TOP 10 DESIGN PRODUCTS OF 2024 BY DESIGNBOOM’S READERS

Supporting emerging designers since 1999, designboom places open dialogue with its readers at its core. Through our submissions portal, we receive thousands of design projects daily from creatives worldwide, offering a platform to showcase fresh talent. From furniture pieces to small decorative items, these designs contribute to shaping our spaces, making life more practical, creative, and fun. As 2024 draws to a close, we take a moment to celebrate another year of creativity and innovation through hand-picked standout products submitted by our readers.

This year’s submissions showcased an exciting blend of functionality, playfulness, and forward-thinking concepts, featuring a sculptural chair paying homage to Ton’s iconic designs, Yamaha‘s electric guitar series crafted from reclaimed scrap wood, customizable lamp sets using natural leaves, and more intriguing projects. In our annual roundup, we highlight BIG stories dedicated to our top design products of 2024, capturing the spirit and creativity of the year. Read on to see more of our TOP 10 picks of design products.

SWAPPABLE ROCKS AND LEAVES CUSTOMIZE YOUR OWN NATURE-INSPIRED LAMP

image courtesy of Thomas Takada

Thomas Takada explores the intricate relationship between humans and nature through his Grandpa’s Lamp collection. Each lamp integrates natural elements that serve as both decorative but also structural components, essential to its function. The lighting objects come with a rock and a leaf, but the designer encourages owners to go and seek out their own too, fostering a deeper personal connection with the natural world. As leaves change with the seasons, this practice offers a reflection of local climates and geological histories. The minimal design is built around standardized steel tubes, which house the electrical components. Left uncoated, the steel develops a rusted patina over time, adding an evolving aesthetic dimension to the lamp.

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YOONMO KOO TRANSPORTS MONOCHROME, TACTILE ARTS OF DANSAEKHWA INTO FURNITURE

image courtesy of Yoonmo Koo

Bringing art into the realm of furniture, Yoonmo Koo’s Dansaek collection reimagines historic paintings as functional objects, integrating them into everyday life beyond the canvas. Inspired by Korea‘s Dansaekhwa movement—a 1950s response to the influence of Western modernism on Korean artistic traditions—the furniture series draws from the movement’s monochromatic aesthetics and embrace of modernist abstraction over realism and formalism. Koo treats wood as a canvas, carving into it and filling the voids with resin to elevate unique textures and create dynamic interplays of light, shadow, and color. The resulting benches and stools, monolithic in form and inscribed with intricate markings, celebrate vibrant hues and gradient transitions, merging art and practicality.

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ULTRAMARINE WOODEN CIRCLES REVISE TON’S ICONIC CHAIR 14 DISPLAYED AT MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2024

image by Julius Filip

Chair-object, or Ode to Chair 14 by designer Jiri Krejcirik pays homage to the iconic Chair 14 by furniture company Ton. Ton displayed the craftwork of Krejcirik’s sculptural chair-object at this year’s Salone del Mobile Milano – Milan Design Week 2024. ‘My Ode to Chair 14 revives the legendary Chair 14. The sculptural chair-object pays homage to this icon. The backrest is constructed from bent wooden circles that applaud the bending craftsmanship of Ton,’ notes Krejcirik.

With its intricate silhouette and bold ultramarine hue, Ode to Chair 14 blurs the line between sculpture and functional design. Remarkably, this chair-object required no new molds, as it was crafted entirely from existing components and molds in Ton’s production. Staying true to Krejcirik’s signature style, Ode to Chair 14 interlaces the heritage of the past with a new innovative design.

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GREG DUBIN’S DUAL RECORD STORAGE AND DISPLAY ECHOES WIRED DESIGNS OF VERNER PANTON

image courtesy of Greg Dubin

Greg Dubin combines record storage and display with On A Wire—a contraption that takes cues from pioneers in modern design, Marcel Breuer and Verner Panton. As record collections expand quickly, collectors resort to several methods to organize their new and frequently listened-to records. Traditional solutions like stacking them on the floor, leaning them against walls, or wedging them between speakers are often proved inadequate, prompting the designer to craft his own solution.

Through sketching and experimentation, Dubin identified the triangle as the most efficient profile for the design. To avoid material waste from hollow triangular shapes cut from sheets, he opted for steel wire—a material capable of withstanding the stress of the design’s tight bends. The result is a functional and minimalist storage solution tailored for the modern collector.

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ROC H BIEL’S MONOLITHIC STEEL STOOLS EVOKE ARCHITECTURAL MARVELS FROM A DYSTOPIAN FUTURE

Converging reality and digital artistry, Roc H Biel, introduces a pair of stools that redefine perceptions of everyday objects, evoking architectural marvels from a dystopian future. Each piece of Dystopian Ottomans, crafted from mirror-polished stainless steel, reflects and blends with its environment yet stands as a contemplative art form that balances utility with visual intrigue. Biel adopts a minimalist approach, utilizing single sheets of stainless steel, varying in thickness from 1.5 to 3mm. The fabrication draws from intricate packaging designs and Japanese joinery, where parts intersect and internal tabs, manually bent, secure the structure. Despite their monolithic appearance, these stools are lightweight, each weighing around just 8kg.

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MEXICAN ARTISANS HANDCRAFT SCULPTURAL COPPER MIRRORS FOR MANU BAÑÓ’S OBJ SERIES

image courtesy of Manu Bañó

Designer Manu Bañó delves into the inherent properties of copper with his new sculptural mirror series expanding his ongoing OBJ series. Crafted in Santa Clara del Cobre, Mexico—a town steeped in a long tradition of goldsmith craftsmanship—the pieces are shaped by local artisans, through the traditional technique of hammering thin copper sheets, imbuing them with new strength and three-dimensional form.

The wall and floor mirrors of the OBJ-08 series emphasize copper’s reflective properties, which, when polished, take on a mirror-like finish. These sculptural pieces are designed to occupy spaces typically reserved for paintings on the wall or freestanding sculptures. The wall mirror in particular comprises duplicated, symmetrical forms—one concave and the other convex—intended to be displayed together as a unified piece.

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MIJODA DAJOMI TURNS HEADWEAR INTO RAINWATER COLLECTION TOOL TO TACKLE FRESHWATER SCARCITY

image courtesy of Mijoda Dajomi

Torrent Guardian, the debut prototype of Mijoda Dajomi’s master collection, Daughters of Rain, merges fashion with environmental consciousness. Anticipating a future where a pressing water crisis will loom large, the project sees headwear evolve to function as a rainwater collection tool. Through this fusion of style and sustainability, the designer highlights the urgent necessity of conserving resources by harnessing rainwater while nodding to the need to remain stylish. The innovative hat is capable of capturing up to 5 liters of rainwater while worn, offering a practical yet fashionable response to the global water crisis.

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YAMAHA TURNS INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING WOOD SCRAPS INTO UPCYCLED ELECTRIC GUITARS

Yamaha Corporation unveils the concept project Upcycling Guitar, an initiative led by their design team to craft new instruments from defective and scrap wood generated during the musical instrument manufacturing process. Yamaha, known for its extensive use of wood in crafting instruments, faces the ongoing challenge of managing large quantities of cut waste and unused materials. The relationship between a musical instrument and its material is fundamental, shaping its sound, appearance, and feel. Rare woods, often prized for specific instruments, are finite resources requiring years of growth. By repurposing these materials, the company explores innovative ways to design electric guitars that uphold the highest quality standards. The concept focuses on utilizing diverse types of wood, including those traditionally not used in guitar manufacturing, and reimagining their potential in crafting new instruments.

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HANEUL KIM RECYCLES DISCARDED MOVIE THEATER SCREENS INTO LAMPS AND FURNITURE PIECES

image courtesy of Haneul Kim

Designer Haneul Kim collaborates with CGV, Korea’s leading movie brand, to address the issue of recycling waste movie screens from theaters. These expansive screens, often several meters long, are discarded due to damage, contamination, or in theaters’ shutdowns. Upon noticing these perforations on the discarded screens, Haneul Kim recognized a visual resemblance to aluminum perforated plates commonly used in industrial applications. This discovery inspired the idea of substituting the screens’ sound-transmitting function with light emission. Building on this concept, Kim developed designs for portable lamps that repurpose these small holes to create unique light-emitting patterns.

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MINIMALIST ÁTLÓ FURNITURE SERIES HIGHLIGHTS THE LAYERED SYMBOLISM OF DIAGONAL LINES

The Átló collection, designed by Studio Komok, celebrates the elegance and functionality of diagonal lines. This project, featuring an armchair and a sideboard, explores playful geometry, emphasizing the symbolic and structural layered meanings of diagonals. Known for their efficiency in linking distant points, diagonals are commonly found in structures like barn doors and bridges. In the Átló collection, diagonal lines also represent the bridging of different disciplines and individuals through communication and knowledge exchange. Crafted with minimal material usage and basic technology, the furniture collection features a simple yet distinct visual language. Studio Komok’s design utilizes custom plywood with a dark walnut veneer line running through the center, developed locally. This minimalist approach allows for unique forms depending on the viewer’s perspective, highlighting the symbolism of diagonals in both shape and meaning.

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