Beau by Babble
Made in collaboration with Michelin-recommended zero-waste restaurant, the Acorn, Beau weaves seamlessly throughout your table, elevating both your dishes and dining experience. Designed to save table space, Beau encourages conversations about craftsmanship, connection, and care.
Co-designed with Estefania Santos and Rueben Chong
Walnut Veneer
Early Concept Sketches
Next, we began sketching shapes that we felt encouraged the act of sharing food or sharing conversation. We pulled inspiration from how circles encourage gathering, and iterated ways it could become more fluid, and grow or shrink in size.
Prototypes Exploring Final Material
Here are images of the 1st and second functional prototypes, where we tested fit and function of the interchangeable attachment peices.
Partner Research
We kick-started this project by diving into research on our potential co desingers before reaching out to them. We were struck by their values of zero-waste, and focus on being strictly locavore. We were inspired with the attention to detail to these locavore values - even the dinner ware was locally sourced. We wanted to help them celebrate their elegant locally made dishes, encouraging conversations about local community. And at the same time, somehow combat their biggest problem - lack of table space.
Foam Core Models
During this project we created 2 different prototypes before the final to test how our concept would come to life. We explored which fasteners would work best for interchangable sleeves, skirts, or collars, and drafted and redrafted many different shapes and sizes for pockets and the main body.
