Helena Sedef Ürünleri, IMOB Istanbul Furniture Fair 2021
Mother-of-pearl inlay work needs close viewing and clean light; the stand was planned around both, with sample walls at eye level.
- Client
- Helena Sedef Ürünleri
- Fair
- IMOB Istanbul Furniture Fair 2021
- Year
- 2021
- Location
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Sector
- Mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture
- Stand area
- 120 m²
Mother-of-pearl inlay is the opposite of a product that photographs itself. Its value is in the density of the work and the way the shell catches light at an angle — neither of which survives a display case at waist height under a flat hall wash.
The plot was planned around that constraint. Sample panels sit at eye level and close to the circulation so the work can be examined at arm's length, and the lighting was set to rake across the inlay rather than flood it, because it is the angle that makes the shell move. It is a small-detail product on a mid-sized plot, and the whole design problem was refusing to let the architecture out-shout it.
What we did
- Sample panels at eye level, within arm's reach of circulation
- Raking light set to make the inlay catch, not flatten it
- Architecture kept quiet so a fine-detail product reads
- Close-viewing distances designed in from the plan stage
