Match Tree
The Match Tree was created for Fuji Television's "New Design Paradise". A popular show that each week picks a commonplace object and asks a designer to reinterpret it. Normal was asked to rethink the match.
We decided to emphasize the humanistic qualities of the match that a lighter does not posses. To do this, we imagined the original act of creating fire by the first humans. The Match Tree allows for the same primal satisfaction of physically breaking off the branch to collect wood before returning to the cave.
Match Tree is made up of the "Tree", and the "Planter". The Tree consists of two silhouettes die-cut from a thin sheet of wood veneer. At the end of each branch is a match head. At the base of each branch is a hole, so that it can easily be broken at that point. The tree parts fit together, and are placed upright in the Planter. The ceramic Planter acts as the stand for the Tree, as a match strike, and as an ashtray. The Tree is sold in a flat pack, to be replaced when the matches run out.
