Japanese design studio Nendo created a beautiful collection of tables called Soft for Glas Italia presented at the 2015 edition of the Salone del Mobile in Milan.

The design looks simple but it was in fact very difficult to create: “3 types of low tables that are of the shape of a box using 5 sheets of frost glass. For the joint between two sheets of glass, the cross-sections with an angle of 45° were printed with bright colours. These cross-sections were then bonded together. These colours had a gradation effect, such as from purple to red, orange to yellow, and blue to purple. What is more, the reverse side of the frost glass was printed with a pattern to make it look as though the same colours were blurred on the glass surface. With this, we tried to create a natural and soft image, as if the colours on the edges were blurring. By combining the extremely difficult technique of printing gradation colours on the diagonal edges with the printing that expresses a delicate blurriness, an appearance that contradicts the conventional image of glass, which is of a hard and sharp material, was achieved.”

Nendo

Glas Italia

Designer Sayaka Ito of Japanese firm Nendo created this new Twig Chair for furniture brand Alias.

From Nendo: Since the Italian furniture brand ALIAS specialises in furniture made from aluminium, the idea was to create a chair made of four aluminium “twigs” and a seat. While the aluminium structure of all of the chairs is the same, five upper portion unit variations feature differing shapes, colours, and materials. A number of different shapes and sitting experiences are achieved by fitting these units onto the four legs to create a T-shape on the tops of the legs, connect sections, or add a high or low backrest.

Choices for seat material include wood, plastic, and fabric. When the seat and upper portion is removed, the aluminium frames of multiple seats can be stacked, making storage convenient and reducing potential transportation costs.

www.nendo.jp

www.alias.design