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May arrived, and brought with it a fresh pop of colour. This month, we’ve found ourselves drawn to home objects that possess an ability to liften the spirits – be it through an unexpected form or a bold hue.
Tactility has been on our minds, too. Soft, plush rugs from Stüssy and Haus Otto differ wildly in aesthetic, but are equally desirable when it comes to a squishy floor accessory. Finally, we’ve been thinking about designers who are turning trash into treasure – which you’ll see from the likes of HAHA Studio and Dirk van der Kooij.
Looking ahead, June brings with it Design Miami’s Basel edition, and 3Daysofdesign in Copenhagen – we’ll be bringing you all the updates live over on .
Read on for our best picks from the month of May:
Boucherouite rugs
Stüssy and Nina Mohammad
Stüssy reunited with the Artisan Project – a collective of craftspeople led by Palestinian-American textile maker Nina Mohammad – for a second range of boucherouite rugs. For the collaboration, Mohammad took inspiration from “ancestral rugs, art, vintage graphics, and the beauty of nature – capturing aerial landscapes, bodies of water, and the intricacies of flora.” The designer pulled up-cycled Stüssy T-shirts and wool from the Atlas Mountains to create the line’s rugs, which were woven by the Ain Leuh Cooperative in Morocco with traditional techniques.
Flasher lamp
Studio Elementaires
The Hypnotic “Flasher” lamp from Studio Elementaires takes its inspiration from both nightclubs and fairgrounds. “While its form is borrowed directly from stage spotlights, its effect is fundamentally based on the notions of rhythm, repetition, and movement that characterise dynamic light games,” say the Belgium-based studio, founded in 2013 by Apolline Couverchel and Gauthier Haziza.
Drop pendant
HAHA Design Studio
In a bid to save waste materials created in the production of their other models, Stockholm-based HAHA Studio created the “Drop Pendant”, which sees discs of aluminum stacked on top of one another to create a satisfying, undulating form. By creating this piece, they are saving up to 35% of the material on a single sheet of aluminum in production – which they say would’ve gone to waste otherwise.
JG Coffee Table
Jørgen Gammelgaard for Fredericia
The JG Coffee Table was originally designed in 1963 while Jørgen Gammelgaard was studying at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His later version, seen here, is a prototype he made in 1973 for a design fair. Gammelgaard spent over a decade perfecting the low table in glass, and today, we are happy to have reintroduced this graphic yet minimalistic table.
Element chair
Reeta Laine
This piece isn’t actually showing until the 3daysofdesign festival taking place in Copenhagen later this month, but it’s crept onto Instagram already. Designed by Finnish creative Reeta Laine, “Element” is a wooden chair that can be dismantled and shipped flat packed. The screws are left visible on its perforated sides, which are tooled via CNC. “Apart from being a visual element, the perforated surface balances out the weight from the heavy solid wood backrest and seat,” Laine said.
Staple stool
Dirk van der Kooij
Each of Van der Kooij’s Staple stools are entirely unique. The U-shaped seat is crafted entirely from recycled plastic (a practice the designer has become known for), with colours and patterns created throughout the process. Because the plastic can be bent and formed without the need for joints, it means that the entire piece is held together without the need for joints or reinforcements – “it quietly celebrates the qualities inherent to recycled plastic,” the designer added.
Section stools
Andu Masebo
These colourful stools were designed by Andu Masebo for an exhibition at London’s Aram store. Inside the iconic Covent Garden space, curator Max Radford brought a show named “Now 4 Then” to life, and filled it with new works by emerging furniture and lighting designers, including Masebo. For his “Section” stools, the designer literally used a range of different shaped steel sections, and coated them in bright lacquer.
Limited-edition Panton chair
Sabine Marcelis and Vitra
To celebrate a new installation designed by Sabine Marcelis at its campus, Vitra commissioned the Rotterdam-based designer to put her own spin on one of its most iconic designs: the Panton chair. Looking to the colors used across her new scheme for the VitraHaus Loft, Marcelis has employed seven key shades that are represented in the space. “It’s such an iconic chair and colour plays a crucial role in how you perceive it,” she said. The chair will be limited to 50 pieces per color, and will be available for purchase from 12 June 2024 in the VitraHaus on the Vitra Campus and at vitra.com.
Zoom Rug
Haus Otto for Bottone Objects
The chunkiness of this rug makes it double up as a great spot to take a nap. Designed by Haus Otto, the Zoom Rug is intended to function as both as daybed and a floor accessory. Its structure sees traditional weaving techniques scaled up to create a cartoon-like pattern, and each of the chunky sections can be disassembled and repaired to ensure it has a longer life.
Floor standing mirror
Standard Equipment
The simple floor standing mirror is the latest addition to the wider Standard Equipment collection. Typical of the studio’s aesthetic, it makes use of industrial aesthetics and materials, and features a frame made from aluminum and rubber washers. The poppy colours (lavender and orange) are a nod to founder Josh Gadomski’s love for Postmodernism.