“We set out to design a collection that was based on the simplicity of line,” says designer Vanessa Jackson of Villa Villa, the Toronto industrial design and interior studio she founded earlier this year with artist Tony Romano.
This minimalist mantra is particularly embodied in Hank, a freestanding coat rack/shoe mat/seat made by Jackson and Romano from steel and granite.
The 1.8-metre-tall unit, which launched during the Toronto Design Offsite Festival earlier this year, evokes a line drawing – the simple shape looks like an abstract sculpture – but Jackson insists that the form is defined by function.
“Hank was designed for a single line to take the user through all the functions of the piece,” she says. Start at one end of the cheerfully powder-coated tube and work your way to the other end: What could be simpler?
Price: $2,500 through villavilla.ca.