Close cookie popup

COOKIE NOTICE

We use our own and third-party cookies for internal and analytical purposes only. These cookies permit us to remember, manage and understand how users navigate on our website so we can offer a service based on this information. Some of them belong to third parties which are located in countries whose legislation does not guarantee an adequate level of data protection. Click here for more information about our cookie policy. You can accept all cookies by clicking the "Accept" button or configure or refuse the use of cookies by clicking "Settings".

 

phone contact

(+34) 913 497 100

|

FEDER
05/03/2010

Tomás Alonso, useful, accessible design

???HABITAT_703_Prev??????HABITAT_702_Next???
Lámpara Mr Light

Lámpara Mr Light

Cuberteria Stamp para Italesse

Cuberteria Stamp para Italesse

24 Food Bag producido por Teracrea

24 Food Bag producido por Teracrea

Lámpara Mr Light

Lámpara Mr Light

/FicherosEstaticos/habitat/Disenyadores/TomasAlonso_may010/L.jpg

/FicherosEstaticos/habitat/Disenyadores/TomasAlonso_may010/L.jpg

Tomás Alonso was born in Vigo in Galicia, northern Spain, in 1974. Aged 19, he moved from his native city to the US to study industrial design at Fort Lauderdale University. He initially lived in Italy and Australia before eventually settling in London to study at the RCA on its design products course, graduating in 2006.

 

In 2006, together with other RCA students who were all on the same design products course, Alonso co-founded Okay Studio, a cosmopolitan design collective whose original members were six designers from six different countries. Thanks to the widespread availability and high quality of Okay Studio’s products, these have garnered a lot of press coverage in specialist design magazines such as Wallpaper* and The World of Interiors.

 

Being part of a collective allows Okay Studio’s members to pool their ideas and take part in group events, such as exhibitions, while developing their ideas separately as individuals.

 

Tomás Alonso’s work is characterised by pieces which are simultaneously functional and romantic. He is very interested in a design’s functionality and the mixing of materials, as is plain to see in each of his creations.

 

His most notable designs are the 5º Stool, which, made only of wood and rope, elegantly reduces a stool’s design to its most minimal form. This piece also wants to convey the idea that comfort isn’t essential when designing seating for temporary use only. Taking the idea of the 5º Stool as a starting point, Alonso has designed the 5º Table, a trestle table also designed for temporary use.

 

His Mr Light lamps are a series of lights designed using the new T8 LED tubular spotlight. As well as being highly efficient and long-lasting, these reduce the number of components normally used to create lighting since they dispense with any form of lampshade. Mr Light – which comes as a standard light or table light – seamlessly conjoins lightbulb and frame in one continuous structure.

 

Inspired by classic Thonet chairs, Alonso’s No 7 (or Nube) chair reinterprets Thonet’s classic, curvaceous bentwood aesthetic. The chair comprises seven elements in bentwood forming three hoop shapes which, once linked, create a very stable structure. The three lower sections of these hoops are identical, reducing the amount of moulds needed to fabricate them. This design won the first prize in the Promosedia International Design Competition – Caiazza Memorial Challenge 2008.

 

Other pieces by this designer which stand out for their originality are the Bread Light, the Ventiquattro Food Bag and Greenroom, the latter produced by the Italian company Teracrea.

 

Alonso is also currently working for the Italian manufacturer Italesse, for which he designed the Stamp cutlery range, a new concept of travel or picnic cutlery. Made in very lightweight, disposable yet recyclable pressed aluminium, this was unveiled at the 2010 Maison & Objet fair in Paris.

 

 

Our brands:
  • Foods & Wines from Spain
  • Interiors from Spain
  • Aula Virtual
  • Invest in Spain
  • ICEX CECO
  • EmarketServices
  • ICEXNext
  • Audiovisual from Spain
  • Diary
  • News about interesting fairs and events which Spanish companies and designers are taking part in
  • find out

European Regional Development Fund

Logo ICEX Ministerio Economía 2024

A way to make Europe