Bronze Furniture Design · 2025
Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger
- A' Design Award 2025 Bronze Winner in Furniture Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Iva.n Design Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 11,913
- Verification code 54B89BDE8D · Verify this award
About Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger
The more items you hang on it, the more stable it gets; that is the main statement regarding this object. Coat hangers very often have stability issues; jackets, coats, sweaters etc. can lean the hanger. In Axel's case, while being designed, designers used gravity as an ally, to help its users to keep the tall hanger centered using its mid axis. Axel is a high quality product. Build by only two elements; a steel joint and a massive wood leg. Multiplied by three. Easy to repair since it's hand built.
Ivan Levak's Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger exemplifies contemporary furniture design's ongoing dialogue between utilitarian necessity and aesthetic contemplation, positioning functional domestic objects within traditions of sculptural form-making that extend from early modernist experiments through mid-century Scandinavian design philosophy to present-day explorations of material minimalism and chromatic expressivity. The work demonstrates sophisticated understanding of proportion and interval, the slender vertical supports establishing rhythmic repetition across the visual field while maintaining structural legibility and suggesting both architectural colonnade reference and abstracted natural grove, the spacing between elements calibrated to balance visual openness with compositional cohesion. Chromatic decisions reveal particular accomplishment, the pairing of muted botanical green with saturated cobalt blue creating temperature contrast and visual interest while avoiding strident discord, both hues maintained at similar tonal values to preserve unity, the color application appearing uniform and refined suggesting powder-coating or precision lacquer technique that honors material surface through smooth matte finish. The scalloped horizontal rails introduce organic vocabulary into geometric syntax, these undulating forms simultaneously functional as garment supports and visually engaging as rhythmic pattern, their wave-like profile softening orthogonal severity while creating tactile invitation and visual movement. The compositional strategy isolates the objects against neutral infinity, a convention borrowed from product photography yet also resonant with metaphysical painting traditions where everyday items achieve totemic presence through contextual removal, this deliberate backgroundlessness focusing attention entirely on form, color, proportion, and relationship. Technical execution appears meticulous, edges maintaining consistent definition, surfaces uniformly treated, vertical elements achieving parallel alignment that suggests manufacturing precision whether through industrial production or skilled craft fabrication. The work invites consideration of how domestic furniture occupies threshold territory between pure utility and aesthetic object, how color choices encode meaning and affect emotional response within living spaces, how geometric reduction and material honesty characteristic of modernist design continue generating fresh formal solutions, and how repetition and variation create visual interest within restrained vocabularies. One might contemplate whether the chromatic pairing references landscape elements, the green suggesting vegetation and the blue evoking sky or water, or whether the color functions more abstractly as pure chromatic relationship, and how the scalloped rail's organic gesture mediates between geometric discipline and natural form, creating synthesis that characterizes successful design where function and beauty achieve integration rather than competition.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- 'The more items you hang on it, the more stable it gets' - is the main statement regarding this item. Coat hangers very often have stability issues; jackets, coats, sweaters etc. are leaning the hanger. In Axel's case, while designing, we used gravity as an ally - to help us keep the tall hanger centered using its mid axis. Axel is a high quality product. Made only by two elements; a steel joint and a massive wood leg. Multiplied by three. Easy to repair since it's hand built.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The hanger is 170 cm tall, and the base is 44cm wide, weights 4kg and comes in a flat box which is 173cm x 9cm x 4cm.
- Tags
- furniture, storage, hanger, wardrobe, clothes, interior, hallway, lobby
- Production Technology
- Made of 3mm steel and solid 4x2cm oak wood. Minimalized and reduced to be as light as possible, which makes it also very easy to handle and move it around the house. Axel has only two main elements that by multiplication, connected by 18 screws in total, becomes a heavy duty (15 items including coats, jackets, sweaters) holder. Very easy and quick to assemble by one person and a single #3 hex key.
- Design Challenge
- Regarding the challenges we faced while designing, the most complex was to find balance between solid stability and making the hanger as narrow as possible so it can easily fit into small hallways and rooms.
- Project Duration
- The project started in Zagreb, during the Covid Era. First sketches were made in 2021 and the final prototype had a premiere in Milan during Salone Del Mobile 2023.
- Operation Flow
- This object can be operated by one or both hands. Once unboxed, the transformation from its flat pack 2D state to the final 3D composition can be easily done with 6 metal joints for the metal core and the additional6 screws to connect the central metal joint with the wooden legs. The interaction with this object isat least two times daily. Depending on how much its user takes on and off its wardrobe.
- Research
- Since both of us, Iva and I, have master degrees in industrial design, after a few sketches we started doing 1:1 models in wood, cardboard, metal and plywood. Everything we could find inside and around the house during the Pandemic. While doing the design index research, we come across that a lot of existing hangers have only three 'horns' to handle the load. And they are usually pointing towards the outer rim of the vertical composition... So we decided to turn these features the other way. Pointing the 'horns' towards the inside and using the central, metal construction for extra loading spaces (making hooks for coats in the process of CNC laser cutting). Also using the middle axis for better static stability.
- Inspiration
- While being a student and living a modern nomadic life, there were a lot of addresses. Constant moving from one apartment to another. A lot of temporary furniture, usually from Ikea, was left in those 'homes'. We all have our favorite piece of furniture that we love to take with us when moving to a new home. Axel represents a human size item that can easily be disassembled into a flat, narrow card box and easily carried away by hands or on a bicycle. A true piece of lightweight solid furniture.
- Image Credits
- Photo by Marija Gasparija
Colors of Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger
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