Milan 2014:Â Brazilian duo Tiago Volpato and Gabriel F have created a series of products for young designers who "feel lost" in the industry, including a coffee table that spins in circles.
The design graduates from the Federal University of Parana in Brazil exhibited their first project together, titled Get Lost, as part of the Ventura Lambrate in Milan last month.
The collection is inspired by the way the young duo feel about trying to break into the design industry.
"We wanted to work with a concept that mattered to us in this specific moment and we agreed that it should be something that represented how we felt about design," Tiago Volpato told Dezeen.
"We concluded there are four main reasons to feeling lost, and designed a product for each one of them; inadequacy, discomfort, aimlessness and nostalgia," Volpato explained.
The rocking chair is meant to represent discomfort and the shifting nature of the industry. A lamp with a concrete shade hangs from the chair's frame, making it difficult to read or work when the chair moves.
Feelings of aimlessness and misdirection are imagined in the eucalyptus coffee table. The inward facing concrete wheels only allow the table to spin in circles.
"This table can't decide where to go," Volpato said. "Its wheels are stuck on a position that makes it spin around its own axis, never moving from its comfortable position."
The fork glass is inspired by the designers' feelings of inadequacy and not fitting in with society. A pronged base attached to a long porcelain cylinder makes it impossible for the glass to stand up, rendering it useless.
The final product in the collection is the nostalgia clock. A roll of paper printed with numbers is manually controlled by a eucalyptus wood handle to spin the new time into view. As the old time moves on, the roll of paper is destroyed by a shredder.
"You are lost in memories of the past, or dreaming of a bright future, going to the office everyday thinking about traveling around the world," Volpato said. "This manual clock makes sure you realise exactly where you stand on the time flow; the present."
Photography is by Ricardo Perini.