Modesto Esstisch von Moritz Bannach

With bright interlocking color planes, Bannach produces smooth, sophisticated designs beautifully influenced by abstract painting and minimalist sculpture.

Bannach was established in Berlin in 2018 by designer Moritz Bannach (b. 1986). With a keen enthusiasm for interdisciplinary ideas, Bannach studied landscape architecture at the Technische Universität Berlin, and worked for five years at the city’s renowned high-end interior retailer Dopo Domani, before setting up his own brand. Featuring a keen emphasis on smooth lines and playful juxtapositions of color, Bannach’s work is inspired by the abstract painting and sculpture of mid- and late twentieth-century art, and cites Agnes Martin, Donald Judd, Imi Knoebel, and Dan Flavin as influences.

The resulting work is a joyous celebration of smooth color fields and flat, neatly interlocking spatial planes. Produced in close cooperation with German workshops, their manufacture fuses innovative processes with traditional craft methods, guaranteeing both high quality and longevity. Each piece is unique and decorated with an individually serialized sign of polished brass. Bannach’s debut collection of dining and conference tables, Uno, showcases this artistic approach to furniture design. Each piece, designed with both mealtimes and conferences in mind, features such clean lines that they appear almost digitally generated. Available in smooth, lacquered MDF, or the more textural ash veneer, the Alerio evokes the experiments of early abstract minimalist sculpture. Other such tables from the collection, including Abbondio, Modesto, and Elio tables, relay a similar emphasis on neat, elegantly combined symmetries. The collection also features a Mono range, its sculptural acuity foregrounded by the use of a single color.

In addition to the influence of mid-twentieth century abstract painters and sculptors, Bannach credits the 1980s Memphis movement and its founder, Ettore Sottsass, as a major inspiration. Mindful of their enthusiasm for the incorporation of many different colors into furniture design, Bannach places firm emphasis on visual perception. For him, the fundamental idea of the brand is the combination of purist design with expressive colors. The latter are, accordingly, thoughtfully configured; with a palette that includes pastel blues, pinks, and forest greens, table-tops usually contrast with their supporting components, gently asserting their elegant construction. The dynamism generated by three-dimensional objects is also emphasized; indeed, from different vantage points, the interlocking spatial planes elegantly reconfigure to produce beautiful color compositions, showcasing Bannach’s appreciation for abstract painting.

Though only relatively recently established, Bannach’s work has been featured in House & Garden, say hi to_, and Zeit Magazin. The Abbondio table, the first item produced by the studio, has been awarded the 2019 German Design Award in the furniture category. With an artist’s eye and a designer’s attention to spatial form and function, the studio will undoubtedly travel from strength to strength.