From fashion brands to restaurants – all sectors are jumping on the NFT bandwagon. Now, a growing number of furniture brands are also entering the metaverse.
In today’s time, most people know about non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or blockchain. The concept of authentic and exclusive digital assets is marking its presence in every sphere of life. Whether fashion, artwork or real estate, the NFT market is growing rapidly. With creators designing ‘furniture NFTs’ now, various furniture brands are launching their own NFTs to up the market even more.
With a Fashion Week being recently held in the metaverse, in full swing, the craze for NFTs seems to have grown exponentially. From the digital art of Bored Ape Yacht Club to sports memorabilia and music records, there’s a lot. Virtual furniture is one such concept that has piqued the interests of creators and digital versions of various furniture pieces are being sold for huge amounts.
Let us have a look at some designers and furniture brands that are impacting the NFT world with interesting furniture pieces.
It is quite striking to see the effect of blockchain backed digital assets. A real furniture design company, has actually opened a metaverse venture, to help those wanting to come forward in this zone.
Firas Alsahin and Amjad Hourieh, co-founders of Dubai based luxury furniture brand 4Space Design, entered the luxe business with Meta4Space to reimagine their game plan and get an edge over other architecture and furniture brands in the market. They joined OpenSea in January 2022 and launched their first line of chairs with the NFT collection titled MetaChair Society.
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In an attempt to merge the real and virtual worlds, the company gives the physical version of their chairs a tech makeover. A totally unique 3D model of a digital chair is created for a client, who can then use it within other metaverse elements like a virtual house, museum or showroom. AR technology, VR headsets and tools like Gravity Sketch are used to create such designs, which are nothing short of artworks.
To increase customer engagement in this regard, the furniture brand has also added another feature, whereby every chair is an invitation to the company’s other services and events. In fact, in its first week of launch, six MetaChair Society NFTs were traded for 2.9 Ethereum.
Speaking to designwanted.com, Alsahin said, “We created a Meta Chair in physical form for a themed café in Dubai where 4 of the designs placed inside the cafe engaged customers by envisioning what a cafe on Mars would look like.” The cafe, named Space Cup, features these futuristic chairs which can be seen in the NFT marketplace.
Raising the bar high with fine made in Italy interior products, Visionnaire is a meta-luxury brand that has seamlessly provided modern and classic interior designing pieces for residential spaces, high-end hotels, luxury yachts and the aviation industry in over 55 countries.
The luxury furniture brand entered the metaverse with Visionnaire NFT in collaboration with leading American artist Jonathan Monaghan. Launched during Milan Art Week at the 26th edition of Miart, the NFT takes the sculpture of Apollo del Belvedere from the Vatican to the digital realm. The Greek archer symbolises aesthetic perfection, which makes it the ideal figure for the Italian brand’s NFT.
According to a release, “The life-size bust, carved in Carrara marble, inspired by the capitonné leather typical of the furniture world, decode antiquity by bringing back to the contemporary the careful study on the contrasts that made the work famous: softness and hardness, virtual and physical, past and future.” It was launched on Foundation marketplace on 28 March and features three video NFT teasers.
The physical life-size bust will be displayed in the Wunderkammer in June 2022 and will be put on sale along with a dedicated NFT ‘plus’ on the occasion of the 60th edition of the ‘Salone del Mobile di Milano’.
Sought after digital artist Andrés Reisinger’s 2021 NFT auction, titled ‘The Shipping’ earned him nearly half a million within 10 minutes. The collection comprised 10 furniture items and was put up on Nifty Gateway, one of the several online auction sites.
Reisinger sees his creations as a body of conceptual art as well as collectibles. This is what gives these NFTs their value. Recently in March 2022, Reisinger showcased his latest work called Sun/Leaf at the Art Dubai Week. Digital artwork (called Sun) included a 90 second audiovisual piece showing an animated landscape on an LED wall, which was bordering a waterbody outside the gallery. In this ‘phygital’ line of work, one of the physical aspects (called Leaf) included a hybrid futuristic chrome metal armchair placed in the water.
Though one may not be able to sit on these couches and sofas, they can interact with the NFTs by dropping them into virtual spaces like CryptoVoxels or Minecraft. They can also be explored using an augmented reality device like a gaming platform as Unreal Engine, as well. Working the reverse way, Reisinger has partnered with Spanish furniture brand Moooi to turn his popular NFT Hortensia Chair into a real world entity.
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An architect and design freak, São Paulo-based Romulo Temigue is another name known for whimsical and eclectic furniture designs. His designs look absolutely out-of-the-world in terms of concept and construction. Having collaborated with leading global furniture brands like Kartell, Moooi and Vitra, his digital armchairs, table lamps and sofas have got the touch of reality. With a dreamy aesthetic at play, Temigue uses different colours and textures as well as plexi-glass like materials to achieve the transparent look on surfaces.
Coming forward into the NFT world, Temigue has listed his stone armchair design on Foundation marketplace. Owing to his largely appreciated hybrid digital designs and huge social media following, the 3D designs and art pieces are quite popular. When sold, these encrypted digital files contain all details of the owner, buyer, cost and more, keeping their originality intact.
As an industrial designer who is keen on NFTs, Temigue feels that this field is still quite physical and personal in nature. People still want to touch and feel before investing in something like this. However, NFTs give him complete creative freedom to play with colours and looks and create designs which are totally unprecedented.
According to a report by designwanted.com, Temigue says, “That’s why NFTs are so great because there is a possibility to make colourful ideas with any material without thinking about the manufacturing process. If that isn’t complete creative freedom for a designer, I don’t know what is.”
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American furniture and decor designer Misha Kahn is a brand in himself. Known for his bold and quirky designs, Kahn joined hands with auction house Christie’s, in 2021, to launch 10 NFT designs. The collection was named Misha Kahn: Furniture Unhinged and comprised biomorphic figurines that depicted functional furniture.
The auction pieces came with their own set of specifications and allowed the owner to 3D print the design for a real life keepsake. A 13 second animation by Kahn himself, became the starting point for the NFTs, from which the designer took a particular frame to create the physical furniture pieces. They included chairs, tables, storage furniture, a bird bath and lighting.
According to Wallpaper.com, Kahn says, “What is really interesting to me about the idea of selling an NFT of a design object is that you can express yourself in an object that doesn’t need to be materialised.”
Based out of Los Angeles, furniture startup company Dims launched Logos Collection, a line of minimalist outdoor furniture designed by Dutch designer Christian Heikoop in March 2022. Building on it, the company is all set to launch an NFT collection.
Though not much is known about the crypto art, it is reported that Dims will be releasing 2000 NFTs in different stages. The first lot will have a starting price of USD 100 each. Making matters easy for those who are not much into the NFT space and cryptocurrency dealings, Dims has teamed up with a service named Venly to let buyers purchase the digital collectibles using USD.
Every Dims NFT, a shimmery GIF limited edition collectible, will come with a permanent coupon, granting the holder 15 percent off on all Dims furniture and merchandise for life. After buying, holders can keep the NFTs or sell them on any open market.
According to Business Of Home, Dim’s founder and CEO Eugene Kim says, “Crypto and smart contracts had been on our radar for years, but once NFTs took centre stage last year, we started to understand how some of the technology could be harnessed for what we do.” According to Kim, the proceeds from the NFT sale will go towards recovering the engineering, tooling and prototyping cost of the furniture design.
One of the fastest growing furniture and decoration brands in the Middle East, Nomanzi is on its way to be the first brand to launch its own designs as NFTs. It has partnered with Kaya Collection, a highly valued digital as well as physical art collection in September 2021 for this digital venture. Both Nomanzi and Kaya Collection are founded by Iranian entrepreneur Emir Kaya who is aiming to turn top Nomanzi designs into NFT furniture.
As a leading furniture brand, Nomanzi is known for its modern and sleek designs for beds, wardrobes, desks and home decor items, which can turn every home into a work of art. Kaya Collection, on the other hand, has made its presence felt quite vividly in the realms of collecting digital art. Its OpenSea account is evident of its growing NFT collection and the founder’s interest.
Emir Kaya says, “Creating synergy between Nomanzi furniture and Kaya Collection is the result of our attitude toward objects, art, and the digital world in the new era. Today, products and objects that we use in our daily lives should not only be a tool for our comfort or our businesses, but they should be a source of inspiration and help us take a new look at our world.”
Hero and feature image: Courtesy Nathan Fertig/ @nathanfertig/ Unsplash
This article first appeared on Lifestyle Asia India
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