Art is often referred to as an agent for provocation of different types of social, political, and other complex issues. Typically with that image, we often forget about practical arts, which carry the decorative motives while staying functional for daily activities. The border between industrial design and practical arts is still vague, therefore, A01 Writing Board could be a case study to investigate.

Designed for Swedish furniture brand Lintex by Afteroom Studio, A01 Writing Board is a minimal enamelled steel canvas encased within a layer of glass and wooden frame. Varied in sizes, shapes, and neutral colours, the boards can be flexibly utilised with magnetic pins and regular markers. The diverse compositions of A01 create an exciting array of minimal art frames that can simply be, with or without the addition of notes and reminders. The elegance of material use gives an illusion of floating shapes, with clear contrasts and mind-boggling effect of floating objects. In a way, the push-and-pull force between function and aesthetic keeps being thrown off-balance, yet the product itself is perfectly symmetrical—a mischievous and graceful decision from Afteroom Studio.

While A01 Writing Board is only one precedent for the blurred boundary between art and design, it makes us question the notion of categorising creative productions. Does a product necessarily have to fall into the polars of black or white, or can it exist in the infinite grey zones of today’s cross-disciplinary creations without any definite box?