Getting creative with design

THAI DESIGNERS are joining their Japanese colleagues in showcasing their G-Mark awarded products in the new Japan Institute of Design Promotion’s Good Design Store that opened earlier this month at Central Embassy.

Run by Shane Suvikapakornkul, owner of Serindia Gallery and art bookstore Hardcover, the store features a range of products recognised with the Good Design Award – G-Mark – by the JDP.

The institute has received some 3,000 entries each year since the inception of the award in 1957 and opened its first overseas branch last year in Hong Kong in the former Police Married Quarters on Aberdeen Street, which has been developed into a showcase for local designers.

Shane himself designed the Bangkok outlet and has melded lighting, wood shelves and earth tones to create a space of perfect proportions. 

“I was so impressed by the Hong Kong store that I invited the JDP to open a third branch in Bangkok. The institute immediately saw the potential for sales, as many Thai designers have been recognised with the G-Mark label. My aim is to educate more people about design,” Shane says. 

“A good design should be innovative, durable, functional and easy to use.”

The store features products from more than 200 brands covering everything from home decor items, houseware and kitchenware to fragrant products, fabric, and IT gadgets. It’s currently showcasing this year’s winning designs by Thai talents, among them Kuchnatt Vachiratianchai’s stunning pop-up cards in several muay Thai postures and Weerapon Wongtawan’s Let’s Grow Plants calendar that incorporates seeds of the local vegetables and herbs suitable for planting at the end of each month. 

Pattarapol Chantkam presents his Object 2.1 Punn coasters made from recycled pineapple rinds while Cordesign Studio offers Klank wireless speakers that combine aluminium cabinets with Thai silk.

The Japanese design corner has Sori Yanagi’s Butterfly plywood stools, plastic cases with attractive motifs by D-Bros and Satoshi Onishi’s Japanese candles made with 100-per-cent rice bran wax. 

Mizuho Brush comes up with brushes made from goat, pine squirrel and weasel fur while Kirimoto Wooden Craft’s offers Urushi Name Card pinewood cases. 

 

 

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

>>Good Design Store is on the fourth floor of Central Embassy. It’s open daily from 10am to 10pm. Call (02) 160 5686 or visit the “Good Design Store Bangkok” page on Facebook.