Cane-do spirit

Cane-do spirit

Celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and actress Lucy Liu are fans of his work. His hulking Voyager bed became a coveted item after it appeared in pop band Maroon 5's 2011 music video, Never Going To Leave This Bed.

Celebrity endorsements aside, Filipino furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue has won a string of awards and accolades - five Japan Good Design Awards; the first prize at the 2004 Singapore International Design Competition for his Croissant Sofa and the Asia Award of Hong Kong, the region's highest design award, for his Lolah chair.

Which is probably why his reaction to winning Designer of the Year at the recent inaugural Maison&Objet Asia in Singapore last week was pragmatic, to say the least.

"I don't need the label. I don't think someone would buy my product because I'm the Designer of the Year at Maison&Objet Asia," says the 45- year-old, who has been in the business for about two decades and has made a name for himself with his use of natural materials.

But he is pleased about what the award means for Asian designers as a whole. The Chinese Filipino, who is a father of two sons, says: "I think it's not just a recognition for me, but also for future generations of Asian designers. It's important, in that people know this is a region where there is a design force to contend with."

He was excited about the Maison&Objet brand coming to this part of the world, since he has exhibited there for five years. The 19-year- old annual trade show happens in January and September every year in Paris and came to Asia for the first time last week. It was held over four days at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre.

The Designer of the Year award is a regular feature at the fair. Past winners included French architect Odile Decq last year and Spanish artist-designer Jaime Hayon in 2010.

Mr Cobonpue says: "Their European version of Designer of the Year is very prestigious. For them to have it here, too, signifies there's a design movement in Asia, not just in Europe. Often you don't see Asian designers at these European fairs. I can count the number of Asian brands which exhibit there on one hand."

His mission: to change the perception that the Asian market is good for only manufacturing products for the European market.

Talking about his nomination and referring to the fair's Rising Asian Talent showcase, where six young designers were picked to feature their products, he says: "People come to Asia to source for products because they're cheap or there is that stereotype that we make only resort- type and spa furniture. It's not a bad thing, but we have to go beyond that.

"No one thinks of Asia as a source of high design. The scene here is still young and there are Asian designers who are coming home to work here. It's exciting times, especially since Europe has been dead for a while."

Having studied, worked and shown his works around the world, he has a good grasp of what the design world likes.

He studied industrial design at Pratt Institute in New York. While doing his degree, he apprenticed for a leather and wood workshop near Florence, Italy. He went on to study furniture marketing and production at the Export Akademie Baden-Wurttemberg in Reutlingen, Germany, in 1994.

He worked for a while in the country after graduating and returned to Cebu, the Philippines, in 1996, after his father's death, to helm the family businesses. His mother Betty, now 70, started furniture company Interior Crafts of the Island in 1972, where she discovered various ways to use rattan.

In 2001, together with a friend, he started lighting and interior accessories label Hive, where he is its creative director. The brand works often with young designers such as Filipino Luisa Robinson and Korean Hae Young Yoon, who made her furniture debut with Hive at 19 with her Cloud Hanging Lamp. Mr Cobonpue also has his own eponymous label.

He uses a lot of natural materials, especially those found in Cebu, such as palms, bamboo and rattan.

His designs have been picked for the International Design Yearbook thrice - first in 2002, then in 2004 and 2005. It is curated each year by various designers and previous curators include Cairo-born industrial and interior designer Karim Rashid as well as British designer Tom Dixon.

Design magazines, too, have lauded his rising star power. Wallpaper*, the go-to publication for interiors and design, nominated him as one of the icons of contemporary design - next to celebrated designers such as French product and interior designer Philippe Starck and Italian industrial designer Antonio Citterio - while Time magazine called him "rattan's first virtuoso" in 2007.

On why he prefers to work with natural materials, Mr Cobonpue says: "We have these natural materials and fibres in Asia, and most of this furniture are handmade. In Europe, they have to rely on technology because it's cheaper.

"It's not that we're not using technology, but Europe's way ahead of us. We work with what we have."

He is often asked to give advice to young designers, and what he tells them never changes. "You have to always come up with something fresh and new. And you have to keep at it. You can't be like a shooting star, but you have to constantly innovate. You have to work double if you're from Asia and prove yourself twice over... always."


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