TORD BOONTJE - Product Designer

TORD BOONTJE - Product Designer 

MATERIALS STUDY 

Tord Boontje is known for his expression of romanticism in contemporary design. Some of his designs are whimsical and light-hearted; at the same time they can connect with strong emotions.

“I’m interested in creating elements for everyday life that are exciting and uplifting to live with” says Boontje. With a strong interest in storytelling, nature, decoration, materials and technology, his work has an experimental approach. The results can vary from the ornate to the minimal, from the handcrafted to made-by-robots.

Tord Boontje is originally from the Netherlands and his education at the Eindhoven Design Academy and the Royal College of Art in London set the foundations for Studio Tord Boontje.

Metal or Paper? - Materials Study 

I'm really appreciate the ability to observe the beauty of nature of Tord Boontje. He said he want to recreate the shadow and the "fleeing" of walking in the forest to his home, which is the idea of Garland Light & Midsummer Light. Both of then have a similer out look and shape, the different iss the material.


Garland Light

Garland Light is made out of metal sheets with etched pattens, because of the extensibility and toughness, users can make and mode their own shapes of Garland Light, and it gives you a still and stable look.
Midsummer Light

Other then that, he also designed Midsummer Light, which made out of paper - a material really different than metal. Paper is a really simple/cheap material that we can use in our daily life, also it have many ways to mode and forms paper, Ford choose this material was because it's flexibility and easy to process.

Which material works better?

I think paper did a better work then metal in re-create the forest, Different then metal, paper have more flexibility to create the shapes of natural environment. Etching metal involved chemicals which might pollute the environment. Paper source may come from recycled papers and coloured, which is sustainable and upcycling process. Lastly, because of the flexible paper, the Midsummer Light can be move if there are a brace or someone pass by.

To conclude, both of the material are great use in different place, metal provides us a elegant feeling, and paper gave us a playful feeling. We can pick what we need as we like. This design still have lots of rooms to develop.