Swid Powell / Nan Swid Designs
SWID POWELL / NAN SWID DESIGNS
New York, NY
Several collections of china, silver, and other products for the modern home.
This project called for the design of dinnerware, sliver flatware, and accessories for Swid Powell, a housewares manufacturing firm, specializing in the distribution of products designed by noteworthy architects. The design challenge is to create fresh and timely products that can be produced inexpensively and marketed to the general public.
The commission became an opportunity to explore the conventions, visually and substantively, of current lifestyles. The patterns convey humor and youthfulness; the colors are 1950s bright; and the pieces can be mixed and matched. But more interesting is that the center and the border of the plate are not concentric; there is an interplay between the oval border as background and the circle as foreground, and one finds delight in the unexpected. The white cup has a pattern underneath it (as do many children’s cups), and the pitcher has the suggestion of liquid on the edge of the spout. Seeing the design only encourages further inquiry, or at least the opportunity to explore each piece, picking it up, turning it around, and simply finding joy in using it.
