Readers with a sweet tooth and an eye on the Holiday season may find themselves drooling a little at this strangely delicious-looking series of furniture full of (faux) chocolate and nougat, covered caramel, powdered sugar and more. Up close and personal, you discover that these aren’t sweet treats at all, but completely inedible materials like wood, resin and concrete.

Matthias Borowski calls the set The Importance of the Obvious and spent a lot of time (like an experimental chef) working with materials to figure out what he could use to simulate different elements, materials and reflectivity of typical confections.

A combination of plastics, resins and woods form the basis of most of the pieces that make up this Master’s Thesis project, but not matter how delectable they look as giant-sized candies they sadly will not match up on taste. Best for your teeth that you don’t try, eh?

Per FRAME:

“Design Academy Eindhoven postgraduate Matthias Borowski explores the dormant potential of basic materials with The Importance of the Obvious project. Experimenting with different production methods, he was able to discover how even the most banal woods, plastics, and textiles can have unique attributes. These characteristics strongly influence the way designers develop new projects.”

The artist also identified ten principles within a manifesto that redefines how we use, perceive and combine materials.

“1. Every material stimulates the sense.

2. The material must be identifiable in the object with its sensory components.

3. There is always a better material.

4. All materials can be combined with each other.

5. Natural or artificial – we don’t care.

6. Ask the material what it wants to be.

7. There is no right and wrong – just do it!

8. Every production process transforms the character of material.

9. The starting point for an object is the material – not the other way around!

10. The cost of the material does not reflect the value of the material. “