Design Indaba Expo 2013: Thingking Designs Archetypal Frameworks

Posted by LinYee Yuan | 8 Mar 2013 | Comments (1)

Thingking, a Cape Town-based design/build studio was honored this week with the 2013 Most Creative Stand Award at Design Indaba Expo. Their Twitter-activated Rube Goldberg machine served as a backdrop for their minimal objects.

Simple Trestles

Thingking is Lyall Sprong and Marc Nicolson's "designer-maker consultancy." Based in Cape Town's design district of Woodstock, the three-year-old company does a range of client work ranging from interior/exhibition to interactive products (check out their Lipton Vending Machine, "the world's first floating vending machine.) We wrote about Thingking's converted Gypsy Caravan buildout for The Soft Machine, an ice cream truck that debuted at Design Indaba last year.

At this year's Expo, they showed a small range of their design objects—I particularly loved their Pot Plant Stands, freestanding or wall-mounted powdercoated steel frames that are designed to support potted plants as singles or in series. Their nesting plywood Nominal boxes, represent the duo's design ethos. They work with common materials, creating objects that, "are designed by the people that choose them. Undefined, non-precious, archetypal frameworks."

Nominal Boxes

The display of Simple Trestles and Simple Stools created an interesting geometry casually stacked as multiples in the space. One of their more interesting projects (not shown at the Expo) is the Bucket That Is a Seat that uses re-purposed chipboard to create temporary seating and storage.

Bucket That Is a Seat

Trying to keep things basic, we drilled a hole which would act as a handle while allowing objects stored inside the bucket to breathe. We also cut thin locating strips of chipboard which were then screwed onto the underside of the chipboard squares. What is interesting is that each piece of re-purposed chip-board has its own character in a very literal way. By observing all the details that have through anonymous use, marked the board, something quite beautiful can be recognised.

Watch the duo share more about their work in the Design Indaba video below.