Marko Stanojevic · CLIENT: UMA Network Ltd
Uma is a Hong Kong venture capital company focused on creative economies. Restless chopsticks were designed as a memento object, representing the company's value of investing resources to make a change. The company logo resembles a pulse on a flat line, which was embedded into a flat-lined chopstick. The front part of a chopstick is always lifted up and kept away from the table surface, removing the need for the chopstick rest. The Pulse is designed to always remain sufficiently apart, not to collide, and is functionally valid for picking the food up, down to the most demanding small bites.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The body of a chopstick is divided into sections: one at top is held by hand and the other one at the tip comes in contact with food and mouth, with an overlooked neutral zone between them. This zone is where the design intervention took place - a ‘distancer’ shaped like the company logo (a Pulse on the flat line) was inserted, elevating the tip of the chopstick away from the surface however it dropped down, eliminating the need for a chopstick rest. This is done, regarding the positioning and size, so that the chopsticks remain functional and do not collide when in use.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The product is 260mm long, with 7.5mm width at the back end and 3.5 at the front. The Pulse segment itself is 25mm long and 13.5mm wide between the maximum-distance points. This makes the front end always elevated from the surface by a minimum of 5.5mm.
- Tags
- Tableware, chopsticks, utensils, tradition, narrative design, memento object
- Production Technology
- The product is made of titanium with bi-color titanium coating (dark gray and gold), all food-grade. Surface is polished in two steps allowing for two finishes.
- Design Challenge
- It was a challenge to transform an ordinary object, a pair of chopsticks, into a future-proofing tradition and contemporized heritage. Their beautiful simplicity is only disturbed by the fact that a third object is actually needed in the etiquette of how they are used - a chopstick rest. This contradiction of “clean two that actually need a third” to work properly made the design direction clear: find a way for the purpose that the chopstick rest is for to be fulfilled, but without the rest.
- Project Duration
- Hong Kong SAR, China
- Operation Flow
- Chopsticks with no rest :)
- Research
- Remaining true to East Asian heritage, the Pulse (life) segment is titanium coated in golden color with polished surface finish, while the straight parts (flat line) of the chopstick are titanium coated in matte dark gray with brushed finish to create contrast between the two. Each polishing and titanium-gold coating of the Pulse is on purpose done in a low controlled manner against highly controlled and repetitive-mass-production feel of the brushed, dark-gray flat line parts of the object. Allowing shiny, golden randomness to happen is in tune to the actual beauty of randomness of a real life. Finally, on a very concrete level, it makes each chopstick piece unique and special.
- Inspiration
- UMA is a Hong Kong venture capital company focused on creative economies. The task was to design a multi-facetted communication object representing the company's values (invest resources to make a change), but also to be able to function independently in a retail environment. A set of chopsticks, iconic and recognizable, culturally relevant, was a chosen as a topic. UMA logo, a Pulse on the flat line, was embedded into a flat-lined chopstick becoming its' functional, aesthetical and communication core, all in one stroke.
- Image Credits
- UMA Network Limited
- Patents
- UMA Network Limited
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