Seung-Yong Song, Bethan Laura Wood, & Jon Stam

Basel, Switzerland – June 10, 2013 – For the past four years, Design Miami/ has teamed up with W Hotels on a collaboration called the Designers of the Future Award. It’s a program that encourages up-and-coming studios and designers who are paving new paths in their chosen field. This year, three young studios were chosen for the award and had to show their innovative ideas and executions at Design Miami/ Basel 2013. This year is most exciting because, for the first time ever, each designer was sent to a different W Hotel around the world that was under construction or renovation and had a unique design challenge or need. While all three were very different, the common element was that the three works had to facilitate a connection between local communities and international visitors of each hotel. A special thanks goes to DesignMiami’s Blog, Design Log, for providing all the insight and bios for the winning artists.

Seung-Yong Song, Anthony Ingham, Bethan Laura Wood, Mike Tiedy, Jon Stam, & Paul James

Bethan Laura Wood

The first chosen designer is London-based artist Bethan Laura Wood. In 2009, she started her own studio: WOOD London. She travelled to the W Hotel in Mexico City, which is undergoing renovation, for her challenge. The hotel was having problem directing foot traffic to the staircase, as people were only using the elevator, and they wanted something that would draw people to the stairs. So she created this chandelier that’s made up of many flower-like blown glass lights since flowers are very important to Mexico’s cultural and religious heritage. The individual lights themselves are fascinating, let alone the compilation of them all together into two statement pieces that will be installed near the staircases at the W Hotel Mexico City.

“I was inspired by the markets in Mexico City, where the flowers were arranged in a grid-like pattern, which surprised me. Also, the use of triple-reliefs in the city’s architecture provided a model for the layering of plates.” – Bethan Laura Wood

Seung-Yong Song

Seung-Yong Song is a Seoul-based artist and designer who was sent to the W Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand for four days. He was shown around the hotel, and explained that their theme is contrast. This was the main source of color inspiration for his artistic, yet extremely functional champagne carts that will go in the hotel’s bar. The smaller cart doubles as storage, and the rolling cabinet has an affixed mirror which can double as a display lamp.

“I was especially fascinated with the different forms and functions of street carts in Bangkok. They sell many different types of food and beverages, and the carts themselves are created in all sorts of designs.” – Seung-Yong Song

Jon Stam

The third Designer of the Future 2013 winner is a Canadian-Dutch designer: Jon Stam. He was flown to Verbier, Switzerland to visit the W Hotel currently under construction. He designed a signature art piece that uses a unique combination of a nearly obsolete technology- an 18th century Claude Glass- and new media tools to depict a 48-hour time-lapse of the stunning mountain views from the hotel. The piece also doubles as a clock, with the exact minute in the time-lapse depicted as local time, offering a glimpse into the past with futuristic design.

“I was thinking about my experience in Verbier, hiking and looking at the landscape, and I thought to myself, ‘I can’t do anything more than what’s already here – it’s so beautiful on its own.’ “ – Jon Stam

Design Miami/Basel 2013 Design Talks

Basel, Switzerland – June 11, 2013 – The three Designers of the Future winners are showcasing their chosen works this week at Design Miami/ Basel 2013. Yesterday the three of them joined a panel for Design Talks. The open discussion forum allowed each of the winners to share their inspirations and perspectives on their innovative concepts that they designed for their respective W Hotel locations. Everyone got to hear first-hand about the exciting collaboration these designers did with W Hotels around the world.

Seung-Yong Song, Jon Stam, & Bethan Laura Wood

Seung-Yong Song & Jon Stam