“A strong personality, always in movement, always trying to put one foot in front of the other.” If you know the story of Belgian designer Alain Gilles, you’d assume he was referring to his career. It took him from the busy, successful world of finance and placed him in an industrial design program. “As if it were walking, each foot stretches to reach further away. Whatever the angles, it always looks strikingly different from one point of view to another, as if you could never really grab it.”

The Big Table. Designed by Alain Gilles for Bonaldo.

The Big Table takes Wood and Steel to New Colors

Although the words could accurately speak to his personal experience changing occupations, Alain Gilles recently released the design of what he calls Big Table for Bonaldo, and uses the above ideas to describe it. He is also the designer responsible for the latest editions of Buzzi-products to the famous Buzzispace website. They’re the company that makes the ever-popular Buzziskin 3D Tiles we featured here on 3rings last fall. Sculpted in 3D manually, rather than with the help of a handy computer, the table’s legs come to life with “a warmer, more human feeling”.

Fixed in two different sizes – 250 x 100 x 74 cm or 300 x 100 x 74cm – the Big Table was originally called the “Big Foot Table”, except its name had already been registered for another project. The Big Table it became, and works perfectly for its larger-than-life presence as a center piece for a modern living room or family room. With a selection of finishes to choose from, the Big Table by Alain Gilles uses a mixture of laser-cut, folded steel legs and a wood or glass top that “add detail to the piece and give it a much lighter feel,” says Gilles. Each leg has its own width that shows off the tonal variety that comes from the individual colors and shadows it casts upon one another.

Like the radiance of a confident dancer, the strong angles of the Big Table by Alain Gilles for Bonaldo are poised and ready for the next big event.