William Morris and Tord Boontje

The amazing design boutique ID Chicago on Halsted has always been one of my favorite places for inspiration. This season they are showing off the new Tord Boontje pieces from his 2008 milan collection The Little Wild Garden of Love. No surprise that the recent work is more sensual and curvacious than ever. But also the colors, weight and light are softer. There are new floating greens and translucent sky blues-- all pointing to childhood innocence. Perhaps Boontje is pointing to eden or some impossible lost utopia.

In the work I can't help but seeing William Morris. Perhaps Morris shares Boontje sensibility that design is life and vice versa. Perhaps they share more than design sense and share philosophies and politics. In William Morris we see the return to handicraft as activism for a better world. In Boontje we see the embrace of the digital world but also for the better.

The true converge regardless of sensibilities in not in conceptual approach but in the form and shape of their designs. Both Boontje and Morris show us nature, in subtle and beautiful repeats. Also they are both understated and find a way to hide the complexity they they both revere.

Most importantly both Boontje and Morris are able to reject the zeitgest of their time while at the same time creating a new zeitgest that defines the era perfectly. I hope our time is remembered in the work of Boontje-- what a beautiful world he creates. And I thank the guys at ID Chicago for introducing him to me.

-Justin Polera