designer tobias wong dead at 35

Designer and artist Tobias Wong, whose outrageous work was often described as both provocative and playful, was found dead last weekend in his Manhattan apartment. The office of the chief medical examiner in Manhattan ruled the death a suicide. He was 35: Tobias Wong, Witty Designer and Conceptual Artist, Dies at 35.

Mr. Wong first came to the attention of the design press in 2001 when he turned a Philippe Starck Bubble Club chair into a lamp, softly glowing from within. Adding spice to the stunt, "This Is a Lamp" was shown the night before the actual Starck chair was presented to the public for the first time.

A provocateur by nature, Mr. Wong operated at the fringes of the traditional design world, creating objects like a stack of 100 $1 bills, bound in peelable glue like a notepad; a gold-plated McDonalds coffee stirrer (a riff on the company's plastic version that was apparently popular among drug users before being withdrawn); and an engagement ring with the diamond mounted upside down, so that the wearer could use it to scratch graffiti.

"As time went on his work became more and more ironic, sarcastic and pointed," said Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Architecture and Design. "He had an enfant terrible style of design that was very fresh in New York. Today you see all sorts of people doing conceptual design, but he was one of the first."

At the time of his death, Wong had begun to lay the groundwork for a creative agency that would include longtime collaborator Josee Lepage, the design journalist and consultant Aric Chen, and Frederick McSwain, who works for the Italian furniture company Cappellini. More here: In Memoriam | Tobias Wong.