Mean and tricky design

Mean and tricky design is conceptual by nature and often obsessive as well. The designer’s obsession may be for complex engineered parts, or pointy things, or exaggerated simplicity. What distinguishes a mean and tricky object like this table is the potential for injury during use of the object and/or the discomfort and impracticality involved in everyday use of the object.

Users of this table, after admiring its complex engineering, can expect to bark their shins and knees on its sharp, aggressive angles and be depressed by its dark colour and general hostility to its use as a table. Chairs cannot be drawn any closer than the asymmetrical, sloping feet of the table allow, resulting in a seating position that is awkwardly far from the glass surface.