"I think at times like these, people tend to go back to the past to seek some solace," says Nathan Yong. And with one look at his Primary Desk (2010), it's clear that this designer is ready to take us there. With a nod toward the mid-century furniture that he grew up with in Singapore, Yong designed this desk after a flashback of his primary school days in the classroom. There's also something futuristic about it, with its pointed legs and dynamic side profile, which Yong sees as something "straight out of The Jetsons, the cartoon that I used to watch at that age." The desk has five drawers – three in the top shelf and two in the desktop. There are no ornamental drawer pulls to distract you while you work. Instead, Yong shaped the drawer fronts to have "tabs" like those you’d find in a notebook, which make the drawers easy to open and close. He also angled the fronts of the small drawers to allow for the pitch of an open laptop. Take some time and study the Primary Desk, and you'll see that Yong is a very smart designer. His concepts are well thought out and fully resolved. Made in Malaysia.
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Materials
Solid American walnut frame and drawer fronts; walnut veneer over MDF desktop and small drawer boxes.
Designer Nathan Yong earned recognition as a trailblazer in the Singapore design scene when he founded design company Air Division in 1999 with three friends. Air Division was the first Singaporean company to sell its designs to high-end furniture retailers. However, Yong's propensity for innovation began years before, in his childhood. Growing up in a wooden hut by the seaside with limited materials available required Yong to invent his own toys using treasures he collected from the beach. He continues to utilize that same habit to create with indigenous resources when designing furniture, relying on readily available materials, such as wood and steel. Read more >
