Cologne 2011: Hanna Emelie Ernsting's Moody Couch was awarded second prize in the [D3] Contest for young designers at imm cologne this week.

The design consists of a sofa with a cover that's much larger than the structure underneath, made from a textile that retains the shape it's scrunched and pulled into.

Users can wrap themselves up in the cover, create a tall nest-like shape or spill the seating onto the floor.

The sofa keeps this shape once once unoccupied, indicating the previous user's mood.

First place in the [D3] Contest was awarded jointly to Harry Thaler's Pressed Chair (see our earlier story) and OLA Foldable Table by Swedish studio AKKA - more information to follow soon.

Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs interviews the [D3] Contest winners today as part of our series of Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents in collaboration with imm cologne. Movies of the talks will be shown on Dezeen at a later date. The talks are free so come along! More details »

imm cologne takes place 18-23 January 2011. See all our stories about the event in our special category »

See films of all the Dezeentalks at last year’s fair here.

Here are some more details from Hanna Emelie Ernsting:

Winner D3 Talents Award, 2. price

In her newest seating series "Moody", young designer Hanna Emelie Ernsting experiments with flexible forms, which has been distinguished by the jury with the 2. price for this year’s D3 Talents Award. Her design philosophy, which she describes as "form follows moods", focuses on the emotionality of the user. Her designs invite the user to express feelings and “let go”.

The seating series by the designer Hanna Emelie Ernsting consists of three pieces: Moody Couch, Moody Nest and Moody Bag. Though on first sight, formally quite different, they follow the same idea: "form follows moods". According to the designer, the origin of this concept is the observation that in the modern world, people forget how to relax and calm down. This is where the Moody series ties in: It invites the user to express feelings and “let go”. Doing so leaves traces, causing the product to resemble the moods of its user in various shapes and forms and making the products seem alive.

Designer Hanna Ernsting says: "Moody is the interpretation of the sofa as a place of expression and communication. The focus lies in the mood of the user."

Developing the product series, the designer experimented with flexible forms and innovative materials. To give the pieces more flexibility and softer shapes, she extended the cover of the sofa up to 3 meters in length. Meanwhile she worked with various techniques, achieving structure and stability of the material, and making it shapeable and more functional. Besides methods such as quilting, stitching and wadding, she worked with new materials, such as 3D textile, still quite unknown in the furniture industry.

Moody Couch won D3 Talents Award 2. prize and will be presented at the furniture fair IMM Cologne (hall 3.2, booth A008/E009) till the 23rd of January.

See also:

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Pressed Chair by Harry Thaler	Memory by Tokujin Yoshioka	More coverage of Cologne 2011