Alea
project type
Product Design
year
2024
my role
Lead Designer
client
TocoMadera
project overview
A collection of authentic furniture, whose elaboration adequately represents the techniques and processes used through its finishes and materials, exposing the aesthetics of Mexican culture and the visual elements that distinguish it. Alea is a modular furniture collection developed in response to a brief from TocoMadera, a Mexican furniture studio.
the challenge
The challenge: design authentic, versatile pieces with luxury wood while addressing a real market gap, the lack of furniture that works both as individual pieces and as a system. Small urban spaces need furniture that adapts. But most modular furniture sacrifices character for practicality, it ends up feeling generic. TocoMadera's brief pushed for the opposite: pieces with a strong visual identity rooted in Mexican aesthetics, that could still function collectively or independently depending on the context.
Solution
The formal reference was the wings of the monarch butterfly, an abstraction of its arched shapes and curves that gave the collection its signature silhouette. That single reference resolved both the aesthetic and structural questions at once. The arch became the legs, the storage unit, the visual thread connecting every piece. The collection consists of two side tables and a credenza that accommodates both. When joined, the side tables form a coffee table, making the system genuinely flexible without requiring the user to buy everything at once. Wood selection reinforced the cultural intention: parota and rosa morada, two Mexican hardwoods with distinct grain and color, were combined to create contrast within each piece. A full assembly manual was developed alongside the furniture. Result The collection was r exhibited at the Tec de Monterrey pavilion at FIL Guadalajara 2024, one of the largest book and culture fairs in Latin America.
