d.lab is a rare entity in taking the approach of bringing design research to the consumer in a commercial way while remaining rooted in research and exploration. It is fast establishing itself as a Singapore set-up in the international design scene and has showcased various design talents through its efforts. The Objects Around the Tablescape collection has stood out among the 3,000 exhibitors at Maison et Objet for the last three years and has captured much press and retailer interest. It has since been featured in leading design magazines such as Monocole (UK), Wallpaper* (UK), Intramuros (France), Case da Abitare (Italy), Abitare (Italy), Vogue (Australia) and the Financial Times (UK) among others.

The archetypes of d.lab’s work are objects that provide the most basic functions – a cup, a plate, a bowl, a vase, a light. The design process often begins by embracing the innate qualities of the object or material –

by asking a block of wood what it wants to be, how it would like to exist, what the materials themselves can offer and how they can exist within the context of our living space or tablescape.

The design process is not elaborate or deliberate, often seeking a light touch in transforming a material into a new product. The mass of wood, its grain, the colour and the texture of materials all evoke a sense of tactile eminence, and these qualities are borne in mind during the process of realising the design.

The results are often familiar yet strange and refreshing. It could be a study of the object’s proportion around its space; the introduction of a new colour that compliments the visceral quality of the object; or even the adoption of a new material and fabrication process. As d.lab describes it, “All it takes is a decision to introduce certain sensibilities to an object and its surrounding; these sensibilities, gathered subconsciously, became almost innate.”

Applying this process, the Objects Around the Tablescape collection focuses on the visceral and emotive quality of materials, such as translucency, texture, weight, the way an object feels when you hold it in your hand and the way it catches light and shadow. d.lab describes the collection as “a synthesis of different fragments of investigations, thoughts and whispers” that have taken place within the walls of its studio.

In creating the collection, d.lab describes its breakthrough as the moment when it “realised and accepted that our role is not to design or invent but to experience, to accept and to ‘clean away the dust’, so to speak”.