fernando brizio: 'what you see is not' for droog

all images courtesy of droog

‘what you see is not’ is a bedside cabinet by lisbon-based designer fernando brizio for dutch design company droog. the furniture object is a combination of function and illusion. the cabinet itself has been reduced to a two-dimensional image (a decal which is hung on the wall), accompanied by a three-dimensional detail – an open drawer – extending from the cabinet graphic which is ideal for storing bedside reading material.

the starting point for the piece and the choice to work with illusion comes from buster keaton short film, ‘the high sign’, in which buster takes a can of paint, a brush, draws a hanger and hangs his hat on it. ‘when I saw the film, I immediately pictured myself doing the exact same gesture. in that scene, buster performs what designers do – he makes a drawing that becomes a ‘useable’ object,’
says brizio.

in an interview with droog, the portuguese designer describes the concept behind the piece: ‘what you see changes when you move around this object. in a certain position you see a conventional cabinet with an open drawer, but when you move sideways it becomes a flat, somehow deformed image, and the archetypal reference of a cabinet is lost. is it a cabinet with a drawer? or is it just a suspended drawer?‘