Tag Archives: A’ Design Award and Competition

Unusual herringbone-inspired table is a visual fusion of wood and glass

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Inspiration can sometimes come from the unlikeliest of places, as is evident with the Herringbone Table. Taking visual cues from the herringbone tree’s shape, the table abstracts that form by using a clever interplay between wood and glass to create something that looks skeletal but isn’t. Found in wintry areas dominated by coniferous flora, the herringbone tree’s leaves have a pointy, skeletal shape, which is almost reminiscent of the herringbone fish’s skeleton. Although one would deem the source of inspiration to be unconventional, the table’s design reinterprets it beautifully, creating something that has a unique take on positive and negative forms, while still serving well as a table.

Designer: Alexandre Caldas

The herringbone tree is a perfect example of nature removing anything superfluous and retaining only the essentials. Take a look at the tree and it almost looks like a cactus in the arctic. The leaves are thin and pointy, as are the tree’s branches. Alexandre Caldas believed in translating this approach into his furniture. The resulting table reflects that approach by removing/conserving wood (a natural resource) and opting for recyclable glass instead.

Barring the central channel, the table doesn’t use any long pieces of wood. The two ends help prop up the plate of glass, while skeletal ribs (that are half-lap jointed into the central channel) help support the glass plate. The entire table is made from certified American Walnut, while Caldas’ plan is to make future units out of pine wood, paying true homage to the herringbone’s origins.

“[The table was made’ using certified solid wood, using the least amount of glue possible, using one of the world’s most recycled resources (glass), along with the know-how of master craftsmen with traditional woodworking techniques,” designer Alexandre Caldas said.

The Herringbone Table is a Bronze Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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Table that ‘rolls up’ like a Yoga Mat demonstrates wood craftsmanship at its absolute finest

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You’ve heard of folding tables, but have you ever come across a ‘rolling table’? No, I’m not talking about tables that roll around with wheels at the bottom. The Sofan is a table that quite literally ‘rolls up’ like a really large burrito or a yoga mat, making it easy to carry around with you. It uses a series of folding legs and a segmented upper tabletop surface that rolls up to become a cylindrical mass that’s compact enough to carry under your arm.

Designer: Qi An

The way the Sofan table works is just remarkably clever. The table’s foldable legs act as a framework for the entire product, giving it rigidity. The legs fold flat when they’re not in use, allowing the segmented tabletop surface to roll up into a cylinder. However, open the legs up in their diagonal fashion and they literally prevent the tabletop surface from folding. This results in a rigid upper surface that’s perfect for books, cups, plates, gadgets, or anything else you’d need to put on the Sofan table.

The Sofan is made of toona (or redcedar) wood, found in parts of Asia, predominantly Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and North/South Korea. The table is made using a combination of hand-crafting techniques and CNC machining for high accuracy and low tolerances. The individual segments of the tabletop are linked together using steel pipes that run through them, creating a set of hinged points.

While folding furniture has been around for centuries, rolling furniture hasn’t really permeated the zeitgeist. We’ve seen the odd example of a rolling chair before, but just functionally, rolling furniture doesn’t hold any significant advantages over its folding counterparts. That being said, the sheer idea and the execution deserve merit. It’s no wonder that the Sofan table won a Bronze prize at the 2023 A’ Design Award.

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Pure Electric’s Ultra-Compact E-Scooter Packs A 710W Motor And A Stunning 24+ Mile Range

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Folding to a fraction of its size in just 5 steps, the Advance Flex from Pure Electric affirms the dream of last-mile commutes. It’s small enough to fit under your desk or in the boot of your car, weighs a mere 16kg (35 lb), and packs a 710W motor, powerful enough to get you from A to B in a city regardless of the terrain or the weather condition.

The Advance Flex fulfills the lofty position of being a no-compromise electric commute solution. It’s foldable, portable, powerful, comfortable, and lets you easily weave through roads and sidewalks to get you to your destination in time, often even outshining cars and motorcycles, that may hit higher speeds, but succumb to traffic lights and urban gridlock.

Designer: Pure Electric

For Pure Electric, the Advance Flex ushers in a new era for e-scooters with a forward-stance design. Most e-scooters have a slim standing platform that requires you to stand with one foot at the front and another at the back, but the Advance Flex shakes things up with two dedicated footrests that give you a natural stance with your feet side by side, allowing you to feel more confident while riding and be much more in control. Calling this the “Forward Stance”, the company highlights the important role it plays in just being able to easily hop on or off, and to maneuver the scooter without feeling like you’ll fall over. The side-by-side stance keeps your center of gravity right between your feet, helping you maintain equilibrium as you cruise down city roads.

Speaking of cruising down roads, the Advance Flex’s built-in motor offers 710W of peak power, allowing it to hit the certified maximum speed of 15.5 mph or 25 km/h with ease, while even providing enough torque to drive you uphill too. A 36V / 9.5Ah battery gives the scooter a range of up to 24.8 miles, while the Advance Flex offers 3 driving modes to choose from, letting you prioritize speed over range. An integrated headlight and taillight help you navigate your environment in the dark, and indicators built into each footrest also let people know when you’re turning, establishing rider intent and preventing mishaps.

The 5-step folding design is perhaps the Advance Flex’s biggest user-friendly feature, making it ridiculously compact to carry when not in use. The handlebar has a telescopic collapsible design, while a hinge above the front wheel, and another main hinge right down the middle of the bike’s horizontal member allow it to fold further into a compact form small enough to stow underneath a desk or even in the boot of your car. The last two folding elements (the footrests) complete the closing technique, while the Advance Flex’s kickstand allows the scooter to still hold its vertical stance even when folded. In its folded format, the e-scooter measures a mere 24.4 inches in length, 22.4 inches tall, and 11.8 inches wide. Open it out and the resulting full-size e-scooter measures 41 inches long, stands tall at 42.5 inches, and measures 23.6 inches wide.

The two foldable footrests give the Advance Flex its “Forward Stance”

Designed for modern, urban use, the Pure Electric Advance Flex comes with a few nifty features that make riding safe, intuitive, and backed by innovation. The Advance Flex is IP65 dust and water-resistant and comes with tubeless tires and an entirely repairable design. It has 3 speed modes along with a cruise-control setting and Pure Control™ Steering Stabilisation for reliable driving. A smartphone app also lets you access your e-scooter’s added features, checking battery level and even scooter maintenance stats. Aside from being able to pretty much stash your scooter anywhere including the boot of your car, the Pure Electric app also lets you digitally lock your e-scooter with a PIN code, adding an extra layer of security to your ride.

The Pure Advance Flex e-bike is a Platinum Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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These Playful Magnetic Blocks Are Like LEGO Meets MagSafe Meets Tangram

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It’s easy to split the world around us into individual units. With digital elements, each individual unit is a pixel, and they stack up together to create complex virtual shapes. Translate that to 3D and you get something like LEGO or Minecraft, with square or cube-shaped elements that help act as literal building blocks for the world around you. The key over here is the word ‘cube’, which seems to be pretty foundational whether you’re looking at real life, or virtual life. What if that foundation was changed to something different, like a triangle?

Trido is a collection of magnetic building blocks that draw inspiration from the geometric forms of Platonic solids, specifically the tetrahedron and octahedron. These blocks utilize a clever magnet system that enables every side of each shape to seamlessly connect with one another, aligning perfectly along the edges without any repelling forces. This ingenious design opens up a world of endless construction possibilities, while offering a unique, non-cubical perspective on the world around us, quite similar to Origami.

Designer: Artur Tikhonenko

Artur Tikhonenko, the designer behind Trido, possessed a profound fascination for sculpture, plaster casting, and origami techniques. Initially, his intention was to fabricate magnetic biological forms. However, upon crafting several prototypes, he decided to break past biological and organic shapes and embrace polygons and Platonic solids instead. Through countless trials with various shapes, Artur discovered that only the combination of tetrahedrons and octahedrons, arranged in a precise manner, could seamlessly adhere to one another, leaving no room for gaps.

The Trido blocks rely on a patented magnetic system that offers a reliable connection between shapes without any faces repelling each other. This one-of-a-kind system provides endless possibilities for assembly, making it incredibly enjoyable and effortless to create new designs. The shapes effortlessly align themselves along the edges, while the pieces are crafted from ABS plastic and the magnets are securely concealed within a unique inner “nest”. Introduce new colors to the mix and the possibilities get even more interesting, with the ability to build detailed, beautiful polygonal models that look nothing like something you’d get from a LEGO set.

Trido magnetic blocks offer endless possibilities for creating stunning decorative pieces. Whether it’s a sculpture, a vase, a mask, or any other imaginative creation, these blocks make building a breeze. The shapes are perfectly magnetized, ensuring that no side repels another. With literally billions of build possibilties, the only limit is your imagination.

The Trido Magentic Building Blocks are a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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Is Your Home Missing a Touch of Quirk? Meet the ‘Seat Urchin’ Rocking Chair!

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Inspired by the Sea Urchin, which also happens to be quite the delicacy in Japan (locally known as Uni), this rocking chair breaks all stereotypes. It doesn’t look like your conventional rocking chair from pretty much any angle, but it functions as one rather well. Designed with a multi-pronged base, the chair lets you shift your center of gravity and rock forwards and backwards, or even side to side while you sit on the chair. It even comes with yellow cushions on the inside, reminiscent of the flesh of the urchin!

Designer: Yue Zhuo

Adorably named “SEAt Urchin”, the chair draws inspiration from the graceful curves of the iconic Magis Spun Chair – a rotationally molded top-shaped seat that causes you to spin back and forth through a similar center-of-gravity-shift exercise. “This unique piece of furniture is designed to evoke the fluid motion of ocean waves and the organic form of sea creatures,” says designer Yue Zhuo.

The SEAt Urchin stands out as a one-of-a-kind furniture piece with its remarkable 68-leg design, offering a deceptively smooth rocking motion without any risk of toppling over. Made from maple wood with individually attached wooden dowel legs, the SEAt Urchin Rocking Chair is both practical and visually striking. Its sleek matte black finish exudes elegance, while the vibrant yellow seat cushion adds a touch of color, grabbing your attention and instantly prompting your mind to make the sea urchin association. The seat cushions, meticulously stitched by hand, can be easily attached to the seat using Velcro. This convenient feature enables you to effortlessly alter the color and material of the cushions to match your personal style.

The SEAt Urchin is a Bronze Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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Pac-Man-inspired side table with ‘an open mouth’ adds warmth and wonder to your interior space

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Although it isn’t really apparent at first, designer Yu Ren did mention that the inspiration for the table came from the popular Japanese game featuring a hungry yellow circle with a gaping mouth. “I eat therefore I am”, says Ren as he describes Pac-Man’s demeanor, and explains how the table’s open mouth has the same fun, hungry appeal. The table, however, comes with a cylindrical design that opts for space and material optimization over being too similar to the original Pac-Man.

Designer: Yu Ren

The Pac Man Side Table’s appeal lies in the fact that it masks its inspiration rather well, resulting in a piece of furniture that looks unique. The table’s design is realized using curved plywood that’s layered with a disc of black marble on the top and bottom. The side table also comes with a handle that sits flush against the cylindrical body of the table, and opens out to reveal a light strip built into the inside. There’s a hidden ambient light built into the top of the table’s inner compartment, filling the interiors with a nice wash of warm light. Touching the handle also helps toggle the light as well as adjust its temperature.

To pay homage to the original Pac Man, Ren designed a version in yellow too. I’ll be honest, it resembles a LEGO head more than anything else, but just like beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, creative execution lies in the mind of the creator. The inclusion of lighting panels is a clever touch, although that means needing to keep the side table near a plug point at all times.

The Pac Man Side Table is a Gold Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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How Rattan Can Be Transformed From an Old Furniture Material to a Modern Minimalist One

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You’re most likely to find Rattan as a primary material in woven baskets, or scattered across a Pottery Barn catalogue. The material’s been used for centuries, owing to its flexible yet durable nature, and its ability to resist water damage, unlike other wood. Rattan comes from a cluster of palm species often found in Asia, Australia, and Africa, and it’s lauded for its durability, flexibility, and sustainability. Rattan is known to add warmth, texture, and character to any space, whether you want to create a cozy, rustic, or bohemian vibe… and as a result, it isn’t a likely material for modern furniture or decor. Modern design relies on modern materials, manufacturing techniques, and a rejection of older styles and visual languages – but something about the Mua Lau feels rather modern, even though it uses a material as old-world as rattan.

Designers: Ching Cheng Chang and Xu Da Zzan

The Mua Lau Lounge Chair has a unique silhouette and visual aesthetic that combines the use of rattan with bent metal piping. Rattan is mostly used as a fabric alternative in furniture, but the Mua Lau uses rattan almost as a replacement for foam and cotton. The Mua Lau’s rattan ‘bolsters’ present a certain comfortable springiness, given how they’re constructed. 12 bamboo strips are woven into tight cylinders that have a fair amount of compressive strength and bend when you sit on them or lean back against them. The lower seat has an inner cylinder too, adding a layer of cushioning and reinforcement that simulates the effect of double-layer springs.

The Mua Lau chair gets its name from a beloved Taiwanese treat that boasts a crispy exterior and a soft, chewy interior. This chair is crafted to offer a similarly multi-layered sitting experience, with a crisp outer shell and a plush, comfortable interior. It’s like sinking your teeth into a delicious Mua Lau snack, but for your body instead of your taste buds.

This clever approach hits two birds with one metaphorical stone. The rattan plays both a visual as well as functional role in the Mua Lau’s design. Its highly open weave is incredibly eye-catching (try to not drop your keys into it!), and it practically invites you to come and sit on it. Once you do, the flexibility of the chair’s design amazes you further, allowing you to feel a dense cushion level of comfort with what’s essentially strips of wood!

The Mua Lau is a Silver Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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This wireframe-based furniture series adds volume to your interior decor without the weight

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Anyone familiar with 3D modeling will know what a wireframe is. The wireframe forms the basic outer mesh of any 3D object, representing it only through a grid rather than opaque surfaces. A wireframe shows depth without any extra information like reflectivity, surface quality, etc. In 3D modeling, the wireframe is the lightest, most basic representation of a 3D model… and designers Wei Jingye and Wu Wenhao decided to carry that logic onto actual 3D furniture. Dubbed the Lines Series, this furniture uses a combination of wooden sheets and poles, along with complex wrought-iron wireframes that give the furniture its distinct shape without any of the mass or material use. The Lines Series is both structurally and visually lightweight while being sturdy enough to take on the weight of regular human use.

Designers: Wei Jingye and Wu Wenhao

The Lines Series comprises a work table, a chair, and a floor lamp that also functions as a book holder. Each element is designed to be used individually as well as cohesively as a part of a decor unit. Together, they add an interesting visual element to your interior, creating a unique kind of aesthetic that’s wooden and traditional, but wiry and modern. It almost looks like the world’s GPU forgot to render certain parts of the furniture!

“The material is mainly made of metal wire, which is used in combination with wood. It is environmentally friendly and suitable for bending processing. The process of material production is relatively simple. It is composed of blanking, bending, heating, stretching, springback, welding, polishing, etc.” say designers Wei Jingye and Wu Wenhao. “The processing mode is relatively simple, with no special technical requirements, and high degree of freedom of modeling,” they add.

The Line Series Furniture is a Silver Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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Small Homes Could Benefit From This Cleverly Designed Ottoman Stool with a Built-In Storage Shelf

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I’m not one to advocate for folding furniture because they look incredibly utilitarian (unless it’s the Transformer Table), but I definitely love furniture that’s multifunctional. Take the Berliner Pouf for example. Designed to look like a visually eye-catching pouf, the Berliner also doubles up as a storage shelf thanks to its wormhole-like cavity running through the middle. This cavity doesn’t affect the pouf’s comfort in any way, but it adds a unique feature to it, giving you the perfect place to store books, magazines, and remotes, or even use it as a lounging space for small pets!

Designer: Tugce Sonmez Evin

“In today’s housing or workplace understanding, space is a thing that we all want to save. Instead of filling each void with another object, we all seek smart solutions to save some unaccompanied space for a feeling of comfort. Berliner is designed for this purpose,” says the Berliner’s designer, Tugce Sonmez Evin.

The Berliner gets its name from its resemblance to the eponymously named iconic German pastry, which also has a slice running through its center that’s then filled with cream. The Berliner Pouf replaces that with a concave inner surface, spacious enough to store reading material like books, magazines, newspapers, or even regular living room items like chargers, pet toys, etc.

The Berliner Pouf can be visually divided into its two distinct parts. The soft outer, and the wooden interior. The wooden core is hand carved on a turning lathe from Ayous timber, and is layered with foam on the top and bottom, that’s then capped with faux fur for a comfortable seating experience. The area separating the wood from the fur is lined with brass detailing, giving the pouf a touch of elegance. The brass rings are bent by hand and welded to fit tight. All production is a close collective work of 3 ateliers working with different materials. While the initial production is finished by hand, the design is suitable to be produced by CNC machines.

The Berliner Pouf is a Silver Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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This “Beanbag With A Spine” Offers A More Comfortable, Classy Alternative to its Boring Predecessor

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The beanbag is almost an icon of the bachelor household. It’s cheap, comfortable, and adapts to any scenario. However, this has also tarnished the beanbag’s reputation as a furniture that just can’t be taken seriously. It isn’t classy, given that you won’t find it in the classiest of households… however Elena Prokhorova’s reinterpretation of the humble beanbag makes it the perfect addition to any swank coffee table. The Brace Lounge Chair is like a beanbag with an exoskeleton. Designed to give the otherwise ‘limp’ bag some structure, the Brace comes with a metal armature that wraps around the bag’s base and back, with harness straps holding the beanbag in place. The result is a lounge chair that’s the best of all worlds. It’s comfortable and adapts to your body, just the way you want… but at the same time, it has a unique blob-like structure that gives it a distinct silhouette, making it a perfect addition to any living room.

Designer: Elena Prokhorova

Drawing inspiration from the effortless style of the urban dweller, the Brace armchair effortlessly combines form and function to create a truly captivating seating experience. The soft seat is attached to the metal frame with the help of a belt-like accessory. To operate the chair, the user simply sits down on the soft seat and pulls the belt around the back of the frame, securing it in place with a carabiner.

The soft part of the Brace is made of foam with fabric upholstery, marking a slight deviation from the styrofoam-ball-filled beanbag. The base is made of a metal tube colored with a powder coating, while the strap that tethers the Brace into place comes made from leather, with eyelets and hooks that attach to the metal frame. The choice of fabric makes all the difference with the Brace’s aesthetic, and one could easily alter its appearance by switching between leather or velvet, or canvas, or even by alternating/swapping colors to create unique color schemes.

The Brace Lounge Chair is a Gold Winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2023.

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