Jacob Lenard

• jacoblenard.com

Jacob Lenard is a designer whose work confronts the uncomfortable, encouraging users to question their own behaviors, perspectives and emotions. His work, which blends interiors, furniture, graphics, and the design of hand-held objects, plays with the psychological boundaries with which we often surround ourselves. Recently, Lenard’s furniture was a part of a special collection with CB2 stores and he also showed at Rossana Orlandi gallery during Salone del Mobile 2015. He was a U.S. finalist for Veuve Clicquot’s 2015 Recreation Award. He has participated in collections featured in the New York Times, Wallpaper Magazine, Core 77, and Architectural Digest. Lenard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Communication Design from Washington University in St. Louis.

Across the Table

Across the Table enables one to comfortably interact with food and supporting dining objects to begin a relationship with the person he or she is dating and determine whether a romantic connection can exist.

Starting a conversation can be difficult on a first date; For Starters is a set of napkins that spark questions, whose answers will reveal light-hearted and interesting facts and stories about your date. Eating and drinking at the same speed can sometimes indicate that people are vibrating on the same wavelength; Pace is a spout that enables you to become more aware of the rhythm and timing of your fellow diner. Eye contact can create a feeling of true connection with another being; Eye-to-Eye is a bowl that allows you to catch glances of your date’s eyes. Sometimes taboo subjects are the most interesting part of the person sitting across from you. Hard to Bring Up is a set of small plates that slowly reveal hints of vices, desires, futures,

and pasts. With these sets of objects, a true romantic connection may last beyond the mealtime; the end of a date may mark the beginning of a future. Don’t you want to discover who’s Across the Table?