Soft Baroque Combines Photography and Furniture for Ill-Studio Collaboration

High-resolution images are used to create patterned surfaces across this collection of chairs, designed by Soft Baroque in collaboration with Ill Studio.

The idea for the collection came about after Soft Baroque – made up of design duo Nicholas Gardner and Saša Štuci – began to become increasingly aware of the blending between the physical and the digital. They would observe ways in which high-resolution photography brings texture and material to architecture and objects – citing large format prints of “juicy droplet bedazzled tomatoes” plastered across supermarkets as an example.

“We have historically seen image and object as separate entities, however, it has become increasingly difficult to define the point where one ends and the other begins,” they say. “Heightened resolution is clouding the space between the physical and the digital and dissolving our desire to differentiate between the two.”

In combination with the high-tech imagery, they opted for a simple material in the form of untreated plywood. Images are taken from volume two of the “Attention Deficit Disorder Prosthetic Memory Program” catalog, initiated by Ill Studio and General Index, in partnership with Slam Jam.

“Printed wood grain on laminates for flooring or furniture has become more and more hyperreal and verging on the psychedelic,” the designers add, explaining their material choices. “It’s a strange mix of deception and decoration.” The objects were first presented at the exhibition in Tokyo titled “A Memory of Something That Never Existed”.

Take a closer look at the collection above, and for more design news – check out this house in Suffolk that features a sliding roof, which has just gone on the market for £1 million GBP.