When the consumerist market constantly demands efficiency in everyday activities, designers respond by providing an immense variety of products. To Studio SF-SO, an industrial design studio based in San Francisco and Seoul, this creates a visual discomfort due to the inconsistent aesthetic and individual characteristics of homewares. The studio's new series, Hidden Objects, is an investigative experiment to explore the aforementioned issue.

Hidden Objects is a series of four familiar household items that take on new yet not foreign facades. Their usage remains unchanging, while the minimal appearance helps them blend in with the surrounding environment.

Stick Remote Control is an optimised device that can maneuver the new age of smart appliances. By leaving out unnecessary functions, the designers were able to form a compact shape with simplified buttons and a subtle insertion of batteries. The controller utilises materials such as ceramic and wood to further act as a decorative object for the home.

With Bowl Kitchen Scale, the item cleverly imitates the shape of regular eating bowls for a camouflaging effect. The scale is specifically used to measure ingredients with the numbers displayed on smart home devices during use. The sophisticated approach not only makes for an elegant presentation but also serves as a functional means when measuring liquids and powders.

Pebble Tray is a two-part object made to store smaller trinkets. With a flat base and a concaving lid, it resembles a pebble that one can put anywhere inside the home. When many are arranged together, the composition becomes a tranquil installation that entices the feeling of peacefulness.

Smartly disguised as a three-dimensional artwork when not in use, the Leaning Scale redefines the way one stores homewares. By creating a simple and tactile surface to the object, and nothing more, the scale can be hung anywhere like a minimal ornament. While our understanding of the scale is an intimate object, it can become a public design in the eyes of SF-SO.

Hidden Objects is a collection of designs that expand on the question of efficiency in contemporary times. Although their designs seem to be simplistic, the thinking process and observation of SF-SO had given them a depth of functional use through embedded technology and graceful aesthetics through the attention to detail.