Bronze Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design · 2023
Restless Chopsticks Tableware
- A' Design Award 2023 Bronze Winner in Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: UMA Network Ltd
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 17,702
- Verification code 141B068400 · Verify this award
About Restless Chopsticks Tableware
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
Colors of Restless Chopsticks Tableware
Design Interview about Restless Chopsticks Tableware
Finding an opportunity for design to truly contribute to something so ubiquitous, long-lasting, simple and refined. It was a serious challenge requiring sniper-like precision in decision making.
To contribute, innovate and make a contemporary pair of chopsticks, while remaining traditional at the same time, or at least undeniably linked to tradition. It sounds like an oxymoron, but in design two and two do not always give four.
To go into production.
Several months. Initial idea was reached relatively quickly, but it took many prototypes to polish it up to its final stage.
It was a self-initiated project done as a segment of another commissioned one.
I am hoping to lease/sell the production rights at this point.
I live in Hong Kong SAR for many years and use chopsticks daily, but coming from different culture I still do not take them for granted. I was curious if I can elevate them. So I did.
I did not really have a role model on this one.
There was highly supportive design team around me though who helped a lot, sometimes just by being there other times with more. If I may I would like to thank Marko Maciev, Peggy Chang, Iris Tam and Bojan Spasojevic.
There was highly supportive design team around me though who helped a lot, sometimes just by being there other times with more. If I may I would like to thank Marko Maciev, Peggy Chang, Iris Tam and Bojan Spasojevic.
Anyone who responds and relates to Massclusivity trend. They are not made to be a cheap mass product being out of titanium, but I am hoping for a retail price that will still be widely acceptable.
It's clear this design would be most welcomed at the East Asian market. Still, I feel Restless Chopsticks, especially being a design item, could be interesting well beyond that region.
It's clear this design would be most welcomed at the East Asian market. Still, I feel Restless Chopsticks, especially being a design item, could be interesting well beyond that region.
I f there are any similar concepts I am not aware of them.
The aim of this project was to eliminate chopstick rest, hence the name Restless. It's a play on words, actually going back full circle to original western name for the utensil "chop-chop", a slang for busy and fast.
Software: Rhinoceros, Blender, Photoshop, CorelDraw and for prototypes various 3D printing machines.
The pulse element - it is a key functional, aesthetical and narrative feature all at once and an absolute focal point of the product.
Technology did not play a major role on this project. Perhaps I would say the ability to 3D print in titanium a low-fidelity prototype that is fully usable for functionality testing did help make decisions with more confidence and speed.
Other then researching what is available on the market, we did regular user testing.
Some technical challenges popped up along the way, but nothing major.
I believed it is a fully manufacturable project the market would welcome. I thought it might be award-worthy after making first prototypes. I am very glad and proud this was indeed so.
I got to know about something not so obvious to me - a very large number of people in Asia actually holds and uses the chopsticks incorrectly. This had to influence the design decisions, naturally. I also learned new things about manufacturing titanium products.
Questions were quite thorough, thank you.