Note Design Studio quietly sidled into the public eye last year with its exhibition Marginal Notes, as part of Stockholm Design Week. Alexis Holmqvist, Susanna Wåhlin, Johannes Carlström, Kristoffer Fagerström and Cristiano Pigazzini run the multi-disciplinary studio, which has since built up a prolific base of collaborations with companies across Sweden and beyond, not to mention fresh interior architecture and installations like the recent Below the Snow at the Formex design fair.
This year, the studio revisited the original Marginal Notes concept to show another exhibition of experimental prototypes lifted from the margins of their notebooks. “We’re looking for those unique sketches which pop out when you look at them again, the ones you just need to realize,” says Fagerström. A recurring theme seemed to be emerging from the team’s prep-work, that of Base Camp; “Simplistic materials and shapes of scientific field exploration tools; adapted to wear and tear,” he adds.
As with its previous 2011 exhibition, the group set to taking the 2D sketches into 3D, with a diverse set of results that mix color, material and form in a light airy expression that has become the firm’s signature. Marginal Notes gave Note a chance to not only show conceptual work but also its more recent collaborations like the simple overhead lighting for Zero, a mobile project screen for Zilenzio and a group of light ash wood structures, dressed in fabrics from Afroart.
However, Note stands out mostly for its independent projects like Tuc, a group of three rotund stools which get their form from the Steve Zissou-style beanie hat and its attention-grabbing red color. The edges of the cushion are folded up to reveal an intricate lattice of metal beneath.
The piece Sifter is a scaled-down take on an excavation machine from a building site, transformed into a coat hanger with a net below to catch items that may drop from your pockets. Peep brings light into typically dark bulky storage furniture, using the same mesh as Mosquito, a selection of screens that can be used as backdrops or temporary feature walls. The Catch is a fun ceiling light that can be moved around its central pivot to resemble a firefly caught in a butterfly net.
“To fell a tree, and to cut it up into useful pieces is a thing of pride for a lumberjack or a settler building their first cabin,” says Fagerström, explaining the Settler seat. “The iconic shape of a log on a sawbuck inspired these benches, since a dead tree in the forest is really the best place for a short rest.”
Marginal Notes 2012
8-10 February 2012
Showroom Lindehöf,
Hornsgatan 29, Stockholm