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DesignNewswire · COMO, Italy ·

Obon Tables by Simone Bonanni Is Granted the Silver A' Design Award in Furniture Design

Simone Bonanni honored for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category for Obon Tables by Simone Bonanni, designed for Moooi. The result belongs to the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

What the Silver A' Design Award Means

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

More About Obon Tables

Obon is a collection of three coffee tables made of ceramic with a glazed top. The collection is inspired by terracotta, an ancient and irregular material. Each table is handmade, so every piece is unique. The three sizes include one rectangular table and two square tables, offering different solutions for interior projects. The shapes are soft and slightly irregular, and the body surface is smooth. The thick base is filled with raw material during production to increase stability. The glazed top is easy to clean and resists stains.

About Simone Bonanni

Simone Bonanni Studio (SBS) is a multidisciplinary design studio established in 2015 in Milan by designer Simone Bonanni. SBS has a particular attention to the great communicative power of objects and considers them as “activators of emotions” before being just physical entities and over time has shifted the focus of its work from the technical design of an object to the design of the emotion that this can arise, giving more importance to the sphere of perception rather than the merely material one. SBS is currently working on projects for selected international brands such as Alessi, Moooi, MDF Italia, FIAM, Falper, Mingardo and many others.

Award Record

With this recognition, Simone Bonanni is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Furniture Design Award

The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Typical entries include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. The awarded furniture designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/furniture

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project
Obon Tables
Function
Tables
Category
Furniture Design
Discipline
Industrial Design
Industry
Furniture & Home
Colors
Sienna, Chocolate, Saddle Brown, Dark Salmon and Peru
Images
5
Client
Moooi

The Recognition

Laureate
Simone Bonanni
Country
Italy
Recognition
Silver A' Design Award
Edition
2020 - 2021
Design ID
#115123

Credits

Image Credits
Brand Moooi, Obon, 2018

Design Details

Unique Properties
The Obon is a collection of three tables designed for Moooi. The collection is inspired by an ancient, earthy, irregular material: terra-cotta. The Obon Table is handmade and therefore each piece is unique. It is made of ceramic with a glazed top.
Inspiration
The tables are inspired by an ancient, earthy, irregular material: terra-cotta. With its origins lost in the mists of time, terracotta is at the base of millenary archaeological finds all over the world. These precious discoveries are evidence of our timeless creativity and desire to leave a sign, admire and ritualize
Research
We went through many samples of the material and tested more than twenty finishes both glazed, for the top, and natural for the edge and the base. Together with Luigi Bertapelle, an expert ceramicist in Veneto (Italy), we experimented with a new process of antiquing the surface of the terracotta. We worked on its tactile aspect with the inclusion of various thicknesses of chamotte, aiming to generate a perfect mix between the present and the past. It was fundamental to enclose such a graphically "educated" product in a special surface!
Challenge
The search for the right finish and the technical development of such large volumes in a material that is difficult to control represented a real challenge in terms of serial production and probably contained a good dose of innovation even for an experienced professional like Luigi. The problem was not only producing a perfect Obon Table, it was more about replicating them with the same quality, refining the technique day after day.
Realization and Technology
The tables’ design is the result of a patient process of combining shapes and volumes. Their graphical purity blends into the structure of ceramics creating a unique mix of new and antique. The choice of terracotta came naturally with the drawings and outlines of the tables. From the beginning, the idea was to introduce a series of objects which appeared to be handmade and that could create a natural and gently imperfect tone. I wanted to make the object look beautiful for its spontaneity and genuineness, not for its complexity.
Operation and Interaction
The Obon tables are small versatile coffee tables which can live in many different environments and interior design projects due to their very simple and soft silhouettes. The thick base is filled during the production process with raw material to give it a higher stability and the top surface has a glazed finish to make it easy to clean and to preserve its genuine beauty forever.
Project Duration and Location
The Obon tables were exhibited in Salone del Mobile in April 2018. The project started 6 months prior to that in a little town in the region of Veneto, called Nove which is very famous for its ceramic.
Specifications
Material: Ceramics, glazed top thickness table top: 6 cm shape: Rectangular, square (high and low) Rectangular dimensions: width:92 cm - height:28 cm - depth:44 cm Square Low dimensions: width:61 cm - height:28 cm - depth:61 cm Square High dimensions: width:47 cm - height:37 cm - depth:46 cm
Keywords
table, ceramic, handmade, terracotta, craftmanship, simonebonanni, moooi

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