Sitting pretty

A local design competition is giving the old-school stool a designer edge.

The humble stool. Compared with its more attention-grabbing siblings - the glamorous chaise longue, sociable table and sexy standing lamp - it gets very little attention. Perhaps its pint size has given this extremely versatile piece of furniture a design disadvantage over the years? Or maybe its practicality and simplicity has caused it to be so often taken for granted.

But lately, things seem to be looking up for this straightforward seat.

First there was architect Frank Gehry's Wiggle stool, reminiscent of three bales of paper folded together and made from 60 layers of cardboard held together by hidden screws; designer Karim Rashid's Magino came fashioned from transparent Lucite and looking like a curled up ribbon; and Chris Ruhe's concertina-esque Sahara, made from wood panels, has given our posteriors comfort thanks to its spring-like design. In Philadelphia, there's even a company that makes stools out of broken skateboards.

Locally, the finalists in this year's Elle Decoration Solve New Talent Search in association with Boardmans show that South Africans are also starting to take notice of this useful and underrated piece of furniture.

A 33-year-old builder from Cape Town, Marc Guy Baker, took his cue from the upcycling trend and glued together offcuts of wood to create a piece replicating a city skyline in his City Scape Stool, while the clean lines of Timbr by Roland Richartz reflect the Gauteng industrial design student's interest in exploring simplicity in furniture.

The two other finalists both took inspiration from our country in their designs. Leanne Bates's Thando stool was made using eucalyptus wood from a farm near her Durban home - and its legs are embellished in Zulu beads. Ruben Rossouw, a 27-year-old interior design student, found inspiration in our national flower in his Protea Stool. The latter, which has a filigree feel, proved to be the winning design: the judges felt the piece's organic pattern, cast in metal, gave the stool "a jewellery-like quality".

In its 10th year, the Elle Decoration Solve New Talent Search has previously featured designs for a sofa bed, bunk beds, LED lighting and storage solutions. John Edward's Vuvuzela light (the 2009 winner) drew attention in the UK, and 2008 winner Jenni Lopnov's glass and wood coffee table is still being sold at Weylandts stores countrywide. Rossouw's Protea Stool could soon make its way into Boardmans.

Ingrid Hale, marketing and brand manager at Elle Decoration, says the pull of the competition is that it allows young designers to come up with new solutions for objects we take for granted: "This is exactly the challenge of Solve: to take an everyday functional item and identify an emerging designer who is able to conceptualise and produce a piece that is both functional, aesthetic beautiful and marketable."

• The winning designs for the 2011 Elle Decoration Solve New Talent Search in association with Boardmans will be on display at the Elle Decoration Design Indaba stand next year.