nendo's watercolour collection mimics paint on paper, bleeding delicate blue hues

nendo has realized an eighteen-piece metal furniture collection inspired by the effects of watercolour paint on paper. presented by friedman benda at design miami/basel 2018, the series of objects have been envisioned to look as though they were cut and folded by hand, expressing the idea of paper. a delicate blue color bleeds through the tables and chairs as if they were soaked in watercolour, forming perfectly blurred patterns and expressions.

all images by akihiro yoshida

in order to create surfaces that closely resembled the textures of paper, the metal frames of the furniture were repeatedly and thoroughly sanded, applied with primer and finished with matte white paint. all painting was done by hand, section by section, by tapping the paint gently with soft pulp paper — a meticulous coloring process created with a mix of two tones of water-based inks. finally, the objects were finished with a protective clear matte layer that further accentuates their flat paper-like appearance.

presented at design miami/ basel for friedman benda, nendo’s ‘watercolour collection’ sees animated color effects take shape across the furniture. blurred blue tones intersect at various meeting points, overlap in parts, create stains on one another, and drip down across multi-layered objects. custom expressions were designed specifically for each object according to its shape and elements.

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