From Traffic Signs to Seating: Upcycled Furniture By Boris Bally

The materials are recycled traffic signs, champagne corks and steel hardware. The technique is Humanufactured (hand-fabricated, pierced, brake-formed, finished). The finished product is a chair (or maybe a table) that is graphic, urban and unusual.

High Back Transit Chair. Designed by Boris Bally.

Boris Bally is the creator of furniture and housewares made from transformed street signs, weapon parts, and a wide variety of found materials. According to his website “These pieces celebrate raw American street-aesthetic in the form of objects, often useful, for the home and the body.” I’m not sure how traffic signs factor into the global waste problem, but Boris Bally is giving an unexpected second life to signage.

NYC Transit Chairs by Boris Bally

The highback, armless chair is the iconic chair from this collection, the Transit chairs feature a variety of street signs which are folded and cut to make a chair that reminds me of some chairs designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in terms of form. The armchairs are quirky and would look great out front of a ski lodge although there is a danger of wet skin on metal to beware of. Perhaps not appropriate for all uses, and definitely not timeless, the Boris Bally collection is undoubtedly edgy.

Transit Chairs by Boris Bally

Broadway Armchairs by Boris Bally

via DesignWagen

About the Manufacturer: Boris Bally was educated at Carnegie Melon University (graduating with a BFA in metals) where he proceeded to teach in both the Art and Design departments. His work has been featured in countless exhibitions, both US and internationally based, with major exhibitions at the Cooper Hewitt and the Museum of Art and Design in NYC. Bally is the recipient of the 2006 Individual Achievement Award for the Visual Arts presented by the Arts & Business Council of Rhode Island. His work has received two Rhode Island Council on the Arts Fellowships in Design and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship in Craft.

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