Dezeen Magazine

FAMILIAR:FOREIGN by George Coffin

Familiar/Foreign by George Coffin

Rhode Island School of Design graduate George Coffin has designed a collection of products that add twists to familiar objects, including this watering can with a bent wood handle.

FAMILIAR/FOREIGN by George Coffin

There are also plungers combined with ornately turned handles or a walking stick, and more walking sticks with rubber wedges at the bottom to form door stops.

FAMILIAR/FOREIGN by George Coffin

Pieces of plastic bottles have been used to cast concrete fittings for pendant lamps and the cord of a coordinating desk lamp is held in place by notches in a counterbalanced wooden frame.

FAMILIAR/FOREIGN by George Coffin

Here are a couple of lines of explanation from Coffin:


I'm a recent graduate from the Furniture Design department at The Rhode Island School of Design and in the past semester, I completed a body of work titled Familiar/Foreign: Using Recognizable Components To Establish Comfort in New Forms.

FAMILIAR/FOREIGN by George Coffin

The work focuses on object familiarity, and the way we process archetypal vs. foreign forms.

FAMILIAR:FOREIGN by George Coffin