Collaboration with Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Design & Environment 2019

As a home-grown furniture design brand, Cellini's values are rooted in design and craftsmanship. We strongly believe in aspiring local designers to share the same values and passion as we do, where we constantly keep up and reach out to stay connected. Our active involvement by providing guidance and support for the upcoming batch of designers is just one aspect of the things we do.

With the evolving urban needs and trends, we dived deeper into the spheres of design and innovation with the students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Design & Environment’s etc. lab this year. At the start of 2019, the product design students along with industry mentors from Synergraphic and Djalin tackled separate project themes, and it was an equally exciting journey for us at Cellini.

International Furniture Fair Singapore, IFFS 2019: Cellini x Djalin

Image by etc. lab, IFFS 2019: SANAGA product design outcomes. 2019.

The Future of Urban Living was the theme released for International Furniture Fair Singapore (IFFS) 2019, with the design brief titled SANAGA: Play. Explore. Create. IFFS 2019: SANAGA is a project that explores the making of furniture from a readily available material in the village of Tasikmalaya, Kampung Naga, Indonesia, making the product design sustainable. Thus, the project is centralised on the rattan material and partnered with experts at Djalin, where they specialise in interweaving traditional rattan into modern designs.

Image by etc. lab, IFFS 2019: SANAGA exhibition. 2019.

Image by etc. lab, IFFS 2019: SANAGA exhibition. 2019.

Kickstarting IFFS2019: SANAGA, the lecturer-in-charge, Jason Khiang led his students to Indonesia, in Tasikmalaya, Kampung Naga to test their mock-ups that were created upon an initial understanding the needs of kindergartens. Additionally, we have also extended our invitation for the students to visit our factory in Jakarta to have first-hand experience and to learn more about the furniture manufacturing process. The students worked and weaved alongside the locals of Tasikmalaya to derive at their final products. Upon rounds of iterations and presentation of ideas from the students, D&O is the winning piece stood out for us.

Image by Benedict Chia, D&O prototype.

Designed by Benedict Chia Ming En, D&O is a multipurpose shelf made up of rattan, steel and wood, with the key features of stack, divide and organise. Benedict shared with us that he had intended to utilise more of the vertical space, as the kindergarten is constrained by its the smaller floor plan. Furthermore, Benedict also had the thought to create a personal and modular space that can allow teachers to separate the space and use it more efficiently.

Image by Benedict Chia, D&O final product rendering (overall).

Image by Benedict Chia, D&O final product rendering (close-up).

The D&O shelf comes in a set of 2, consisting of shelves and whiteboard that can be assembled according to the different purposes. The flexibility enables children to explore their creativity, and allows teachers to use it as their main teaching tool. Despite the stackable function of the D&O shelf, the height of the shelf is suitable for children to use on their own too, as Benedict pointed out that the children typically sit on the floor as part of their culture. The multi-functional D&O shelf certainly adds enjoyment to learning for these village children.

International Furniture Fair Singapore, IFFS 2019: Cellini x Djalin

Image by etc. lab, SingaPlural: Senses product design outcomes, 2019.

Separately for SingaPlural: Celebrating Design 2019, organised by Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC), the theme was on Unnatural Phenomena, examining the unexpected, weird and wonderfully bizarre. With Synergraphic’s specialty in glass-making, the students took on the topic on “Senses” to work with specific materials of glass and aluminium.

Image by Benjamin, Illustration of Aura’s functionality.

The intangibility and irony of the brief piqued interest towards the forms of Earth’s natural disasters, such as hurricane and tornado, then to replicate it in an unexpected scenario. This process led to the birth of Aura, an incense burner as designed by Benjamin Toh Enming.

Image by etc. lab, Aura as exhibited at SingaPlural 2019.

Going against the usual understanding of senses, Aura focuses on the visual experience of scents, where users get to be engaged in both the senses of smell and sight. This idea was ignited by the process when hot air mixes with cool air which forms a vortex to emulate that of a tornado. Experimenting with the different channelling methods and heat source, Benjamin revealed that his initial prototype was to create a fire tornado by adding zippo oil into an acrylic cylindrical container – which almost resulted in him burning his house down.

Image by Benjamin, Illustration of Aura in use.

With a short time frame and multiple trials later, Aura was produced. Described as an immersive visual sensuous experience, Aura is an incense burner that allows the smoke to stream and spiral within the interiors, initiating a channel airflow that exits at the specific slits designed on the sides for the incense fragrance to be diffused.

Congratulations to Our Winners

Image with Benedict Chia Ming En

Image with Benjamin Toh Enming

Here we celebrate the collaborative efforts with Djalin and Synergraphic, successful product outcomes of all etc lab students and prize winners – Benedict Chia Ming En (D&O) and Benjamin Toh Enming (Aura). We hope that Benjamin and Benedict will continue to discover new design possibilities and a fruitful internship experience in their respective companies.