• Review of The Design Annual 2007, Inside: Private Identity, Part 2 – Design & Materials
• Preview of the 2007 Design Annual
• Wood is a very modern material - An Interview with Stefan Diez
• INMYX Article on François Azambourg
• Previews of The Design Annual - Inside: Showtime and Decorate Life: Tendence Autumn and Winter
• Review of Decorate Life: Tendence Autumn + Winter 2008
• All the Fun of the Fair - a Review of Decorate Life: Design Annual – Inside: Showtime

By Le Vin Chin

We live in age of instant gratification. For those with the means, any place in the world is reachable, anyone can be contacted, and any object can be obtained. What we are witnessing is an explosion of choice, and with it a never before seen opportunity for individuals to exercise their choice. To choose the environment and objects with which they surround themselves. And this choice illuminates and informs their tastes, principles, habits and wonts – all based on what they identify with from their culture, background, religion, nationality … their personal “Private Identity”, in other words.

Dominique Perrault’s Cocon uses metal mesh originally developed for agricultural conveyor belts and filter systems in an entirely novel way under the banner “Appropriate Design”

Apart from being a design show showcasing beautiful things and cutting-edge design for homes, kitchens and offices, this year’s Design Annual, organized by Stylepark and held at the Messe Frankfurt, tried to look a little deeper into what constitutes “Private Identity” and to illustrate how design can engage in a dialog about identity. Event designer Patricia Urquiola posed questions such as: Do we need design? What does design have to do with me? Can design create meaning? And the result, "Appropriate Design!” curated by Ilka and Andreas Ruby, comprised clever installations by, among others, François Azambourg and Dominique Perrault.

François Azambourg details the stages of development in the process of creating his signature chairs under his principle of “deliberate mis-use of materials”

New York-based design studio collective 2x4 had the most revealing installation: they posited a stand which sold T-shirts bearing various messages, logos, symbols and slogans to the visitors of the show. The purchasers were therefore engaged in claiming their chosen T-shirt’s design as part of their own identity. The twist came as the purchaser was then photographed with the T-shirt and the resulting photo hung in place of the T-shirt in the stand display – they thus not only publicly declared this part of their identity, but also themselves qualified the identity of the original T-shirt. I made my own choice but left the T-shirt in place: I wanted to see if I had an identity-mate …

The 2x4 stand

Giulio Ridolfo’s RE-KIOSK

In other installations, Italian fabric designer Giulio Ridolfo’s RE-KIOSK was a bazaar stall which showcased objects collected from his world-wide travels which had influenced his designs, while Stefan Diez demonstrated the objects which had inspired his most famous designs in a stand which reflected the designs on the inspirations and back again, and yet somehow still expressed the unknowability of that sudden moment of inspiration.

Stefan Diez’s Déjà-Vu

Audi Cross Coupé Quattro interactive design

Audi’s stand was simple yet popular: allowing the visitors to express their own personal creativity on boards depicting their latest model, while Naoki Terada’s HOKKA-IDO stools reflect the designer’s memories of loving to rock back and forth on the stools of his childhood.

An oasis of calm outside: HOKKA-IDO stools by Naoki Terada at Koziol Spheres

Part 2: a look at Design & Materials.