Guest Contribution by Katerina Biliouri

Design Studio MAEZM is made up of the two young Korean designers Cho Eun Whan and Shin Tai Ho, known from their innovative and playful “sofa-dress”. What you may not know, however, is that those two talented designers were awarded with the Reddot “best of best” 2008 design award for their project “dish-table-cover”. With a strong background in individual exhibitions, as well as participation in international shows, they are continuously exploring design in all its possible forms; space, furniture, lighting, vision and image.

According to Cho Eun Whan and Shin Tai Ho, communication is the cornerstone of MAEZM. Even their logo, which is comprised of four different colors, reflects the same communicational philosophy. Each color, different yet unique at the same time, is successfully combined to the other based on their continuous dialogue.
As stated in their website “communication is done not via 'addition' but with 'harmony'. It is not that the four colors are simply mixed into one but it is that each and every one of them exists simultaneously and yet they render one new feeling. Colors render completely new feeling through tension and blending among one another without any process of addition or subtraction. That is what 'MAEZM' is all about”.

In Designersblock London 2009 they present the “table-dish-cover”, the “sofa-dress” and work from their “re_love lighting” series. The notion of communication and dialogue promoted in their logo is also evident in the essence of all these projects.
To begin with, “sofa-dress” is a fusion of space and furniture design. The chair itself wears the clothes of the sofa, transforming an existing object to an interesting –and definitely more cushiony- piece of furniture.

The “table-dish-cover” is based once again on the same communicational philosophy. This time the notions of space and time are merged into an innovative design object, which defies the typical idea of setting a table. Once spread, this flexible tablecloth that looks like a dish, makes it possible to prepare food just anywhere. The meal is over, as soon as the “dish-table-cover” is removed and washed.

Some of the objects presented in Designersblock 2009 are part of the “Re_love lighting” series, which is a general MAEZM project. According to the two designers “to love things again means to add another function to them”. Therefore, collected furniture and clothes are transformed into new objects with the use of polyethylene foam, aiming at making them “loved” all over again.
A chair is wearing a sofa dress, a dish is spread on the table, a lighting is part of a process of loving objects all over again. That is the world of Design Studio MAEZM.