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Media Design: The Zurich-based design duo Ulrike Beling and Nina Thoenen have been commissioned by Ligne Roset to produce a new catalog for a global audience.
Media design The Zurich design duo Ulrike Beling and Nina Thoenen have been commissioned to produce a new catalog for Ligne Roset for the whole world. The Zurich-based studio Beling Thoenen Design is responsible not only for the layout of the Swiss magazine Ideales Heim but also for its German edition, Atrium. This magazine is read by the marketing people at Ligne Roset in Freiburg. They find Beling Thoenen listed in the masthead and are therefore interested in kibitzing at www.belingthoenen.com. This link earned the two designers Ulrike Beling and Nina Thoenen an invitation to pitch to three well-known agencies and ultimately the commission for a new world catalog for Ligne Roset. The furniture store's headquarters are in Paris, where it still produces its own catalog in French. For all other countries, however, the German edition serves as a template. This is translated into eight languages, including Japanese and Cyrillic. The total print run for Beling Thoenen's largest work to date is estimated at 500,000 copies.
The two women take on the entire job, from the design of the magazine to the editorial conclusion. A database of 10,000 images from Ligne Roset International can be accessed for the design. Around 70 percent of the illustrations are still composed of old material. However, the idea is that Beling Thoenen will gradually have all the new furniture photographed according to her own conceptual ideas. "Clarity, sensuality and warmth" are the terms with which the Zurich designers want to present Ligne Roset's previously rather cool-styled furniture in a more inviting way for a female world. "In times of a poor economy, the zeitgeist is experiencing a longing for more warmth," says Ulrike Beling.
The new word "magalog", which originated in the USA, is being used to describe the brochure concept - the term stands for a combination of editorial magazine and catalog.
As Ligne Roset in Germany worked with the same agency for 15 years for the old catalog, they are also hoping for a longer-term collaboration with Beling Thoenen Design.
Successful team: Ulrike Beling (left) and Nina Thoenen have been running Beling Thoenen Design in Zurich's Seefeld district since the beginning of 2004.
Beling Thoenen Design's portfolio ranges from Bolero and sport to the Zurich ballet magazine Position five.
Andreas Panzeri
The two women take on the entire job, from the design of the magazine to the editorial conclusion. A database of 10,000 images from Ligne Roset International can be accessed for the design. Around 70 percent of the illustrations are still composed of old material. However, the idea is that Beling Thoenen will gradually have all the new furniture photographed according to her own conceptual ideas. "Clarity, sensuality and warmth" are the terms with which the Zurich designers want to present Ligne Roset's previously rather cool-styled furniture in a more inviting way for a female world. "In times of a poor economy, the zeitgeist is experiencing a longing for more warmth," says Ulrike Beling.
The new word "magalog", which originated in the USA, is being used to describe the brochure concept - the term stands for a combination of editorial magazine and catalog.
As Ligne Roset in Germany worked with the same agency for 15 years for the old catalog, they are also hoping for a longer-term collaboration with Beling Thoenen Design.
Successful team: Ulrike Beling (left) and Nina Thoenen have been running Beling Thoenen Design in Zurich's Seefeld district since the beginning of 2004.
Beling Thoenen Design's portfolio ranges from Bolero and sport to the Zurich ballet magazine Position five.
Andreas Panzeri
