Spread Design Love: Product Design

Thursday, March 8, 2012

神路屋/kamijiya

It was a corporate project to create display furniture with long-established company called "SUZUKI SHOFUDO," where they deal with Japanese traditional paper in Kyoto. The theme of the furniture is to use only paper both for framework and design. With paper's workability and flexibility, we derived one unique form after spending a couple of months to study full-scale honeycomb-shaped frameworks which would compensate weakness of paper.

As the client's shop is located in "OKAGE YOKO-CHO" in Ise city, a very traditional and historical place which has been protected since the ancient time, the texture and softness of paper tables and lighting seemed well-accommodated to the Japanese-style building despite of their rather modern shapes.

Not only paper lighting but also paper table is portable and foldable just like "Sensu," Japanese folding fan. We took advantage of paper's nature, which were considered as weakness, and turned them around to perfect furniture for the shop with a long and distinguished history.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Underfull Tablecloth

At first glance the tablecloth appears to be a traditional white floral damask, but it contains the most wonderful secret; a hidden pattern that first shows when wet. Sooner or later someone is bound to spill, but where this person usually feels clumsy and embarrassed, he will now feel fortunate. An everyday negative situation is turned into a positive experience.

Some stains, like red wine, are hard to clean and might leave vague colour traces after washing. But since these traces will be formed as figures, the tablecloth will not look stained. The figures will form a pale, shadowy pattern that will grow as the tablecloth is being used and spilled on over time.

This creates stories and can contribute in giving the tablecloth sentimental value – important in a society where we seem to have an increasingly superficial relation to the objects we surround ourselves with.

The concept allows a great collection of patterns. Different patterns will tell different stories. In the prototype, butterflies spead out over the woven floral pattern – creating a layered image. The butterfly pattern resembles the tablecloth itself; butterflies always come as a surprise, they are soundless and suddenly come into view, as if out of out of thin air. They go through a tremendous metamorphosis; starting out as rather dull caterpillars, changing into beautiful, colourful, playful butterflies. A butterfly seems to be free and happy, but at the same time fragile and transient – just like the pattern of the tablecloth.