celebrate color and new releases in Milan
Coinciding with Salone del Mobile 2017, Herman Miller and Maharam present “Chromatography: The Colour World of Scholten & Baijings” at Herman Miller’s showroom in Milan. The color-filled exhibition was designed by Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings, and will serve not only as the debut of three new textiles they created in collaboration with the Maharam Design Studio—Mesh, Tracery, and Pare—but also as the first public showing of their inaugural furniture collection for Herman Miller—the ColourForm Sofa Group.
The power of color is not lost on Carole Baijings, one half of Amsterdam-based Scholten & Baijings. “Even the brightest flowers are never vulgar,” says Baijings, “there’s a perfection there that we aim to achieve in our work.” Throughout their career as industrial designers, Scholten & Baijings have proved themselves to be acutely sensitive colorists—devising a hands-on, process-oriented methodology to arrive at unique hues and fresh palettes. Reflecting their intent focus on nuanced color and refined geometric patterning, the designers’ new Mesh, Tracery, and Pare shift from the bold and graphic nature of their past Maharam collaborations to more intimate textile surfaces that invite further observation.
Upholstered in the three new textiles, Scholten & Baijings’s new ColourForm Sofa Group for Herman Miller is the perfect expression of its designers’ artistic process. Scholten and Baijings sculpt in pattern, texture, and color. When designing, they consider the play of light and shadow on textiles, and the geometry of forms that comfortably host a variety of human postures in furniture. In their ColourForm Sofa Group, the result is a collection that builds welcoming lounge seating landscapes from a vocabulary of multiple pieces, including two- or three-seat sofas with or without arms, a club chair, ottoman, bench, sectional, and the distinctive tête-à-tête. Each piece of the collection can stand alone or be combined with others to provide a place for work, play, or respite in public or residential spaces.
“Chromatography: The Colour World of Scholten & Baijings” will be on view at Herman Miller at Corso Garibaldi 70 in Milan’s Brera district from 4-8 April, 2017. Herman Miller and Maharam invite guests from the media, design industry, and public at large to experience the exhibition and new introductions in person during Milan Design Week.
Read more here: www.hermanmiller.com/Milan2017
About Scholten & Baijings
Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings founded the Amsterdam-based Scholten & Baijings, Studio for Design in 2000. Moving fluidly between artisanal and industrial processes, Scholten & Baijings creates products characterized by a minimalist visual language, a keen expertise in color, and seamless symmetrical patterning. Their clients include 1616/Arita Japan, Georg Jensen, BMW Group/ MINI, Established & Sons, Thomas Eyck, HAY, IKEA, Karimoku New Standard, and Moroso, among others. The studio’s work has been recognized by two ELLE Decoration International Design Awards and four Dutch Design Awards. The studio’s first monograph, Reproducing Scholten & Baijings (2015), was directed by Maharam, published by Phaidon, written by Louise Schouwenberg, and designed by Joost Grootens. It received an ADC Annual Award in 2016.
About Maharam
Founded in 1902, Maharam is North America’s leading creator of textiles for commercial and residential interiors. Maharam is available in the United States, Canada, and Japan; through its Danish partner, Kvadrat, in Europe; through Kvadrat Maharam in Australia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates; and via a network of distribution in the Pacific Rim.
About Herman Miller
Herman Miller is a globally recognized provider of furnishings and related technologies and services. Headquartered in West Michigan, the global company has relied on innovative design for over 100 years to solve problems for people wherever they work, live, learn, and heal. Herman Miller’s designs are part of museum collections worldwide, and the company is a past recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Known and respected for its leadership in corporate social responsibility, Herman Miller has earned the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating in its Corporate Equality Index ten years in a row, was named a 2016 Top 100 Healthiest Employer, and has earned numerous global sustainability awards. In fiscal 2016, the company generated $2.26 billion in revenue and employed nearly 8,000 people worldwide. Herman Miller trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.