NOTA BENE BY CONSTANTIN BOYM (1986)
Developed in New York in 1986, Nota Bene was Constantin Boym’s first furniture collection produced in the United States. The series emerged directly from his formative years in Milan, where he studied at Domus Academy and mentored under Alessandro Mendini, absorbing the ideas of Italian Radical and postmodern design at close range.
Particularly influential to Constantin was Andrea Branzi, whose work proposed an alternative to the universal language of modernism. Boym later recalled a lesson from Branzi that would remain fundamental to his practice: “design is first and foremost an expression of a certain idea. The shape and quantity is only as good as the idea.” After ten months among designers such as Branzi, Boym became convinced that “all ideas that could be expressed in architecture could be expressed in objects.”
Returning to the United States, he translated those lessons into Nota Bene, a Memphis influenced collection of chairs and tables designed and manufactured in Italy for distribution in America. Rather than pursuing neutral furniture, the collection embraces pattern, contrasting materials, and deliberately expressive surfaces.
Particularly influential to Constantin was Andrea Branzi, whose work proposed an alternative to the universal language of modernism. Boym later recalled a lesson from Branzi that would remain fundamental to his practice: “design is first and foremost an expression of a certain idea. The shape and quantity is only as good as the idea.” After ten months among designers such as Branzi, Boym became convinced that “all ideas that could be expressed in architecture could be expressed in objects.”
Returning to the United States, he translated those lessons into Nota Bene, a Memphis influenced collection of chairs and tables designed and manufactured in Italy for distribution in America. Rather than pursuing neutral furniture, the collection embraces pattern, contrasting materials, and deliberately expressive surfaces.
SELECTED OBJECTS
Nota Bene Chair
The Nota Bene Chair makes its postmodern influences immediately visible, although they are restrained. The various finishes exist in opposition to each other yet create harmony through the straightforward wooden frame.
Nota Bene Table
The Nota Bene Table pushes the collection further toward abstraction. A conventional tabletop features a dropdown section which cuts diagonally across the top.IN CONCLUSION:
Although Nota Bene was relatively short-lived and the late 1980s recession led Constantin Boym to close the company in 1988, the experience established important relationships for the designer within New York's emerging design and manufacturing community. The following year, Boym Studio began with the Recycle series.
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