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Home > Object > Furniture

Keep it Sweet: Matthias Borowski’s Candy-Coated Materials Project, The Importance of the Obvious

Posted on 11.11.13
by LinYee Yuan
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Starting with an in-depth exploration of materials, Matthias Borowski’s thesis project carefully examines the considerations designers employ when working with food as a primary material. Using a chef’s approach to preparation as a starting point of inspiration, Borowski uses food production and cooking as a source of inspiration to guide the design of his final objects. Using Gault & Millau’s “Ten Commandments of Nouvelle Cuisine” as a starting point, the designer expresses some of the foundational tenets below in his project Manifesto.

  • Every material stimulates the senses.
  • The material must be identifiable in the object with its sensory components.
  • There is always a better material.
  • All materials can be combined with each other.
  • Natural or artificial – we don’t care!
  • Ask the material what it wants to be!
  • There is no right and wrong – Just do it!
  • Every production process transforms the character of the material.
  • The starting point for an object is the material – NOT the other way round!
  • The cost of the material does not reflect the value of the material.


With a pre-disposition for candy (see Borowski’s Candyman experimental sex toys), the project translates the colors, textures, layers and expressions into design objects. Chewy nougat, translucent hard candies and jelly rolls are reinterpreted and scaled up to transform rooms into a candyland fit for Willy Wonka.

importance_of_the_obvious_matthias_borowski_5

Part of a longer term project, The Importance of the Obvious, Borowski’s primary purpose is to explore the possibilities of a material-led design process. Borowski notes that oftentimes, materials are chosen for a primary purpose—their other “dormant potential” overlooked. Borowski shares in the abstract for the project, “The experience I have gained, both from my studies, as well as from my time working as a designer, have demonstrated to me that the primary focus of a designer must always be on the character and unique qualities that materials possess.” The Importance of the Obvious was on view for Dutch Design Week at Design Academy Eindhoven.

Tags: candy Design Academy Eindhoven Matthias Borowski student work
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Author

LinYee Yuan

LinYee Yuan is the founder and editor of MOLD. Through original reporting, MOLD explores how designers can address the coming food crisis by creating products and systems that will help feed 9 billion people by the year 2050. In addition to the website and a self-published bi-annual print magazine, MOLD hosts events and exhibitions, works with next generation food brands, and commissions products from emerging designers. LinYee was previously the entrepreneur in residence for QZ.com and an editor for Core77, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and Theme Magazine. She has written about design and art for Food52, Design Observer, Cool Hunting, Elle Decor and Wilder Quarterly. LinYee also contributed the foreword to Food Futures: Sensory Explorations in Food Design and Cooking Up Trouble.

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