TAIPEI, Taiwan, August 22, 2024 —ASUS today announced its Design You Can Feel world tour. An exploration of materiality, craftsmanship, and artificial intelligence (AI), the show will shine the spotlight on our innovative high-tech ceramic Ceraluminum™. This revolutionary material, whose light and durable tactility can be used to create designs with a unique and long-lasting appeal, truly embodies the design philosophy of ASUS Zenbook. Visitors to the Design You Can Feel tour will be able to experience firsthand the lightness, as well as the enduring and nature-inspired uniqueness, of this material and the very essence of Zenbook.
As part of the ASUS Zenbook tour, product and industrial design studios worldwide have been selected and commissioned to explore the ways in which form, color, and texture can be combined to create objects or moments that awaken the senses. By bringing in nature through a series of visceral design pieces, we give our audience the urge to come closer, to pick them up in their hands, and to experience how they feel.
ASUS has teamed up with Dezeen, a globally influential design magazine, to curate the brand’s first major exhibition. The show will highlight the natural beauty of Ceraluminum. Real sand dunes sculpted throughout the space will create an immersive environment whilst defining pathways for exploration, offering journeys between the aesthetics of the natural world and new technologies.
The exhibition will feature an interactive zone where visitors can get a hands-on experience of the latest ASUS Zenbook series and try out innovative AI tools. The show will also be accompanied by a panel discussion featuring influential designers.
High-tech ceramic: Ceraluminum
Step into the world of Ceraluminum, a high-tech ceramic that’s revered by the aerospace and luxury watch industries. This is an industry-first innovation, which ASUS has invested four years into finetuning the precise colors, texture, and hardness. No pigment is added throughout the entire process, the distinct colors and porosity are precisely controlled by electric current, voltage, and mineral formula. As a result, it offers unmatched scratch resistance and longevity, with a unique look that pays homage to the natural world that inspired its creation.
Additionally, Ceraluminum provides a more sustainable material that is less hazardous to the environment, substituting the acids traditionally employed for aluminum anodization for a new higher voltage method which uses pure water. The process eliminates organic compounds, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and heavy metals from the wastewater, resulting in 100% recyclable material.
Learn more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld4J71VI_VI
Design You Can Feel at London Design Festival 2024
Alongside new commissions in Ceraluminum from Future Facility and Niceworkshop, the exhibition will showcase a future-focused mix of furniture, lighting, and installation works from designers Fernando Laposse, Giles Miller Studio, Natural Material Studio, and Studio Furthermore. The goal is that, by bringing in nature through a serious of visceral design pieces, the audience will be given our audience the urge to come closer, to pick them up in their hands, and experience how they feel.
The show in London will also be accompanied by a panel discussion featuring Mitch Yang, Chief Design Officer at ASUS and Future Facility designers Kim Colin, Sam Hecht, and Leo Leitner.
Future Facility
Future Facility is a London-based design and research studio led by distinguished designers Kim Colin, Sam Hecht and Leo Leitner. They have worked with ASUS to craft a future concept of an interactive device based on the concept of “calm technology”, which uses AI to alter the emotional balance of technology. Their commission, SUSA, is designed to provide a more reflective experience — housed within a unique, tactile Ceraluminum body — as an interface between the digital and physical worlds.
Niceworkshop
Niceworkshop is a design studio based in Seoul and founded by Hyunseog Oh in 2021. The studio has created furniture made from the aluminum formwork used for pouring concrete on large-scale construction sites, with materials sourced from the upcycling brand FORMAT. The studio has explored ways to give new form and relevance to the material, extending the life of the formworks and creating collectible items with enduring value. The commission for the aluminum formwork series is made using old skyscraper formwork and the innovative high-tech ceramic, Ceraluminum, developed by the global technology brand ASUS.
Fernando Laposse
Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer focusing on transforming humble materials into refined design pieces, promoting their regenerative possibilities, tackling environmental issues, and interrogating the state of our agricultural systems. He works with knotted sisal, a fiber derived from the leaves of agave plants, which after washing and drying, he turns into a unique material that can be knotted to showcase its natural raw state.
Giles Miller Studio
Giles Miller’s unique harnessing of materials and light, brings sensory, acoustic, and emotional benefits that positively impact the viewer’s state of wellbeing. Fusing technology with the handmade, the resulting artistry of meticulously arranged components creates richness, tactility, depth, and allure.
Natural Material Studio
Founded by Bonnie Hvillum in 2019, Natural Material Studio is a design practice that creates bespoke designs and spatial installations using self-developed biomaterials. With a circular and sustainable approach, they research, design, and produce materials based on natural and waste components. The studio has recently started working on a design series using bio-textiles and bio-foam, and is at the forefront of bio-material experimentation.
Studio Furthermore
Studio Furthermore is a London-based design duo founded by Marina Dragomirova and Iain Howlett in 2015. The studio makes a variety of one-off objects from materials that often mimic others and are designed to endure, responding to contemporary concerns of material scarcity. Each of the metal Moon Rock objects features a unique pattern of holes that is unrepeatable, making every piece a one-off, similar to the ASUS Ceraluminum material.
Design You Can Feel tour locations
Shanghai
Chapter, No. 47 Taojiang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai
August 21 - September 1, 2024, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM
London
Protein Studios, 31 New Inn Yard, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3EY
September 17 - 22, 2024, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Dezeen x ASUS: Design You Can Feel | Dezeen
The 22nd edition of the London Design Festival takes place September 14 - 22, 2024.
https://londondesignfestival.com/