Studio Job Show at Milan's Museum of Science and Technology

The atmospheric Sala del Cenacolo where Studio Job exhibited their new designs for Lensvelt during the Salone del Mobile

One of the most surreal exhibitions at this year’s Milan Design Week was the My Nose, My Stekkerdoos show created by Belgian designers Studio Job, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Additional reporting by Nicolas James. Photographs by Roos Aldershoff

HELD in the spectacular Sala del Cenacolo at the Museum of Science and Technology, designers Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagelare exhibited a collection of new home and office furniture for Dutch company Lensvelt.  The show was presented in a monastic refectory surrounded by 18th-century frescoes and stucco work as part of this year's MOST exhibition.

Studio Job like to play with scale and have a humorous bent that is reflected in their designs. This year a golden nose appeared on pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein as a lead up to the studio’s show in Milan.

The large nose turns out to be a handle for a slim, minimalist desk that looks simple and elegant but completely utilitarian. The oversized key used for the equally Modernist cabinet is the only decoration to break the clean, linear lines of the functional piece.

"Hans Lensvelt is an ingenious product developer who transforms our unconventional designs into functional products yet maintains a sense of wit," explains Job Smeets. "Our collaboration is about the importance of functionality and creating high-quality objects with their own identity and humour."

The new collection is a continuation from the Job Cabinet they presented at the Salone del Mobile two years ago. In 2012 the Job Cabinet won the Wallpaper Design Award and the Elle Decoration International Design Award.

The new Job Desk Lamp created for this year's show was lined up in rows like a Roman battalion in the Sala del Cenacolo. Although it appears to be a standard desk light in powder-coated metal it has a giant gold switch at its base.

Another piece in the Job Office collection for Lensvelt is the Job Buffet, a white powder-coated metal cabinet with two doors and a chrome-plated aluminium key that locks it. Each piece in the collection is available in a range of colours from white, green, grey and black to red, yellow and blue.

Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagelare are masters of creating Alice in Wonderland like pieces that appear to be simple and functional furniture but are given a twist by their scale and ironic detail.


For more information about Studio Job's upcoming exhibitions: http://www.studiojob.be

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

The large golden noses used as handles on Studio Job's new desk for Dutch company Lensvelt 

The Job Desk in powder-coated metal with a gold nose you pull to open the long draw

Studio Job's campaign leading up to their show in Milan included showing images of historic figures wearing gold noses

The over sized gold key locking the Job Buffet cabinet (above) for Lensvelt

One of images used by Studio Job with Marilyn Monroe wearing the nose handle used on the Job Desk

The Job Desk Lamp in powder-coated metal with an over sized gold switch