| | | Magis was born in August 1976 and just a few weeks later, the company appeared at the Milan Furniture Fair (in those days it was held in September). Since then, each year it has participated in the Fair to present its new products. And obviously, also this year Magis is bringing along its new things, however not like in the past as projects in the prototype contemporary stage, but as finished products. This is good news: the architectural sign of a mature company. Now there is no longer the slightest shadow of doubt connected to the transmutation from prototype to product. That's a risk that's often slithering around the Magis products, because it often works on the edge, exploring the outer limits of technology to an extent furniture where precious few other design manufacturers go. Twenty-one new products for the 2006 Fair, concluding a three-year design cycle that resulted in perhaps the best annual harvest that Magis has ever reaped in its 30-year existence. Here they are, described in short, in the order they're displayed at the Coming Soon presentation. | | Easy Table. Building design Jerszy Seymour. Legs in fibreglass-rein-forced polypropylene made by co-injection moulding, and High Pressure Laminated (HPL) top. Easy Table is either all white or all black. Its expressly demure presence allows the bright Easy Rustic chairs in nine different colours to fully dominate the scene. Family_One. Design Konstantin Grcic. The first time Magis presented Chair_One in 2003, it didn't receive much of a welcome; its reception was rather cool. But then, with time, people started to like Chair_One, and then they liked it more and more. Now it is one of Magis's strong suits. It is part of a large family where contract tables were born in 2005 and this year there are: the cushions the Bistro tables the stools furniture and a new proposal for public-use seating Family_One is all that Magis could desire from a design project. Chair First. Design Stefano Giovannoni. This chair is made of polyamide with moulded-in colour, satin finish in the front and shiny in the back, but there are also versions that are treated with special lacquers. Chair First's name comes from it being the first example of a chair made by air moulding in which the emptying of the frame is not simply applied to the volumes with a small tubular section, but all throughout the extensive and complex volumes of the chair and its backrest. Table First. Design Stefano Giovannoni.A perfect match for its Chair, Table First is a polished polyamide leg/table made by co-injection moulding, combinable with tops of different materials, shapes and sizes. Garage. Design Toshiyuki Kita. This was a Magis strong suit from 1993 to 2000,then it was discontinued because its mould had exhausted all of its production capacities. Now it's back in a slightly modified version, more handsome and more functional than before. It's a module that can be | | composed at will so that everyone can make his or her own customized shoe rack. Nimrod. Project by Marc Newson. Magis has been working on this project for years, and now finally, here it is. It wasn't an easy enterprise, because Magis wanted to make its shell with blow-moulding, while the normal simple way would have been rotation moulding. That's just the way Magis is. It prefers things the hard way, if that's how a product will become special. A beautiful home armchair by a very special designer for a public that is out of the ordinary. Strings Family. Developed with Shin Azumi, his first project for Magis. Strings is represented by a chair and a stool made of steel rod (the tables are on their way). Cushions are optional. These are discreet, unadorned, straightforward, high-quality design products that should be well received by the market. An additional bonus is their good price, the fruit of substantial investments made in their production process. Voido. Design Ron Arad. Rocking chair originally conceived in blow moulding. Voido was presented at the 2005 Furniture Fair in a "mould testing" phase under which it suffered greatly. Underestimated by Magis and Arad alike, the latter of whom jokingly wrote on the prototype, "This is not rotation moulding! First attempt in big scale blow moulding. Almost there!" But not a thing could be done to alleviate the technical suffering, as trial after trial made evident. So the Voido-blow moulding combination was given up in exchange for rotational moulding that features new and decidedly superior aesthetics. Now Voido is ready for the market. A sculpture by Ron Arad for a reasonable price. Me Too Alma. Design Javier Mariscal. A chair for children, made in fibre-glass-reinforced polypropylene, standard injection moulding. The heart of the chair lies in the ribbing of the backrest. Structurally ne- | | cessary, it was resolved without using the usual geometric patterns, but by making the branches of a tree, upon which Mariscal's creative impetus accordingly perched some little birds here and there. It comes in four colours that best represent the different seasons: green (spring), orange (summer), brown (autumn) and white (winter). Linus. Design Javier Mariscal. Table leg in fibreglass-reinforced polypropylene, standard injection moulding. Available with different top sizes. A highly neutral table that doesn't want to impose its presence because it knows that it's just Alma's helper. Flying Design carpet. After his two extraordinary projects Puppy and Trioli, Eero Aarnio designed Flying Carpet for Me Too. A "fantastic" modern platform that has a circular rocking movement. For sitting, lying down, playing, thinking, sleeping and... flying. Mico. Design El Ultimo Grito. Rotation moulded polypropylene. A secret object. A chair? A little table? Certainly a strange thing with a goofy, hybrid appearance that children will first look at in circumspection, but then slowly slowly they will become familiar with Mico and make friends. They will discover that he's a good friend and a good playmate. Piedras. Design Javier Mariscal. A family of rotational moulded polyethylene seats with a "stone finish". A project that was started in 2003 and that has now arrived at its conclusion. Piedras is the reproduction of a primitive seat from the times when humans used to sit on tree trunks and pieces of rock. It joins Pop, Julian, Trioli and Alma, all extremely contemporary chairs, and draws a connecting line between past and present, old and new, making the Me Too children curious to get to know Piedras. | | |
| | | Air-Armchair. Developed with Jasper Morrison over many years' work, Air-Armchair goes with Air-Chair and forms a couple that is unique in the world, invincible. Déjà-vu Chair. Design Naoto Fukasawa. After the Déjà-vu stool came out a few months ago and immediately became a good seller, here is the chair in the same stylistic vein. Attractive, simple, quite the icon. Seat and backrest made in polished die-cast aluminium, tubular legs in extruded aluminium, also polished. The great new idea is the covering of the outside of the backrest in white ABS, black ABS or wood-covered ABS, tying the chair in visually with the table top of the same family. Déjà-vu Table. Table legs in polished extruded aluminium profile that combines with tops of different materials, shapes and sizes. A table that belongs to Déjà-vu Chair, but seeing its stylistically neutral configuration, it goes well with many other chairs. | | |