In defense of life’s guilty pleasures: Smoking Diaries reimagines the humble ashtray in 17 different ways

Initiated by Massimo Scheidegger and Bruno Pauli Caldas, Frederik Buchmann and Guillaume Gindrat, four friends that met during their time studying at Ecole Cantonale D’Art de Lausanne, Smoking Diaries is a project that explores “the cultural ritual” of smoking through both print and object. Each working in design duos based between Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark the four collaborators have always looked to find the time to work on personal projects that don’t quite fit into “commercial design or academic research”, Massimo shares – those that are “slower, more personal, and grounded in physical experience”.

For Smoking Diaries, the four designers were united by the simple idea to “create a moment that brought people together, through common interests or simply the act of being present”, shares Bruno “The ashtray is an easy answer to that: a small, pragmatic object that naturally sits at the centre of conversation. It’s ambiguous, culturally stigmatised, yet deeply symbolic.”

With the aim to explore the social rituals that smoking creates through this humble and universal 3D form, the designers reached out to a range of creatives with a simple but open brief: “design an ashtray however you wish.” The pieces would then be put on show at a ‘smoking event’ at the classic old-school Copenhagen bodega Cafe Nick, during the city’s three days of design this summer. The project quickly grew into a wider network of contributors, bringing together 22 designers for the making of 17 unique ashtrays that sat atop tables on the night.

“Café Nick was a natural fit, a classic Copenhagen bodega with over 100 years of history,” shares Frederik. “The space had lived the culture we were exploring, so we didn’t want to alter much. We just placed the ashtrays, a zine, and an invitation on each table,” he shares. To all of those that found themselves at the event, the display was so seamless it might have appeared to be just a normal night at the bar – except you were ashing your cigarettes onto the art on show: “It wasn’t an exhibition in the traditional sense, objects were being touched, used, and made dirty,” Frederik adds. “We aimed to create a moment first, and the objects were in service of that moment, not the other way around.”

Reflective of a wide range of approaches, the designed objects came in all different shapes and sizes: some soft, rounded and discreet, some with lids, others with legs of their own. “Some ashtrays were poetic, others playful or provocative”, says Guillaume, all of which were memorialised in the format of a 28-page zine of the project, designed by Alice Monguzzi, printed in Lausanne.

This publication was part of a broader attempt to bring different voices together on the social and spacial rituals of smoking, forging a conversation that might live on after the show. The designers invited established figures to contribute work that would both provide a framework for the ashtrays on display by fellow and emerging designers, and share their own take on the Smoking Diaries project. “The zine featured texts by voices across design, architecture and theory,” Guillaume shares. “We aimed to blend the ephemeral with the theoretical, mixing essays, interviews, and personal reflections.” This small reader brought “the full atmosphere” of the project together and gave Smoking Diaries a distinct graphic identity.

Due to its taboo nature – or perhaps its mundanity – smoking “isn’t often discussed in a design context”, says Bruno, “asking people to design an ashtray for a smoking event felt like a fun, provocative way to start conversations.” Not limited to this one-off show and spectacle where drinks, stories and cigarettes were shared, the group are already working with a new set of collaborators on something fresh. “We don’t see this as limited to the object or the place”, ends Massimo. “It’s about real-life scenarios where objects return to their natural habitat.”