Design | “Kitchen by Thomas” by Office for Product Design

No craftsperson is an island. If you work in clay and are designing functional products, maybe you could include different materials or reach out to a fellow designer for help integrating materials that could accent the forms that come out of your kiln.

Case in point: “Kitchen by Thomas” by Office for Product Design, which utilizes wood-against-porcelain to create a handsome set of kitchenware for the German porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal. The set was given a Red Dot Product Design Award this year. From the designers:

“The products in this range balance respect for existing archetypes with exploration of new ideas. While each item is designed to work on its own, they are unified into a coherent collection by common product expressions, such as shared profiles, modular footprints and the characteristic wooden batons. Aside from formal simplicity, a key aspect of the design is concerned with materiality, and great care has been taken to unite functional requirements with tactile and emotional qualities. The result is a considered combination of porcelain, glass, beech wood, stainless steel and silicone.

“The ‘Kitchen by Thomas’ collection is the result of a three-year exploration and close collaboration between Rosenthal and Office for Product Design, and consists of over twenty pieces, including kitchen utensils, salt and pepper grinders, oil and vinegar cruets, bread and cheese boards, a butter dish, a Parmesan grater, a mortar and pestle, a juicer, a folding trivet and a self-watering herb pot. Some of the more notable items are centred around certain themes, such as bread related products and seasoning.”

Office for Product Design was founded in 2007 by Nicol Boyd and Thomas Rosén, the creator of this particular set. The pair studied at Royal College of Art in London and state that their work uses “carefully considered products” to develop associated experiences.

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