Jacob de Dassel Takes Double Honours at VIVID 2025: A Masterclass in Minimalist Furniture Design
The 22nd annual VIVID design competition at Decor+Design Melbourne has crowned Jacob de Dassel’s ‘Folding Chair’ claiming both the prestigious Furniture category winner and the coveted Authentic Design Alliance Award of Merit.
This remarkable double achievement highlights a design that perfectly embodies the intersection of aesthetic excellence and sustainable innovation.
A Record-Breaking Year for Emerging Design Talent
VIVID 2025, held from July 16-18 at Melbourne Exhibition Centre, reached unprecedented heights with a record number of entries and finalists.
Curated and produced by Daniel Dalla Riva from Latitude, this milestone year showcased the incredible depth of emerging design talent across Australia, with the competition continuing its 22-year legacy of celebrating creativity and innovation in the design industry.
The Winning Design: Where Simplicity Meets Sophistication
Jacob de Dassel’s ‘Folding Chair’ stands as a testament to the power of thoughtful design iteration. This award-winning piece represents an exploration of simplicity and complexity, successfully reinterpreting elegantly minimal yet thoughtfully detailed furniture for the contemporary market.
Remarkably, Jacob is still completing Architecture studies at Melbourne University, and this is only his second furniture design.
Design Philosophy and Development
Developed through extensive iteration and refinement, the Folding Chair demonstrates exceptional balance across multiple design criteria:
- Precision Engineering: Every joint and connection point reflects meticulous attention to detail
- Aesthetic Appeal: Clean lines and minimal form create visual harmony
- Practical Functionality: User-centred design ensures comfort and usability
- Environmental Responsibility: Sustainable materials and production methods prioritise ecological impact
Why the ADA Recognises Excellence
The Authentic Design Alliance Award of Merit, now in its ninth year, recognises designs that demonstrate genuine innovation while maintaining integrity in both concept and execution.
De Dassel’s Folding Chair earned this distinction through its commitment to:
- User Experience Sensitivity: Thoughtful consideration of how people interact with furniture
- Environmental Consciousness: Responsible material selection and manufacturing processes
- Design Authenticity: Honest expression of function through form, with excellent execution of a functional form.
VIVID 2025: A Showcase of Emerging Talent
The competition featured outstanding entries across multiple categories, with other notable winners including:
Furniture Commendations:
- Jordan Conlan’s ‘Key Stool’ – inspired by harsh natural environments
- Curtis Bloxsidge’s ‘Knitted Chair’ – an innovative textile-timber collaboration
Lighting Award
Winner // Curtis Bloxsidge, ‘Kukeri Floor Lamp’
In collaboration with 2amClose, the Kukeri Floor Lamp is a reference to a Bulgarian costume worn whilst performing traditional rituals to fend off evil spirits. Combining this with the warmth and charm of the art deco fringed lamps serves as a playful expression of the classic floor lamp.
Lighting Excellence:
- Curtis Bloxsidge’s ‘Kukeri Floor Lamp’ – blending Bulgarian folklore with Art Deco charm
- Carl Broesen’s ‘Pipeflute Box’ – exploring rhythm through stainless steel construction
Vivid Object Design
Winner // Lucy Callahan, ‘Ridl’
Ridl is a bottle opener reimagined for comfort and elegance. Its unique downward action reduces wrist strain, blending intuitive function with minimalist form.
Designed for everyday use, Ridl is both a refined tool and a sculptural object, fit for kitchens, bars, and hands that appreciate thoughtful design.
Object Design Commendation:
- Miranda Burgess’s ‘Fractured Earth’ – addressing ecological crisis through design
Vivid Concept Design Winner// Azzurra Zappacosta – UV-Reactive Colour Changing Drink Bottle for Sun Safety
This UV-sensitive drink bottle changes from white to navy blue in sunlight, helping users monitor UV exposure. The colour choice is accessible for red-green colour blindness.
Featuring an ergonomic cap and durable handle strap, it combines sun safety with comfort and convenience for everyday, on-the-go hydration and awareness.
Commendation// Jay Turno, Leigh Shapiro Ellis, Caleb Cummins, Mungo Moje-O’Brien – ‘Vault’
A monolithic phone lock box designed to quietly disrupt habitual device use at home, Vault is intended as a centrepiece for minimal interiors, its function revealed through a slow turn of its outer form. This tactile, ritual object facilitates disconnection from smartphones and reconnection to physical and emotional presence.
Commendation// Gloria Kim ‘Kkokkio’
Kkokkio, a ceramic glove-drying case with an acrylic stand, keeps rubber gloves dry. Hygienic and long-lasting, it’s inspired by South Korea’s iconic pink gloves and their resemblance to a chicken’s comb. Kkokkio transforms a household essential into a playful, functional piece.
Vivid Colour Award
Winner// Azzurra Zappacosta – UV-Reactive Colour Changing Drink Bottle for Sun Safety
This UV-sensitive drink bottle changes from white to navy blue in sunlight, helping users monitor UV exposure. The colour choice is accessible for red-green colour blindness.
Featuring an ergonomic cap and durable handle strap, it combines sun safety with comfort and convenience for everyday, on-the-go hydration and awareness.
Commendation// Freddy Mata ‘Aeon Fox’
Inspired by the sighting of a red fox in North Melbourne (corner of Queensberry St and Laurens St) one night in 2021 during a lockdown. Colours represent the reflection of cars’ headlights on the Fox’s tale. Stealthy since the beginning of time.
Vivid Student Award Winner// Savannah Kelly ‘Where Two Oceans Meet’
Inspired by Cape Leeuwin’s oceanic confluence, Where Two Oceans Meet captures the harmony of opposing forces.
Crafted from South West karri and jarrah, its operable tambour doors curve like converging waves—blending functionality with the poetry of nature and a deep sense of place.
Commendation// Lachlan Willix, ‘Canopy Lamp’
Inspired by the place where it was made. It references memories of the Western Australian landscape, watching the warm morning sun come through the canopy, casting dappled light across the forest floor.
The piece functions as an atmospheric floor lamp with an adjustable light which can manipulate the dappled effect.
Commendation// Lenie Chin ‘Augi: Toy Design for Neurodiversity Inclusion’
Augi is a set of toys designed to create accessible, supportive, and inclusive play experiences for children with and without neurological differences.
Developed in collaboration with parents, educators, therapists, and neurodiversity specialists, Augi helps children with autism understand and express emotions through interactive character-building play during early childhood development.
Judges Choice // Maryam Moghadam – ‘Gnawing’ [Knowing]
Gnawing [Knowing] ashtray embodies the paradox between message and function, a cautionary object that also enables the very behaviour it critiques.
Existing in the space between advocacy and complicity, Gnaw holds up a mirror to the complexity of human behaviour: our capacity to acknowledge harm while continuing to participate in it.
READ MORE ABOUT MARYAM – in The Age/Sydney Morning Herald here
The Future of Australian Furniture Design
Jacob de Dassel’s success at VIVID 2025 signals a bright future for Australian furniture design, where emerging designers are successfully balancing aesthetic innovation with environmental responsibility. His Folding Chair demonstrates that minimalist design doesn’t mean compromising on functionality or sustainability.
The double recognition from both the furniture category judges and the Authentic Design Alliance underscores the importance of designs that speak to contemporary values while maintaining timeless appeal.
Building on VIVID’s Legacy
Following successful previous years, including Amy Vidler’s 2024 Judges’ Choice Award and Jess Humpston’s dual wins for furniture design and ADA Award of Merit, VIVID continues to be the premier platform for emerging Australian designers to showcase their talent and gain industry recognition.
As VIVID enters its third decade, competitions like these remain crucial for nurturing the next generation of design talent and pushing the boundaries of what Australian design can achieve on the global stage.
Vivid is open to early-career practitioners who have been in practice for five years or less. Follow @vividdesigncomp or get updates at Decor&Design Show..
