Qantas has unveiled a new range of inflight tableware by Australian Industrial Designer and lead designer of the Qantas 787 Dreamliner cabin interiors, David Caon. The range includes crockery by Noritake.

You’ll soon spot the Caon collection in Qantas First Class; an exciting sequel to the popular Marc Newson crockery for Qantas that’s also available to purchase.

The result is an elegant, 16-piece crockery set crafted from Fine Bone China, a five-piece brush finished stainless steel cutlery setting and a sophisticated collection of modern glassware.

Caon’s objective when designing the new tableware was to combine minimal, classic elegance with quality and functionality. The results are an aesthetic masterpiece.

“We’ve taken key design cues from the 787 interiors as our inspiration for the tableware. Straight lines were minimised in the design with the same 800mm curve applied to each object in a way to soften and humanise. This organically geometric aesthetic lends continuity of design across the range and to the aircraft,” says Caon.

“This is the same bone china that Noritake use in their products. We reduced the weight by being careful in the design of the profiles of each object. We couldn’t make super thin products – they would simply break. Noritake’s expertise helped us set the various thicknesses of different areas of the product to ensure maximum strength and minimum weight.”

Benefits of Caon’s design

There’s a practical bonus with the new range too. It will help reduce Qantas’s carbon footprint by reducing the weight by 11%, saving 535,000kgs of fuel a year – or 90 African elephants! Additionally, the weight of the meal carts on the 787 will be reduced by 40%.

David Caon

David Caon founded his studio in Sydney in 2009, having worked in Milan and Paris where he designed alongside fellow Australian Marc Newson, for clients including Dom Pérignon, Samsonite and Qantas – when David was part of the team who created the interiors of the airline’s Airbus A380.

David was also responsible for the refurbishment of the airline’s fleet of Boeing 717s and Boeing 737s, as well as the design of Qantas’ International lounges in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Most Recently, David has been commissioned to lead the design of the 787 Dreamliner cabin interiors including Business, Premium Economy and Economy seats. The Dreamliner cabin interiors are a progression of the Qantas aesthetic established by Marc Newson.

Noritake

Established in 1904, Noritake has been bringing beauty and quality to dining tables around the world with superior artistry, craftsmanship and attention to detail, for over 100 years. Noritake began making inflight tableware for Qantas in 1962. Industrial Designer Marc Newson designed a collection for Noritake in 2007 for Qantas First and Business.

Sources

Not Quite Nigella, Qantas News Room, Points from the Pacific, The Design Air