Three Layer Cake

Tea for Two:  Best of Show, Salone Satellite 2006
 

There were over 500 exhibitors at this year’s Salone Satellite during the Milan Salone del Mobile, the space for Young Designers.  The Satellite was open free to the public, so if there were any a place for an Alien to make a trip, this was it.

In reality, if an Alien landed and came to Salone Satellite, he’d probably be a little confused.  You would have to explain to him that many of the products at the satellite are prototypes.  Many of the exhibitors are still in school.  Many of the exhibitors are schools.  Because many of the projects are thesis material, many of them are far more theoretical than practical.  It takes a lot of time to get through the ideas than the simple “pretty” object you’ll find in the other pavilions and which has been greatly refined, ‘fit for human consumption’.  For this reason, if the Alien had to choose the Best of Show on his own, without any explanations, the best story in the Satellite, the exhibitor who best presented a project or group of projects which both singularly and collectively told a coherent story from beginning to end, it would be TEA FOR TWO by the IN/D Label Design Collective.

A little bit about the project:  Tea for Two was a stand set up like a shop which sold teaware with a counter for drinking tea, and for a few minutes each afternoon, tea was served.  Mo-Billy design agency, with the support of sponsor Brewhaha teas, defined the project in this way:  “It looks to delight, it aims to connect, it seeks to shape and define a new set of possibilities.”  Tea for Two presented 24 objects by 26 designers which all addressed different aspects of taking tea, ideally with another person.  Functionality was the dominating theme, as many of the designers sought to resolve a certain tea-related ‘problem’, for example the “Teavolution” slipcast ceramic mugs which incorporate a niche on the side of the mug for your spoon, an indentation for pressing the tea bag and a small hole to keep it in place.  Mark Scott’s “The Twin Betty” double-handled teapot allows both tea drinkers to pour tea for the other without ever having to move the pot and Yi Feng Li’s “Tea with Me” is the tea-drinker’s answer to the picnic basket.  On the accessories side, a  “tea swatch” (fashioned after the Pantone color system ) by Helen Wales measures the strength of your tea by its color, Laura Colburn’s “Tea Room” wallpaper uses tea stains to pattern her design, and Charlene Smith’s “Sweet Crystalline” blister pack sugar which doses out a perfect tea spoon for the sugar-conscious (intro photo). 

The IN/D Label Design Collective took every aspect of tea, from what’s needed to enjoy it to using these same elements to complement the tea environment [Tea Cup and Saucer to make tea lights (Anna Maria Coates), pictured above], to transport the environment or to just store it efficiently (Tea Donkey by Tomoko Kagawa).  It created a whole shop in which everything made sense, and nothing was frivolous.  The pieces came together so well, right down to the décor of the stand that it seemed like it was a real concession within the Satellite.  [If you are really crazy about tea, visit Just My Cup of Tea and join in the teacup swap!]

An honorable mention goes to the Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Queretaro whose stand was the exact opposite, but equally clever, as the Tea for Two Stand:  It gave its students useless objects and asked them to create something (equally useless) from them. 

Güldal Aydinli .  Cypriot designer Gündal presented her Domino chair, the upscale upholstered version of a folding chair.  From a relatively small self-contained stack which can be stored in the corner, the chair extends to a full chair which does not betray its origins by using even its container as part of the open chair.

Marina Bautier.  Belgian Marina Bautier developed the Sewingworkshop sewing table (right) as a simple, attractive way to organize sewing materials, which you can also use from the comfort of an armchair.  Wheels on the base facilitate opening the table to provide greater workspace.

Jackie Choi.  London-based designer Jackie Choi presented the So hat stand with individually moving arms, to allow the user to choose one ‘hook’ or all hooks, leaving the rest in artistic composition, or just comfortable distances one from the other.  Also presented Eye lounge chair in hot-pink felt (left).

Junior Phipps.  London-based Hidden Art member Junior Phipps is a concrete specialist.  His indoor/outdoor lighting, Lite Ball (right) in the form of an eyeball has small bumps that allow it to be positioned in any way possible.  The stainless steel low-voltage lamp fitting houses an LED that guarantees about 20 years of light before needing its first change!

See also Studio Ditte Inspired by Men collection, Lucy.D Design Studio, Next Stop – Jennifer Flume, Bentek Design.

For more coverage of independent and student designers, visit design*sponge and Hidden Art.  For more extensive coverage and photos of the Salone Satellite, see:  MoCoLoco, DesignWs, and Reluct.