Landscape of Eating Journey

Topoware china is a collaboration between Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino from Canada and Karola Torkos from Germany, which was recently featured in the New York Times.
The tableware collection questions the landscape of dining. Taking inspiration from the recent popularity of geography as a media of communication (with Google maps) and more specifically with topographic maps, which define heights of a landscape two dimensionally, Topoware in turn, “outlines” the dining experience.

The layers of the place mats take inspiration from the landscaping in geography as the media of design communication. Each layer defining what comes first and the organic lines outline where cutlery and tableware should be placed.

Even interestingly, the altitudes of the lines as patterns on the bowls, salad plates and dinner plates indicate the amount of food proportionally healthy to the degrees of hunger.

Salad bowl: full / hungry / very hungry
Large plate: modest / moderate / greedy
Small plate: child / mother / father

As a touch-up accessory, by using subtle lines and various color intensities, this hand-sewn tablecloth draws out a sense of territory, space expansion and proximity for each eater who shares the same table.

Another interesting and thoughtful design that is to promote positive social interaction. Do we still have family dinner time in a home setting nowadays?

Design for Less

It seems that I can't stop talking about Chocolate these days. Who could resist the seduction of good chocolate (design)?

This is the winning design for Future Selves Awards. See more finalist designs here:

Finalist, Design for our Future Selves Awards 2007, Helen Hamlyn Centre

I can't stop asking myself: can we design for less consumption? How can we design for less consumption but long lasting emotional sustainable relationship with any product? How can we design for better well-beings if people's life and more positive social emotionality.