2008 VIA Creation Assistance Grants
Carte Blanche grant : Jean-Louis Frechin / Interface(s)
Architect and graduate of the ENSCI, Jean-Louis Frechin worked at the INESC computer research institute in Lisbon in 1989. His passion for creation, innovation and strategic thought finds expression in new applications of information technologies and their interaction with our environment. In 2001, he set up the NoDesign office. He is also a teacher at the ENSCI where he founded the Digital Design Workshop in 1998. With ‘ Interface(s)' , his Carte Blanche, Jean-Louis Frechin continues his investigation of everyday objects and advanced technology, and proposes an interactive environment, made up of ‘furniture/modules'. In this space, daily domestic products and technological objects cohabit, merge and interconnect to form an ‘internet of objects'.
Carte Blanche : Every year VIA awards a research grant to a or several designers whose originality and maturity of creative approach are outstanding for the period. A committee composed of well-known figures from industry, distribution, creation, education and the press selects the designer, and the grant enables him/her to develop a personal project of a prospective character. Carte Blanche projects aim at developing products focused on everyday activities that reflect the life-styles of contemporary people. Beneficiaries receive support from VIA all along the project elaboration process, during which a constant eye is kept on market demands and technical feasibility. Carte Blanche assignments also give manufacturers, producers and distributors a chance to discover and meet the talented people who are designing the products of tomorrow.
Ten Project Assistance grants
• Samuel Accoceberry / Infinity shelves
• Bina Baitel / Pull Over light
• Gabriel Dufour & Samuel Prigent / Lamp malep leamp peaml… lamp-shade
• Mostapha El Oulhani , Jérôme Garzon & Fred Sionis / Fossile storage system
• Thorsten Franck / Tube_Box storage unit
• Thorsten Franck / Rambler_Rose bookshelf
• Antoine Fritsch / 3L standing lamp
• Joachim Jirou-Najou / Around storage unit
• Adrien Rovero / Particule stool
• Benjamin Tortiger / Tôl bench
Project Assistance : VIA analyses unsolicited research projects that are submitted by designers every year. A committee composed of well-known figures from industry, distribution, creation, education and the press selects those that appear to be the most relevant and innovative in terms of design, technique, and new materials. For the first time this year, the question of the after-life of objects and their impact on the environment governed choice. VIA finances the development of these projects to working prototype stage, ready for production.
Partnership Project: Creation & Skilled Trades :
Philippe Nigro & les Compagnons du Devoir / Intersection Divan
For this first Partnership Project , VIA and the Compagnons du Devoir – with the expertise of their Institute of Flexible Materials – have chosen to produce a lounge suite programme designed by Philippe Nigro. Young upholsterers and leather-workers training with the Compagnons du Devoir accepted the challenge to make the prototype. The experience is a fine example of the mobilization of human resources and materials and will be repeated in coming years.
Compagnons du Devoir / Institut des Matériaux Souples
Florent Pottier – Phone +33 (0)6 03 75 37 85 – ims@compagnons-du-devoir.com
Partnership project : VIA has added to its annual programme of support for creation and innovation a new and imaginative action, which brings together professionals as partners in developing an innovative project. The aim is to conserve and valorize skilled trades, encourage transfers of technologies and skills, and experiment with new materials or processes.

VIA 2008 Labels
This year, 24 VIA labels were attributed by our commission to products or collections born of collaboration between a French maker and a designer. All concern products launched on the market since the start of 2007 that apply in a pertinent and original way an innovative approach, whether it be in terms of material, technology, function or style. The aim is to support their diffusion both in France and on the international scene.
François Azambourg for François Azambourg Studio, François Azambourg for Ligne Roset, Jean-François Bellemère for Compagnie, Fabrice Berrux for 10 HEURES 10, Valérie Boy for SCE, François Champsaur for HC 28 Groupe Hugues Chevalier, Christophe Delcourt for Tujague, Stéphane Ducatteau for Stéphane Ducatteau, Ariane Epstein and Jean-Sébastien Lagrange @ Eurosit, Nils Frederking @ Ligne Roset, Antoine Fritsch and Julien Mélique for Atelier Sedap, Jérôme Gauthier for Belloubet , Alban-Sébastien Gilles for Macé, Mathieu Jacobs for Vertilignes, Arik Levy for Baccarat, Pierre Léon Luneau for Ligne Roset, Pascal Mourgue for Ligne Roset, Noé Noviant for Ligne Roset, Jean-Michel Policar for Pérène, Jean-Luc Roux for Hardy Roux Développement, Savinel & Rozé for Baccarat, Philippe Soffiotti for Macé, Marie-Aurore Stiker Metral for Ligne Roset

Tribute to Pierre Paulin
‘MEUBLE PARIS 2008 designer’
Celebrating his 80th birthday, VIA pays tribute to French designer Pierre Paulin who received the ‘MEUBLE PARIS 2008 designer' award. Born in Paris in 1927, Pierre Paulin studied at the Camondo school. In 1953, he encountered his first success on the occasion of the Salon des Arts Ménagers, in the section “Today's Home”. We can see in his work the Scandinavian influences, and the influence of the American productions of Charles and Ray Eames, and Florence Knoll. From 1960 to 1970, he developed a range of seating for Artifort based on a molded wooden shell stuffed with Pirelli foam and upholstered with prefabricated covers in extensible material. Amongst his iconic chairs, we remember most vividly ‘Mushroom' (1959), ‘Tongue Chair' (1964) and ‘Ribbon Chair' (1965) for which received the Chicago Design Award in 1969. In parallel, he has conducted many projects, including the artists' hall at the Maison de la Radio in 1961, private apartments at the Elysée and the interior design of Airbus aircraft in 1986. Pierre Paulin, a defining figure of French design, was successful in combining personal designs with pure industrial design, in particular for the Calor household appliance brand. His work is thus a balancing act between the recognition of cultural backgrounds and responding to the needs of society. Pierre Paulin's chairs are part of the collections of MoMA in New York, Fond National d'Art Contemporain of the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London… Last summer, the Hyères International Design Festival dedicated its first retrospective to this designer. Following the May 2007 reopening, the Galerie des Gobelins (Mobilier National) is presenting the exhibition ‘Pierre Paulin, le design au pouvoir' until 27th July 2008.
«Pierre Paulin, le design au pouvoir» Exhibition : February 2nd – July 27th, 2008 Mobilier national - Galerie des Gobelins 42, avenue des Gobelins, 75013 Paris contact presse : Agence Observatoire Press contact Aude Charié. T. + 33 (0)1 43 54 87 71 / aude@observatoire.fr
Special thanks
ARTCURIAL BRIEST- POULAIN - F. TAJAN, Paris www.artcurial.com
Jean-Louis Gueylard, Nicolas Hug, Stéphane Danant
MEUBLE PARIS Fair www.meuble-paris.net

VIA - facts, figures and talents
Set up in 1979 on the initiative of the CODIFA (Committee for the Development of French Furnishing Industries) with the support of the Ministry of Industry, VIA has a vocation to valorize and promote creation in furnishing and living environments.VIA uses a large share of its budget to finance and accompany its creation assistance programme. For the 2008 programme, to be introduiced during the Meuble Paris fair, VIA has committed 250 K Euros for the follow-up and prototyping of selected projects. Added to this, are the human and financial resources made available for presentations at both the Paris and Milan furniture fairs, press relations on the national and international circuits all year long, and a network of relations with French and foreign distributors and manufacturers. Thanks to the financial support of the CODIFA, over the past 28 years VIA has financed 414 projects and awarded 65 Carte Blanche grants. Since its foundation VIA has earned uncontested international renown for revealing young design talents and for helping many designers now active on the international scene to create for the furnishing industries. The support action of VIA aims at encouraging creative people whatever their background and culture. It contributes to making France, and Paris in particular, a showcase for the expression of international creation in habitat and living space.
65 «Cartes Blanches» grants :
Andréas Aas (Ole), Christian Astuguevieille, François Azambourg, François Bauchet, Martine Bedin, Marc Berthier, Christian Biecher, René Bouchara, Ronan Bouroullec, Stéphane Bureaux, Michel Cadestin, René-Jean Caillette, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Pierre Charpin, Alain Chauvel, Paul Chemotov & Borja Huidobro, matali crasset, Delo-Lindo, Thibault Desombre, Sylvain Dubuisson, Christian Duc, Réna Dumas, jean louis Frechin, Bernard Fric, Elizabeth Garouste et Mattia Bonetti, Olivier Gagnère, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Kristian Gavoille, Christian Germanaz, Jean-Louis Godivier, Jean-Louis Guinochet, Häberli & Marchand, Patrice Hardy, Marc Held, Hans Hopfer, Patrick Jouin, Eric Jourdan, Jérôme Lart, Mathieu Lehanneur, Arik Levy & Pippo Lionni (L.Design), Christian Liaigre, Jean-Marie Massaud, Olivier Mourgue, Pascal Mourgue, Jean Nouvel, Joon Sik Oh, Patrick Pagnon et Claude Pelhaître, Gaetano Pesce, Olivier Peyricot, Daniel Pigeon, Christophe Pillet, Jean-Michel Policar, Andrée Putman, RADI designers, Eric Raffy, Iréna Rosinski, Frédéric Ruyant, Philippe Starck, Martin Szekely, Tsé & Tsé, Emmanuelle Torck & Emmanuelle Noirot, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Yamo. .

Exhibition open from 10h00 till 22h00.
Free admission.

With the support of