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Champagne chair finalists Jason F. Feb 07

11 comments Latest by mieses

DWR’s annual Champagne Chair Award finalists await your vote. This is my favorite design competition because it’s entirely about embracing constraints.


If you’re curious, here are the the finalists and winners from each round.

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11 comments so far

Patrick 07 Feb 07

No offense but they all creep me out and seem to defy the purpose of a chair. I’m sorry but I just don’t see the point.

Mick 07 Feb 07

I see cork, some Veuve coloring, some iron wiring, but none of them say ‘champagne’ to me.

Patrick D 07 Feb 07

For those that don’t know (it’s not that obvious)—these are not real chairs. They’re miniatures that are created from actual pieces of a champagne bottle.

Follow the link to finalists and winners, and things will become a little more clear.

Nick 07 Feb 07

This is really more art than design. It’s definitely a cool idea, but the end result is pretty useless in a functional sense.

The constraint does not result in better design in this case. The functionality of the chair is actually reduced. Which of course won’t stop DWR from selling these unusable items for $1,500 a pop.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those ultra-utilitarians who think everything should be stripped of style, but successful design is about the marriage of both style and function. In this case the “constraint” does neither and fails to improve the final product.

Nick 07 Feb 07

@Patrick D Ahhh, I stand corrected. Maybe I should read the entire site before I come to a conclusion. But that would make too much sense.

Long Time Listener - Repeat Caller 07 Feb 07

Can someone direct me to the 37S blog which has information about 37S software / updates? The address used to be here, but the past several months indicate that such is not the case any longer.

Thanks in advance.

ML 07 Feb 07

LTL -RC, there’s also Everything Basecamp, the official news and support blog for Basecamp. We have a mailing list too. Otherwise, we’ll post updates/info on products here when we’ve got something to share.

Dave Rosen 07 Feb 07

Nice chairs. But nothing on this…

Check out this accordion folding chair.

Andrew 07 Feb 07

Eh, none of these really pops out at me.

Leith @ Birth of a Startup 07 Feb 07

Come on, guys… these chairs weren’t designed to be comfortable items you would purchase, just like haute couture isn’t designed to be worn for a walk to the shops. Its about cultivating creativity and questioning aesthetics, its what art is all about, making you think, causing surprise, challenging entrenched ideas.

mieses 09 Feb 07

the intitial replies to this post confirm my suspicions about the intelligence of usability oriented design culture.

Comments are closed