We are showing this lovely West coast eye candy to distract you because we have a question we would like to ask. If you don’t feel like hearing it just keep scrolling down to what interests you. For the rest: below the fold we were just wondering...
We had this funny thing happen a few days back. We had written
this post, a simple, little love note to the Every Body Chair, available at
David Netto. Then John, from a super cool showroom in Seattle called
Velocity posted saying this chair looked a lot like a
U.K. designed chair from Koi like they sell, just with a new name. Then David Netto posted saying first, thanks for the shout-out (he's super polite like that) and that, "yes of course… we never suggest otherwise…”
When we typed in "Every Body" on the website there was no mention of Koi. Though confusing, We are sure they sell it as David Netto says. We think he is a stand-up guy and we love his
furniture collection.
We were just wondering what people felt about the renaming, or recreating of contemporary furniture? Is it any different than the reinventing of older chairs like these? Can someone just sign a urinal and call it art?
Any opinions on the subject?
Hmmmm... didn't this question used to be lower on the page?
If I were educated about contemporary furniture, and I saw two identical chairs that seemed to be credited to two different people, I'd start wondering which one was the knock-off. Suspicion would erode my trust in one source or the other -- apparently unjustly, in this case. But unless the rebranding source has enormous customer loyalty, I can't see the point of diluting the original brand.
Margaret Elman is putting her hands on those chairs, painting, upholstering, they are her re-interpretation of the design. Her site communicates openly about the furniture's origins, it is part of her "Couture" business model.
That is very different than selling a well designed chair, as is, with your name on it.
I found David Netto's website misleading. The information on the company states that they design their furniture. I found no credit to Koi on their site. I do love some of the pieces in the Netto Collection. I wonder how many are original designs, I don't know if that matters to me as a buyer. It matters as a designer because it is important to give credit where it is due.
If you take a urinal out of the bathroom and hang it on the wall in a gallery you have reinterpreted the object by changing it's context, that is an artistic interpretation of the object. That change of context seems more dramatic to me than renaming an "adult" chair for a child. You wouldn't be able to rename the Eames Arm Shell Rocker this way, it is too well known. So why not just sell the Koi Low Chair?
kellyo--
Places like White Furniture rename iconic furniture all the time.
And I agree-- I found no credit at all on the Netto website. And the chairs appear to be the same dimension, which takes the wind out of the "we downsized it so it's ours" sails. Plus, um apparently "repurposing" costs money, since the Netto chair is more expensive.
Which is all disappointing, since I've always liked his work.
But Velocity doesn't get off scott-free, either...
"and-stitched, vegetable-dyed leather gives this chair it's gorgeous touch."
ITS, possesive. NOT "it is", contraction.
White Furniture openly communicates their business model as well, "Bringing Design to the Masses - Retro Furniture and Mid Century Furniture Inspired by design from the 60s and 70s, at affordable prices." They also name the designers they are paying homage to as well as show their pictures. These are reproductions with a different name. Ikea does the same thing. (Thanks goodness else I would have, like, one good piece of furniture in my house).
Interesting quote on that WF's site about knockoffs increasing the market for the originals "...Coco Chanel, who apparently sent her couture gowns to be copied in New York the day after theyÂ’d been shown on the Paris catwalk, in the belief that the more people who buy the copy, the more aspire to buy the original..."
I hadn't thought of it that way, maybe it all comes clean in the wash, who knows.
P.S.
Patrick, made that same mistake myself : (
Kellyo, something like the Chanel reasoning is supposedly behind the development of the California wine industry, too. Gallo is credited with making wine something Americans actually drank, which led people to aspire to drink decent wine.
My fingers are twitching to go find a business study that deals with this issue, but it's vacation, darn it!
So true. And I need to start working on some "reproductions" of my own today (Martha's turkey, Martha's stuffin, Mama's cranberry relish...)
It took me quite some time to find the section on White's website that credits the original designers. But, um, I think they are just naming the designers on their home page to get Search Engines to find them when someone searches for Eames, Corbu, Saarinen, etc.
And "Inspired by design from the 60s and 70s" is just fancy talk for knock-off. :)
But this Netto business is a different kind of wierd.
kellyo--
Not arguing with you, btw... and I agree there is a time and a place for the consideration of a knock-off. But as a designer, intellectual property is a really touchy subject for me.
Of course, in the world of design, there do exist pure coincidences... where two designers arrive at a logo, a magazine cover, a dress or table at the same time (think of Isaac Mizrahi's Eskimo inspired line in "Unzipped"...).
I also think design is so driven by peripheral vision that it's possible both the Netto and the Koi were actually inspired by a third thing, as obscure as an airline seat or a vintage find.
Maybe.
p(too). Re: Mizrahi/"Unzipped"... "Nanook of the North"