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LOOKBOOK
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LOOKBOOK
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p. 5 ABOUT
p. 6 MATERIALS AND
TECHNIQUES
p. 9DESIGN
CRAFTED
p. 11COLLECTION
FORMGRAPHIC
URBAN SHAPES
ABOUT
nortstudio is an Antwerp based design studio focusing on furniture and accessories.
Founded in 2016, nortstudio is the shared practice of Jef De Brabander and Kathleen Opdenacker. Two designers with two very different backgrounds who found common ground in their love of working with their hands and manipula-ting materials. Kathleen trained as a graphic designer, and has an eye for the expressive use of color and geometry. Jef studied industrial engineering and worked in the construction industry before opting instead to hone his problem-solving and fabrication skills on the more intimate scale of objects.
Together, the pair create furniture and accessories whose colorful, graphic volumes blur the line between two dimensions and three, and belie the meticulous craftsmanship and material exploration that goes into each one-of-a-kind piece. Their work draws inspiration from the structural details of architec-ture, the daring shapes and palettes of Italian design, and color combinations sourced from paintings and fashion magazines — all filtered through the intuitive process of hands-on studio experimentation.
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MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
The exploration of production techniques — and the surprises and transformations that happen along the way — are at the core of nortstudio’s practice.
The duo never stop wondering about how things are made, how those details can inspire new ideas, and how simple materials like wood or aluminum can be manipulated to give those ideas form. Most of their designs start as drawings and find expression through technique, while others arise organically from the properties and limitations of the material at hand, like a recent fascination with molding resin that gave rise to their Graphic series. The common denominator is the pair’s bold use of color, which is so integral to their process that it functions almost like a material in itself. They can spend hours mixing and arranging pigments and swatches until they’ve created combinations that evoke the right feeling or moment in time, often in ways that are totally unexpected — rendering colors they consider “ugly” beautiful and essential by way of proximity alone.
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DESIGN CRAFTED
In reality, they’re all crafted by hand in extremely limited numbers in the couple’s own Antwerp atelier, with no two pieces being exactly alike. Every bent wooden table base is a slightly different shape, every hand-mixed resin pigment a slightly different shade. The objects’ deceiving sleekness arises in part from Kathleen’s graphic sensibi-lity, and in part from the fact that no screws or joints are visible, even when they’re turned upside down — a characteristic that stems from the designers’ belief in eliminating unnecessary details until what’s left behind is pure, clean form.
At first glance, nortstudio’s designs appear to be precise and perfect, but that’s what makes them so intriguing.
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COLLECTION
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from left to right
stool 5, stool 1
COLLECTIONFORM
F orm is a series of stools and tables that began with a single, basic shape — a
hollow bentwood cylinder — that the designers expanded or contracted, left whole or sliced in half, multiplied in rows of two or three, and topped with slab surfaces for seating or display.
One edition is more playful, with tonal gradient bases and contrasting, eye-catching tops. Blue pairs with yellow, green with pink, lavender with rust. The second edition is a bit more sophisticated, with each work occupying a single color family, each of its elements slightly darker than the next. Both are defined by the harmonious interplay of color and form.
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from left to right
stool 3, stool 3, stool 2, table 2
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from left to right
stool 4, stool 5
from left to right
table ocher, table lila, table mint
COLLECTIONGRAPHIC
C ompared to wood or metal, working with acrylic is fairly complex: It consists of
mineral powder and water-based resin, bonded in a viscous liquid that must be pigmented, molded, sawed, sanded, and sealed to create objects.
In its complexity, though, lies flexibility and possibili-ty, which is what drew nortstudio to want to work with it. To create the acrylic tables, trays, and bookends in their Graphic collection, they experimented with molds made from PVC pipe and corrugated plastic, creating a diverse mix of profiles and textures and shapes embedded within larger shapes — hybrid forms with unique personalities.
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this page
table lila, table mint, table ocherright page
table lila, table mint
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this page
tray pink, green and blueleft page
tray blue
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this page
bookend blueleft page
bookend lila, blue and ocher
COLLECTIONURBAN SHAPES
F or the past few years Antwerp has been in a period of rapid growth and expansi-
on, cranes everywhere, the whole city seemingly an open construction site. For nortstudio, finding harmony in those circumstances has been a daily challenge, but also a nonstop source of inspiration. With their Urban Shapes bench, they’ve attempted to capture the tension of the equipment and materials they see regularly at building sites — concrete and beams, massive metal pipes and grates — but decontextualize and distill it into something beautiful.
The bench consists of three aluminium legs in three different primary shapes, asymmetrically linked together by an aluminum grid. Though it was originally designed for outdoor use, intended as an intentional and joyful departure from the typical neutral-colored public furniture, it’s also suitable for use at home, where it can be endlessly reconfigured and reimagined — much like the city that inspired it.
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COPYWRITINGMonica Khemsurov
PHOTOGRAPHYJeroen Verrecht Evenbeeld (portret p.4)
GRAPHIC DESIGND E B R A B A N D E R
© nortstudio 2019
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