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2009 Annual Design Review
Furniture
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Best of Category
LOFT
“TALK ABOUT TIMELESS,” said Lepage about Loft, an elegantly angular lounge chair designed by Art Center College of Design student Shelly Shelly in a studio course sponsored by Bernhardt Design. Loft’s aesthetic versatility actually had jurors trying to imagine a context in which it would not fit—with little success. “You could put this in a loft with all sorts of sleekness around it, or in a brownstone with vintage furniture. It could even be in a commercial setting,” noted Oliver.
The chair’s versatility is due in part to the fact that it was created using both cutting-edge digital design programs and traditional woodworking techniques. As a consequence, Breitling points out, “the form is modern and classic at the same time.” Although Loft’s designer mentioned that her creation resembles a tilted martini glass when seen in profile, the jurors made no such high-life associations. Instead, they marveled at the artful way in which the chair’s traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery highlights its underlying structure as well as the varying textures of woodgrain in its component parts.
Given Loft’s platonic simplicity, the jurors were amazed to discover that it was formed out of 22 pieces of walnut—a wood chosen by Shelly for its beauty and because it chips the least when being cut, leading to less material waste. While at $1,957 the price is hardly recessionary, the jurors unanimously felt that the craftsmanship and attention to detail of this all-wood wonder was well worth the price of entry. “It’s one of those objects you know you’ll love and then pass on to the next generation,” concluded Oliver.
Design Shelly Shelly (Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA)
Client Bernhardt Design
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