Design Miami/Basel 09: the winners of this year’s Designers of the Future awards – Nacho Carbonell, Peter Marigold, Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny, and Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay of Raw Edges – each present installations commissioned for the opening of Design Miami/Basel in Switzerland this week.

The designers were commissioned to produce a “viewer-encompassing environment that stimulates discourse, reflection and community”, using plaster and mirror as their primary materials. Above: Mount Domesticus by Raw Edges.

Raw Edge’s installation (above and below) is inspired by the Alps and features a wooden console table with revolving paper trees called Grove, alongside stools from their Pleated Pleat project first presented in Milan earlier this year. Above: Mount Domesticus by Raw Edges.

Eindhoven-based, Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell created the Fertility Cave (below), an installation representing his brain that depicts the “act of love between the random ideas in my head.” Above: Mount Domesticus by Raw Edges.

London designer Peter Marigold produced a series of three-dimensional Rorschach tests inspired by animal hunting trophies, made of plaster and mirror, while Rotterdam designer Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny created a plaster egg.

Photographs are by James Harris. Above: Fertility Cave by Nacho Carbonell.

More information about the awards in our previous story. Above: Fertility Cave by Nacho Carbonell.

Here are details from Design Miami/Basel:

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DESIGN MIAMI/ BASEL ANNOUNCES THE 2009 DESIGNERS OF THE FUTURE AWARD WINNERS

Design Miami/ continues to identify some of the world’s most exciting emerging design talents with its Designers of the Future Award, a key highlight of the annual Design Miami/ Basel exhibition.

Nacho Carbonell

Spanish-born Nacho Carbonell graduated in 2003 from the Spanish university Cardenal Herrera C.E.U. and in January 2007 from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. His graduation projects, “Dream of Sand” and “Pump It Up” drew tremendous media coverage through the professionals and public who attended the presentation. As a result, Nacho was honored Cum Laude by the Academy. After completing his studies, Nacho accepted internships with designers Vincent de Rijk and Joris Laarman. Nacho currently works with his team in a 20th century church in Eindhoven, where he established his studio. Above: Fertility Cave by Nacho Carbonell.

“I like challenges,” Nacho comments on the Designers of the Future creative brief. “Mirrors and plaster are things I haven’t thought about using, so it’s good to exercise your mind.” He is also interested in the brief to consider the surrounding space for the finished work. “It’s very important to think about the environment,” he agrees, stressing the importance of how the finished pieces and their surroundings interact. Above: Palindrome by Peter Marigold.

Peter Marigold

Born in London in 1974, Peter Marigold followed a path from sculpture to theatrical and event sceneography at Central Saint Martins. In 2005 he joined the Design Products (Platform Ten) course at the RCA under Ron Arad and since graduation has focused almost solely on furniture design. In 2007 Peter was awarded an Esmee Fairbairn bursary for his exhibition at the Design Museum in London, and his subsequent show with the British Council as one of the ‘Great Brits’ at the Milan Furniture Fair was followed by an invitation to create the ground floor installation for Paul Smith in Milan. Working with both galleries and manufacturers his work continues to be exhibited in both the UK and abroad, including Design Miami, Stavanger 2008 (Norway), and the MoMA New York. Above: Palindrome by Peter Marigold.

For Design Miami/ Basel Peter is playing with the idea of symmetry and creating a three-dimensional version of the Rorschach tests. Taking inspiration from animal trophies in country houses, “blobs” of plaster will be reflected in mirrors, encouraging viewers to draw their own conclusions about what they represent. Central to his project is a fascination with symmetry and how it evokes living organisms. “This is something that’s hard-wired in our brains,” Peter adds. Above: Palindrome by Peter Marigold.

Raw-Edges

The professional collaboration between Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay began after many years of sharing life, ideas and everything in between. Yael’s main focus includes turning 2-D sheet materials into curvaceous functional forms, whereas Shay is fascinated by how things move, function and react. Together they work under the name Raw-Edges and share a common goal to create objects that have never been seen before. Since their graduation show at the RCA in 2006, they have won the British Council Prize in Milan & Paul Smith in Tokyo. Above: Palindrome by Peter Marigold.

Their works have been exhibited at Johnson Trading Gallery in New York, FAT Galerie in Paris, and Scope Art Fair in Basel. Their designs are in production with Established & Sons and Arco, and can be found in the permanent collections of the MoMA New York and Design Museum London. In addition, Yael & Shay produce unique and limited-edition designs within their own London-based studio. Above: Palindrome by Peter Marigold.

Raw-Edges will respond to the Designers of the Future brief with a concept involving plaster walls. The duo is enjoying the “down to earth” nature of the Design Miami/ Basel commission; “It’s great to have a brief which asks you to think about materials,” Yael comments. Yael and Shay are also enjoying the challenge of thinking about the encompassing space; “sometimes the environment is also like a product – architecture and design are coming closer together.” Above: Palindrome by Peter Marigold.

Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny

Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny was born in Slovakia in 1979. In 1999, he enrolled in the Industrial Design Department at the Technical University in Slovakia, but soon he found this discipline too limiting. In 2001, he was awarded George Soros’s Open Society Institute Scholarship to study at The University of Washington in Seattle, where he explored painting and sculpture. As a result, in 2002 he transferred to Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava to study both product design and painting. Above: Reflection by Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny

After completing his BA, Tomáš enrolled in the Design Academy Eindhoven to further develop his design vision under direction of Gijs Bakker of Droog Design. After completing his MFA in 2006, Tomáš opened his own company Studio Libertiny in Rotterdam. His works have been recently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.

“I made myself like the brief,” Tomáš comments wryly on the Designer of the Future brief, adding, “I’ve always been interested in plaster, but maybe not so soon.” Tomáš will be continuing some of the ideas and processes for which he has become famous, such as his wax vases made by bees. He will place an emphasis on slowness and on the process, “where the form comes as a result of building by layers,” he explains. Above: Reflection by Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny

Above: Reflection by Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny.