About — JOHN MENG

The studio is dedicated to making one thing: cigar ashtrays. Not as accessories, but as objects worthy of attention in their own right. For the one who uses them, they speak of taste, of self — and carry an immensity of their own.

The pieces are conceived where form embodies meaning, and function is the very foundation from which it emerges. A subtle balance between individuality and elegance is always the goal - an ashtray should be unmistakably itself, yet never loud. It should hold its place in a room not by demanding attention, but by earning it — through its weight, its silence, and its permanence, year after year.

Recognition

2007 — SaloneSatellite, Milan (first independent designer from China)

2007 — Gwangju Design Biennale, Korea

2008 — Red Dot Award (concept) — Suspension, Voso-voso 3

2023 — Dezeen Awards China shortlist — Sahara Chair

Works featured in Wallpaper, Ottagono, Elle Decoration, and others

Here, a small object is given the same care as any grander work.

28 | The Awakening. A pursuit of design came not through schooling, but from a journey. France—a time of quiet observation, standing before the modern classics of the masters. It was there, witnessing the weight and precision of timeless design, that the world first asked to be shaped.

40 | The margins. A career outside design was left behind for the work done in the dark. These were the years of SaloneSatellite in Milan, marking the start of a decade-long refinement—proving that the nights and weekends in the workshop were the only work that mattered.

55 | The Sanctuary. A workshop built to its own measure—a place for precision and material logic. It was here that a singular focus led to a shortlisted chair for the Dezeen Awards China, a final exploration of scale before narrowing the craft to the intimate, rigorous world of the cigar ashtray.

The Choice

For years, the work moved among furniture, lighting, and objects for the home—always searching for a place to land. The cigar ashtray was not an obvious choice, but once seen, it could not be unseen.

Here was a world of ritual, where its most vital companion — the vessel for ash — seemed to have been left in an aesthetic void. It appeared strange: a luxury so complete in its moment, yet accompanied by something so generic.

What if the ashtray could be different? Not only as an extension of the self, but as a quiet completion—an object that does not interrupt the ritual, but belongs to it.

This is the commitment of the studio. Not a departure, but a return: to give the smallest thing the care it deserves.

The Philosophy

Design begins with a question: how can an object make a life more whole? Function is honored, but form is granted the dignity of its own presence. Beauty here is not a spectacle; it is quiet, measured, and lasting.

The challenge of the process lies in the harmony between personal expression, the enduring experience of use, and a visual presence that resists the passage of time. It is a search for balance—ensuring the object remains as relevant and refined years later as it was on the first day.

Materials are met without disguise. Wood, metal, and the marks of simple tools are embraced with honesty. Ingenuity lies not in machinery, but in making the most of what is at hand. Through this process, the studio seeks the true essence of the creative path—where the making is never hidden, for it is the soul of the work.