LEVO
The driving force behind the design was to create an object that could both celebrate the technological advancement that Samsung has achieved through the QLED, and also offer a radical critique towards society’s relationship with technology. Due to the exponential improvement of technology over the past decade, we as consumers have been accustomed to and expect new devices to hide their greatness behind beveled edges and smooth surfaces. This not only makes us oblivious to its power but also to the work and craft that coincides with it. With this stand, by being overtly technical in its construction but simple in geometry, it highlights the distinct dichotomy between itself and the television, and even if it is only minute, can spark some form of dialogue or self reflection. Borrowing elements from architecture, most notably from structural expressionism, it disguises the compression members as tension rods in order to give the illusion of the QLED being tethered to the floor. This can be seen as a metaphor that the QLED is so remarkably advanced that it almost becomes weightless and must be brought back to reality. The stand consists of three legs, two of which the television appears to be levitating above and a larger one on the back which serves as a connection point and also a device for integrating the optical cable. Connecting these legs are a series of “false” tension rods which are actually stiff members that connect through a system similar to turnbuckles. The stand comes in two different finishes to better suit the backings of the televisions, for the black television there is a blackened steel | walnut combination and for the silver television there is a stainless steel | pine wood combination.