On the occasion of The North American Pavilion, an exhibition at Frieze’s No. 9 Cork Street, sponsored by Danish footwear brand ECCO, Random Studio was commissioned to design custom seating for the gallery’s public spaces. Mimicking the injection-moulded, fluid form of the recently-launched Cozmo Slide, we produced a collection of colourful furniture that playfully responds to, and facilitates, the choreography of guests at an art opening.
Directive Furniture is a term that Sander Plug and I coined in the process of creating this furniture, referring to the way that we followed specific postures and poses instead of traditional ergonomic standards. Taking inspiration from the injection moulding of the Ecco Cozmo which supported the posture and pose of the wearer, we looked at postures and poses one might find around a gallery viewing. Leaning against a wall, crossing legs, leaning back with both arms out, or two people sat facing one another.
We used a motion capture suit to capture these postures, poses, and then using simulations in 3D software, we injection moulded around these postures. For the main bench, we started by looking at the way people would naturally sit around each other, shoulder to shoulder, back to back, some led down and some with their legs crossed, we then ‘inflated’ the foam around these forms. The result was ergonomically designed furniture, with an emphasis on social comfort instead of individual.
Random Studios Article: https://random.studio/projects/fluid-forms-for-ecco-x-the-north-american-pavilion
For: Ecco X TNAP
Role: Creative Lead
With: Sander Plug (Creative), Lucas De Ruiter (Creative), (Lawrence Daykin) Producer, Jungmin Bang (Creative), Greta Ballschuh (Mocap), Hugo Bruvry (Mocap)
