#Product Trends
STOCKHOLM 2015: BIG DESIGN, MINIMAL FUSS FROM MAKERS WITH AGENDAS
The design capacity continues its quest to challenge the modern design status quo
Makers with Agendas is the brain child of Julien de Smedt and William Ravn of JDS Architects. The design capacity, as they call it, first launched 18 months ago as a material response to excessive design. No frills, just function. But that doesn’t mean their design is unalluring. On the contrary, the minimal forms respond to some innate desire to strip down, start again and start better.
The design capacity focuses on how a product fits into the home, which includes its overall function (or multiple functions), but also its compactness and the ability to easily transport the object. Their product mascot, Accordion, is a compact trestle that folds and spreads out laterally like the instrument after which it is named. It folds up into a stick when not in use, making it compact and easy to store.
At this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair, Makers with Agendas presented a new selection of foldable, stackable, storable, usable products including (our obvious favorite) a ping pong/dining table. An improved version of the familiar concept, the Pull Pong Table can fold out to be a 10 person dining table, an 8 person work table or a full-sized ping pong table. It can also be folded in to a small table for four.
The new Knot Table and Knot Shelving use simple wood joinery to create furniture that easily assembles and disassembles without screws. Similarly, Rack the clothing rack offers five spaces for hanging clothes when assembled but can easily be taken apart and stored as a single tube.
Bat Lamp is an all-purpose light that can be used just about anywhere: on the wall, on the ceiling, on the floor, on the table and more.
Finally, Pivot is a practical seating solution that spins into a tiny, compact, portable square when not in use.
Often, design feels empty, but there’s an element of necessity at the center of each design that makes them ultimately satisfying. It’s a strange feeling, being satiated by a design. Perhaps Makers With Agendas is finally filling the superfluous gap?
