Design – 2019 is the Chinese Year of the Pig! We picked 4 quirky designs inspired by the twelfth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. 

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Chinese designer Mario Tsai created a collection of steel side tables that look like pigs with a hat.“During a visit to the metal material market, I saw a lot of thick aluminum tubes stacked. Out of my curiosity about the material, I purchased a 250mm diameter aluminum tube. When I put the other materials I purchased naturally into this tube, I found that this process as nature as putting a coin into a piggy bank.” Explains the designer. The collection was on show at Maison & Objet within an exhibition dedicated to Chinese rising talents. Read more…

Who wouldn’t want a horse to lighten up your living room and a pig to serve your guests? Swedish design studio Front designed a pig-shaped table for Dutch design company moooi. “Our idea was that people will either love it or hate it,” explain the designers. Front worked with a sculptor to create the lifesize animal models, which are manufactured from black polyester, supported by a metal frame inside.

The house becomes a zoo with Seletti’s Sending Animals furniture collection by Marcantonio Design. “Irony is a serious thing, if it can make you reflect with a smile,” explains Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba. “The association between wooden delivery boxes and animals is whimsical and, at the same time, it underlines our relationship with Nature.”

Designed by graduates from Tsinghua University, Guangzhou-based furniture brand YUSO’s tong-in-cheek seats come in the shape of chubby animals such as rhinos, sheep, buffalos and – of course – pig, to fit in the homes of young playful grown ups and their kids. Read more…