Swedish collective Front was everywhere this Salone and their work was strongly characterised by the ironic use of photographic images to represent a somehow illusory reality; based in the duality appearance/reality and playing with opposite basic concepts such as hard/soft, light/heavy they created strongly conceptual products like the Soft Wood sofa, which appears heavy and wooden but is a soft block of foam covered with a wood print, or the Cushion and Draped sofas which appear cosy and rich but are flat and still. The result is a series of strongly concept-based products that are statements of the designer's philosophy "we consume design as an image" but that can be rather odd for regular consumers.
Nendo launched Dew, a series of volumetric puffs covered with interlaced leather straps; the different-sized bands create a dynamical yet classical looking pattern. Also from the japanese team Kub, a series of low tables that play with patterned volumes and the opposite empty spaces left by those patterns.
Nika Zupanc adds her characteristic ultra-feminine touch with the sinuous curves of the Tailored chair; Philippe Bestenheider continues his geometric exploration in the production version of the Nanook chair and the new Binta upholstered chair.
All the pictures after the jump.
