Our MVP – This is an early stage rendering – the final product is a bit sexier!
Carbon-Fiber-Design is the newly created consumer division of Composites-By-Design LLC. Our mission is to create ergonomic, aesthetic & evolutionary products with advanced composite materials integration. Our first product, the Simplicity One Carbon Fiber Chair & Table Combo, will launch in the Fall of 2023.
The Simplicity One Series of ultra-lightweight furniture is the first carbon fiber furniture ever designed to be affordable, portable, and cool. It is, in VC Speak, our MVP (Minimum Viable Product). It is the first series of many more designs to come!
Highlights
• There is a carbon fiber design revolution taking place – it is not going away
• There is a natural synergy between our exotic hardwoods & stunning carbon fiber laminate
• Our ultra-lightweight products are the first affordable & portable furniture, easily shippable worldwide
• The Simplicity One Series is perfect for a hi-tech firm’s cafeteria, meeting area or boutique hotel lounge
• Low cost processes such as VARTM now allow CFRP to be used in nontraditional products
The Concept
Most of our designs will feature natural woods combined with the carbon fiber structure to enhance their beauty. Where applicable, the wildly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) will be embedded. All our products will be incredibly light relative to their stiffness & strength, and all will fall into the category of eye candy!
We combine the natural beauty of sustainable exotic wood veneers & solids with the ultra-lightweight, high strength & stiffness of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) to create simple designs at affordable prices. Both the visual and the structural synergy of these two materials lends itself to a wide array of products such as highly customizable smart furniture, ergonomic computing environments and future humanitarian products that will be shipped worldwide.
Interior designers will be attracted to our products for applications in booming boutique hotel markets around the world, customizing our basic designs to harmonize with their vivid lobby, restaurant & lounges interiors.
The Details
Each piece is hybrid construction of carbon fiber laminate and hardwood. The tabletops are a sandwich panel design with carbon fiber laminated skins. This series is our proof-of-concept release, with more sophisticated lines planned.
All our furniture is designed to be assembled, handled and moved effortlessly by one person. Assembly is performed with one tool – a hex wench. The Simplicity One Chair, for example, has only three common elements – the solid carbon fiber seat/backrest, the leg and the cross member. Our research tells us that “too lightweight” can be a bit unfamiliar to us humans accustomed the heavy wood furniture, so we kept the legs solid hardwood for a low center of gravity. A chair, after all, must be comfortable beyond anything else.
The base configuration is four standard-height armless chairs and a matching angular square table. Chair arms are an option, as well as bar seating, and two and six-place tables.
The Market
Our base configuration is a four-chair set with matching angular table. The combination is perfect for a boutique hotel lounge, modern restaurant, tech company café, or small dining table in a breakfast nook. We expect interior designers will be attracted to our products, customizing our basic designs to harmonize with their creative talent. We see Asia as a potential booming market, and have a representative in Beijing, China to grow it.
Our competition is MAST ELEMENTS. If you must ask what their products cost, you can’t afford them! We favor the IKEA approach: affordable, portable, a cool design AND (unlike IKEA) ultra-lightweight.
Our killer product, coded named the Complexity One, will compete against the Altwork Station. They have an excellent product, but our version won’t weigh a hefty 210 pounds! It will be simple to assemble, disassemble and ship worldwide or across town.
Progress
June 2023 Update: After a long search, we have finally found a small shop to continue our product development in a really cool location: Monterey Motor Sport Park.
We have master molds for both the Simplicity One Base Chair and Table fabricated. We have been perfecting the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process for several months and will fabricate the first set of prototypes in the Fall of 2024.