Press Release
John G Williams Receives the A' Design Award for Zene Dining chair in Furniture Design
John G Williams recognized for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2017 - 2018 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 14, 2018 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Zene Dining chair by John G Williams has been granted the A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2017 - 2018 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the A' Design Award Means
The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.
Regarding Zene Dining chair
Zene dining chair takes its inspiration from indigenous timber and Danish Modern design. The light ash frames are simple and robust and support hardwood seats and backrests that appear to float on the frame. The curved forms of the seat/backrest are not formed by bending the wood but rather by joining and shaping solid hardwood timber. As a series the light ash frames provide cohesion, and different local materials selected for the seat/backrests generate interest and relevance.
About John G Williams
John G Williams Fine Furniture attempts to take bespoke timber design and craftsmanship to a new level. Traditional techniques are taken from their original context and applied in daring new ways to generate designs that are distinctive and fresh. The designs are luxurious without being fussy – they pair beautiful hardwood timbers with elegantly sweeping ash frames to deliver high impact furniture. The work captures the overall lightness of the Scandinavian style, while celebrating the rich colour and intensity of American and African hardwoods.
Award Record
John G Williams is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Furniture Design Award
The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Typical entries include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. The awarded furniture designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/furniture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/58495
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/58495
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!58495
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/194456
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Zene Dining chair
- Function
- Dining chair
- Category
- Furniture Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home
- Colors
- Gainsboro, Dark Slate Gray, Dark Salmon, Black and Peru
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- John G Williams
- Country
- South Africa
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2017 - 2018
- Design ID
- #58495
Credits
- Team
- designer, craftsman
- Image Credits
- all images by the designer: John G Williams
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This series of dining chairs have American ash frames and showcase different hardwood timbers for the seat/backrest combinations. The chairs draw on the ancient art of 'coopering' or how oak barrels are made for fermentation purposes. The curved forms of the seat/backrest are not formed by bending but rather by joining and shaping solid hardwood timber. The chair strives to be very strong and beautiful. In short: Zene - elegant, comfortable and dependable.
- Inspiration
- The beauty grain and colour of indigenous African timber was a key aesthetic inspiration for this project. The more technical inspiration for the overall work, including the frame design came from iconic designers such as Hans J Wegner (for example the CH20 Elbow Chair). The coopering technique was inspired by Ontario furniture designer Adrian Ferrazzutti.
- Research
- Danish modern designs were studied and absorbed to consider different ways of rendering the frame, and its relationship to the seat, and to think through the spatial relationship of the seat to the backrest. Web search was used to think about typical dimensions for the seat but in the end prototyping proved most fun.
- Challenge
- Building the coopered seat/backrests was challenging as it required careful attention to the compression forces on the material and how best to achieve high compression without causing the seats to 'implode'. Shaping the rough seats into finely finished and smooth curves required considerable re-working of the custom tooling to achieve the desired results
- Realization and Technology
- The Zene design evolved over a number of years. The starting point was probably a fascination with the art of coopering and how this has been applied to furniture design. Building the segmented seat and backrests took some practice to perfect, as did the development of custom modifications to standard workshop tools to shape and finish the smoothly shaped forms.
- Operation and Interaction
- Zene is designed mainly for use at the dining table and is designed for extended dining comfort.
- Project Duration and Location
- The first prototype was conceived in Johannesburg in 2007. It was slowly refined as background task over 10 years, and the first set of 6 chairs was produced in 2017
- Specifications
- 515mm wide x 570mm deep x 890mm high seat: 515mm wide x 390mm deep back:515mm wide x 200mm high
- Keywords
- zene, dining chair, south africa, hardwood, curved, cooper, danish modern, minimalist
