Gabriella Asztalos the Hungarian born designer grew up and studied across Europe. Prior to her design studies, Gabriella was a professional classical ballet dancer. This experience gave her the experience to visually express feelings, emotions and a state of mind through shapes, movements and materials.

When creating the Hug Chair, Gabriella was inspired by the beautiful human movement: the hug. “With the Hug Chair I tried to translate an intimate social interaction into an exclusive furniture design. When we hug, our arms are creating a spiral form. I am using this spiral as the base of my design. I opened up a hug and concentrated only on one of the participant’s arms. I kept the spiral form as a symbol of hugging arms, turned it 90° facing down to the floor and placed it on a 35cm high turning leg, which provides more flexibility and easier access to the chair. I am also focusing not only on the shape, but on the intimacy of a hug. The experience one accumulates from sitting in the Hug Chair resembles to the feelings of a hug; affection, warmth, care, support, comfort, trust, love. The chair delivers these same feelings across its unique and powerful uni-body design.”

Gabriella’s Hug Chair received several design prizes and was the winner of the 2011 ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) as well as of the 2011 Singapore Furniture Design award. Since then her Hug Chair is gaining more & more attention within the design industry and among connoisseurs. This also helps to direct a huge amount of attention to her young – Barcelona based – design company that has created other sleek, functional and emotional furniture and home accessories. And there is more to come. I hardly can wait . . . love her style.

www.hugchair.com; www.asztalos.com