In collaboration with Designer Harry Allan and Corning GlassLab, this Warmth design reintroduces the Rustbelt area. Partnering with Christian Van Luven, the owner of the local Roji Tea Lounge, to promote and celebrate Chris’s effort of rejuvenating the Rustbelt area and cultivating local businesses, a tea set is designed to support Chris’s devotion to tea culture and to emphasize the concept that opening local businesses is a practical solution to the economy of The Rustbelt. 

To develop strategies for reimagining a new kind of city full of promise and potential. This design aims to use tea as a medium to link people’s five senses and provide a complete-sense experience.

The business concept of Roji is to provide people with a sense of home feeling. And through this, it allows people to be more adventurous and get comfortable with trying new things. In addition, Roji also offers nightlife without the bar scene, often attracting a packed house and local music.

SHAPE

The ideal shape of the cup coincides with the natural glass-blowing shape, as it creates a shape similar to a water drop. To serve the purpose of drinking, Cutting the top of the “water drop” leaves a flat rim as the cup opening.

COLOR

The concept is that starting from the rim of the water drop shape cup form, it will be covered with a white frosted texture. Following the contour changes, the frosted white texture will gently fade away. This gradient symbolizes the temperature change, which shows the stage from freezing to warm. As for the coaster, using concrete gives it a grounded foundation, which helps to balance the lightness of the glass cup.