Designist Dream

Awesome Israeli design studio Reddish plays with the ideas of surface, texture, decoration and nature in household objects ranging from tables to lighting to illustrations. The incredibly clever Yakuza wooden table above combines tattoo decoration on a wooden table, the idea?

In its design, the table is treated as a living body, receiving its character from a unique tattoo printed on its surface. The wood texture acts as skin, becoming a platform for expressing a strong cultural and personal identity. The digital printing technology enables to easily treat each table individually, making them unique - just like people.

I love the personification of the table and how it works on several levels: from the table’s wooden texture as a finger print to the Yakuza Japanese mobster tattoo decorating its ’skin’. Although it’s not a new concept - see Judy Chicago’s abstraction of 39 women into one triangular table, complete with China patterns, in The Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum of Art - the tattoos lend an aggressive and almost violent presence to the table. Beautiful in design though aggressive in its symbolism, somehow the tattoos don’t just decorate the surface but also penetrate it and stain it forever. It’s hard to imagine the Yakuza table as a working table. After all, what gangster would let you rest a hot mug of coffee on his back? (You drinking on me, punk?)

Other works by Reddish also infuse humor with provoking combinations. Check out their ’safsalush’ concrete graffiti bench for kids or these ‘avocado’ planters, which really had me smiling and thinking back to that science project from 5th grade. Good times.