Indigo furniture from Tokyo to the world
Ao specializes in solid woodwork dyed with indigo, 100% designed and manufactured in Tokyo. We carefully select and utilize the fine quality of Tokyo woods, bringing them into life with the Japanese craftsmanship, delicately handmade one by one. "Ao" means “Blue” in Japanese, the beautiful color of indigo. Every woodwork is coated with natural indigo at the final process of our production. Our mission is to build and realize a sustainable brand that designs and manufactures everything within Tokyo -from selecting woods to finishing up with indigo.
We make the most of fine quality woods felled in Tokyo.
About 40% of a tree can be used to make solid wood furniture -where does the other 60% go? We discovered and established the method of utilizing those low value but great quality wood pieces -like curved root parts and mill ends that are usually wasted- by carefully combining them together into pieces and revitalizing them with indigo. We also make the most of cut-down street trees and trees from private lands of Tokyo that are usually processed into wood chips or simply disposed after felled. We are to create a new, vital value and circulation on those high quality woods that are off the market.
Our commitment of having sustainable production
We provide minimal "made to order" woodwork so as not to use resources more than necessary, which means no mass production nor high price setting based on inventory control cost. It is our philosophy to create sustainable, long-admired, delicate furniture by producing them only after we receive your order, meeting every needs possible.
Ao is the joint project of anova design, inc. and furniture studio kokkok established in 2018. We design unique and modern furniture combining our delicate craftsmanship and knowledge of industrial design, by coating with the world's oldest dye; indigo.
Our production method takes about 2 months after we receive each order, since our craftsman carefully chooses materials, saws, polishes, builds up and colors with indigo. We provide high quality, beautiful furniture with a great value you could adore for lifetime, which cannot be provided or replaced by those mass production makers.
