A Three-dimensional
Sketch
Everyday utensils are starting to look more and more alike. At a time when everything in this world seems to become more and more superficial, the demand for authentic products only seems to be increasing. NOVA, by designer Maarten Baptist, responds to this need. The dinner service is a literal translation of a hand-drawn sketch.
JOINE Dinner Service NOVA
Design Maarten Baptist
Image by Annette Born
Special thanks to TNO Rapid Manufacturing
No matter if this concerns a coffee cup or a car, every new product starts with a rough sketch. Sometimes the point of departure is no more than a flight of fancy that is put to paper in just a few strokes. Next, the long journey from sketch to final product is filled with modifications and adjustments. Of course, designers have increasingly fewer limitations to take into account with the advent of new materials and innovative production techniques. Nevertheless – by reason of efficiency – products have been starting to look more and more alike. The use of computers has also made it easier to further refine and polish those initial rough sketches, but this has also resulted in their becoming less unique. The bare concept hardly ever still resembles the ready-made finished product, which is usually nothing more than a utensil that is just as commonplace as it is devoid of character.
At the same time, there is an increasing demand for products with a personality. Why do we buy five pairs of trousers a year but never throw away those old faded jeans? For the same reason that we would rather eat at a restaurant than heat up an instant meal. In our fleeting society in which trousers and meals resemble each other respectively more and more closely, we are searching for authenticity, for products with character.
Maarten Baptists presents NOVA, an 8-piece dinner service that, even though it can be mass-produced, is pure and authentic at the same time. It has not been polished and smoothed out, but is literally a translation of the initial rough sketch. Off the cuff, Maarten Baptist drew plates, dishes and mugs, after which these sketches were rotated on a computer. In this way, a three-dimensional product was ultimately created. A cup is not perfectly round, but has a capricious rim and the surface of a plate has a certain slant and all sorts of little lumps and bumps. Although the shape has been stylized somewhat, the dinner service is that same three-dimensional sketch. NOVA looks as if it has been hand-drawn, and, in a certain sense, it is. The image of traditional craftsmanship is emphasized by the way in which the capricious shape calls to mind an association with old-fashioned pottery-making.
NOVA is produced in white porcelain. After all, this dinner service does not need decoration (i.e. flowers or subdued blue edging) to distinguish itself. The shape is its decoration. Maarten Baptist has placed additional emphasis on the shape by giving every separate part of the service an individual shape. The edge of the under plate may not be as high as that of the breakfast plate and the coffee cup may not be as round as the soup plate. At the same time, they are clearly members of the same family.
Maarten Baptist has designed a dinner service with the same pure beauty as a rough diamond. It is unique because the sketch is no longer the point of departure, but also the finishing point of the design process. Purely because the signature of the maker can literally be seen in the end product. In the meantime, the design has been worked out into an 8-piece dinner service, ready to be produced. Maarten Baptist showed a prototype made out of plastic with a stainless steel coating, ready for production, at the Dutch Design Week 2008.
© Jeroen Junte
JOINE Dinner Service NOVA
Design Maarten Baptist
Image by Annette Born
Special thanks to TNO Rapid Manufacturing
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