05/03/2010

Tomás Alonso, useful, accessible design

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.

COOKIE NOTICE

Tomás Alonso, useful, accessible design

Diary

MOST READ