Breaded Escalope

-or, “the Austrian Design Collective also known as bE-studio”-gets kudos for the name. Amid the rising sea of artist-come-hipster product designers with their arcane innuendo and barely-navigable websites, these guys get points for their generalized kookiness and off-kilter aesthetic (if you must see evidence of this with your own eyes, check out “normkastl“).

Original Stool. Designed by Beaded Escalope.

So what is known about “Breaded Escalope?” The sum total of my knowledge is as follows: 1. they are comprised of Martin Schnabl, Michael Tatschl and Sascha Mikel-twenty-somethings with a preference for swoopy hair and permutating goatees; 2. they are newcomers to the international design scene, having completed the Masters Program at Kingston University, London, in 2007; 3. they believe that chance is as valid an influence as craft on determining product form; and 4. Their chosen name refers to that most Austrian of dinnerstuffs, “wienerschnitzel,” or “breaded veal,” for us mono-linguals.

Why “Breaded Escalope?” You may ponder at your peril…Though the website does provide a clue (if you’re tenacious enough to find it): “nourishment is not only a basis for life, the whole act of eating can be an art form for itself. It describes quality of life in a very fundamental way. Also our work deals with principles and basic human needs. A name like breadedescalope pleads for more gut feeling in a straight time. Design is not a flavour, but an ingredient of a convincing recipe.”

I’ll forestall discussion of the non-pc flavor of their chosen delicacy in favor of getting to the goods, one of which nicely exemplifies their notions about spontaneity in influencing form. Their “Original Stools,” “children of a carefully conceived, free-range kinetic process,” are created by suspending a rectangular-esque silicon mould within a hard, hollow orb (a ball perhaps two feet in diameter); the mould is then filled with dyed resin, the ball is closed up, and the whole contraption is let loose upon the landscape, “maybe pummelled by white water or rolled down a secluded woodland path.” The end product thus has a vary real resonance with place. Because of the constraints of the mould, each stool shares a basic form, but each is unique as well, showcasing the differing topographies and varied forces they’ve been subject to. The palette is divergent alsol: some are solid colors, while others feature marbling that-one speculates-might reflect the character of the birthplace: steely blues amid icy whites for the whitecaps of the Otztaler Acher; alabaster expanses tinged with orangey veins for the peaks of the Tennengebirge; and how about a great chaos of spidering yellows, reds, and blacks for the one loosed from the topmost spires of Vienna’s St. Stephen`s Cathedral? From the looks of Breaded Escalope, I’d wager they’re game for anything.