office for product and furniture design, Berlin, founded 1992

 

Two industrial designers, Dirk Loff from Leipzig, who came to product design via the timber industry and the art academy, and trained toolmaker Thomas G. Wagner from Berlin, have been running a successful design studio in the nation’s capital since the mid-1990s. In addition to custom-made interiors, they have  also designed a whole range of serially produced pieces including door-handles, jugs, lamps and bathroom fittings. Intelligent, lean solutions – the name (which means “dolphin”) exemplifies their design credo. This aim is coupled with wideranging experience in working with various materials such as wood, metal and plastic. A co-operation with Thonet, manufacturer of the first industrially produced furn i t u re, then makes perfect sense. It began in 2001 with the graceful S 360 chair designed for use in large rooms, whose patented spaceand time-saving connector principle won the company wide
acclaim and healthy sales figures. There followed the minimalist table system S 1190 with its classic tubular steel aesthetic and, on a completely different note, the large wood table S 1120. Here the stabilizing frame, which usually runs along the edges, was given a Y- form and could thus be “hidden” under the middle of the table. The result is an elegant silhouette due to the illusion of a narrower tabletop. The versatile and delicate series chair S 260 as well, which can be put together securely without tools, fits right into this line of efficient and elegant designs (all for Thonet). With its award-winning globe-shaped Globo teapot, the Berlin duo not only came up with a striking form but also invented a patented tilt principle so that tea can be served without removing the sieve. And Delphin Design has something to offer coffee drinkers as well: the glass coffeemaker Passero (both for Schott Jenaer Glas, since 2006 no longer available). Here, the hot drink is brewed in a single vessel on the stove. By contrast with the old familiar Bialetti pot, however, the process is visible, can be varied and clean-up is trouble- free. A product that the Delphin team originally developed for themselves is the Display Light lamp. The sturdy polycarbonate light rod, which can be coupled with others of its kind, can be transformed through the insertion and replacement of slides, colour films or natural materials to create a low-key resentation medium.