There’s one striking similarity between Leif.designpark’s much lauded Tsubomi Chair and their forthcoming lounger for De La Espada: the dazzling, effulgent (some might even say lurid) tone with which they’ve chose to paint the upholstery. Being of rather minor talent in regards to discerning the subtleties of the spectrum (there are days when my wife accuses me of pronounced chromatic dysfunction), I’m at a bit of loss to name this particular shade of yellow.

Lounge Chair. Designed by Leif.designpark for De La Espada.

Flaxen, pea, and chartreuse top my list, but none do justice to the color’s pulsating surrealism—perhaps the best analogue is Van Gogh’s endless sunflowers. Said foliage is certainly apropos of Tsubomi—which Leif.designpark characterizes as “an image of a bright future, like that of a flower bud growing in the forest of KuKunochi, about to blossom,” but doesn’t quite jibe with the streamlined modernism of the De La Espada piece, which seems to eschew the organic in deference to the hard line, the harsh angle. Perhaps we can chalk this up to the manufacturer’s influence. De La Espada (the name translates as “of the sword”) hails from Spain and Portugal, so given their chosen moniker, one can’t help but speculate that their aesthetic is driven by a nod to Iberian swordcraft.

Lounge Chair. Designed by Leif.designpark for De La Espada.

The Leif.designpark team.

The De La Espada factory.

And, indeed, especially when viewed from the front, the sofa looks as if its contours were carved by some practiced Castilian swordsman, the excess upholstery excised with ruthless precision. In concert with its vivid hue, the sofa’s geometric profile gives the piece an unsettling effect, as if the severe lines of science had been made to conform to the evocative organicism of nature (or vice-versa). But this is precisely the point. Commissioned as part of De La Espada’s PROCESS, PRODUCT and PHILOSOPHY event at the forthcoming London Design Festival, the sofa represents a cross-cultural collaboration between Japan and Iberia—I, for one, find this a rather fortuitous fusion. Here’s hoping they continue the collaboration into 2010 and beyond (via Designboom).