This is the first publication on the work of Konstantin Grcic (b. 1965), one of the most interesting and prolific designers of today. The book offers an insight into his design process showing products at different stages of development, together with a remarkable portfolio of finished pieces, through sketches, drawings and specially commissioned photographs. Edited by photographer and visual researcher Florian Böhm and with texts by Konstantin Grcic, Pierre Doze and Francesca Picchi.

Konstantin Grcic ist einer der wichtigsten Designer unserer Zeit. Seine Entwürfe verbinden industrielle Ästhetik mit experimentellen, künstlerischen Elementen, sie sind ernsthaft und funktional, sperrig und teilweise irritierend. Manche von Grcics Designs, etwa der »Chair_One± (2004) oder die Leuchte »Mayday± (1999), gelten bereits heute als Designklassiker. Mit »Konstantin Grcic – Panorama± präsentiert das Vitra Design Museum die bislang größte Einzelausstellung zu Grcic und seinem Werk. Eigens für die Ausstellung hat Grcic mehrere raumgreifende Installationen entwickelt, die seine persönlichen Visionen für das Leben von morgen darlegen: ein Wohninterieur, ein Designatelier und einen Stadtraum. Sie zeigen fiktive Szenarien, konfrontieren den Betrachter mit den Inspirationen, Herausforderungen und Fragen des Designers und stellen Grcics Entwürfe in einen größeren gesell-schaftlichen Zusammenhang. Höhepunkt dieser Inszenierungen ist ein 30 Meter langes Panoramabild, das eine Architekturlandschaft der Zukunft zeigt.0Ein vierter Ausstellungsbereich richtet einen konzentrierten Blick auf die tägliche Arbeit von Konstantin Grcic. Hier werden viele seiner Produkte, aber auch Prototypen, Zeichnungen und Hintergrundinformationen gezeigt, ergänzt um Fundstücke, Alltagsgegenstände und Werke anderer Gestalter, die Grcic inspiriert haben – von einer alten Teekanne und einem frühen Apple-Computer bis hin zu Werken von Marcel Duchamp, Gerrit Rietveld oder Enzo Mari. Mit dem Wechsel der Perspektiven zwischen dem großen und dem kleinen Zusammenhang zeigt die Ausstellung, dass Design für Grcic nicht nur Problemlösung ist, sondern ein assoziativer Umgang mit Bildern, Zufällen, Brüchen und Entdeckungen.0Exhibition: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany (22.3.-14.9.2014) / Z33, Hasselt, Belgium (1.2.-24.5.2015).

This book takes an in-depth look at design processes, with twenty-five depictions of "the making of" products from a wide variety of industries. Its primary focuses are furniture design, transportation design, and household appliances. Renowned designers like Konstantin Grcic, the Bouroullecs, Stefan Diez, Hella Jongerius, and Sir Norman Foster offer step by step accounts of how they go about designing products for Vitra, Grundig, Jura, and Authentics – the tools they use for visualization and how projects change during the model phase. Plus: an interview with design legend Dieter Rams on realized and unrealized products for Braun.

Encompassing furniture, tableware and exhibition designs, the practice of German designer Stefan Diez (born 1971) is characterized by innovation through technical expertise and a passion for experimentation. Before founding his own design studio in 2003, Diez worked for Richard Sapper and Konstantin Grcic since then, he has worked in various fields of design, from furniture, tableware, bags and accessories to industrial design, as well as exhibition design for companies such as Authentics, Bree, HAY, Moroso, Rosenthal, Thonet, Wilkhahn and others. Full House, a comprehensive compilation of his multifaceted body of work, portrays his studio's methodology and development processes and delivers first-hand insight into the state of industrial design today, complemented by essays and interviews exploring some of the issues in the field.

We have entered a post-post-studio age, and find ourselves with a new studio model: the transdisciplinary. Artists and designers are now defined not by their discipline but by the fluidity with which their practices move between the fields of architecture, art, and design. This volume delves into four pioneering transdisciplinary studios--Jorge Pardo Sculpture, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, Studio Olafur Eliasson, and Åbäke--by observing and interviewing the practitioners and their assistants. A further series of interviews with curators, critics, anthropologists, designers, and artists serves to contextualize the transdisciplinary model now at the fore of creative practice. Including interviews with Jorge Pardo, Konstantin Grcic, Olafur Eliasson, and Åbäke; and Vito Acconci, Gui Bonsiepe, James Clifford, Dexter Sinister, Martino Gamper, Ryan Gander, Caroline Jones, Ronald Jones, Maria Lind, Alessandro Mendini, Rick Poynor, and Andrea Zittel. The Transdisciplinary Studio is the first volume of a series of books by Alex Coles on the expanded studio model and contemporary praxis.

In 2019, the Vitra Design Museum will publish the Atlas of Furniture Design, the definitive, encyclopedic overview of the history of modern furniture design. Featuring over 1700 objects by more than 500 designers and 121 manufacturers, it includes approximately 2800 images ranging from detailed object photographs to historical images documenting interiors, patents, brochures, and related works of art and architecture. The basis for the Atlas of Furniture Design is the collection held by the Vitra Design Museum, one of the largest of its kind with more than 7000 works. The book presents selected pieces by the most important designers of the last 230 years and documents key periods in design history, including early nineteenth-century industrial furniture in bentwood and metal, Art Nouveau and Secessionist pieces and works by protagonists of classical modernism and postwar design, as well as postmodern and contemporary pieces. The Atlas of Furniture Design employed a team of more than 70 experts and features over 550 detailed texts about key objects. In-depth essays provide sociocultural and design-historical context to four historical epochs of furniture design and the pieces highlighted here, enriched by a detailed annex containing designer biographies, glossaries, and elaborate information graphics. The Atlas of Furniture Design is an indispensable resource for collectors, scholars and experts, as well as a beautifully designed object that speaks to design enthusiasts.

The Auto-Ethnographic Turn in Design' is emerging from a growing recognition of design?s capacity to make sense of one?s world while at the same time to express and convey this personal insight or knowledge through rich, layered, and ultimately meaningful processes or objects. Auto-ethnographic design seeks to come to terms with one?s context and self?as well as the materiality that mediates these two. In doing so, it offers a vision of design that is free of commercial commissions, assumed users? needs, or well-intentioned do-goodism, and reveals a sincerity and genuine commitment in the process of design that is too often missing.00The book is divided between ?Ideas and Dialogues? (reflections and conversations between critics, theorists, educators, and practitioners), which ground conceptions of auto-ethnography and the ?self? and explore how experiences can be relevant and meaningful starting points for design and visual art; and ?Projects and Practices,? which embody auto-ethnographic qualities?whereby design objects and practices are embedded with personal sentiments, experiences, desires, fears, and more.