One of the most intimate and bonding experiences you can have is sharing a meal with someone. And, when it’s at your own dinner table, the pressure to create an enjoyable and comfortable environment is higher than ever! A component that you can never truly ignore in a dining setup is tableware (the little things truly do count). Having excellent tableware is really important. It has the potential to completely transform your dining experience, taking away attention even from the food! Designers have been getting extremely creative when it comes to cutlery – from creating exquisite handcrafted wooden cutlery to a tableware design that lets you harvest Mediterranean sea salt! Hence, we’ve curated a collection of innovative and exciting tableware designs that are sure to be the highlight at your next dinner party!
March8Studio creates the most beautiful handcrafted wooden tableware! Their collection includes cutlery for all purposes in varying textures and shades of wood. Not only do they craft exquisite tableware, but they also create kitchenware. I bet you’ve never seen a spatula as delicate as the one by March8Studio!
Imre’s Hug Cup was created to drill home the designer’s belief that, “we give special attention to things we use in our everyday life. We like to have a personal relation to the objects we touch closely, such as a cup.” The internal handle is a unique take on the mug’s traditional side handle, allowing users to securely grip Hug Cup while feeling the warmth of the liquid contents inside. Describing the mug in their own words, Imre states, “The whole cup creates an intimate tunnel through the cup itself for your finger, you may enjoy the heat of your beverage without burning your palm.”
Each piece of the Art Deco Garden Collection is inspired by Japanese Zen Gardens and the age of Art Deco. The porcelain tableware shimmers in white and is lined with hand-painted golden patterns reminiscent of the Art Deco movement. Brass accents enhance each piece’s ode to Art Deco. The Art Deco Garden Collection was designed following an involved research period that looked at many historical Japanese gardens, with an acute focus on the Tofukuji Temple Garden.
You no longer need to step out of your house to experience the precious moment of witnessing salt formation. Croatian firm BOIR brings this experience right to your home! Their product, aptly named ‘SALT’, is more than just a salt container. It is a portable saltworks whose aim is to preserve the authentic taste of natural Mediterranean Sea salt which is extremely rich with minerals and oligo-elements – about 80 of them. ‘SALT’ comes with a bottle of – Nin 28 Bé° – which is concentrated Adriatic seawater (brine). All you have to do is pour a thin layer of this brine into the salt pan and expose it to sunlight for an hour or heat it up in the oven. When the crystal pattern appears, it can be harvested with a mini rake and is ready to be served fresh!
A winner of the European Product Design Award, the One Plus Three is all about combining functionality with elegance. Designed as a series of 3 popular cutlery pieces – the spoon, fork, and knife, the cutlery comes with a parting line running through the center along with unusually tipped handles. Pull against the direction of this parting line and each cutlery piece splits into two chopsticks that can then be used to go from eating any other cuisine to eating Asian food! By integrating the tableware, One Plus Three hopes to integrate cultures too!
The Sonic Seasoning by graduation project of RCA student Mengtian Zhang is a unique creation centered on the satisfying sensory experience of listening to ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response) sounds even before we take a bite. This project culminated from Mengtian’s pandemic-induced lockdown experience when she took to watching ASMR cooking videos to remain stress-free. “I can feel the texture and flavor of food such as crunchiness and freshness behind the phone screen.” There Mengtian was struck with the idea of using sound and visual effects to elevate the buildup expectations of taste before the first bite hits the mouth. This resulted in the set of plates and cutlery connected to sensors for detecting touch which then triggers the appropriate notes to go with the whole eating experience.
The Anytongs were made to be a smaller, more universal alternative to the tongs you use and own. Its compact design lets it easily occupy less than half the space of your pair of tongs, while the ability to slot your own spoons and forks into it means you can use it for anything from grilling and flipping, to serving and stirring. A well-calibrated torsion-spring sits at one end of the Anytongs, giving it a wonderful snappy-springy experience that makes it incredibly easy to use, while rubber pads on its tips allow for comfortable use. The hallmark of the Anytongs (as its name really suggests) is the ability to use any flatware with it.
Jexter’s design process started with a relatively simple question, “How might we design an adaptive tableware to enhance the dining experience for the visually impaired?” The answer was Eatsy, a set of multi-functional tableware consisting of a plate, a bowl, a cup, and utensils designed with a unique feature, a silicone flap that can be bent to increase ease of usage while reducing the stigma by blending in with the existing tableware. The silicone flap is one of those minor changes that make all the difference – they provide unique sensory cues in a subtle manner for the visually impaired, helping them feel the edge of the container to guide them in their tasks – be it pouring water correctly into the cup, scooping food from the edge of your plate or even balancing your spoon on the edge so it does not slip into the food.
Have you ever felt that your meals required just a little more suspense? If yes, then Flyde by Felix Marx is for you! The name Flyde, meaning ‘To flow’ in Danish hints towards the unique selling point of this rather beautiful cutlery set, as it introduces an element of drama to the tabletop by precariously balancing on its sculpture-like handle.
Anthropologie’s Reusable Travel Flatware makes it easy to have all your cutlery together with you wherever you travel. With a neat nesting design, the three-piece set becomes a singular bundle that slides right into your travel bag or backpack, making it easy to carry on that camping trip, or even to work where you can bust it out during your lunch break. Made from 100% recyclable and sustainable polyamide thermoplastic that’s manufactured using renewable resources, the Reusable Travel Flatware champions convenience over everything else. Their clever design makes them easy to carry around as a set, and unlike other travel cutlery, they don’t compromise on shape/size/comfort to be portable.
