When Ligne Roset talks, it’s worth listening closely. This is not only because the design/manufacturing firm consistently exhibits a high veneration for the Masters of the past, but also because they perpetually have their collective thumbs on the vibrant pulse of contemporary design. For 2009, this epochal perspective takes the form of a broad portfolio of new pieces– from a series of “elegant re-editions” of designs by the late, great Pierre Paulin to the subject of this post, the intriguing and innovative–if puzzling–Confluences collection by up and comer Philippe Nigro.

Confluences. Designed by Philippe Nigro for Ligne Roset.

“A series of innovative upholstery that has a timeless quality yet retains a highly contemporary edge, Confluences embraces and expands the burgeoning trend for “counterforms”–the interwoven or interlocking effect achieved in earlier pieces such as the Do Chair. Nigro’s new take on this recent aesthetic will appeal “to all those who are seduced first and foremost by the freedom of posture and unheard-of conviviality offered by its colorful, unbridled compositions.” Not only that, but the sofa collection (comprised of interlocking one or two piece components with accompanying ottomans and lumbar pillows) is forcing me to re-think the meaning of the term “Confluence.” Formerly associated with natural junctions like land/water or earth/sky, with his new series, Nigro has expanded it into the geometric realm, as in, the slightly skewed yet rectilinear space where one chair joins forces with the next to create a most unusual settee. Nor does it hurt the whimsical aesthetic that the individual pieces come in the proverbial rainbow of vivid colors. So if you’re feeling in tune with your inner, sweetened-cereal munching child, you can combine these bright shades into a technicolor dream, while if your mood is more sedate, simply go with variations on a theme (Ligne Roset seems to favor moody blues and buttery yellows).

Whatever scheme you puzzle out, you’ll be exhibiting a hyper-animated re-working of the notion of “coming together,” for the multiple junctions of Nigro’s Confluences point to a re-envisioning of the concept of re-arrangement. With the palette of new shapes, sizes, and schemes created by Confluences, there’s no end to creative configurations!