Press

A new recognition for Arper products Juno and Saya, respectively winners of the "Red Dot Product Design Award” and the “Red Dot: Best of the Best Product Design Award” 2013.

We are proud to announce that Juno – designed by James Irvine – and Saya – designed by Lievore Altherr Molina – have been awarded with the prestigious German prize Red Dot.

Both products were launched at Salone del Mobile 2012 in Milan and already caughtthe attention of the public and professionals. Now the international jury, composed of 37 independent experts from 24 countries, recognised the selection criteria (functionality, degree of innovation, symbolic or emotional content) in these products, choosing them for the “Product Design” category, amongst the 4662 submitted products in the 19 available classes.

The Juno collection, designed by the recently deceased British designer James Irvine, won the Red Dot Product Design Award. Cast in a single form, it has fluid lines and a light profile, in silhouette and weight. It enjoys all the benefits of simplicity and uniformity but with a clever twist. Juno brings efficiency and customization together in a unique combination.

Arper is not a newcomer to this award: in the past, the collections Catifa 46, Palm, Norma, Loop and Leaf were awarded this prize too. Although Saya, designed by Lievore Altherr Molina, did even better this year, winning the highest award in the competition, the “Red Dot: Best of the Best Product Design Award”: a highly coveted prize, which has been given to only 58 projects. Saya is a mark, a gesture, a graphic sign, rendered in wood to finish a space like a signature. Fluid in line, warm in material, its silhouette is bold, striking.

As juror Martin Darbyshire explains, “The Red Dot design award is an important mouthpiece and marketing tool for the design industry, it helps to convey how important the role of design is towards contributing to economic growth and commercial success”. In association with these awards, Juno and Saya together with the other awarded products, will be displayed at the exhibition “Design on stage – winners Red Dot award: product design 2013” and showcased at the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen for one year. They will also be present in the online exhibition on www.red-dot.de.

The award ceremony will be held in Essen on 1st July, to celebrate the winners and launch the “red dot design yearbook 2013/2014” and the new app for smartphones, where Juno and Saya will be featured.

For further information on the award please visit the official website of the prize.

Juno, a system of chairs designed by James Irvine for Arper and presented at the 2012 Salone del Mobile in Milan, received the iF Design Award 2013 for the “Product Design” category. For over 60 years the German iF Design Award – considered all over the world as a quality design label – has promoted the best international design in three main fields: product, communication and packaging. This year's jury, consisting of international experts and designers belonging to different fields, has selected the best design projects, out of the over three thousand projects submitted, on the basis of their background, ability to interpret future trends and several year’s experience.

The Juno system met the criteria established by iF to define “good design”: a daring, intelligent, passionate yet reliable and ironic design, capable of embodying human qualities.

Juno, together with the other awarded products, will be displayed in the iF exhibitions held at the Hannover Exhibition Centre and Hamburg's HarborCity as well as in the iF online exhibition.     The award ceremony will be held in the BMW Welt in Munich on February 22nd 2013.

More information: www.ifdesign.de

Nuur, after being awarded the Compasso d’Oro in Italy, the Design Guild Mark and the Design Week Award in England, the Interior Innovation Award and the IF Product Design Award in Germany, last week won the important "Dobry Wzor" award.

The "Dobry Wzor" (Good Design) is an annual prize established and promoted by Instytut Wzornictwa Przemyslowego (the Institute of Industrial Design) in Warsaw, which has played an essential role in the design field in Poland for nearly 60 years. This award aims at promoting design as a tool of the innovation process and acknowledges the quality of products and services offered on the Polish market according to categories, ranging from household appliances, working environment, and means of transport.

The nominated projects are evaluated by a jury composed of international experts belonging to different fields – such as industrial design, economics, education, research, graphics, and technology. The criteria adopted for selection are product quality, innovation rate, effectiveness for the Polish market and the added value generated from the adoption of such project.

Nuur, the universal table system, has won the award in the "Working environment" category with the following statement: "The value of this project is to be found in its simplicity that can be seen both in its functionality and in its pleasant minimalist aesthetics.  Practical tables, suitable both for public spaces and private areas; their universal style makes them the best choice for a number of different spaces. The colour range is another unique and appreciated feature of this product."

Along with Nuur, also Catifa 53 and Aston were nominated for the short-list of candidates. Nuur will now be on display at the "Good Design Exhibition" at the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw. For further information please read the news on the official website of the Institute of Industrial Design.

Arper, the Treviso-based furniture designer is bringing its unique design ethos to London

With showrooms already located in Milan, Cologne, Stockholm and New York, the London showroom in Clerkenwell will become the company’s new centerpiece – a flagship space in the heart of London’s architecture and design district. Beyond showcasing stunning Arper pieces this showroom presents the opportunity to share the company’s design vision – the pursuit of the essential – with the London design community.

The showroom has been designed by renowned architects 6A, who share Arper’s values of simplicity through pure design, focusing on elegance and sensuality of form and avoiding the superfluous. The concept for the showroom takes its inspiration from this philosophy as well as from the local environment, its history and cultural context. It aims to convey the innate qualities of Arper and Treviso with the style and exuberance of London. The space is a simple architectural unit constructed from different materials in shades of white, inserted into a concrete shell to make a singular backdrop for the furniture. Natural white plaster, bleached oak and enameled cast aluminum form a soft, finely crafted space open to the street on two sides. Finer details of the build — doors, ironmongery, skirtings — have been stripped back. The focus is on the relationship between space, light and furniture.

This space will be more than a showroom – it is an Arper ‘experience’ for architects, specifiers, designers and the public to learn more about the company and its ethos of open-ended and generous design.   It has also been designed to be flexible to allow it to play host to different types of events, through which Arper can communicate with its new London audience.

Claudio Feltrin, CEO of Arper, said: “London will be our flagship showroom across the world, more a brand embassy than simply a store. Clerkenwell is the perfect location for us as it has one of the highest concentrations of architectural and engineering companies in the world. And London is a dynamic hub of creativity, design and innovation, which has really inspired us.”

“Through this showroom we hope to increase Arper brand recognition but also position ourselves at the heart of one of the world’s leading cultural capitals.”

Tom Emerson, founder of 6A, said of the collaboration: “I am really excited to be working with Arper on this project, as they share so many of our values. Traditionally, Clerkenwell was London’s Italian quarter, a centre of manufacturing and precision engineering and we are reflecting this history in the showroom’s design. It is on a fantastically noticeable corner of Clerkenwell so transparency and visibility are key – we are hoping the Arper Showroom will inject a calm pause along this busy street.”

The showroom will be open from late October 2012 and will showcase Arper’s new collections of Saya and Juno chairs, unveiled at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile this year. It will also be home to Arper’s classic designs, from the iconic Catifa chair through to the playful Pix collection.

Notes to editors

Arper wants to be more than a new design presence in London – it also wants to contribute to the culture, to be embedded in the design community, share its history and ethos and start some new conversations.  As part of this cultural outreach, Arper is sole sponsor of Lina Bo Bardi: Together an installation-exhibition hosted by the British Council on renowned humanist architect Lina Bo Bardi, as Arper identifies with the spirit of her design and love of essential forms. This exhibition launches in September as part of the British Council’s wider Transform programme. The partnership with the British Council started in 2010, (is based on sharing many common principles, notably the importance of dialogue and collaboration to further design), and focus on the support of international cultural initiatives aiming at exchanging ideas and knowledge and promoting an intercultural dialogue across arts, architecture and design. To continue this relationship, Arper is also sponsoring the British Pavilion at 13th Venice Architecture Biennale, commissioned by the British Council.

Committed to outstanding craftsmanship, innovation and collaboration, Arper was founded in 1989, evolving from the tradition of leatherworking into an international furniture design company, investing in new technologies and new materials. From 2000 onwards, Arper has experienced constant growth in business and organizational structure; today Arper is capable of interpreting the requests and trends of an international market with a sophisticated contemporary pared-down style translated into timeless universal forms suitable for every setting, whether residential or contract. Arper is distributed via an international sales network in over 90 Countries and displayed in single-brand showrooms situated in design-strategic cities.

High Res images available in the Downloads

Just over a year after the Nuur table was awarded the Compasso D'Oro, Arper has been chosen by ADI, Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, for another important award: its brand identity has been selected for the 2012 Edition of ADI Design Index in the Visual Design Category, and will then compete for the XXIII Compasso D'Oro.

The new brand identity is the result of a long interdisciplinary and international journey, entailing Arper internal team, the American design firm 2x4 and the Spanish team Lievore Altherr Molina in the redefinition of all the visual expressions of the company. The project, presented in 2010 and customized for all media, is intended as "an evolution, not a revolution" of the brand's language and its graphic identity, implemented through the redoing of its photographic material - created by Dutch artists Scheltens & Abbenes - of illustrations and technical drawings and the redesign of its product information sheets.

"In pursuit of the essential" and "Living System" are the main themes of Arper communication, explored in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Both have the task of developing, consistently and according to the new visual language, Arper values: a universal approach that favours the pursuit of simplicity and dialogue, in an aesthetic characterized by essential shapes and harmonious lines.

This important award for communication is the latest of a series of awards received, including the prestigious Red Dot Communication Design Award, and the IF Communication Award.

More information: www.adidesignindex.com

Arper’s Corporate Identity project has been awarded with the “Red Dot Award: Communication Award 2012”, a prestigious international prize highlighting the best projects in communication design. After winning the iF award in 2011, Arper’s project has been chosen again by an international jury composed of independent experts in the “Corporate Identity” category.

Designed by the 2x4 design studio from New York, in collaboration with the Spanish design firm Lievore Altherr Molina and the Arper’s in-house team, the corporate identity project consisted in the planning and development of printed and digital communication supports. Our designers have identified the key values of Arper products - harmony, synthesis, formal rigor, sense of color, environmental friendliness – along with the information needs of the various target audiences. The new integrated corporate communication system expresses these concepts by means of a pure elegant graphic language transmitting a consistent inspired message. Moreover, the Scheltens & Abbenes photographic project – which has also recently received the ‘Infinity Awards 2012’ from the International Centre of Photography - communicates the aesthetic and functional characteristics of each collection in a way that is both pragmatic and effectively abstract.

The prize award evening, which will take place on the 24th of October 2012 at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, will also coincide with the launch of the exhibition ‘Design on Stage – Winners Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2012’ in which Arper’s project will be put on display, together with other winners at the “Alte Münze”, Berlin’s former mint, until the 28th of October 2012.

More information: www.red-dot.de

Arper will participate again this year at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, presenting two new collections dedicated to the contract and home sectors: the Juno system of chairs, the result of the original partnership with the English designer James Irvine, and Saya, designed by the Lievore Altherr Molina design firm from Barcelona, with which the company has established a long and fruitful collaboration. These two collections differ in their purpose, design and in the materials used, yet both of them mirror Arper’s values: systematicity, adaptability, customization.

Juno, a structured chair system, is Arper’s first chair made entirely of polypropylene through gas-assisted injection molding. Juno stands out for its wide range of solutions, which make it ideal for the home and contract sectors: available in five colors, with an open or closed backrest, it can be customized by adding armrests and thin upholstery in the chair and/or in the backrest.

Saya is a wood chair collection for the home sector, which is also suitable for contract spaces, especially in the version with chromed steel legs. Characterized by a strongly iconic and recognizable profile, it is available with a wooden finish – natural oak and teak – and in different color versions.

Moreover, Arper will present some extensions of products that already exist, amongst which, the outdoor version of the Pix ottoman, designed by Ichiro Iwasaki, which stands out for its innovative flow-through solution, and some new versions of the Ginger, Dizzie and Eolo top.

Communication. Arper’s news is not only limited to products: the company’s integrated communication draws inspiration from and develops the ideas lying at the base of our renewed brand identity – presented last year and created in collaboration with the Lievore Altherr Molina design firm and New York’s 2x4 agency – which was awarded the prestigious IF Award last year.

This strategy revolves around the historic notion of “Living Systems”, a theory that studies how different elements, affected by the context and human interaction, create spontaneously organized structures. “Living Systems” leads not only Arper’s approach to the design of new products – mature, pragmatic, sensitive – but also the way these are presented and expressed. Arper’s products – and their main elements, base, shell, color and material – adapt themselves and interact with the context they are immersed in, giving designers the possibility to choose, from the wide stock available, what best suits their needs. And as the object is considered part of a dynamic, constantly evolving whole, dialogue and conversation, participation and interaction, become the key elements upon which the relationship with its network of external and internal stakeholders is created.

Internationalization. With the aim of confirming the success obtained in these years, which marked a steady growth of our turnover, Arper is following an evolution strategy, also in the sales field, which includes an investment in the territorial presence at an international level. The openings in New York, Milan, Cologne, Stockholm and, shortly in, London and Copenhagen ensure direct support to sales and offer more efficient services, as well as assistance and consultancy to architects and designers.

Notes to the editor

Arper is the result of an entrepreneurial project that grew out of an artisan leather workshop in 1989. From 2000 onwards, thanks to its distinctive design, research into materials, process innovation and service quality, Arper has experienced constant growth in business and its organizational structure. Today Arper is capable of interpreting the requests and trends of an international market with a sophisticated contemporary pared-down style translated into timeless universal forms suitable for every setting, whether residential or contract. Arper is distributed via an international sales network in over 90 Countries and displayed in single-brand showrooms situated in design-strategic cities.

High Res images available in the Downloads