Design WOO

Russian designers DarkDesignGroup have sent us some photos of the interior of the Sliver Restaurant they’ve recently completed.

The ROBERT restaurant has opened atop the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.

Full description after the photos….

ROBERT unveils for its clientele an expansive view of Columbus Circle, Central Park, Broadway and Central Park West, hidden for decades since the closure of Huntington Hartford’s museum. Celebratory, sexy and romantic, designed to allow for conversation, patrons may dine sitting on sofas in the central lounge area, or be seated at the windows to enjoy the views.

Lighting is designed by San Francisco based architect Johanna Grawunder. Grawunder’s two installations are Cherry Blossom; a mobile-like chandelier installation of LED lit lucite panels and Tangerines; a series of suspended orange lucite boxes along the windowed perimeter. Sculptural steel cocktail tables, host stands and  a 15 foot communal table bisected by a 6 foot high “sound wave” were created for the space by London based architect Philip Michael Wolfson. Upholstered pieces were designed by modernist master Vladimir Kagan. A new video art piece entitled “Orbit 2” was created by artist Jennifer Steinkamp and is the first of her work to be displayed on a 103” plasma screen. Project architects were Schefer Design.

Samoa is a lounge chair with a metal frame that embraces and suspends the ergonomic seat. The seat has an internal metal frame covered by shape-retaining polyurethane foam with differentiated density. Non-removable cover available in fabric or leather.

Designed by Jordan Jelev | Country: Bulgaria | Font: Bodoni Poster

“The +359 brand name comes from the international phone code of Bulgaria which is +359. This brand identifies 100% with Bulgarians and it is very popular in the country. The client wanted to change the look of the whole package into a vision that is more fresh, modern, colourful and absolutely distinguished.

I decided to change the +359 logo as a start. I used Extra Black Poster Bodoni and changed it slightly to fit perfectly to my design. Poster Bodoni is well known to the audience. It is type often used by Bulgarian Post and I thought it would communicate well with the audience, and that they would feel willing to buy it.

The rest of the label could be described as an effort to make it more fresh, colourful and glossy – hence the use of nice warm colours, the glittering silver hot foil dots and glossy inks. I also wanted consumers not only to see this label as an image, but to feel it and to sense it with their fingers. The use of puff-up transparent varnish makes a relief structure on the +359 logo. The cap of the bottle is very interesting too – it is a pattern of the +359 logo which is printed with transparent matte varnish on a glossy background that helps repeat the matte/gloss theme on the label”

While in Palm Springs at the Ace, i was told that i HAD to go see the Integratron. How good a word is that? I didn’t even know what it meant, but was instantly intrigued. So, while on super secret brainstorm adventure in Palm Springs this weekend, we jumped in the car, took off an hour into the desert not quite sure what to expect… although we did know that it had something to do with amazingness, alien abductions, domes, a sound bath, and something about our neurons getting massaged. Dome + sunset + desert = gorgeous pics.

So while i’m still on my thing about circles lately ~ and concentric circles from directly below… the architecture of the Integratron blew my mind to wander around in… and honestly, i think there must be something wrong with me, because the Sound bath (you lay on the mats in the dome, and they “play 9 quartz crystal singing bowls live, each one keyed to the energy centers or chakras of the body, where sound is nutrition for the nervous system.” and it’s on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 2009 Hot List) ~ i couldn’t lay through the whole thing, it made me feel like i wanted to scream and dissonant sounds vibrating through my head just started to hurt. BUT that being said, it was pretty amazing the way they resonated around the space… really staring at the architecture and lighting as the sunset around us was far more fascinating to me. So take a peek at the random pics on the next page… LOVE the colors in the desert sunsets…