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ForMobile: Designing National Identity

ForMobile: Designing National Identity

Brazilian firm Masisa, one of the global leaders in MDF and MDP manufacturing, presented its latest patterns during the furniture fair ForMóbile. Renowned Brazilian architect Marcelo Rosenbaum collaborated with Fetiche studio to create a line of furniture for retailer Oppa using Masisa’s patterns. Here’s how it happened.

 

In line with the Olympic Games, the host country’s largest furniture and wood industries fair ForMobile, held in July, set its theme as “Brazilianness.”

Among the various expositions and product presentations, the fair is an opportunity to discover some of the best in Latin America—and it certainly celebrates national pride. Wood producer Masisa, for example, collaborated with Marcelo Rosenbaum of Studio Rosenbaum and Paul Biacchi of Fetiche Design to promote its new collection of coated MDF and MDP panels: the Essences collection including Brita, Cajueiro and Azulão.

The designers created three furniture lines for e-commerce store Oppa, aiming at developing unique wooden furniture for a young spirit audience. The pieces are suitable for compact, functional and practical spaces, adding lots of colors.

Masisa wood panels design

Masisa’s latest patterns

“Brazilianness”

“We created the collection based on surveys of behavior and needs of a young public. We wanted to put forward the strength of wood and its well-marked veins, without much apparent design,” Biacchi explained, published in Brazilian blog Habitus Brazil.

The patterns found in this collection refer to certain organic aspects of Brazil. The inspiration behind the pattern Azulão, the name of a naturally docile bird found in the Northeast, comes from the bird itself: a bright blue-feathered body with a grayish tone on its wings.

Masisa wood panels design formobile

The azula pattern on display at ForMobile

Brita, or crushed stone, is a common material found in Brazilian daily life, used in the country’s various buildings. This warm gray color stands out in the Brita standard, while Cajueiro recalls the fruit of cashew trees located in the Northeast with its natural tone that emphasizes the lightness of its wood.

Brazil never goes out of fashion,” said Solon Cassal, architect and designer at Masisa, in Habitus Brazil. “I believe that both the term “Brazilianness” and what it means for our products are linked to strategy and marketing which can interest both the Brazilian market and abroad.”

Masisa wood panels design formobile

Misasa’s cajueiro and brita patterns on display at ForMobile

Familiar Territory

Rosenbaum Studio has already worked with Masisa to create the Labyrinth panel and with also with Fetiche on a few small projects. After reanimating another collaborative project with Fetiche, the two studios were working together one day when they received a call from Oppa, a furniture e-commerce store, planting the seed for the furniture collection that would promote Masisa’s new collection the Essences.

The “Oppa by Rosenbaum and Fetiche” collection includes 25 pieces and three lines: Tambaqui, Ginásio and Conexão.

Tambaqui is the name of a beautiful Brazilian freshwater fish, which also has two colors, and the pattern of the line. Neoprene is the flexible material and confortabilíssimo that is used in the clothing, diving and automotive environments. A Maxi Stripes style is used for a maneiríssimo finish. Six products are part of Tambaqui line, including armchairs, puffs and sofas, each available in black and gray.

Poltrona Tambaqui Rosenbaum Studio Fetiche studio Oppa

Poltrona Tambaqui by Rosenbaum Studio with Fetiche studio for Oppa

Ginásio is inspired by the academic and industrial furniture, in order to make us remember that good time of gym. The designers wanted to focus on cultural identity, so all parts have been developed within a school furniture factory, to bring the user or viewer more of this context. To incorporate sustainable design, the main raw material used is carbon steel, the only material that can be completely recycled without losing its quality and strength. Four products are part of the Ginásio line, a chair and a sofa, each in black or wheat.

Conexão transforms old CPUs into chairs and tables. This line brings the importance of transforming what was disposable in a new and full-of-personality product. While designing this line, the designers asked themselves:

Who said that to innovate you need to forget the past?”

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