THE ERSO OCCASIONAL RANGE
The Erso Range of occasional furniture was the product of a brief set by large European retailers El Corte Inglés. They had asked for a budget range of furniture, featuring glass tops, and with a simple, modern design to fit in a variety of interior spaces.
The Erso Range wooden base is manufactured from laminated blockwood offcuts with an oak veneer surface. The legs also feature a false finger joint detail created using oak end-grain veneer. Ordinarily, this feature would be unattainable at the price point that ECI wanted to retail the range at, but making it out of end-grain veneer allowed for the appearance of quality and craftsmanship at a budget price.
The Erso Range included a design for a side table, coffee table and a dining table. All three items were designed to be knock-down products, using a variety of fittings to achieve this. Underneath the cross-braces on all three items were laser cut steel brackets which, when aligned with threaded metal inserts on the brace underside, allows the customer to easily assembly the tables with standard machine bolts that are not seen during use. The glass tops attached to the frame using a series of UV bosses, which could be bolted into the wooden frame from the underside – again hiding the fixing. All bolt fittings and brackets were recessed into the wooden frame to ensure they wouldn’t be seen during use.