You're likely familiar with Polish designer Oskar Zieta—if only for his 2010 'Chippensteel' chair and other inflated steel furniture, often spotted in glistening chrome or copper. Zieta was back in the limelight at Łódź Design Festival in Poland last week with pyrotechnical demonstrations of some new steel products inflated by the application of heat.
The 'Hot Pin'—a repacking of Zieta's old techniques as a consumer product—is a wall-mounted coat hook sold flatpack in an admittedly quite charming mini pizza box. The intention seems to be to give us at home a chance to see the wonders of baking steel—the discs springing to life with inflating spontaneously when heated to temperatures above 200°C, cooling into a surprisingly solid object to be fitted to the wall.
Although we're unlikely to be dashing out to cover our walls in these interesting creations, it did get us thinking about where this technique could be headed. Zieta and his team have of course also got an eye on the future—giving a passing mention to inflatable typography in the works, presumedly suitable for decoration and signage. Also spotted—a previously unseen big shiny mirror on the wall of the Zieta stand, though this looking like one of the air (as opposed to heat) inflated variety.
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