Japanese studio Nendo has designed an 18-piece metal furniture inspired by the effects of watercolor paint on paper surfaces.
To express the idea of paper, the objects are designed to look as though they were cut and folded by hand. In order to create a foundation that resembles paper and to easily blur the ink paint on the objects, the metal frames and surfaces, which are the substrate materials, were repeatedly and thoroughly sanded, applied with primer and finished with matte white paint.
To create beautiful color bleeds as if soaked in the furniture with perfect blurring expressions, all painting was done by hand, section by section, tapping the paint gently with soft pulp paper. This meticulous coloring process was created with a mix of two tones of aqueous inks which takes time to dry, and the objects are finished with a protective clear matte layer that further accentuates their flat paper-like appearance.
Pursuing an interest in painterly effects, custom coloring expressions were designed specifically for each object according to its shape and elements. A trial and error method was used to perfectly place the colors and choose the right paint, tools and coloring techniques. This production process allowed the opportunity to play with animated color effects such as color that blends in meeting points, overlapping parts that create stains on one another and paint that seems as if dripping down in a waterfall effect on multi-layered objects.
The new furniture series will be presented by Friedman Benda at Design Miami/Basel – which will be held in Switzerland this year from 11 to 17 June – in an installation created by Oki Sato, founder of studio Nendo.
