Olioboard currently has a mint green and coral design challenge going on, and here are my submissions. If you'd like to cast a vote for one (or both) of them, you can find them under the Latest Entries tab, or just click on the images below.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Olioboard: Mint and coral
One of the ways I pass my time these days is playing around on the Olioboard site, creating mood boards...both for planning rooms in our home or just for fun.
Olioboard currently has a mint green and coral design challenge going on, and here are my submissions. If you'd like to cast a vote for one (or both) of them, you can find them under the Latest Entries tab, or just click on the images below.
Olioboard currently has a mint green and coral design challenge going on, and here are my submissions. If you'd like to cast a vote for one (or both) of them, you can find them under the Latest Entries tab, or just click on the images below.
I could be wrong, but it appears that the Z chair you have in the first board is a recent knockoff, and not the Poul Jensen Selig original. Not only do the arms look too chunky, but the wood grain does not appear to be a vintage option.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's actually a Soto chair by Joybird.
DeletePardon my asking, but why would you include a knockoff in your image board instead of the original? A knockoff with its own name is still a knockoff. It's not a cost issue for graphic work (although the irony is that original Selig Z chairs can sometimes be bought cheaper than the new knockoffs).
DeleteSeveral years ago (even though at the time we were carrying only vintage items in our store), I read an article that changed my attitude about "look-alike" furniture. The author explained that design patents only last for 14 years and cannot be renewed, making the use of a design after it enters the public domain entirely legal. He made the point that most of us don't feel that we're doing anything unethical buying generic prescription drugs when the original patent expires. We don't have a problem with copying machines that aren't made by Xerox or phones that aren't tied by pedigree to Alexander Graham Bell, yet we have somehow cherry-picked the vintage furniture issue to be righteously indignant about. I found his argument compelling and reasonable and had to admit that I was one of those "vintage snobs" he was describing.
DeleteSome people prefer new furniture, because they feel it is more sanitary than used items or because they don't want to be bothered with having a piece restored. Some don't want to wait years to find a particular piece; in all the time we've been selling vintage furniture, we've only run across two Z-chairs. Some people have small children and don't want to buy irreplaceable vintage furniture yet. Some buy new pieces as "placeholders" till they find an original piece they can afford. And some...in our selling experience, the majority of people...simply want a particular look and don't care whether the furniture is new or old.
The Joybird chair retails for $899, and the fully restored Selig Z chairs I've seen sell for much more than that. I made a quick look around, and I found one for $999 on Ebay without cushions and described as "a great restoration project." On 1stdibs, the site I believe is almost entirely responsible for driving vintage prices beyond the budget of the average person, they're currently going for $4000 for a pair of frames with no cushions to $7500 for a restored pair.
I couldn't help but find a little humor in your comment about knockoffs, since Selig is probably best known for its knockoffs of the Eames lounge chairs. They must have made bazillions of them, along with versions of other chairs of the day. They certainly weren't alone though. It was so common for mid-century era designers/companies to copy each other that I actually wrote a 7-post series on the topic called You Look So Familiar.
But to answer your question about this specific mood board, Olioboard's challenge was specifically to design a mint and coral room, and I knew that Joybird had the colors I needed.
Beautful designs. They remind me of 70s or when everything had to do with futuristic outer space things.
ReplyDeleteSo many beautiful things came out of that era!
DeleteLove these, Dana, especially the first board!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think that's my favorite too.
Delete