Materials

(BD)

I included Desu Design in my first story covering BD, but David Scott has introduced some cool new work since then.

He's working with a material called Richlite, which is a paper-based product with a really uncommon, stony but warm kind of feel to it.  Designed for countertops, it's equally practical indoors and out.

Here's a wonderfully angular bench/table:

Here's another called "Skew-001" with a recess for stones or plantings like grass:

Scott was telling me that it's produced in sheets wider than a normal kitchen counter, so he's been making pieces out of what's left over--a nice bit of reclamation that cuts down on waste.

And a large round one with a cavity in the center:

He says he's looking into a larger version of this with a full opening in the center that can be installed around a tree trunk, which I think would be really nice.

And this smaller table, which I thought was very clever:

The one side, you can see, can be lifted off and used as a serving tray for drinks or whatever else.  The underside is interesting, too, because you can see the pattern of lines left by the cutting tool.

Speaking of which, their housewares are exploring this idea even further.  The aesthetic of them is dictated by the process by which they're manufactured, which was always what I liked about Scott's work.  He uses very modern processes, but celebrates them in the work, and by doing so, he discovers entirely new forms.

This one, they were telling me, gets its look from the cutting tool making about 30 or so (?) passes dipping down into the resin block:

That's very sharply geometric, but here's one with a much more organic spin:

And running with the idea that you don't actually need the entire fruit bowl to keep your fruit secure:

This was actually a concept I saw being interpreted in a number of different ways (which I'll talk about when we get into the ICFF posts): the idea of objects sort of surrealistically disappearing, fading away, occasionally into other objects or into themselves.

A very sleek sushi service:

Evidently this is a somewhat older design, but Scott decided to bring it out for the show.  It almost makes me wish I had an exterior door on my apartment:

Desu Design

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©2008, Ryan Witte