Metallic lustre and a familiar simplicity define Jeongseob Kim’s furniture designs

Design in the contemporary era, is a sphere of unfathomable innovation and exploration for established and emerging creative minds alike. In this endless sea of ideas, creators are in a constant pursuit of seeking their individuality, a distinctive grammar that sets them apart. Finding an honest expression and voice through creative endeavours, then feels like a compulsion as much as a purpose; guiding the design processes and carving artistic culminations.

For South Korea-based designer, artist and craftsman Jeongseob Kim, a concurrent obligation drives his expression as a designer. Embarking on a creative journey of developing and evolving his ideas, which he views as "a special secret process” characterising his oeuvre, he is expanding his Compositional series of furniture designs. The designer unveiled new creations that conform to his creative vocabulary. The furniture achieves an unfamiliar sensibility and form by employing common materials, images, patterns. His unusual propensity towards familiarity prods one to wonder: can mundane elements weave together an unrecognised tapestry? “Furniture with good functions is abundant around us. I am doing this now to discover the differences between them and me,” says Jeongseob Kim. “I also want the ordinary images around me to be reconstructed and reach people. I want my work to stay in the corner as a special object, unlike other furniture in the house,” he adds.

Conceived as an idea to create new silhouettes using ordinary patterns and materials, the series is the materialisation of the designer’s thoughts, favourite forms, and expressions. Kim’s inclination towards metal culminated in designs, realised in materials such as copper, aluminium, and stainless steel. The process began with him collecting patterns that are commonly found in the surroundings and recognising the most fundamental arrangements—bricks, zigzags, sidewalk blocks—among them. The Korean designer then explored how the patterns can be replicated using metal plates while preserving the nuances and accompanying visual influence of joints. To breathe life into the formative idea, Kim employed techniques of metal bending, welding, and cold joints. “Recently, I have been choosing materials that I can grasp well. In the past, I did a lot of new experiments and I noticed that there are already many good materials existing around us,” says Kim.

A minimal visage, clean lines, and immaculate simplicity constitute the language that tethers all the pieces together. Encompassing table designs, stool designs, side tables, benches, and shelves, the series features an equilibrium of minimalism and the designer’s individual sensibility. Embracing and uplifting the seemingly ordinary, Kim makes a deliberate choice of refraining from communicating anything extraordinary through his works. “Balance between sensibility and language is not up to me to judge, I am only expressing my object in my own way. Someone who looks at it finds a balance in it,” shares the Korean artist. Channelling his sense of proportions acquired through years of learning, he prioritises conveying thoughts and the context of forms rather than merely achieving function. “I make furniture for people who like my sense of formativeity, values, and stories,” says Kim. “The important thing is that it does not matter whether the objects I make are furniture or sculptures,” he adds.

The meticulously finished metal epitomises the unique materiality while giving it a new form. On this journey of seeking uniqueness, it dawned upon Kim that it is not something to seek after all. Rather, singularity is an innate perk of being human that beckons acknowledgment. With contradicting notions and styles, the contemporary design scene seems chaotic. Some prefer and chase novelty, while others like Kim are re-discovering novelty in the ordinary. With his belief that mundane materials can achieve absoluteness through his inimitable perceptions, Jeongseob continues to work on new furniture for Deus Ex Machina in Korea with several shows, collaborations, and solo exhibitions in the near future.