Since it’s virtually impossible to make a chair float, Nendo turned to illusion. The Japanese design firm developed the Fade-Out chair, one of their four most recent designs in the ongoing exhibition “Ghost Stories: New Design from Nendo” at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. Appearing to hover in space, the chair appears captures illusion, humor, and an element of surprise.

Fade-Out chair. Designed by Nendo. Picture by Masayuki Hayashi.

It is a simple rectangular chair made from clear acrylic and painted with trompe l’oeil wood grain. The pattern covers most of the structure but fades away on the lower part of the legs such that the chair seems to be floating within a cloud.  Given the clear, acrylic material – the illusion will work with any background.  Other new designs include Blown-Color (an evolution of Blown Fabric), Cord-Chair and Phantom-Waves. Illusion, humor, and an element of surprise are captured in the four new designs by Nendo that will be shown for the first time at MAD, along with prototypes, videos, and other materials that explore the design process used by the designers to create these works.

Fade-Out chair. Designed by Nendo. Picture by Masayuki Hayashi.

Phantom-Waves. Designed by Nendo. Picture by Masayuki Hayashi.

Blown-color. Designed by Nendo. Picture by Masayuki Hayashi.

Blown-color. Designed by Nendo. Picture by Masayuki Hayashi.

“Ghost Stories: New Designs from Nendo transforms the MADProjects Gallery on the Museum’s second floor into a magical landscape of new designs that imbue chairs, vases, and lamps with whimsy and optical illusion.” This is the second exhibition in the MADProjects Gallery, launched in February 2009 with Totally Rad, a focussed survey of the latest radiator designs, curated by Karim Rashid. The ongoing program invites MAD curators, collaborators and leading voices in the field to explore emerging trends and innovations in design.  The exhibit will be on display until January 10, 2009.