HEAD Genève students create glassware for pioneering women designers

The legacy of designers including Ray Eames and Eileen Gray is translated into cocktail glasses in designs by students at HEAD Genève in Switzerland.

The project, titled Spirits – Excellent for the Head, features seven glassware designs created by students from the Space and Communication masters programme at the Geneva-based art and design university.

Students worked in pairs to create glassware designs that celebrate the characters of pioneering women artists and designers from across history.

These designs also spotlight rising stars Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Anab Jain, alongside Magdalene Odundo and the late Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Valentine Schlegel.

"There is an urgent need for a fairer and more balanced history of design, whether in education, exhibitions or in major trade events like the Milan design week," the organisers said.

"And who better than the students to carry this vibrant homage to past and present women designers?"

For each glass, a cocktail was developed with the same thinking.

Emile Demerliac and Victoria Jospin designed a highball glass for Gray, incorporating references to modernist geometries and tubular steel furniture.

A sprig of rosemary in the cocktail references the Mediterranean location of the architect's famous house, E-1027.

For Jain, co-founder of futurist design studio Superflux, students Joseph Curle and Constance Thiessoz created an hourglass-shaped nosing glass that explores themes of passing time and symbolism.

A beaker for Eames, by Chiara Kocis and Chirine Samii, includes forms that riff on covers the American designer created for Arts & Architecture magazine in 1943.

Carla-Marie Savaris and Noee Zahavy, meanwhile, created a hand-carved design that combines the artisanal approach and "fiery personality" of French ceramicist and sculptor Schlegel.

Adèle Guilbault and Lovena Vedrine created a coupe for Kenyan ceramicist Odundo, which brings in the ring forms that often feature in her vases.

For Taeuber-Arp, who practised as an artist, interior designer and dancer, Luna Deleani and Zorana Mitrovic developed a wine glass that mixes the proportions of her famous work, Dada Kopf, with a sense of movement.

The collection is completed with a highball glass by Camilla Hoffmeister and Hannah Mackaness, incorporating a magnifying glass to highlight the focus on nature in the work of designer Ginsberg.

The cocktail for this glass was served with a huge ice cube, containing an entire chilli pepper.

All seven designs were presented in the House of Switzerland exhibition at Milan design week, in a playful scenography featuring a model train and a speakeasy bar.

The glasses were displayed on carriages pulled by the train as it journeyed around a mountain, across which the names of many more women designers were displayed.

HEAD Genève wanted to offer "a small glimpse of the thousands of figures that have been overlooked by history and to whom we owe our heritage".

A secret door led through to the speakeasy bar, where select guests were invited to try the cocktails for themselves. The idea was to revisit "the illicit consumption of spirits at the time of the prohibition".

"The set design offers a playful and political interpretation of the notion of secrecy," said HEAD Genève.

"The speakeasy is a metaphor for this pseudo-secret: women designers matter!"

The House of Switzerland exhibition also included a show of playful works by ÉCAL students, created following a "junkyard diving" workshop with designer Philippe Malouin.

The photography is by Raphael Lugassy and Raphaëlle Mueller.

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