Handmade, sculptural pieces of furniture in which the minimalist design meets a passion for detail and simplicity. According to the philosophy of the Polish SALAK Studio, less is more and by no means boring. We asked industrial designer Alicja Korbut, the founder of the brand.
Alicja originally studied to be an interior designer, but Polish and Scandinavian furniture design has always been one of her passions. From an early age, she spent a lot of time with his wood-carver grandfather, so she also has a close relationship with woodworking. Alicja’s motivation to launch her own furniture brand is not entirely related to this.
“Working as an interior designer, I realized that there is very little good quality, simple, minimalist furniture on the market. I was wondering why shouldn’t I create my own furniture brand, dreaming of pieces that I would love to fill my environment with?” the designer recalled.
The name of the brand can be linked to the fruit of the salak palm tree, or snake fruit (also known as salak): the brand name actually refers to the off-white color of the fruit, referring to one of the central colors of Alicja’s first collection. “The name SALAK has a sentimental meaning to me,” she emphasized. Furthermore, as Alicja pointed out, the brand name carries other hidden references: “It also includes the abbreviation of my first name and last name: the letter S stands for the word studio, ALA is the shorter form of my first name, and K is the first letter of my last name.”
In her pieces of furniture, timeless, simple geometric shapes, craftsmanship, and durable materials are the most important keywords; the objects are mainly made of metal and solid wood. “I put my whole heart into making each piece of furniture, paying attention to every detail to make it perfect,” she said.
“I’m trying to show and highlight that minimalism is not boring, in fact, it can be downright exciting,” she added. “It is often wrong to assume that minimalist furniture is made with simpler construction techniques. For example, we have managed to develop a special welding method that makes the joints almost invisible—a challenge for many welders. But there may be other construction limitations, such as making wooden balls, which many carpenters have only been able to make in a smaller size. I have now learned to create the right one for me—I don’t believe in limitations, I think if we really want something, we can do it with hard work,” she explained.
In the repertoire of the SALAK studio, we can choose from hand-made coffee tables in white, black, off-white and deep green in a combination of ash tree, pine tree and steel, which can be even used as a seat. According to Alicja, the collection will also be expanded with dining tables and chairs in the near future.
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Embroidered objects
