love by joel escalona for opinion ciatti

‘love’ by joel escalona photo courtesy of opinion ciatti

mexican designer joel escalona has developed a padded seat collection in the shape of a heart entitled ‘love’ for italian furniture company opinion ciatti, on show during the 2012 milan design week.

the single sofa can be arranged into an ironic little couch. available for one, two and four seats. the cover, which is completely removable comes in black or red and is made of 100% cotton, and the base is polished in stainless steel.

‘my conceptual goal was to create something inspired by meaning, symbols and emotions, and certainly this charming seat is a mix of all that. it’s funny how this icon can represent the most important feeling for us and be so simple, identifiable and beautiful at the same time.’ –  joel escalona.

this is a clear example of collaborations that are shaping the future of the industry in which both partners are completely different at first sight and yet they have so many crucial values in common, in this case a three generation italian furniture company and one young mexican designer.

love 1, 47×42 h45 cm

‘working with opinion ciatti on the love project was an excellent learning experience and an exciting new operational model, not only because of the result, which is wonderful and successful in matters of achieving our goals imposed since the beginning, for instance getting an iconic piece suitable for mass production and an interesting price point, but also working from one continent to another on a product design project remotely, turned out to be very productive as somehow we have the same approach to design and understand each other since the beginning in order to create a delightful furniture piece.’ – joel escalona.

love for two, 47×82 h45 cm

(left) love for four, 47×162 h45 cm (right) love for one

complete love collection

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’  feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here