Designer ornament auction provides unusual visual feast

If you’re looking for bulbs and tinsel, you’re in the wrong place. For its annual Holiday Ornament Series, the purveyors of contemporary design at WorkOf have come up with a handful of appropriately modern ornaments that you can snag for your tree.

WorkOf enlisted 50 independent designers to create one-of-a-kind ornaments that are up for auction today through December 17 on Paddle8. During this period you can bid on the designs, which start at $50 and are sure to go up from there, with all proceeds going to Scope of Work, an organization focused on building a more inclusive creative industry.

WorkOf

There’s an ornament for every modern design lover—from a sculptural droplet by Komolab to a chic rendering of Saturn by Richard Clarkson Studio. For many of the designers, the ornaments appear to be a way to test out new ideas and forms. “[It] is a great excuse to play around in the studio and make something purely sculptural,” says Jason Pfaeffle of Cofield design, who crafted an ethereal mobile of sorts.

And indeed, the designers seem to have taken the remit of playfulness seriously. There’s a tiny shirt from Bode and a mini replica of a “bag in a tree” by Zeray—because nothing says happy holidays like a miniature plastic “THANK YOU” bag hanging next to your twinkle lights.

WorkOf

WorkOf