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Muting Everyday Noise: Cloud Boxes

Studio Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters have created Cloud Boxes, a series of five cloud-inspired storage boxes commissioned by PROOFFlab.

Made of semi-transparent latex, the boxes not only dampen sound but visual noise, too.

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Thinking about acoustics we realized quickly that silence wasn’t our goal in this project. It isn’t that bad to have sound around you when you’re working. It starts to be disturbing when sound becomes noise. Taking away sound doesn’t create silence; it just changes your definition of noise. We imagined our perfect solution should be like mist; a low-hanging cloud that doesn’t make the world around you disappear, but takes the sharp edges off and makes everything a little softer.

Every office has things they need to have, but don’t want to see. It comes in every scale from the stapler to the vacuum cleaner. We thought it would be great if you could place all these kind of needs in an office cloud. Not hiding them, so you don’t know where to find it anymore, but damping them by turning them into blurred silhouettes of color.

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Photos courtesy of Studio Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.