soft baroque infuses conventional objects with digital-age, conceptual aesthetics

London-based design duo Soft Baroque creates pieces based on conventional object typologies, infused with a dose of conceptual aesthetics and digital age references. Founded by Saša Štucin and Nicholas Gardner, both Royal College of Art Graduates, the studio works simultaneously on object design and art, focusing on creating work with conflicting functions and imagery. 

all images courtesy of Soft Baroque

the finger tables feature a distinctive finger joint more commonly found in carpentry

Trained in furniture and graphic design respectively, the duo has already exhibited work at museums and galleries such as the V&A, Christie’s, Etage Projects, Design Miami, and design weeks in Milan, London, New York, Stockholm, and Dubai. Projects include the Fingers Tables, commissioned by Modern Design Review and Ace Hotel for the occasion of Ready Made Go 3. The tables are made of alusid, a new material that comes from 100% recycled ceramic and glass, and is as strong as stone and as malleable as ceramic.

the tables are made from a material as strong as stone and as malleable as ceramic

Pearl Screws, another project by Soft Baroque, examines designers’ often embarrassment associated with leaving screws exposed when creating structures. by decorating standard screw caps with freshwater pearl tops, the project seeks to overturn this delusion, marrying the most economical construction system with the cultural value of natural pearls.

freshwater pearl tops form a series of decorative screw caps

using black nickel plated brass, the studio has created a family of objects for Etage Projects

the collection includes vases, wall-mounted hybrids of LEDs and vases, and a side table

the objects play with ideas about stereotypes in gender aesthetics and material expectations

Puffy Bricks is made through injecting concrete into balloons and arranging them in a mould

I will love you forever if you bring desert to my living room is recreation of a fictitious natural substance, a domesticated mini desert

New Surface Strategies is a visual system that examines infinite digital capacity versus the real world

by keying out the blue color, the surface of the furniture can be digitally substituted for another material identity without the burden of material labor

project info:

designer: Soft Baroque