Vandasye, top, in front of their concept store installation, pictured bottom.

A nice concept for the Passionswege component of Vienna Design week (see earlier post about Mark Braun's collaboration with J&L Lobmeyr) brought Vandasye to work with Dietmar Sulzberger at his clockmaking shop, Chronometrie Sulzberger.

Georg Schnitzer and Peter Umgeher of Vandasye—a product design studio based in Vienna—saw the potential to turn Mr. Sulzberger's specialised and solitary shop in the Hernals neighbourhood into a network concept store whereby other Viennese manufacturers and merchants can also sell their high quality products and, in doing so, attract new customers.

Brushes made by Norbert Meier Buerste alongside information brochure

The designers contacted a number of traditional Viennese makers of custom shoes, hand-made hats, leather goods and asked them to supply Mr. Sulzberger's store with a unique range of their goods that could be sold to the public. With just a few tweaks, a selection of products were transformed into limited editions and were installed, ready to be sold, inside the clockmaking shop. Alongside each limited edition of products, Vandasye created takeaway brochures detailing information about the product and the manufacturer's/retailer's website.

Products selected include IMCO lighters , drinking glasses by Lobmeyr, canvas hunting/fishing rucksacks by George Essl, hunting knives by Hack, skinni leather toy animals by Adrien Rovero for ledermanufaktur, traditional mens pajamas by Wascheflott, kitchenware by Riess, wallets by R.Horns and miniature animals by Walter Bosse.

IMCO Lighters

Vandasye is by Georg Schnitzer (*1977) and Peter Umgeher (*1978). The first joint collection, with the title "Our New Apartment," combined traditional design criteria, such as functionality and economy, and was exhibited internationally many times. They have absolved a variety of traineeships in graphic and product design and now work on holistic solutions for exhibition, communication and industrial design.

The PASSIONSWEGE format, supported by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, brings designers together with Vienna shops and manufacturers with on-the-spot experimental projects and interventions. The resulting installations were all on show from 1.10. to 10.10. during normal opening hours in the business premises.