Characters
Typology: Furniture Collection
Year: 2022
Characters is a collection of living room furniture informed by Japanese calligraphy.
This collection includes a family of chairs, a table, a coffee table, a cupboard, a bookshelf, a sofa, mirrors, lamps, picture frames and vases. Each piece is made out of carved and burnt cedar wood.
The sculpted cedar wood is burnt on the surface to obtain a superficial layer of carbon that allows for more sustainable preservation of the timber. Further, the charred finish provides the furniture with a black look, a reminder of the character’s black ink in calligraphy.
Characters want to address the self-expression of skilled workers, giving them a chance to create bespoke sculptures with fluid execution and wood carving tools. In return, each piece of furniture allows its’ maker's temper and confidence to show up in the work.
This living room collection is all-round and multifaceted, suiting a range of environments from private living rooms to retail, office spaces and hospitality premises. Each “character” is intended to stand alone as well as combined with other collections’ pieces to create larger spatial compositions.
Characters celebrate Japanese calligraphy as the exhibition of the calligrapher at a moment in time, producing artistic pieces that look alive.
Likewise, this collection is the designer's personal expression at a moment in time, each piece of furniture was created after a unique series of quick sketches and hasn’t been further edited or corrected. This method allows the furniture to showcase personality as well as imperfections and bring life and expression inside living spaces.
As result, Characters seem to have their own conscious life, they are familiar but also strangers, they keep changing and revealing ineffable silhouettes as you move and rotate around them and they are unpredictable as they play with lights and shadows through the days and through the seasons.
