The design exploration of the free standing project Check Mates Chairs is an exploration of furniture as spatial objects. Attempting to bring a uniqueness to the furniture pieces, these chairs are form developed together with materiality. They also act as a continuation of the furniture project that started through Death Proof Cabinet – with print of simple patterns on birch block board wood in combination with metal. The printed pattern give the chairs their own unique character, with a contemporary connection to inlay art. Different back heights offers different types of seating, while there is a common design language through the clear shape of the metal base.
In 2021, the Axel Larsson Memorial Fund Scholarship awarded Sara Szyber for “a furniture design that stands firmly in the Swedish furniture tradition while taking a new direction through its own design language and new production techniques, as in the Check Mate armchair. An armchair with a strong presence through a decorative checkerboard pattern, printed directly on the armchair’s visible birch wood frame, creating an interaction between the two-dimensional grid and the armchair’s three-dimensional spatiality. This is tradition and innovation at its best.” The prize was awarded by the Swedish Design Association/Svensk Form. (Sara Szyber, 2021)