British “Designer of the Year” Tom Dixon, presented his latest range of gifts and accessories at the Salone, Milan last week.
The accolade “Designer of The Year” is a title that Tom Dixon most definitely deserves; his ability to distil an idea and draw inspiration from the most unlikely of sources and then articulate this vision into a highly collectable and desirable range of products is one that is not often seen.
Famed for his previous collection of furniture, lighting and accessories, Dixon’s new range shows his continued talent to produce innovative and interesting design that deals with every day objects and the pursuit to reinvent them in a truly beautifully resolved design.
Tom Dixon’s accessories collection appears to be heavily influenced by science fiction and the industrial Victorian era . The collection includes a number of table-top utensils cast in solid brass or natural and semi-precious materials, and the objects reference forms found in nature and in the fields of engineering and physics.
Dixon‘s newest range is inspired by the industrial qualities of engineering with a beautiful play on industrial machine parts, with three range’s that feature accessories made from semi-precious materials like brass, copper and glass.
Within the series there are a mini-series of items: “Plum” (glass and copper bar artefacts), “Arc” (sand-casted solid brass table-top utensils) and “Cog” (brass-plated metal candle holders and containers)
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Cog
The Cog collection references industrial machine parts and tools. As the name implies, the pieces look to be separate – but-related pieces of a much bigger piece of machinery.
Finished in brass-plated aluminium, the Cog collection lends a mechanical vibe to objects such as candlesticks and desk tidies, with each weighty object featuring knurling to allow a firm grip.
The industrial name and aesthetic of the range is, Dixon says, a reference to the energy of the UK’s industrial revolution and a time before everything became ‘big business or nothing’. It also represents a personal passion for tools and industry, as well as allowing the designer to indulge his affection for working with metal.
“Metal made me a designer, it’s my first love. and represents a return to my roots. I was always taking my motorbike apart when I was younger, It’s all bits and pieces, and it’s very much my thing. What was scrap metal becomes gold, it’s a sort of an alchemist attitude.”
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Plum
Plum is a series of bar ware that brings cocktail culture and drinks traditions into a contemporary universe.
Formed from glass and copper, each piece offers an attractive functionality to the restaurant, bar and home.
Each glass item is mouth blown and hand cut
Plum introduces functional bar accessories to a contemporary context, which is as much sculptural as it is function.
The Plum cocktail-serving range, was born organically from the designer’s restaurant projects.
The full set comprises tongs, vases (small and large), swizzle sticks, the striking cocktail shaker, a serving platter an ice bucket, a champagne bucket and a lemon squeezer.
‘The futuristic copper-plated cocktail shaker with large belly and tapered ends allows a firmer grip and more balanced shaking,’ explains Dixon. ‘the slim end cap also functions as a spirit measure.’
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Arc
The Arc collection contains a two-piece trivet, a bottle opener and a corkscrew, all created in solid brass using a sand-casting process.
The sand cast brass pieces have a hefty hand feel for opening bottles of beer or wine
Dixon called them “science fiction-inspired futuristic simplicity combined with practical shapes that are easy to use.”
A four-point star can be removed from the centre of the circular trivet so the elements can be used to protect table surfaces from hot or wet cooking utensils.
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Fire, Air, Earth & Water
The collection is the celebration of bare essentials presented in mouth-blown glass bottles.
“Our minimalist attitude has delivered four scents of extreme simplicity and individual character that reflect their elemental names of Fire, Air, Earth and Water”, said Tom.
All four scents are created in a bid to de‑mystify the obscure complexities of the most misunderstood of the senses – smell.
He took inspiration from the medieval alchemist and Eastern philosopher’s quest to reduce all matter to four simple elements = Fire, Air, Earth and Water.
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Scents
A collection of three scented candles created to capture the essence of the travelling, trading and nostalgic past with the vibrant future of British life.
Royalty is a reminiscence of tea time with a pot of Earl Grey, scones, strawberry jam and the drive home in a ’52 Bentley with tatty leather seats.
London is encased in a nickel vessel London calls to the smell of red brick, London parks with crocuses and nettles and the salty smell of the Thames at Dagenham.
Orientalist captures the faint memory of an Indian wedding with rose petal garlands, giant cinnamon stick on beach stalls and the musky smells of the Chinese herbal market. Oriental is encased in a brass vessel.
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Gem
A gold finished solid aluminium vase with an angular silhouette.
Inspired by the facets of cut gemstones, each piece bears the unique imprint of the rough sand in which it is cast.
The Tom Dixon logo is etched into the base. The inside of the vase has been coated with an epoxy lacquer ensuring this is water tight.
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Form Bowls
Form Bowls: Handmade dishes beaten, bashed and hammered into shape from fine sheets of copper.
Hand formed from a single sheet of Copper. Finished with a matt black exterior, each bears the hand beaten signature of its maker.
Set of 5 varying sized of bowls. The Tom Dixon logo is etched onto the base.
Metal precision manufacturing techniques combined with a wood-grain textured surface pattern inspired by nature.
When lit, the organic pattern etched onto the pentagon structure casts a web of complex shadows to the nearest surface.
Available in brass, copper and stainless steel.
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Fossil
2014 Tom Dixon Accessories Catalogue