The Benji Bench
I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so
By Herick Acosta
As designers, good looking and functional are two adjectives we like our creations to be associated with and I thought no different when designing Benji Bench. I wanted a good looking wooden bench that would work in any modern scenario without compromising comfort.
The first problem came out when reviewing the comfort attribute as wooden seats tend to be associated with an average sense of comfort (compared to padded seats of course) and I don’t disagree, after all I wouldn’t choose to sit in one of them for more than 1 hour. Luckily for me I quickly found a solution inspired by the anime I was binging at that time.
The answer was clouds, or to be more specific the simplistic drawing of clouds. Thanks to this I thought that maybe a wavy wooden bench would be more comfortable and boy I was right.
At the end the ideas behind this bench were fairly simple, an oriental-Japanese look, simple joinery, comfortable with a modern look and to be an all wood bench.
Without a doubt, this wooden bench is one of my most precious creations so far. This is due to the fact that it came out exactly as imagined and that I made it alongside my lovely girlfriend Cindy Quintero which helped both in the construction and design of the legs.
The result was a perfect representation of what we were looking to express. I think the center of attention of this creation is the wavy seat but, what do you think about this, is the wavy seat catchy enough to be the main part? What do you think about the bench, would you want one in your home? Please let me know your thoughts!