February 7th – 10th, 12–6pm at Slupskjulsvägen 32, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm

Photography: Jonas Lindström

Until 5 February

The Photocopy Club, Shoreditch

One of the many art projects taking things back offline and keeping it strictly lo-fi, The Photocopy Club was born in November last year, and has already seen photographers from all over the world submitting photocopied images via snail mail. The subsequent submissions then comprise bi-monthly exhibitions such as this, at Shoreditch’s Beach Gallery. Challenging art elitism, and generally just reintroducing a bit of that magical punk DIY, the club’s founder – self-published photographer Matt Martin – plans to fund a book, that celebrates the best works of the first 6 shows, with the proceeds of the exhibitions; where photocopies are sold for as little as £2 to £5. Just brilliant…

The Photocopy Club at Beach London, 20 Cheshire Street, London, E2 6EH; Running until 5th February and then again at Create in Brighton on 18th April

Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin,
A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
from Paris versus New York by Vahram Muratyan
Copyright (c) 2011 by Vahram Muratyan.

Tonight; 6pm – 8pm EST

Paris Versus New York at The Standard

Homesick during a long trip to New York, Paris-based illustrator Vahram Muratyan set about creating a series of brilliantly understated visual comparisons between the two iconic cities. The resulting body of work has found its way into a quite wonderful publication and, following a launch at Paris’ capital of cool Colette, the New York launch takes place tonight at the ever-hip The Standard…

Paris Versus New York, A Tally of Two Cities book signing at The Shop at The Standard, 442 West 13th Street, New York City; Tonight 6:00pm – 8:00pm EST

Third prize
Christina and Mark, 14 months,
2011 by Dona Schwartz
© Dona Schwartz

Until 12 February

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery

With some 60 works by some of the world’s most talented portrait photographers – amateurs, gifted students and celebrated professionals alike – it’s your last chance to see this year’s National Portrait Gallery prize show, including utterly compelling works like this melancholic 3rd place winner from stupidly talented American photographer, Dona Schwartz…

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE; Running until 12th February. Open daily 10:00am – 6:00pm, Thursday and Friday 10:00am – 9:00pm; free entrance

3 February – 5 February

International Student Film Festival

With a judging panel that includes Jan Harlan (producer of The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut), Lord of the Rings editor Jabez Olsen and Simon Pegg, the first annual International Student Film Festival looks set to be a rewarding experience for the international students who are travelling from some 38 countries for the event. Organised by young people, for young people, this fledgling filmmakers showcase looks set to be an interesting addition to the international cinephile’s calendar…

International Student Film Festival at London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, London, SE1 6SB; 3rd February to 5th February

6 February – 12 February

Stockholm Design Week

Nobody needs to be told about Scandinavian design’s influence on global aesthetic, ergo you shouldn’t require the proverbial degree in aerospace engineering to know that Stockholm’s very own design week is one of the hottest dates on the design calendar. With high profile events, installations and pop-ups scheduled all around the city – next week will be another big one for Sweden’s capital…

Stockholm Design Week incorporating Stockholm Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair, In and Around Stockholm; Design Week runs 6th – 12th February whilst the Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair run 7th February – 11th February

Until 12 September

Geometry; Lighting up Brentford

Passengers flying in and out of Heathrow this year may be forgiven for thinking Jean Michel Jarre has taken up residence in West London. Watermans‘ International Festival of Digital Art gets underway with what promises to be a spectacular installation from French artist Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves. Lasers bouncing between 2 programmed mirrored masts are set to punch the night sky with their contorting geometric patterns – and all without a dull new-age synth soundtrack. Perfect…

Geometry is part of the International Festival of Digital Art 2012 in collaboration with Watermans and will be seen for miles around Brentford; Running until 12th September

7 February – 11 February

The Cinnamon Club Pops-Up at Desmond’s, Manhattan

Westminster’s swanky The Cinnamon Club has been somewhat of an institution for well-to-do fans of its modern-Indian fayre over the last decade and, next week, well-to-do New Yorkers with a penchant for said modern-Indian cuisine will be able to see what all the fuss is about at equally-swanky Upper East Side establishment Desmond’s. The former 1920s bank, with its graceful domed ceiling and open kitchen, is a thoroughly splendid setting, and those braving the interaction between society types will be rewarded with dishes of the ilk of seared breast of Long Island duck with Hyderabadi-style sesame and tamarind sauce. Pretentious? Perhaps. But don’t let the clientele put you off what will be a weekend of undoubtable gastronomic delight…

The Cinnamon Club at Desmond’s, 153 East 60th Street, between 3rd and Lexington, New York City; 7th February to 11th February

Until 11 February

The Customized Show, London

London-based sneaker brand Double Identity have let 10 designers loose on their shoes for an interesting interactive exhibition that, for once, actually does something useful with a QR code. Visitors can choose their favourites from the customised pairs by scanning the code, whilst those who can’t make it can interact via the brand’s Facebook page; which is more than worth checking out for some of the outrageously fun designs…

Double Identity present The Customized Show, 5 Kingly Court, Off Carnaby Street, London, W1B 5PW; Running until 11th February. Open Monday – Saturday 11:00am to 8:00pm and Sunday 12:00pm to 6:00pm

Form Us With Love & Friends at Stockholm Design Week 2011. Photography by Jonas Lindström

We’re huge fans of FUWL, but for the readers’ sake – tell us a little about 
yourselves – who you are, how you met and what you do:



Well, Form Us With Love is a design studio focusing on furniture and 
lighting design. We work also with design management and art direction for 
manufacturing companies in the design sector. The studio was founded in 2005 
by Petrus Palmér, Jonas Pettersson and John Löfgren after we’d met during 
design school in Kalmar in the south of Sweden. Today the studio is located 
in the center of Stockholm and the studio consists of 5 full time employees 
working with an international client base stretching from Scandinavia to 
Italy, Spain and Japan.

Green Heroes, a 2011 exhibition at PUB department store, created ​​in collaboration with the design studio Form Us With Love and garden trend expert Jan Rundgren. Photography by Jonas Lindström



Looking through your work there’s a real cross-disciplined and eclectic 
mix  – how would you describe FUWL’s style?



We don’t see that we have a style and don’t spend any time thinking about 
it. For us the most important thing is the project at hand. It is true that 
what we do is very cross-disciplinary and eclectic, but it is always in the 
design and interiors sector because it is where our passion lies. The style 
and material choices changes often depends on who we work for and what the 
project is supposed to achieve; attention, sales, research or just 
inspiration.

Designing the Fasett family for Westal




Ok, so what are your influences and inspirations – is each 
project different or do you have a certain way of working together?



Usually our process looks pretty much the same. We greatly value research 
and inspiration. Often they are linked closely together. When we do research 
for a new project, visiting a factory or digging into a certain area, 
something that interests us often comes up. But inspiration is just a tool 
for solving the problem in an interesting way. We put a lot of time into 
defining the problem, asking the why’s and what’s. What does the client or 
project benefit from doing this or that. Lately we have also started working 
a lot with color research and experimenting, which is a really powerful way 
of communicating.



FUWL’s Stockholm studio. Photography by Jonas Lindström

So what have you been working on lately – do you have any upcoming 
exhibitions, launches, openings, etc?



We have around 10-15 ongoing projects. Most of them are due to be launched 
at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in February or the Salone del Mobile in 
Milan in April. It’s chairs, tables, benches, lamps and some more conceptual 
development. During the Stockholm Furniture Fair we will have our exhibition 
and event concept Form Us With Friends where we invite five clients to make 
something unique and interesting that we display and celebrate together.



Form Us With Love & Friends at Stockholm Design Week 2010. Photography by Charlie Bennet

Finally, we are constantly inundated with exceptional design and talent out 
of Stockholm – what’s in the water up there?



Haha, the water is very clean. So clean you can go swimming in the center of 
Stockholm actually. But the design awareness and interest comes with our 
heritage, the modernists of the 50′s and a long history of welfare – people 
had a lot of time of fine-tuning the details of most objects.

The recently unveiled Work Lamp VJ installation, featuring 91 of their iconic Work Lamps. Photography by Miki Anagrius

Label: Anti Sweden

Owners/Designers: Kjetil Wold, Ellen Østmoen, Kenneth Pedersen, Karoline Bakken Lund

Established: 2010

Location: Oslo, Norway

The name ‘Anti Sweden’ is deliciously provocative – what’s the story behind this?

Anti is short for: A New Type of Interference. We’re developing a brand that is constantly looking for interference. When we started up we wanted to create a strong brand story that would belong to Norwegians, with strong references towards the true Norwegian Black Metal scene – and by using artists such as Justin Bartlett when developing concept art for our jeans – we could build a brand that truly could come from nowhere else but Norway. So we felt the best thing we could do was to provoke our Swedish friends that have been creating strong jeans brands such as Acne, Cheap Monday and others for a long time – its a nice thought to sell something truly Norwegian by naming it Anti Sweden.

And how much of this anti-Sweden sentiment runs through the actual clothing design and company? 

Norway and Sweden have had this friendly rivalry as for long as we can remember, we love a bit tongue-in-cheek with the Swedes. We have a large upside-down Swedish flag (making an inverted cross) outside our store and you can exchange your old Swedish labeled jeans in our store to get a discount when buying ours, and we burn the Swedish jeans in Hell! We saved some of the remains and made a limited edition together with designer Tod Waters from Junker Design. So I guess we are doing what we can to have fun with our Swedish friends.

How was the reaction when you started out?

We had a lot of good feedback, ended up in Wallpaper* and on Swedish National TV – so we created a big buzz.

What sort of apparel do you make – how would you describe the label?

We’re mainly a jeans label, but presently we’re looking into some oversized scarfs, t-shirts and also some custom made jewellery.

Much of the clothing design and art direction is influenced by black metal – is this something personal, or more of a Norwegian thing (or both)?

Well it’s both, the brand is founded on the passion for darkness and Black Metal is a reference and inspiration in all that we do, we are the first and only label that is truly linked to this sub-culture and we work together with artists like Runhild Gammelsæter, Satyricon, 1349 and others to make sure we have a strong understanding of the history that comes only from Norway. 

So what does the future for Anti Sweden? Do you plan on invading your neighbour’s markets?

We already sell our jeans in Sweden and have a lot of Swedish customers as well, so I guess we have a potential market there – even if we are discussing to maybe ban them from buying – or at least raise the price if you’re a Swedish citizen.

We spoke to you most recently with the launch of You by Dialect and previous to that with Monki 2, where are you now in terms of design and stores?

We’ve had a strong focus on retail over the past few years, owing largely to the fact that Monki has done so incredibly well abroad. We’ve opened 50 Monki stores with three different interior concepts in six European countries, and a first Asian store in Hong Kong last year. We are currently working on some office interior projects, a few flagship stores for Monki, a new retail concept, but we are also developing design products. We are giving a talk on future shop design in Stockholm in two weeks. We’ve been very busy but it has been so much fun.

You’ve been busy indeed! And you’ve also recently completed the Monki Headquarters in Gothenburg – what sort of space were you dealing with?

The 1500 sq space is divided into three floors. The space originally had endless dull corridors with a mishmash of window and door types, and lots of different ceiling heights. The space was difficult to navigate since everything looked very much the same no matter where you went.

What was the total creative concept behind the design of the space?

The Fabricville concept came about as a way to turn all the space’s shortcomings into an advantage. Our wish was to bring it all together in one visual identity, to house a family of brands, each with its own different personality.  In Fabricville, the long narrow corridors became a busy village street, with workshop buildings for the clothes designers, office buildings for the marketing people, and brightly coloured cottages for conference rooms. The main street is lined with laser cut MDF hedges on each side. The canteen is the green park in the middle. Each floor has a different colour scheme to match the identity of the brand that is sitting there.

So the project is called Fabricville – who are the town residents?

Fabricville is the head office for Fabric Retail, with in-house fashion retail concepts Weekday and Monki. The three-floor office houses around 150 employees: an interesting mix of fashion designers, buyers, construction managers, and PR people. This project was done in collaboration with our brilliant colleagues from Fabric, Sarah Otley and Rong Guan.

Entering any Electric Dreams space is an experience, how did you adapt the Electric Dreams concept to make for a functional workspace?

There is a distinct difference between the expressive visual appearance of the meeting rooms and the basic, neutral colour scheme of the work places. The Fabricville office rooms focus on storage and functionality, and are backdrops for personal expression.

Cool. Looks fantastic! Finally, can we get the design details for each floor?

The Fabric Retail floor is made up of black houses, light grey carpet flooring and a light grey hedge skirting.  The timber panel is different types of CNC-routed MDF board, a standard building supply. There are three conference cottages on this level: the White Room, the Arena Room and the Mirror Room.

The White Room: a multitude of grass green Weekday & Monki pencils, inserted in custom-made perforated hardboard.  White Steelwood Table and Steelwood Chairs from Magis, Foam balls by COG Soft Coating.

The Monki floor is made up of white houses, medium grey carpet flooring and a medium grey hedge skirting. It houses several office buildings, a Design Workshop, and the Yellow, the Orange, and the Green Conference Cottages.

The Yellow Room: Vintage chairs and table lacquered yellow, yellow notepads, yellow E27 lamps by Muuto, and Yellow needlepoint carpet by Tarkett.

Green Room: a multitude of green notepads, Hee lounge chairs by HAY, upholstered in different shades of Kvadrat Divina Fabric, green E27 lamps by Muuto. Green rubber carpet by Tarkett.

Orange Room: perforated hardboard, Fluoro Lights by Tom Dixon, orange Slab Table and Slab Benches. Orange carpet delivered by Senab.

The Weekday floor is made up of wooden houses, black carpet flooring and a black hedge skirting. It houses several office buildings, a Design Workshop, and the Black and the Turquoise Conference Cottages.

The Black Room: Black Steelwood Table and Steelwood Chairs from Magis. Black foam balls by COG Soft Coating. Cage Lights by Diesel. Magnetic walls, custom-made magnets.

By Samuel Sweetman

By Samuel Sweetman
Photos by Daniel Forero

Photographs 1,4,5,6 and 7 © Louise Billgert, all others by Åke E:son Lindman

Environmentally friendly, water resistant and moisture and sound absorbent, the material is simply made – by freshly cut wood slivers being mixed with water, and cement, then put into a mould to dry into shape – yet hugely effective in sound-proofing, in particular eliminating echoing in large architectural spaces, such as Form Us With Love’s Stockholm studio. With the collection set to expand over time – adding new colours and shapes – we think that Hexagon is a product you may soon be seeing more of…

Photography: Jonas Lindström

Photography: Jonas Lindström

The elegant exhibition architecture is courtesy of the ever-wonderful Form Us With Love, with dismembered mannequins, fused with MDF boxes, giving the appearance of a stonemason having started work on sculptures but only finishing the sections necessary for the exhibition. Typically smart and stylish, the Swedish designer’s typically astute vision beautifully embellishes this charming little exhibition…

Photography: Rasmus Norlander