Even though wood is a very traditional material in product- and especially furniture design, we can still find different ways of how and where to use it and discover amazing new shapes and functions.
This collection shows a few examples of the versatility and beauty of the natural material.
Above a piece of Lazerian’s recently launched ‘mensa table’ collection. It consists of modular birch plywood components supporting glass tops.
Photo Lanzerian

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As an interactive artist, Daniel Rozin dedicates himself to making mirrors from all kinds of materials, mostly with non-reflecting surfaces such as wood. ‘The wooden mirror’ consists of 830 square pieces of wood, which are moved by the same amount of small motors behind the surface. A built in camera picks up incoming light changes and transfers the signal. To see how it work, have a look at the amazing video.
Photos designboom

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Top: Perhaps you remember Sandra Backlund’s work from our collections about Paper. Another example of her experiments with unusual materials in fashion is her collection ‘In no time’ which is mostly made of traditional clothespins.
Bottom: These shoes, made of wooden cubes and leather squares are one of the latest concepts of footwear designer Andreia Chaves. “The fact that I grew up in a city like Sao Paulo,…,being in contact with such diversity and constant exposure to different visual inputs, has inspired me iin how I think and conceptualize my shoes.”
Photos Sandra Backlund, yatzer

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This beautiful and inventive jewellery is designed by Maria Cristina Bellucci. She uses coloured pencils as the basic material. Depending on the shape of each piece, different parts on the pencil’s interiors are revealed, showcasing the coloured lead and the wood.
Top: Herrlicht spectacle frames are entirely made of wood, even for hinges or screws no metal or plastic parts are used! The frames are amazingly light and flexible and come in in different shapes and colours.
Photos designboom, Herrlicht

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“Good morning. Check out this killer wooden bike.” (Lance Armstrong on Twitter) This bike (top) is called ‘Holzweg’ and has been designed by Arndt Menke-Zumbräger for his diploma in product design. Apart from not being chunky like many other designs of wooden bikes, this one features some nice details, such as the idea for the suspension at the rear.
The tubes of the ‘Nemus’ concept.bike (bottom) are made of extremely lightweight balsa wood veneers, which are glued together with biological resin and held into place by nicely detailed aluminium lugs. The three German designers, Robert Taranczewski, Dominique Zimprich, Julian Ziege won the iF award for their design.
Photos arndtmenke, detourdesign

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Top: Inspired by the process of creating concrete structures in modernist architecture, for the ‘palindroma’ series, Peter Marigold uses the wood first as a mould and afterwards as one half of the finished furniture (the ‘mirrored’ plaster being the other half). Every imperfection of texture is complimented on the opposite side of each unit. Have a look at the whole series on his website.
Bottom: ‘Yakuza’ is the name of this ‘tatooed’ furniture by Reddish Studio. “The wood texture acts as skin, becoming a platform for expressing a strong cultural and personal identity. The digital printing technology enables to easily treat each table individually, making them unique – just like people-”
The term ‘Yakuza’ comes originally from a Japanese game but is also used for violent groups in Japan in which it is common for people to tattoo themselves. Their tattoos can depict their clan’s crest.
Photos petermarigold,designmilk

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Elisa Stroyzk creates these amazing pieces that blur the boundaries between furniture and textiles and make us think about different characteristics of a material. A flexible surface is composed by applying laser-cut, wooden pieces to a flexible backing material. Elisa’s work will be shown at the imm cologne 2010 and the Salone 2010 in Milan.
Photos elisastroyzk

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