Sunrise 
Chair


Sunrise Chair is a project designed and built over a summer abroad in Copenhagen. This low lounge chair is built using two materials, danish maple and veg tanned leather. The form was born from exploring the possibilities of the interaction between these two materials. Sunrise Chair inspiration came from this summer deep dive into the culture, craft, nature, infrastructure and design Scandinavia has to offer. This chair pays homage to this experience, my love letter to Scandinavian design.













Inspiration


 Sunrise Chair mood board is built from photos taken by me in Denmark, Sweden and Finland during this summer abroad. These photos are an intimate point of view into what I was inspired by as I traveled through Scandinavia. These images capture an overall design language of organic curves, open skies, unique usage of wood, leather and upholstery. These patterns heavily influenced decisions made about Sunrise Chair’s final materials composition and form.









Design & Build


Sunrise Chair was designed and built over a five week sprint . The process came down to quick iterative modeling and drawing.  Scale models and drawing, then  directly to final build.  The design came quite quickly and naturally after the  previous  weeks  studying  and honing  in on inspiration.  










Final Showcase


At the end of the project I had the opportunity to showcase the design with a group of peers to an audience of students, danish furniture enthusiasts, faculty, as well as professionals in the field (including seasoned designers from brands like IKEA and HAY).









Concepting Color: Future Opportunities



Upon finishing the Sunrise Chair final build and seeing it in context, I realized what a canvas it could be for color. Not only could color extend the audience for the chair, opening a world of possibilities for spaces it could live but also the people that could imagine Sunrise Chair in their own homes and personal interior aesthetic.











Sunrise Palette: Wood & Leather


Below is an imagined color palette for the Sunrise Chair extended universe. Chosen from a balance of neutral colors and more saturated and bold hues, the color palette aims to land in that sweet spot between authentic Scandinavian heritage design and more a contemporary approach to stylizing classic forms and materials.