Joseph Ellwood’s aluminium furniture delineates extant confusion and indecision

We regularly seek eccentric furniture design items and objects that can enliven our households and help us ascribe a unique and distinctive personality to our private spaces. Contemporary design items inspired by personal experiences, whimsical concepts or anomalous incidents often succeed in fulfilling this desire. One such recent furniture collection that managed to catch our eye with its peculiar form and materiality is Contemporary Vanity by Six Dots Design, founded and headed by British designer Joseph Ellwood. Built in an attempt to redefine the aesthetic usually associated with contemporary design, this five-piece collection is crafted using raw finish aluminium.

“I started the collection with material research and selection, a process that is especially difficult when considering materials that do not degrade in an external environment. Aluminium is almost infinitely recyclable, hence we went forward with it,” says Joseph Ellwood, artist, product designer and founder of UK based Six Dots Design. Since all the items in the collection are shaped from raw finish aluminium, they can easily be recycled or upcycled into usable objects.

The collection comprises a table, a chair, a mirror, a modesty screen (or room partition) and a hanging rail., All of these objects have been built using digital fabrication services. The laser cut aluminium furniture series also attempts to raise the question ‘What should the furniture of the future be?’ Since they are fabricated using aluminium, which is not only a recyclable material, but also bears the scope of being processed using latest low carbon cathode technologies, they are, consequently, low impact upcycled design objects, the existence of which is plausible in the current global climate. Since it is easy to manufacture these pieces, the Contemporary Vanity series is also a commercially viable product design initiative, empowering the designer and presenting a thrifty option to the buyers.

Ellwood founded his London-based practice in 2020 with the intention of creating utilitarian, beautiful and inspiring architecture, interiors and objects that are informed by bizarre ideas. Over the past two years, he has worked to tailor contemporary creations that appositely fulfil their roles, while also adding an element of intrigue through atypical features. While the studio’s interior design projects are nuanced and laidback, presenting themselves as canvases for their residents or inhabitants, the studio’s product design endeavours are bolder and more conspicuous. Their existence makes a statement in any space they occupy.

Similarly, the Contemporary Vanity collection commands a formidable presence with its reflective surface, thin profile and playful form. Their profiles appear in dissonance with the norms that dictated mid-century furniture design, and thus, pose a challenge to the generic design we usually refer to. “I have taken inspiration from the likes of Perriand and Prouvé and distorted their pieces to create a body of work that relates to our current generation. The lives we live today are fluid in gender, identity, expression and thought. This collection represents this confusion, indecision and anxiety in a whimsical and endearing way,” Ellwood explains about the recycled products.

Although the pieces in the collection appear dynamic and decorative, they are sturdy enough to be used for daily usage. “The aesthetic of the pieces is meant to be celebratory and new, yet still very much usable and comfortable,” Ellwood asserts.

Ellwood plans on adding more objects to this collection. With this material that is light, easy to build and recycle, he envisions a future where aluminium can be more liberally used. “One of the benefits of laser cutting aluminium out of flat sheets is that once the furniture is no longer wanted, new forms can be cut out of the existing materials. The entire collection is very easy to dismantle for this reason. The raw finish also helps its recyclability,” Ellwood says, enunciating the scope of aluminium as a sustainable design material for the future.