Justin Crowe
Two students at South Korea’s Hoseo University of Industrial Design unveiled a stunning modern tea set design addressing cultural trends affecting tea consumption. Designed by JuYoung Kim and Chang Choi, the Lotus Tea Set features a ceramic tea-pot and cups set atop a minimal wooden stand decorated with traditional lotus iconography. The idea was to make a tool to perform traditional Korean tea ceremonies taking into consideration changes in the tea and beverage space. This is a modern tea set for Korea’s millennial’s.
Kim and Choi explain the inspiration behind the project:
“[Recent] changes in the beverage market are due to health/diet concerns and changes in consumer preferences. Thus, various products have been developed accordingly, but most of them are easy to drink as an RTD (ready-to-drink) product. So, traditional tea beverages are still being neglected by the public.By Keeping the essence of our own tea ceremony and combining traditional craft elements with modern use, it gives familiarity to modern people.”
Kim and Choi focused on innovating in two main ways: Minimizing and Customizing. They apply these two pillars of the digital age to the complex and time-consuming Korean tea ceremony. They are not doing this intending to destroy the ritual though – they’ve noticed a fall in tea ceremony practice and they’re trying to revive it.
For simplicity, the design cleverly contains all the supplies you need in one place. The ceramic teapot double as an electric kettle, tea can be stored in the handle and all of your accessories can be stored inside the wood table. For customization, the set accommodates sitting or standing with a removable top, and their are three handle options inspired by symbols common in oriental tea culture that you can chose to use based on your preference. The three topper options are a lotus for a healthy, stable mind, a pomegranate for fertility and solidarity, and heavenly water considered sacred and pure.
To follow their newest projects and for more images of their modern tea set design follow JuYoung Kim on Instagram here and follow Chang Choi here!
