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Ivan Levak's Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger presents a striking study in minimalist functional sculpture, where slender cylindrical legs ascend with elegant verticality from a neutral ground plane, th
A vibrant cobalt blue powder-coated steel construction emerges against a neutral ground, its six elongated cylindrical uprights rising in parallel formation like slender columns, each exhibiting a gen
Slender charcoal-finished metal rods converge in a tripod configuration, their matte surfaces absorbing ambient light while creating crisp linear vectors that ascend from a compact triangular footprin
Warm honey-toned cardboard packaging opened to reveal its contents establishes the composition's left third, the corrugated material displaying characteristic folded construction with visible seams an
Rendered against a pristine white void that eliminates all contextual distraction and focuses attention entirely upon the object itself, Ivan Levak's Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger presents a masterfu

Iva.n Design Studio

Bronze Furniture Design · 2025

Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger

by Ivan Levak and Iva Grgic

  • A' Design Award 2025 Bronze Winner in Furniture Design
  • Awarded April 15, 2025
  • CLIENT: Iva.n Design Studio
  • Estimated Number of Design Views: 11,913
  • Verification code 54B89BDE8D · Verify this award
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About Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger

The more items you hang on it, the more stable it gets; that is the main statement regarding this object. Coat hangers very often have stability issues; jackets, coats, sweaters etc. can lean the hanger. In Axel's case, while being designed, designers used gravity as an ally, to help its users to keep the tall hanger centered using its mid axis. Axel is a high quality product. Build by only two elements; a steel joint and a massive wood leg. Multiplied by three. Easy to repair since it's hand built.

Ivan Levak's Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger exemplifies contemporary furniture design's ongoing dialogue between utilitarian necessity and aesthetic contemplation, positioning functional domestic objects within traditions of sculptural form-making that extend from early modernist experiments through mid-century Scandinavian design philosophy to present-day explorations of material minimalism and chromatic expressivity. The work demonstrates sophisticated understanding of proportion and interval, the slender vertical supports establishing rhythmic repetition across the visual field while maintaining structural legibility and suggesting both architectural colonnade reference and abstracted natural grove, the spacing between elements calibrated to balance visual openness with compositional cohesion. Chromatic decisions reveal particular accomplishment, the pairing of muted botanical green with saturated cobalt blue creating temperature contrast and visual interest while avoiding strident discord, both hues maintained at similar tonal values to preserve unity, the color application appearing uniform and refined suggesting powder-coating or precision lacquer technique that honors material surface through smooth matte finish. The scalloped horizontal rails introduce organic vocabulary into geometric syntax, these undulating forms simultaneously functional as garment supports and visually engaging as rhythmic pattern, their wave-like profile softening orthogonal severity while creating tactile invitation and visual movement. The compositional strategy isolates the objects against neutral infinity, a convention borrowed from product photography yet also resonant with metaphysical painting traditions where everyday items achieve totemic presence through contextual removal, this deliberate backgroundlessness focusing attention entirely on form, color, proportion, and relationship. Technical execution appears meticulous, edges maintaining consistent definition, surfaces uniformly treated, vertical elements achieving parallel alignment that suggests manufacturing precision whether through industrial production or skilled craft fabrication. The work invites consideration of how domestic furniture occupies threshold territory between pure utility and aesthetic object, how color choices encode meaning and affect emotional response within living spaces, how geometric reduction and material honesty characteristic of modernist design continue generating fresh formal solutions, and how repetition and variation create visual interest within restrained vocabularies. One might contemplate whether the chromatic pairing references landscape elements, the green suggesting vegetation and the blue evoking sky or water, or whether the color functions more abstractly as pure chromatic relationship, and how the scalloped rail's organic gesture mediates between geometric discipline and natural form, creating synthesis that characterizes successful design where function and beauty achieve integration rather than competition.

Press Kit

Unique Properties
'The more items you hang on it, the more stable it gets' - is the main statement regarding this item. Coat hangers very often have stability issues; jackets, coats, sweaters etc. are leaning the hanger. In Axel's case, while designing, we used gravity as an ally - to help us keep the tall hanger centered using its mid axis. Axel is a high quality product. Made only by two elements; a steel joint and a massive wood leg. Multiplied by three. Easy to repair since it's hand built.
Dimensions & Packaging
The hanger is 170 cm tall, and the base is 44cm wide, weights 4kg and comes in a flat box which is 173cm x 9cm x 4cm.
Tags
furniture, storage, hanger, wardrobe, clothes, interior, hallway, lobby
Production Technology
Made of 3mm steel and solid 4x2cm oak wood. Minimalized and reduced to be as light as possible, which makes it also very easy to handle and move it around the house. Axel has only two main elements that by multiplication, connected by 18 screws in total, becomes a heavy duty (15 items including coats, jackets, sweaters) holder. Very easy and quick to assemble by one person and a single #3 hex key.
Design Challenge
Regarding the challenges we faced while designing, the most complex was to find balance between solid stability and making the hanger as narrow as possible so it can easily fit into small hallways and rooms.
Project Duration
The project started in Zagreb, during the Covid Era. First sketches were made in 2021 and the final prototype had a premiere in Milan during Salone Del Mobile 2023.
Operation Flow
This object can be operated by one or both hands. Once unboxed, the transformation from its flat pack 2D state to the final 3D composition can be easily done with 6 metal joints for the metal core and the additional6 screws to connect the central metal joint with the wooden legs. The interaction with this object isat least two times daily. Depending on how much its user takes on and off its wardrobe.
Research
Since both of us, Iva and I, have master degrees in industrial design, after a few sketches we started doing 1:1 models in wood, cardboard, metal and plywood. Everything we could find inside and around the house during the Pandemic. While doing the design index research, we come across that a lot of existing hangers have only three 'horns' to handle the load. And they are usually pointing towards the outer rim of the vertical composition... So we decided to turn these features the other way. Pointing the 'horns' towards the inside and using the central, metal construction for extra loading spaces (making hooks for coats in the process of CNC laser cutting). Also using the middle axis for better static stability.
Inspiration
While being a student and living a modern nomadic life, there were a lot of addresses. Constant moving from one apartment to another. A lot of temporary furniture, usually from Ikea, was left in those 'homes'. We all have our favorite piece of furniture that we love to take with us when moving to a new home. Axel represents a human size item that can easily be disassembled into a flat, narrow card box and easily carried away by hands or on a bicycle. A true piece of lightweight solid furniture.
Image Credits
Photo by Marija Gasparija

Colors of Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger

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Grand Interview about Axel Self Standing Coat Hanger

Ever since I watched Christopher Nolan's movie Interstellar I became interested in gravity. And being a big fan of SF I always like to provoke an elegant dance between science and fiction, or we like to say 'fantasy'.Reducing the final form to it's constructive core, the metal joint that connects the wooden legs uses the negative space of a triangle. By that, all the items that are hanging on it somehow drop between the legs, Making the central axis more firm and stabile. With this feature, not only is the final product more visually reduced, but also more functional.

Living abroad, as an unpaid intern, buying designed furniture was a luxury I couldn't afford. So, ironically, I would take some Ikea pieces to build a home. But then, every time I would move to another city, all that furniture would stay... And making it financially unsustainable. At the end, an idea of a lightweight, easy to carry around, piece of furniture appeared. A design piece of furniture, made by high quality materials, easy to produce, with a price under 200EUR. And what better item would it be then the one that says 'welcome & goodbye' in your hallway or office.

The calculation was made by the traditional 'trails and errors'. We made a 1:1 modular model and play with the proportions and dimensions. We wanted to tall enough to hang a big winter coat by it's hood, which ended up to be 170 cm of height. Also, we didn't want it to be very wide at the bottom. That was a more complex task to solve. Finding the right balance between the angle of the legs with the floor and the wideness of the metal joints was the answer.

I'm a big fan of the quote 'if build by hand, can be fixed by hand'. Producing objects and solutions that can easily be fixed and/or are long-lasting was my favorite feature in design since my student days. To make it simple. To make it durable.

During that specific period in modern history, a lot of people in the world turned to themself. To educate themself, to challenge themself. As my partner Iva and I were neighbors at that time, we would spend time in the yard and just do prototypes from old wood leftovers and metal plates found in the garage.

Inward hooks came spontaneously. While experimenting with the central gravity axis as the main constructive feature. During the testing period we would mark the right spots for the hooks just by moving jackets and coats little by little: left, right, up, down

With each collection we improved the blueprints, by adding more precise diameters in the metal joint to make it more and more user friendly and easier to assemble.

While testing the 1:1 model, we used clothing items from every day use. Heavy winter coats and down jackets. By that, the final result was stabile, lightweight and durable.

We see Axel as an ambassador of an ideology where designers and other creatives can use fantasy (movie references for example, like we did with Interstellar) to make an elegant, timeless idea that can be easily repaired, joyful to use and simple to produce by local firms around your hometown.

My grandmother used to say: the more languages you speak, more value you have.' That being said, my attitude towards design and creative thinking is: the bigger the variety of your skills is the wider your solution will be. Having experience in nomadic life, living in nature during summer, living on remote mountains during winter changes your perspective of what is and what isn't important in your life. In your home. So while developing projects, including Axel, all the parameters, based very often by real life experience, are a pure result of personal fantasy, technical knowledge and user feedback.

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