Elanso

Remember those one- or two-week design exercises you had to do in school? Natasha Chetiyawardana and Michael McDevitt do too, and threw a similar challenge recently at 22 European and American designers for Spring 3D's Design Week offering, a lovely little conceptual show called Bring it to the Table.

Essentially a tightly constrained product design charrette with an eye toward commentary on eating habits and the politics of food, Bring it to the Table gave its participants a mere two and a half weeks to come up with a place setting to make viewers think.

Results are largely one-liners, but clever one-liners, and nicely executed too: see McDevitt's Spam Lite, a simple play on words with a deeper implied question; Steve Butcher's Better Living, a weight loss program based on portion control through cunning amputation of fork tines; and Cecilie Egerberg's Size Zero Salad, which creates a calorie free meal by simulating the fragrances of healthy foods. Most impressive, considering the time constraint, is Stijn Ossevoort's Wishing Table, an electrolumenescent place mat that asks diners to speak their wishes into an enhanced cup and watch the floral patterns in the woven mat glow in acknowledgement (video coming soon).

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