Josef Hoffmann's Art Nouveau Style!

While writing a post for another website, we heard someone refer to a designer as an "unsung hero" of the design world and design history. We really liked that idea. It's because though there are tons and tons of designers who made an impact and are way well-known. But there are plenty of designers whose work had plenty of influence in the rest of the world but don't enjoy the same level of posthumous popularity, and we'd like to sing one of their praises today! Josef Hoffmann, this post is for you!

Hoffmann worked a bit earlier than that most influential of time periods, the Mid-Century. He worked more around the Turn of the Century and the 1920s and 1930s and you can certainly tell with his style.

There are definite Art Nouveau influences swirling around many of Hoffmann's pieces. We see how the line-especially a sensual, curving one, plays a big part in creating outlines and structure in his pieces, like a series of lounge chairs and sofas that have dark-colored upholstery and light-colored, almost pinstripe-like stripes on them.

Hoffmann furniture pieces made out of wood are a complicated, formal bunch. Cabinets are heavy and masculine. It looks like he favored one type of furniture piece a lot, the round or square side and occasional table. Usually made of dark wood species and stains, they are formal, with ornamentation, but definitely hint at the modernism coming our way soon.

From a place called Moravia (now known as Czech Republic) in 1870, but it didn't take him long to get to Vienna, where he spent his life and work career. Along with being an Austrian architect and furniture designer, he also created a lot of home design products and taught many young, impressionable designers as a design professor for many years.

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

The Modern and Traditional Designs of Fritz Henningsen!

From one Henningsen to the next! As you may remember, we posted about Poul Henningsen, a great figure in the world of Danish and modern design, who wowed design lovers everywhere with his gorgeous light fixtures that looked like nothing that had come before them. Today's Henningsen-Fritz, to be exact-is a bit more of a mystery than last post's more flamboyant one, but is no less influential.

 

Unlike Poul, Fritz was not a lighting designer; rather he created gorgeous furniture pieces that carried the hallmarks of Danish design perfectly. Also unlike other designers, Fritz didn't experiment with a ton of different styles or designs; he found some elements that he felt worked, and ran with those, creating a body of work that is instantly recognizable and much-loved.

First up are his distinct couch and chair designs. Sleek seat lines mingle with sharply angled-yet still curved-back, arm and wing shapes, creating furniture pieces that are both modern and traditional. Many of his couch and chairs seem to favor leather as a material, and this helps warm up any modern coldness of the shape. And those curves tended to play an important part in balancing out many of his seat shapes; we do spot a number of couches and chairs that do feature nothing but straight lines.

While his seating designs are exquisite, he did make more than just chairs. We think his wood case goods tended to favor a more traditional route than modern. His tables, credenzas and small storage pieces had mostly straight lines, but just have that "traditional" appearance, though he did eschew ornamentation mostly. Overall his pieces just had a great transitional feel to them, able to bridge the gap between ultra modern Danish design and more traditional furniture design.

Born just at the turn of the century, Fritz had a reputation for being a great cabinetmaker and furniture maker, and his work was hailed as being some of the highest in terms of craftsmanship. He was known for his use of exotic woods and every piece that carries his name was absolutely made by hand, usually by methods he carried with him from past years' traditional methods.

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

The Danish and Modern Designs of Poul Henningsen

With so many amazing Danish designers who have existed over the decades, you know we mean business when we say a person we're profiling for the Swank Lighting blog is one of the most important influences from Denmark. Poul Henningsen, often just called PH in Denmark, made quite a mark on the world of architecture, furniture design and lighting, and you can still see many of his ideas in contemporary designs of today.

He's most well-known for his light fixtures. Now so common of a shape you barely bat an eyelash when you see these fixtures in a modern home, when he first started designing these they made quite the stir. Featuring materials like metal or plastic, his light fixtures look like robotic, upside down artichokes. They have lots of layers, almost like the scales of a fish, but there's nothing organic or natural feeling about these designs save for maybe a few curves inherent to the materials.

Robotic. Modern. Futuristic. It all started with his first PH-lamp in 1925 that "broke up" the light with its shape and design. The wild success of this piece meant he could continue exploring these ideas because he had set up a strong financial base and a reputation. Subsequent PH lamp fixtures all share important characteristics, but all have their own distinct personalities, as well.

Outspoken and a writer, Henningsen's contributions didn't just stop at lighting fixture design. He was also a critical thinker and discussed other goings on in the Danish design world at the time through his writings, which were all very popular. He certainly made his ideas known, which is good for us, since his ideas were so great.

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

The Modern and Italian Designs of Marco Zanuso!

What is it about Italian designers that just seem to understand curves better than designers from other countries? Is it the inherent sensuality that their culture breeds? Is it that they have a different definition of modernism than the rest of us? We're not sure, but we know we love the curves found in the furniture work of Italian architect and designer Marco Zanuso. Read on to find out just what else we love about his work.

Zanuso is definitely another one of those designers whom we had never heard of before, but now that we have, we never want to forget. His designs are larger-than-life, comfy-looking and colorful. Soft and pliable, don't misconstrue our message; there are still plenty of sleek lines that help distinguish Zanuzo's work as Mid-Century Modern style.

He seems to really have a thing for arm rests. His arm rests are large proportionally, and really frame each of his pieces well. He also seems to love chairs. Big, fluffy side chairs that are made for lounging. Being that he's so good at chairs, you can imagine that his sofas are equally awesome, though we did see some great couches without arms that were still as fabulous.

Though he was definitely a master at soft goods like chairs and sofas, he carried his signature style of curves and soft edges to other types of furniture, like side tables, coffee tables, dining tables, and we also spot a pretty cute table lamp and table accessory that match his style precisely.

Born in Milan in 1916, Marco Zanuso worked with other important Italian designers to really shape good Italian design. He went to school for architecture at the Politecnico di Milano university and eventually opened his own design firm in 1945. He was a huge influence in Italy for many decades, and we're happy to say he's influenced Americans, too.

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

The French and Modern Designs of Andre Arbus!

We have a wonderful French designer influence for you today, that of Andre Arbus. Arbus was a work horse, creating a huge portfolio of beautiful pieces in a variety of shapes and types. Because he was so prolific and because his work was so unique, we've chosen to highlight him for your hopeful inspiration!

We see TONS of different types of furniture pieces that Arbus designed while looking through all of his work. Credenzas, dining tables, side tables, coffee tables, chairs, sofas, lamps and even artwork. It does seem like he excelled at two type of pieces of furniture in particular, though, and that is the dining table chair and wooden case goods.

What we love about his style is how he was able to marry the look of old-fashioned, traditional, antique French looks with a more Turn-of-the-Century, modern, contemporary look. In fact, if you just glance at all of his work, you might think to yourself that it all looks wildly different. But that's not necessarily the case. Not to imply that he was formulaic in his approach, but you can see that many of his pieces have very modern and contemporary lines, but still have those ornamental details that you would never see on truly modern pieces.

You can see a variety of materials used, from metal to glass, to wood and more and you also see a number of finishes. Some pieces are lacquered, others painted glossy, even more just left in their natural state. The thing about Andre Arbus' work is there's bound to be something for anyone's tastes.

From Toulouse, France and born into a family of cabinet-makers, he spent many years studying art and craft in top billed schools in Paris and around France. Though he definitely worked with furniture that bucked traditional norms, there's no denying that the heritage of the furniture of his home country's history had a huge effect on his work.

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.