No shortage of 'Talent Thai'

TAKING THE shame out of being “sent to the doghouse”, the Daddy Knock House is actually pretty sweet to a misbehaving mutt. It’s got a window in the shape of a bone and, built from lightweight wood, it can be folded up and taken wherever you two go.

Katesuda Meteeviwat and Pongpawan Kritpitchanan dream up stuff like this for their furniture brand Daddy Pet. They started out three years ago with an item called Wink, which is a side table (or a stool, if you prefer) for you and a cosy house for your dog or cat. You’re inseparable!

“I have a beagle that always keeps close to me and sits under my chair,” says Katesuda, who graduated in product design from Silpakorn University. “Pets always feel safe when they’re close to their owners.”

Sharing such notions on Facebook and other social media, the duo’s customer base quickly jumped from a few friends to hundreds of buyers. 

Daddy Pet was among 60 brands participating in the recent Talent Thai and Designers’ Room at Siam Center, hosted by the government’s Department of International Trade Promotion, and its products were shown at Tokyo’s Interpets International Fair for a Better Life with Pets.

Propping up a stainless steel food bowl are the wooden “bones” cut from the walls of the Daddy Knock House. The stand, too, can be folded up for easy transport or storage, says Pongpawan, a Chulalongkorn University graduate in graphic design.

Bark Mann is another wooden side table where your pet can nestle in complete privacy. The removable door is even shaped like a dog. Bark Hungry is a four-legged wooden feeding bowl. And Daddy Box Bed is a wooden bed in rectangular or half-moon-shapes that fits nicely into the corner of a room.

Meanwhile Pearsiri Silpsrikul has invented “a mobile safe spot for cats”, and in this case, necessity was the mother of her invention. Pearsiri’s ailing Persian would get terribly upset every time it was put in a pet carrier for trips to the vet. So she designed a pod of waterproof and scratch-proof fabric that zips up and has washable cushions and removable carrying straps that can hold the pod across the chest, like a baby. 

“A cat is attached to its territory and certain scents,” she explains. “The pod keeps it feeling safe and comfortable in familiar territory and eases the stress and anxiety of travelling. And the owner is also travelling in style too!” The pod can hold cats up to seven kilograms in weight as well, and comes in beige or black.

This was her design thesis at Chulalongkorn and it was named Best of Product design in the 2014 Degree Shows organised by Art4D magazine. Two months ago Pearsiri launched her own brand, Purru, on Facebook. She’s had about 50 orders in two months. Now there’s the Purru scratcher, made from durable, chemical-free, antifungal woven hemp. It doubles as a support for the cat pod.

Well, not every clever young designer is focused on pet lifestyles. Warin Thanathawee was impressing visitors to the Talent Thai show with his simple yet elegant gadgets for the tech-savvy generation, such as Klank, a wireless speaker for any smartphone or tablet that utilises Bluetooth and NFC connectivity.

Warin and designer friend Chewin Sirisak spent more than a year refining Klank, aiming for maximum simplicity in design, while Thitiphan Ananwatchapong, drummer with the rock band Slur, was in charge of sound-quality control.

“Klank means ‘sound’ in Dutch,” says Warin, an industrial-design graduate of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lat Krabang. “I saw the potential for growth in the gadget market, and portable speakers fill the needs of people who want gear that’s functional as well as decorative.”

The body is aluminium alloy, available in dark grey, silver or red. The back is anti-slip ABS plastic, soft to the touch. Making a statement in craftsmanship, the speaker is covered with scratch-proof, hand-woven Thai fabric. The sound is completely unobstructed.

“You can listen to music or watch a movie using this as a speakerphone, and it’s a mobile-charger too,” says Warin. “We’ve partnered with a Hong Kong company to produce the software, we already have a dealer in China, and we expect Klank to hit the shelves at iStudio and .Life stores next month.” Order before the end of this month via the website and you get a 30-per-cent discount.

Also turning heads at the event – and already racking up customers in Switzerland and Australia – was Ta.Tha.Ta, a wristwatch brand founded on Facebook three years ago by Vipavat Darapongsataporn and Kavita Srisan. The most distinctive feature is the leather strap, hand-dyed with extracts from flowers and coffee beans.

“In Balinese, tathata refers to ‘suchness’,” says Vipavat, who shares a love with Kavita for the timeless appeal of leatherwork and the colours of nature. Using a traditional Thai tie-dyeing technique, the strap is stained orange with orchid extract, mustard yellow with marigold, green with Indian pennywort, violet with butterfly pea and dark brown with espresso. “Every piece is unique,” Vipavat promises.

The dial and crown are triangular, forming the letter “A” that echoes in the brand’s name. Holding a Japanese quartz movement, the case is stainless steel finished with a brushed PVD coating in rose gold or gunmetal grey.

“For our new collection we’ve experimented with a mix of natural colours and poster colours to get denser shades, and then we airbrushed the dyed strap to get different textures.”

Pasu Roungpanyaroj’s rings are not only unusual in their design, but actually “move” thanks to a kinetic mechanism. The crowns of his silver-plated rings take the forms of a truck, tuk-tuk, backhoe, squirrel, horse and rabbit. Wind up the vehicles and they move about like childhood toys. Press the squirrel’s tail and it jumps.

“It’s about creating a dialogue between the jewellery and the wearer,” says Pasu, who did post-graduate studies as a jeweller and silversmith at Birmingham City University in Britain. “Even the simplest structure can have unexpected movements to surprise people.”

He’s moving into a line of silver bracelets next “that will employ a more complicated mechanism. It might have motors and LED lights attached.”

 

WHAT A CONCEPT!

>>> Daddy Pet Shop: “DaddyPetShop” page on Facebook, www.DaddyPetShop.com, (083) 714 9900

>>> Purru Design: “PurruDesign” on Facebook, http://PurruDesign.wix.com/purru

>>> Klank speaker: “KlankProject” on Facebook, http://KlankProject.com, (02) 714 2299

>>> Ta.Tha.Ta watch: The Selected store on the third floor of Siam Center, www.TathataBrand.com, (089) 683 3555

>>> Pasu Jewelery: The Selected store at Siam Center, www.PasuJewelery.com