Designer Jamie Hayon, previously known to readers of this blog for his big bold Hayon Lounger and his broad beautiful Bardot Collection, is not one to suppress his natural inclination for fun. The Spanish designer, who counts among his earliest aesthetic interests both skateboarding and graffiti, also seems to have absorbed a bit of that Spanish penchant for the grand gesture in color and form. It must have something to do with Spain’s endless expanse of blue skies and sun… But get him collaborating with UK-based manufacturer Sé, and founder Pavlo Schtakleff, and he’s able to subdue himself just a touch. Not that there’s anything wrong with bold and vibrant, but it’s nice to see Hayon do subtle and elegant refinement too, as seen with the Sé II collection’s Time Piece Side Tables.

Time Piece. Designed by Jaime Hayon.

Sculptural Appeal and the Finest of Finishes

The Time Piece Side Tables emerge through Sé’s intention to create a “haute couture” collection. Much in the manner of haute fashion, Schtakleff recruited only leading experts to create stunning finishes with velvet, leather, bronze, and copper. In conceiving the line, Hayon narrowed down his guiding influences to two principal sources, “music and insects.” The resultant collection of sofas, chairs, and tables shows these multifarious antecedents in ways too creative and numerous to account for here, but as pertains to Time Piece, these handsome side tables remind me of both African art and African music. I’m thinking specifically of the two-tiered drum called a “Djembe,” which is among the most elemental of musical forms. As such, it suggests a storied tradition, a certain elegance in form and function. Time Piece, with the artful balancing act of its sculpted demi-cylinders, also seems to me a ready-made icon. Solid and well-anchored yet exuding effervescence, Time Piece has epochal potential.

Time Piece comes as solid bronze painted black with a copper top or in sculpted wood with heavy lacquer. Sé will debut new colors in the line at this year’s Salone.

About the Manufacturer: The enduring vision of Sé founder Pavlo Schtakleff is to bring together Europe’s best designers and most accomplished craftsmen, thus inspiring design that is both “sumptuous and technically peerless.” The London based company looks to this objective as a guiding principal in the service of another—creating the luxury furnishings of the future while maintaining the artisanal traditions of the past. Sé collaborates frequently with a roster of renowned designers, including Jamie Hayon and Damien Langlois-Meurinne.

Via Otto-Otto.