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Home editor's pickinterviews (Page 2)
zoë ryan: the future is not what it used to be. 2014 istanbul design biennial.

zoë ryan: the future is not what it used to be. 2014 istanbul design biennial.

Oct 15, 2014

istanbul14-Zoe_March2014zoë ryan | courtesy the art institute of chicago/ portrait by cynthia lynn

Zoë Ryan is the John H. Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design and Chair of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve been trying to catch her for almost four months to talk about the curator appointment of the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial coming up in October 2014. We talk following her break-out session with formlessfinder at Design Miami: [ff] won this year’s commission to build the entrance to the Design Miami pavilion.

[DesignApplause] Zoë, have you had a chance to get around Design Miami?
[Zoë Ryan] I’ve only had a small window before this talk, then I’ll head back out and start walking around.

[DA] This is my fifth year coming to Design Miami. I am sort of yearning for something more experimental.
[ZR] I mean, I would say, it’s difficult in this environment, but if you go back to Galerie kreo, they have one or two pieces from Hella Jongerius and one or two pieces from Wieki Somers which came from really experimental exhibitions. They’re kind of one or two from a big collection that they had produced that was shown in Paris. They were really fantastic. I thought that especially the Wieki Somers, um, these hybrids, furniture-lighting- not even sure what they are pieces- they were very exciting for me to see.

I also really enjoyed Volume Gallery and their show with only featuring Jonathan Muecke. I thought it’s quite daring to do a solo show. But in this environment, it really works well. It’s very legible, you get to see a great breadth of work. I think they’ve taken a lot of time. Their collection is very rigorous. It shows the breadth and depth of work, and for me, that’s what I’m looking for. Of course, this is a very specific environment to see this work in but I’m also very interested in.

I want to go see the Charlotte Perriand house on the beach that’s at the Raleigh Hotel, which is going to be hopefully a fantastic piece to see. I’ve never walked through the Herzog & de Meuron parking facility and check out the ‘Art Drive-Thru’ (Colette & Alchemist) installation. I’m curious about the new piece (Phare No. 1-9) by Simon Heijdens, who, you know, we’ve worked with in the past, who seems to know no bounds of his own dexterity as a designer. So I’m excited about that.

In terms of new experimentation, and also I think that’s where- for me- Miami excels is in these types of projects. Projects like formlessfinder’s and the Perrier-Jouët sponsored Simon’s project, are brilliant, where really those are the types of designers that are going to take this opportunity and really do something terrific with it. And something that really relates to their practice and helps them move their practice further, not only something that’s really rigorous and makes a lot of sense for them, and they get as much out of it as they give to the sponsor who’s sponsoring them. And I think more of that kind of sophistication is really needed. What have you seen?

[DA] You’ve given me new glasses to look through. The Swarovski Crystal Palace collaboration with Guilherme Torres creates ‘Mangue Groove’, an insightful installation inspired by mangrove trees to remind us of aquatic conservation efforts surrounding mangrove ecosystems in Brazil. Carpenters Workshop Gallery instilled the concept of time with two creatively fun video/grandfather clocks by Maarten Baas and rAndom created ‘Study of Time’ a mezmerizing illuminated digital wall hanging. Off-site there’s the ‘Untitled’ tent, the venue ‘finally’ on the beach and in Windwood there’s great graffiti art everywhere.

You mentioned Galerie kreo. They’re debuting a Poltrona di Proust armchair, first created by Alessandro Mendini in 1978; this version is in gold Bisazza mosaics. I’m not crazy about gold glitter. kreo director Joanna Frydman said, “It fits entirely with the luxurious mood of the fair.”

Can we talk about Istanbul? – Did this commission come out of nowhere for you?

istanbul14-theme1

[ZR] (Laughing) Yes, this came out of nowhere. So, in about- I don’t know- May of this year, I got an email from them asking if they could speak with me about the Biennial. I thought they were calling to ask about different projects and designers to work with, so I was all geared up for that. And then the next day they call again and asked me to curate their event and I was a bit, I was absolutely flabbergasted, but of course really excited.

It took me a minute to think on my good days, am I going to be able to do this project justice? And also will my boss, the Art Institute, allow me to do this? The museum is very committed to find work from other parts of the world and becoming more international, and definitely getting into parts of the world that have been, you know, largely ignored or overlooked.

One of the reasons why I was so excited to do the project was to work in Istanbul, a place that I’ve been to many times before, but never worked there, but somewhere I’ve always been a big fan of. And also to find that there really is a very thriving community of architects and designers there, which have a lot to give to the rest of the world and are really not known to the rest of the world. So that was really fantastic.

[DA] The theme ‘Manifesto’, was it given to you?
[ZR] No, absolutely not. When they came to me I asked for a few months to work on the title and the theme, and I was given complete carte blanche. I sort of floated some concepts past them last month- November. But I also went to Istanbul with my associate curator, Meredith Carruthers, who I hired, and we set out a number of different roundtable discussions with many, many architects and designers in the city, to get to know them and for them to get to know us and to start to throw ideas around. I already had in my mind what I wanted to- I love the history of manifestos, but I really wanted to rethink: what does it mean to have a manifesto today?

below> SIBLING reinstalls its video ‘The Encounterculture’, a manifesto of sevens ways to participate. The film, made in collaboration with Nicole Rose, is re-configured with eight tear-away propaganda posters that see the manifesto travel from the gallery wall out into the streets.

And the title of the Biennial is actually ‘the Future is Not What It Used to Be.” And it’s a way for us, I think we’re in this really critical moment, where we should take stock of where we are, where we’ve come from, and where we want to go. And we were using the manifesto really as a platform where we’re inviting architects and designers to rethink and revisit the history of manifestos, but propose ‘what is a conceptual design manifesto?’ You know, manifestos, towards the end of the 20th Century, seemed really outdated. They seemed naive, at best. And they were often very violent and destructive, they didn’t care about consequences. And so how can we use that talk and perhaps turn it around and reclaim it for our time?

Because I felt we’re in a moment where we do want both big and small ideas, but designers and architects really need to show that they can help us identify issues, work through issues and, at best, overcome issues. For example, how can the manifesto be something that deals with everyday realities, talk about the negative and positive consequences, look at the present yet potentially propose ideas for the future? A key- the manifesto does not need to be a text. It could be a project, it could be a provocation, it could be a service, it could be a publication. I mean, we’re looking for all kinds of projects that will make up the Biennial.

[DA] What’s your timeline?
[ZR] We’ve just launched the call for ideas, that’s gone online. And there’s a two-part call for ideas. The first part is the short statement and it’s about what your manifesto is, a few images, and what kind of platform or medium you want it to be in. And the deadline for that is February 1. And then we will circle back after that and start working individually with studios.

[DA] What are the expectations and criteria for the role of the curator? What’s the schedule for you going to be? How are you going to communicate with everyone to pull it together?
[ZR] Well, there are no hard and fast rules. I’ve been to Istanbul three times already, and I have my associate curator. There’s a team in Istanbul, there’s a foundation team that runs the Biennial. I’m building an international advisory. We have an informal advisory now in Istanbul. And we’re going to continue the idea sessions. We’ll be meeting at least once a month.

[DA] Zoë, is there anything you want to say that we didn’t talk about?
[ZR] Designers, we need you!

[ at-a-glance ]

below> Defne Koz, Marco Susani presents ‘Justaddwater’, their vision for the future of the food experience, where smart appliances meet creative gastronomy.

istanbul14-koz1courtesy koz susani design

below> Turkey has had its share of earthquakes and there are earthquake kits available. In response to this need designers Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons, who are looking at everyday surivivalism for different scenarios create a project called ‘New Survivalism: Alternative Bug-Out Bags’.

istanbul14-timandjess1courtesy parsons & charles- worth

below> ‘Becoming Istanbul’ by Superpool and Project Projects, explores contemporary Istanbul through an interactive database of over 400 artists’ videos, photography series, documentaries, news reports, cartoons and architectural projects.

istanbul14-superpool1courtesy superpool & project projects

below> architect/designer Elena Manferdini serves up ‘Still Life to Living Pictures’ using digital rendering at the scale of architecture to create a space of aesthetic reflection, asking the viewer to be both critical and complicit in this transformed environment, to suspend disbelief and enter the imaginative space of the backdrop, but also to “break the fourth wall” and inspect the surface of her illusion.

istanbul14-elena1updated / just in from istanbul sent by iphone | courtesy elena manferdini

[ participating designers and projects announced – updated ]


’The Future Is Not What It Used To Be’ hosts 53 projects that ask: “What is the future now?” 
By rethinking the manifesto as a platform to frame pertinent questions, the projects question the role of design, its relationship to society, and its ability to be an active agent for change.

The exhibition at the Galata Greek Primary School, the hub of the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, will spread over all five floors of the school, an area of approximately 2,300 square meters. 
The projects imagine new possibilities that can transform the present and invite new potential futures. Arranged in five departments— Personal, Norms and Standards, Resource, Civic Relations, and Broadcast — the projects question the manifesto as a platform for situating ideas and pointing to new directions.

[ personal department ] The Moonwalk Machine—Selena’s Step, Sputniko!
Consider Beauty, Studio Frith & Thirteen Ways
Still Life to Living Pictures, Atelier Manferdini: Elena Manferdini
Jardin d’hiver, Dice Kayek: Ayşe Ege and Ece Ege
In The Future, Everyone Will Be Heroic for 1.5 Minutes, Sarraf Galeyan Mekanik: Memduh Can Tanyeli, Erhun Erdoğan and Emine Seda Kayım
BIRDY 2214, Meriç Canatan and Fatosh Erhuy
Ownership of the Face, Kristina Cranfeld
Manifesting the Look of Love, Haelo Design: Helen Maria Nugent and Ron Kirkpatrick
Poly, giffin’termeer: Jess Giffin and Jim TerMeer
Mapmaker Manifesto, Stamen Design: Beth Schechter and Eric Rodenbeck
New Survivalism, Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons

[ norms and standards department ] N°41 Workoutcomputer, BLESS: Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag
Dyslexie Typeface, Christian Boer
Nap Gap, J. Mayer H. und Partner, Architekten: Jürgen Mayer H. with Wilko Hoffmann and Julien Sarale
smart design (. . .) smart life, Jacob de Baan, Giorgio Caione and Rianne Koens
Justaddwater, Koz Susani Design: Defne Koz, Marco Susani
LEPSIS: The Art of Growing Grasshoppers, Mansour Ourasanah
Designing for the Sixth Extinction, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
New Energy Landscapes, Sean Lally
Incomplete Manifesto for The Night, Clio Capeille
Towards a Universal Mundane Manifesto, Emmet Byrne and Alex DeArmond

[ resources department ] A Reading Room, Future Anecdotes Istanbul: Can Altay and Aslı Altay
Open Manifesto, FormaFantasma: Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi
Palamut Timeline, Didem Şenol of Lokanta Maya and Gram, with Elif Esmez, Esra Aca
Rebuild the Electronic and Digital Tools, Coralie Gourguechon
NASALO Dictionary of Smell, Sissel Tolaas
This sea of sugar knows no bounds, AVM Curiosities: Tasha Marks
Hacking the Modern Kitchen, Gastronomika
Diario, Moisés Hernández
knowledge-tools-memory, Studio mischer’traxler: Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler
Crafted in Istanbul, Seda Erdural, Barış Gümüştaş and Bilal Yilmaz
Repair Society, Gabriele Oropallo, Joanna van der Zanden, and Cynthia Hathaway
Cultures of Assembly, Studio Miessen
Imagining Our Shared Future, Atatürk Library, Alexis Şanal and Ali Taptık

[ civic relations department ] Public Drawing, Atelier Bow-Wow: Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima
Use of Shores, a Micro-Manifesto on Micro-Urbanisms, İyiofis: Elif Ensari and Can Sucuoğlu
The Moment for the Generic is Now, fala atelier: Filipe Magalhães and Ana Luisa Soares
#occupygezi architecture, Architecture for All (Herkes için Mimarlık)
The Encounterculture or, Seven Ways to Participate, SIBLING: Amelia Borg, Nicholas Braun, Jonathan Brener, Jessica Brent, Jane Caught, Qianyi Lim, Timothy Moore, and Alan Ting
Retreat, dpr-barcelona: Ethel Baraona, Studio-X; GSAPP: Marina Otero and FAST, The New Institute, Rotterdam: Malkit Shoshan
Design Activism: A Contemporary Design Manifest, Manufakturist: Mia Bogovac, Matea Bronić, Maša Milovac, and Kristina Volf; GOTWOB: Begüm Çelik and Berk Şimşek
TWTRATE, Cansu Cürgen, Eren Tekin, Yelta Köm, Barış Gümüştaş, Avşar Gürpınar, Yağız Söylev and Arzu Erdem
Who Builds Your Architecture?, WBYA?: Kadambari Baxi, Jordan Carver, Laura Diamond Dixit, Tiffany Rattray, Beth Stryker, Mabel O. Wilson
How To Do Too Kadıköy, 72 Hour Urban Action: Kerem Halbrecht and Gilly Karjevsky; with Tasarım Atölyesi Kadıköy (TAK): Onur Atay, Omer Kanıpak, Sıla Akalp
Retroactive Manifesto, Rural Urban Framework: Joshua Bolchover and John Lin
UMK: Lives and Landscapes, Dunne & Raby: Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
Phoenix Declaration, Arctic Perspective Initiative (API): Matthew Biederman and Marko Peljhan
The Cultural Sauna, Åbäke
ABC Manifesto Corporation Writers and Consultants, disturbATI collective

[ broadcast department ] Kontraakt, H. Cenk Dereli, Hayrettin Günç, and Yelta Köm
Growing Manifesto, Something & Son: Andrew Merritt and Paul Smyth
Unfacebook, Vibok Works: Paula Alvarez
140journos: Data Concretization, Institute of Creative Minds: Cem Aydoğdu, Engin Önder, Hilal Koyuncu, İgal Nassima, Meriç Şeker

The biennial’s exhibition space, catalogue, and visual identity are designed by Istanbul based Superpool and Project Projects, New York.

[ the opening week program | 30 october > 2 november 
]

>press and professional preview | 30>31 october 2014
>press conference | 10am 30 october at galata greek primary school, followed by an exclusive tour of the exhibition with the curator zoë ryan, associate curator meredith carruthers and the director of the istanbul design biennial deniz ova.

The opening week will provide special opportunities to hear from a number of the participating designers as well as key experts from a variety of fields and occupations. Kicking off the biennial, Curator Zoë Ryan is joined by curators, designers and thinkers in an informal discussion on the Future of Manifestos with Aric Chen, Alison Clarke, and Fiona Raby, exploring the key themes of the biennial on Friday, 31 October between 2>4pm.

Related panels explore the Future of Exhibitions with Paola Antonelli, Jan Boelen, Vasıf Kortun, and Prem Krishnamurthy with curator Zoë Ryan on Saturday, 1 November between 4.30-6pm; and the Future of Publishing with associate curator Meredith Carruthers and Can and Aslı Altay (Future Anecdotes Istanbul) Simon Johnson (THAT Magazine), Adam Michaels (Project Projects) and TWTRATE, on Sunday, 2 November between 4.30>6pm.

Also included in the opening week’s programme will be personal dialogues by designers from all around the world. Designers in Dialogue moderated by Denise Marie Bennett will include Jessica Charlesworth & Tim Parsons – Coralie Gourguechon; Mansour Ourasanah – Marco Susani & Defne Koz; Joshua Bolchover and John Lin – Kadambari Baxi and Mabel Wilson; Natasha Marks – Katharina Mischer Thomas Traxler on Saturday, 1 November between 2-4pm; disturbATI collective – Clio Capeille; GOTWOB – Manufakturist; Arctic Perspective – Cenk Derelli & Yelta Köm; Beth Schechter – Helen Maria Nugent on Sunday, 2 November between 2>4pm.

[ 2nd istanbul design biennial events ]

In addition to the exhibition, the biennial hub at the Galata Greek Primary School will host different events for design enthusiasts daily for six weeks: the Kontraakt team’s broadcast programming will be held on Tuesdays and throughout the week, Q&A’s and panels on Wednesdays, film screenings on Thursdays, and Children and Youth program every day.

Design Walks, comprised of visits to design studios, stores, manufacturers, and noted buildings in 6 neighborhoods and 6 thematic walks on Istanbul’s Asian and European sides to examine the textures of the city and observe traditional crafts are organised throughout the biennial.

The Academy Programme featuring 72 projects including workshops, exhibitions and panels organized by over 33 universities from Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Europe and the United States to reveal different aspects of the biennial theme can be viewed at university campuses and at Antrepo no.7.

event> [ 2014 Istanbul Design Biennial ] @tasarimbienali #tasarimmanifestosu #designbiennial
date> 1 > 14 november 2014 | tuesday > sunday 10a > 7p | free admission
venue> galata greek primary school | istanbul

<a href="527-ronscope200about ron kovach

talking to tanner woodford about the chicago design museum.

talking to tanner woodford about the chicago design museum.

Jun 24, 2014

chidm14-title-window1

We’re talking to Tanner Woodford, co-founder and executive director for the Chicago Design Museum. We’re in the new permanent space on Block Thirty Seven and a grand opening is less than a month away.

[DesignApplause] Tanner, this is the Chicago Design Museum’s third year? What’s different about this year?
[Tanner Woodford] Yes, it’s our third year and this year we’re becoming a permanent institution. The past two years we’ve been a pop-up. Our first year was in Humboldt Park and we had over 1,000 people attend our opening reception, which was an encouraging, pleasant surprise. Last year we moved to a more central location, here at Block Thirty Seven. We had 17,000 square feet. This year we have 5,000. At the Humboldt Park location, our visitors were mostly designers. But in Block Thirty Seven we are speaking to a more public audience. From walk-in traffic off the street, to the Blue Line station in this building. Building off the success of the last two years, we decided it was time to become permanent.

[DA] What have you learned in three years?
[TW] I have learned so much. In short, we are trying to institutionalize more.

[DA] What do you mean by institutionalize.
[TW] We’ve always learned by doing. For example, the color of this room. We wanted to go with a 2% grey instead of white, so that white objects pop and black is richer. So we painted the walls, tested it, and came away feeling it was little too cool. Our group decided to paint the walls again. We’ve begun to assess our curatorial processes. The museum’s business is curation—that’s our product. Now that we’re rooted in the community, we want to bring more traditional elements into our collections.

[DA] What kind of work are you looking for?
[TW] In the past we’ve only exhibited graphic design. Now we’re moving into the other disciplines of design: architecture, industrial design, fashion, interaction, and more. This is our first show in this space. We’re playing to our strengths, which is currently graphic design.

[DA] Mixing and matching is both interesting and stimulating. I recently interviewed fashion designer Elke Walter and she said she liked presenting her work in photo galleries and this week she’s in London in Zaha Hadid’s Design Gallery. And Luminaire, a furniture showroom, had a great fashion event. Tell us about the thrust of this event.
[TW] It’s called Starts / Speculation: Graphic Design in Chicago Past and Future. The idea is the gallery is divided in half. It’s non-linear and incomplete. Chicago is a city of broad shoulders, a very innovative community. We’re highlighting innovation over the last century. Starting with the Burnham Plan—urban planning—before moving through the New Bauhaus, Container Corporation and its Herbert Bayer-designed World Geographic Atlas. A lot of people don’t know that the CCA commissioned the recycle logo. We have the original Call to Entries for it. We’ve collected many interesting artifacts that signal the start of new things beginnings in Chicago. The other half of the gallery is forward-looking, consisting of local graphic design firms that answer the question ‘How will technology shape communication in 100 years?

[DA] And this is all Chicago.
[TW] This show is Chicago-focused, because it started as a celebration of the AIGA Centennial with the Chicago Chapter. The Chicago Chapter however wanted to celebrate 100 years of Chicago history rather than 100 years of AIGA history.

[DA] You talked to the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and STA (Society of Typographic Arts) which are graphic design. Have you talked to other design disciplines like AIA, ASID and IDSA?
[TW] Chicago has a strong design community. I’ve talked to a few of those organizations. We have many community partners — Architecture for Humanity, for example – which is doing an event here on June 27 that coincides with the AIA national conference. We are trying to broaden our community partners.

chidm14-buildout4

[DA] When there are exhibits here what’s the capacity?
[TW] 250 at one time, though we have a spillover space next door that accommodates several thousand.

[DA] How are you marketing yourself. You guys are very good at it.
[TW] We have an amazing marketing committee. We have two really great media sponsors, DesignApplause being one of them. We have four people on our marketing committee, and good press contacts. Frankly, now a lot of people are approaching us, asking what we are doing.

[DA] How many design museums are in the U.S.
[TW] There are over 100 cultural institutions in Chicago alone, including galleries and museums. At one time I was planning on visiting all of them, and that’s still on the bucket list.

In the states, I’ve been reaching out to a lot of directors of design museums. There’s Design Museum Boston and Design Museum Portland, which is under the same umbrella organization. There’s a Museum of Design in Atlanta. Of course there’s Cooper-Hewitt, the Walker, the Art Institute and the MCA, all of whom I have massive respect for.

Chicago is culturally rich and we’ve been lucky enough to find a niche here. We’re trying to complement what the city already has with regards to cultural resources.

[DA] It’s almost impossible to be in competition with other organizations when it comes to design. There are so many moving parts, aspects, no one can do it all, and it’s good to have the variety of perspectives from these curated efforts.
[TW] There’s a bandwidth for it. Rick Valicenti’s CHGO DSGN show is up now down the street. AIGA Chicago has a poster show—the chapter’s annual party—opening the night before ours.

[DA] Who talked you into Kickstarter. And congratulations with reaching your goal.
[TW] Thank you! It’s an idea we talked about on and off over the last couple of years. The board was really excited about it. The wonderful, talented Debbie Millman also strongly suggested it. And, when Debbie asks you to do something, you do it. The board talked about ways to engage the community. Kickstarter was a way for us to do so. We do have corporate sponsors and design firms that are sponsoring us and we have been, and are applying for grants, as well.

[DA] I’ve thought about it. It takes courage to try it.
[TW] Yes, talk about anxiety. There was so much support in the last 24 hours. It’s incredibly humbling.

[DA] Are there things that don’t work? Are you too new to know that? Does your board try this or that and sees what flies.
[TW] We’ve tried a few things. Our first store was called ‘Ignorance and Ambition’ and that’s sort of been baked into our DNA.

We’re young, and we’re new at this. We’re intentionally trying do the certain things differently. We’ve experimented in ways that a museum wouldn’t normally, now within more safe spaces.

A lot of this year has been spent talking to as many as possible, and asking how they see the role of a museum. We’ve got five questions we’re asking. One of them is ‘What is the role of the museum in society today?’ and ‘Can a museum be a disruptive technology?’ So, we’re still figuring out where our points of experimentation are, and how we’re going to define our voice as a non-traditional institution.

Certainly, becoming a permanent institution is ground breaking for us. The first year we took a month to create the environment, the show was up a month, and then torn down in days. One month and not much shelf life for the Chicago community and its visitors to see the exhibition. With this exhibition, we are going to have printed exhibition catalogs for the first time, so that the work can be archived into the future.

[DA] The catalog. A print or digital version?
[TW] We feel pretty strongly that a printed catalog will still be around in 50 years.

[DA] Let’s make time in the future to talk about this more. Who are your resources. Do you go to the schools repositories?
[TW] We’ve borrowed work from IIT, SAIC and UIC.

[DA] Do you see yourself as a repository also?
[TW] Yes, of course. We do feel strongly building collections and collections should be archived as well. We don’t have a lot of guidelines around that quite yet.

chidm14-buildout2

[DA] Rick (Valicenti) and I were talking about the Chicago Design Archive and the subsequent annual Archive competitions. And Rick asked where are they and I said online and he said, no, where ARE THEY?‘ I said the latest actual pieces to the competitions are probably in Bob Zeni’s basement. Maybe you guys are the repository.
[TW] We don’t have the space for it now.

[DA] True, but maybe you can find someone to donate the space and you can be responsible for it’s safe keeping and presenting it every now and then. Where is your ideal permanent space located?
[TW] Here. The West Loop and River North are always future options, but the intention is to be in a space that is very accessible to the public. From a visitor’s point of view, you almost have to leave the Loop to get to the neighborhood culture. It’s a question of audience for us. We have two audiences for the moment. There’s the design community, who we absolutely love. But, we also want to start talking to the general public. We want to brand Chicago outside of Chicago. We’re talking about how to raise Chicago’s influence internationally.

[DA] DesignApplause!
[TW] There you go.

[DA] What’s your arrangement in Block Thirty Seven if I can ask.
[TW] It’s a six-month rolling lease, and we hope to be here as long as possible.

[DA] What’s a good ‘length-of-show’ for you and how many times a year? Can you look at the MCA for example and see how long a show stays up?
[TW] That’s a good, complex question. Some shows can run longer depending on the content, but maybe our goal will become to create shows of equal content if that’s possible.

[DA] The best course is knowing that everybody is different and you learn by doing. Wallpaper magazine is a good example, always trying something. They have a cool concept now called ‘Handmade’ and it debuted in Milan, this is it’s fifth year. 70 pieces and the show just came to ICFF in New York. What’s amazing to me is Wallpape knows they are going to do it but the participants have about two-two 1/2 months to conceive and hang it.
[TW] Yes, exactly, just do it. You know there are many institutions that have done similar things.

[DA] How many people are helping you at the moment.
[TW] At the moment about 35. The institution expands and contracts as needed. We feel fortunate to have such skilled and passionate friends, followers, and volunteers.

[DA] Who’s on your board? Just graphic designers?
[TW] No. Lauren Boegen is our Administrative Director and works at Adler. Jessica Vician is our Marketing Director and works as a content strategist for SPC Educational Solutions. Moving forward, we are trying to build a more traditional board, particularly around development and fundraising.

[DA] What’s next?
[TW] We have a couple of concepts on the table, and will fill you in soon!

[DA] Tanner, let’s close this chat with why you do this and do you get yourself into panic attacks.
[TW] I am in constant panic. Now, I have more time to think. In any design discipline, there is a state of panic, a desire for constant improvement. We’ve learned a lot about timeframes, and are managing the work better with each exhibition. We have a very curious, passionate, creative group who take on a ton of the pressure.

chidm14-tanner1tanner

[DA] What about you personally. It is as simple as you saying ‘I own this property and what kind of a person would I be if I wasn’t always trying to improve it.’
[TW] That’s an interesting question. I think my personality has been intertwined with museum’s for the last three years, even while I was at Morningstar. I was (and still am) passionate about Morningstar, but there is definitely something about building this business from the ground up. There is this idea to constantly make things better.

chdm14-vip1vip opening night

1> plan of chicago | daniel h. burnham | 1908 ( oldest entry in show )
2> 2013 morningstar annual report | morningstar design | 2014 ( most recent entry in show )
3> support board


[ chicago design museum – interview 2012 ]

event> starts/speculations: graphic design in chicago past and future
date> 12 june > 30 august 2014
venue> block thirty seven | 3rd floor | 108 north state street chicago
open to public> tues>sat noon>7p

talking to coalesse new design director john hamilton. milan 2014.

talking to coalesse new design director john hamilton. milan 2014.

Jun 7, 2014

above> john hamilton design director coalesse

milan14-coalesse-carbon1<5_MY Chair | michael young | aka carbon fiber chair || click > enlarge

We met with new Coalesse Design Director John Hamilton in Milan. We talked about the impact of recent management changes at Coalesse and their relationship with parent, Steelcase. We also were introduced to a new and amazing carbon fiber chair created by Michael Young.

[DESIGNAPPLAUSE] John, what’s different at Coalesse after the new restructuring?
[JOHN HAMILTON] I think a lot has changed and not much has changed. What’s changed would not be apparent to most people unless you knew us from the inside. Management has changed but our strategy and philosophy has not. Our problem solving has not changed. When you think what we’re trying to focus on, maybe the ways we’re going to tell the story or ways that we market you would say feels a little different. But if you go back, if you knew the original intent of what we’re trying to do, it’s still the same. We still think there’s a huge opportunity for the direction that was previously set and in that mindset, not that much has changed.

[DA] What is the strategy?
[JH] The world of work is changed in the way we’re all working. For a while we were trying to talk about that change, but now it’s so commonplace that if we mention it, people just nod their head and say ‘I do that’. That also means because of new technologies we all have, we’re now able to choose where we want to work and how we want to work. And now we have a greater variety of where to choose to work than in the past. Because of all multiple devices to choose from we have even more freedom to decide whether to work at the office or somewhere else. Today we’re seeing people choosing not to go to the workplace. And we are probing the reasons for that decision, why are they choosing alternative places. If we can understand why and leverage those insights we might bring people back to the workplace.

What maybe different is our partnership with Steelcase. We’re (Coalesse) part of a very large eco system or organization that’s looking at work, and workers and the workplace and things that are affecting you the whole day, and not just at one location. And we complement them really well and we’re going to find ways to demonstrate that differently or better than we did in the past.

I’ve talked to some people and they say, ‘you’re about home office or about retail, right?’ But we’re are really about the office and trying to bring a different sensibility to that space. And there’s a desire to get people back into the office to restore group synergy, that synergy that fosters greater creativity and collaboration. The office will be more comfortable, healthier, all the wellness things that we as individuals are concerned with.

[DA] John, you mention Steelcase. How do you interface with them?
[[JH] I’m a part of James Ludwig’s Global Design Group. We’re directly connected with them on a daily basis. In short, we’re partners with them. And because of Steelcase, our facilities in Michigan is amazing. I’m in San Francisco now and I’m a little sorry I left Michigan because after I left they implemented an entirely new space. It’s world class. We know it’s world class because we’re global. I’m a good example, I’ve spent time in Asia and that experience is felt in our design.

One of the things we talk about is ‘unfair advantage’ at Steelcase. Which means we at Coalesse leverage Steelcase’s resources. I have a researcher in San Francisco and get to partner with other researchers across the globe. My issues in San Francisco are slightly different because of nuances that we’re working on, but they’re the same issues globally because it’s about people. We’re always globally comparing traditional workspaces against alternative workspaces that we’re working on. If you talk to my direct competitors and ask them if they would like to have 30 researchers situated around the world working for you everyday that you get to leverage and 150 engineers and a model shop and a test lab, anyone would say, absolutely.

[DA] What is the Global Design Group?
[JH] We have several disciplines (design and engineering) at Steelcase which we think about as global. We have a design studio headquartered in Grand Rapids Michigan. There’s one in Salzburg France and Rosenheim Germany, in Hong Kong and San Francisco. And we work together to get an international perspective. It’s not surprising the challenges that I have in San Francisco are slightly different than those in Hong Kong. And when you study all our network locations you begin to see a pattern, where people might be struggling. We have the advantage of using our global perspective to respond. Our reach and scale gives us an unfair advantage.

[DA] Are your products tailored to different parts of the world?
[JH] I think sometimes products get applied differently. Or scaled regionally. We’re starting to find there’s a more international consistency than inconsistency. The opportunity to do something that can be globally executed, we’re seeing greater and greater possibilities of doing that. The nuances are more regional. In Hong Kong, space is a greater concern. So things are tighter, closer together there. But globally we are seeing that people are responding to pillows and lounging chairs where there are more options to sit, stretch, and they are more comfortable and also more productive. And that’s what Coalesse is about, looking at alternative aspects of the workplace, adding new settings, new postures and possibilities.

[DA] I talked to Toan Nguyen and Jean-Marie Massaud last year at Neocon and would like to know how their solutions are being received.
[JH] I was going to ask you the same thing. We are just shipping them and we have a lot of orders to fulfill at this time.

[DA] The designers and experts that I’ve talked to, everyone loves the concepts, the design and execution. The solutions are both unique.
[JH] That’s another example of who we are, we’re striving to be unique. We have a new chair that is very unique, our carbon fibre chair. We partnered with designer Michael Young.

[DA] The chair is beautiful.
[JH] You have to touch it, move it, lift it.

milan14-coalesse-carbon2

milan14-coalesse-carbon3

[DA] It’s light as a feather.
[JH] Michael’s office is in Hong Kong. We were talking to him about carbon fiber and our interest in exploring the material and how you could push it and come up with a product that when you looked at it you knew it could only be done in that material. We wanted to do it in a way that really optimized the reason why you would use that material which is about lightness and strength. And it’s expensive for what it is. You want to only use as much as you need. So the Steelcase seating engineers worked with our carbon fiber manufacturer and Michael and FEA modeling to optimize exactly how much you need as you go through the visualization and the testing. We wanted it to stack four-high and weigh less than five pounds. The chair is 4.8 pounds /2.2 kilos. A box of four is under 25 pounds so shipping is inexpensive but this chair, it’s not the most expensive chair in the marketplace.

What’s interesting and the way I look at it, this is about a new product. We’ve always talked about craft and materiality as being very important to Coalesse. When you think about the time when they were exploring wood for example, they were pushing wood technology. They were steam-bending it. They were taking paper and twisting it into a rope, taking materials at that moment and seeing what they could do with it in new ways that literally push the boundaries of manufacturing at that time. Look at Eames, working with plywood and fibreglass. I believe if the Eames’s were around today they’d be playing with carbon fiber.

And there’s a real craft to shape it, join parts together, polish, paint it and then finish coat. Our manufacturing partner is an expert at finishing. If you ask Michael what he thought when he saw the possibilities, he was all eyes and ears. (DesignApplause will be talking to Michael at NeoCon 2014.) Look at the finishing, look at the transition of color, from a 2% to 8% grey. There’s a metallic one over there. We sent them a copper wire and the manufacturer matched it exactly. Another unique by-product on this chair, we’re going to enable the designer to specify what areas they want and which way. Just send a PMS chip or a sample. We can duplicate it. You get to participate. The only limitation with the process is seemingly ‘real-time’.

[DA] Is this powder coated process?
[JH] No, it’s a handpainted process. It’s a craft. Everyone is going to be slightly different, unique. And yet there is the consistency that you expect. And don’t they make carbon fiber bikes and boats and those things are outdoors all day long. This chair is both indoor and outdoor. And they’re so light I can stack four of these and carry them out with one arm.

[DA] John, please hold one in the air. With one hand.

milan14-coalesse-john1

Note: The carbon fiber chair has a new name:<5_MY Chair And keep a look out for our Michael Young’s take on his new chair following NeoCon 14. [ michael young ][ coalesse ] [steelcase ]

talking to fashion designer elke walter.

talking to fashion designer elke walter.

Mar 13, 2014

above> elke and zaha at zhd gallery | ‘elke is my favorite fashion designer’ ~ zaha hadid

We heard fashion designer Elke Walter was in town, having a pop-up store at Deborah Colman and Neil Kraus’ Bucktown store [ pavilion ]
[DesignApplause] Elke, what brings you here to Chicago?
[Elke Walter] We are here to do a pop-up store. Chicago is a great architecture and design destination and I once showed at Luminaire in 2007. So we thought it would be good to come back.

[DA] Is the pop-up concept new to you?
[EW] Actually we started this year. Let’s go back. Last year we, my husband Alfred and myself, moved from Germany to France. We were in a mood to start something new. In Germany, Hamburg, we had a studio and like other designers we were producing and selling to stores. We don’t have a store and I don’t like to go to fashion fairs which allows us to live in the countryside, in Provence, and everything feels very good, almost magical. It seems I am supported by the nature surrounding our new studio, I don’t know how to explain it, I feel it has an influence on my work. If you feel good you can transport this feeling through your work.

[DA] What’s your new environment like?
[EW] We live next to a vineyard. We have a very big garden. It’s a big place though my studio is very small. I now take the time to devote one-to-two hours to work in the garden.

[DA] Do you work alone?
[EW] I am surrounded by very talented and compatible local help. The conceptual, the creative I do myself and my helpers create the prototypes and some of the products. That said, it was difficult to find women who could respond to my needs. But it’s been a year or less so maybe it wasn’t all that difficult.

[DA] As a designer there is a certain element of control.
[EW] True, but the relationship, the chemistry who you work with is very important. And we are a close, small group. We don’t want to be big, we are in the country and I do feel the reduction in pace and pressure compared to a big city.

elke-essential-photo1essentials collection

[DA] How do you work?
[EW] I don’t work on a computer. I don’t sketch. I just cut. I have my basic patterns in mind and I know when I have a fabric what to use it for. I’m always looking for fabrics and I buy what I like. I have something very abstract in mind when I buy the fabrics. Sometimes the concept comes later but sometimes, it’s very exciting when I use the fabric as soon as I come home. I just cut, do the basic seams, the basic sleeves, the rest is open and then I see what I can do with it. At the start I work on a mannequin.

[DA] Ok, so you create as you go. You know the strengths and weaknesses of the fabrics. When someone asks you to do something you can grab the right fabric.
[EW] Yes and, I do not leave the choice to my customers. I like the idea of someone telling me I need a dress, I need a coat, I need something sumptuous, do what you think is good for this. I may be told what the event is and maybe there are limitations like don’t make it black or silver. I may then send just one piece or a box of things that I curate from what I have on hand.

[DA] What is the lead time for a dress?
[EW] If I have the time and I can concentrate on a piece, it can be created within a week if I have the fabric. If I have to look for the fabric I need one week more.

[DA] I learned that you also do work for the performing arts. Tell us about that experience.
[EW] I did performing arts twice. Once for the German theatre and then for the same director for a Hong Kong presentation. It took me three months to work on each. I would like to do it again and we’ll see if an opportunity presents itself but it’s something I don’t pursue with vigor because my regular work needs time too.

elke-ballet1

[DA] You’ll figure it out. What is your mix within your current portfolio?
[EW] I have a collection called ‘Essentials” which come only in black and there are always pieces available. They are basics and there are many options. Everyone says they feel so comfortable. That’s because of the way I cut. For example, with long sleeves there are no shoulder seams which demands quite a bit more fabric. Production apparel is cut with fabric efficiency in mind, usually at the cost of comfort. I am now spoiled wearing clothes that offer a great degree of comfort and freedom.

[DA] Do you design for men? I’m thin but I’ve worn oversized for such a long time. Now fitted clothes are in and it’s a whole new wardrobe. And I can see a man wearing some of your work.
[EW] Yes, snug clothes are in now, it’s the trend. And the clothes are much cheaper to produce. I am working on a new unisex line. They are coats and jackets and they are loose fitting. I’ve done clothes for my husband and Nasir Kassamali. I’ve done shirts. The men’s jackets look a bit different than what we are used to seeing.

[DA] Do you feel your clothes are designed for a different physique?
[EW] For small people everything looks good. It is difficult if you are very thin. I now have three sizes and they seem to work. One reason is many of my pieces are adjustable or can be worn different ways. You can let it hang loose or cinch it up and make it look best for you.

[DA] How did you get into design?
[EW] I did many things before. Maybe this is not the end. I was a writer, my husband is a writer. We did live in France from 1994 to 2001 and I started designing my own clothes because I couldn’t get what I liked where I lived. There was a day when I needed someone to do something for me and I was forced to do it myself. I placed no restrictions on myself, doing it differently, doing what was possible. I started very simple, then it came closer to the body. Then I got my first customer which I never had in mind to work for other people. But there were other orders and when we went back to Germany I brought my clothes into a shop. At this time I was making one-of-a-kind. And then in 2003 I opened my own store. I would buy fabric and make one-of-a-kind and it was very successful. I couldn’t believe it. One should have studied for what I now do, and the success encouraged me to keep going. I became a member of the German craft council, I am still a member. We went to shows and in New York where I met Nasir and he invited me to go to Miami in 2006. In fact he introduced me to Zaha Hadid and this December I will be showing in her design gallery. Looking back, one day you notice you’re part of the design world and that was never the plan. The plan was to do something for myself.

[DA] Was the craft council responsible for getting you out of your city?
[EW] The council presented opportunities which I followed. For example, the government gives financial support to go to fairs and provides venue to show your work. They also included me in an installation at a Hamburg museum. There were many opportunities.

[DA] What’s the difference between a trunk show and a pop-up store.
[EW] A trunk show typically occurs in a department store or boutique shop and you bring your trunk of work and they bring their customers. With a pop-up you have much more responsibility. It’s your shop within a shop. And you wouldn’t go into a fashion shop because they have their own stable of designers. With a pop-up you can go into many design worlds, an interior world for example and for a brief period of time your work is special within another environment, though design is the common thread.

[DA] Clive Thompson, a writer, says ‘our ideas are inspired by our environment.’ Are you inspired by your environment?
[EW] When I work, what I’m doing, what I like, I cannot say I saw something that inspired me. What should I say? I like certain things of course though I can’t say my dresses are a result of a tangible this or that. You know, it’s here (pointing to heart) and I’ve thought about this and I’ve talked to my husband a lot. For me, when something is done you may give it a name. For example color, some things look like morning dew to me or rain. So you see, my process is the other way around. And the process lives in a claustrophobic place, it’s in my head, and it’s my mirror. It’s me and the fabric. and that’s why, even when we had a studio in Hamburg and we had people working there on staff, I couldn’t be creative there, with people all around me, it was impossible. I took half of the day in my studio and half of the day in my head.

[DA] You mention mirrors. How important are the mirrors in your life?
[EW] Very important. Because I have to see what I’m doing while I’m doing and I want it to be beautiful from all sides.

[DA] So you have a mirror surrounding you?
[EW] No no, it’s one mirror. I am really not complicated, it’s really very simple. And now my space is very small. Me, the mirror, the fabric. And there I am standing, always standing. It’s a very physical exercise when I’m doing one-of-a-kind.

1
one-of-a-kind

[DA] What’s the function and purpose of clothes. To you?
[EW] We should look good in it. We should look good and be comfortable. And not just like everybody because you get clothes, both cheap and expensive, and I don’t see a difference. The clothes should show your personality. If it’s a simple black thing, cut in a different way, people will say, “Oh she must be special” or “she looks so different”. You don’t want to hide in the crowd. You don’t want to be like a mouse or an insect. Or a fish in the sea.

[DA] Ok. I get it. You know when we are talking about fabrics I was recently a guest of Heimtextil and though I didn’t talk to many designers I was almost always thinking how the designer, the fabric, the presentation, how do they arrive at the end product. How do very successful designers, and I include you, get the fabric?
[EW] Very famous designers work with manufacturers, and we talk about this. For instance in Italy, if you have an idea the manufacturer does it for you. I want this print, this texture, this weight, this function, maybe two colors, maybe 14, and the manufacturer shows you this and that to respond to. If you go to a fabric fair, a very good in Paris, Première Vision, on the first day you just walk around looking touching and you choose the companies you like most, and you choose your samples, your swatches which are sent to your studio. Then back at the studio you put together colors and textures. The best is to find your manufacturer. That way you don’t need 20 options you need just one, two, three, and that’s what we are doing now. And there are also wholesalers who deal in smaller quantities and deal with the designers who are yet another resource to choose. If I do a one-of-a-kind I am looking for a very special unique fabric.

[DA] What are trends to you?
[EW] Trends are market related so you have to do something for the next season. So you buy something new. That’s all. It’s fun for people who participate. I don’t want them to stop. For me, a bit foolish because for example, in the 90s everything had to be neon colored. Shoes, jewelry, nail polish, lipstick. And then you have all this stuff in your closet. You know, this is very personal. And then they say, let’s go back to the 80s. Then everything we just mentioned practically goes to black. The trends are primarily the province of less expensive products and everybody wants to fit in. Granted, its good for the economy.

[DA] Do you throw in the creative recipe sustainable, ecological solutions?
[EW] Oh yes, though I don’t use or look for special ecological, organic fabric, because for me sustainable is that I can wear my work for years on end. And I can wash it and not take it to the dry cleaner and it still looks perfect. It remains unchanged in the design, its freshness, its state.

[DA] I’ve changed my attitude a bit. This past year I had to judge a show of new products and my criteria was if there was no sustainable effort, we are talking about material here in most cases, the object could not receive a vote higher than five, no matter how it looked or behaved. My criteria has shifted more in line with your assessment of what sustainable means and now put that in my equation.
[EW] There are many aspects to this issue. You can work with organics but you also may have a worthy self interest to work local and the material and the manufacturing might not be locally available. And I feel, with what I do, I could have trouble always finding a unique, renewable, beautiful, sumptuous, responsive material for every solution. I can rationalize there are not that many one-of-a-kinds in the big scheme of things.

[DA] You know, I am a hypocrite in this matter. At home we don’t use plastic bottles for water, nor plastic bags at the grocery store. We take public transportation when we can and in DA I preach sustainable. But our car, it would be labeled high performance.
[EW] Ok, if we are going down this path, I don’t use cotton because I don’t like cotton. The material I use is, well, high tech.

elke13-popup-hadid1zhd gallery pop-up

elke13-popup2

[DA] Are you on your computer looking at fashion?
[[EW] No, not fashion. I use the computer for music. My son give me music in my dropbox and now I have an extensive playlist and the music goes on before work, during work and occasionally in the evenings. And I enjoy Youtube. The computer is next to my music and I enjoy finding out what the singer looks like, the performance art of the song and I am less interested in what they are wearing.

[DA] When I listen to music I listen to the music, not the words, but the music. I can be following a song for two years and all of a sudden it dawns on me what the song is about.
[EW] When I’m standing, draping and cutting the music needs to be loud. And not classical but edgy. When I’m sitting the volume comes down. I also look at design blogs. I like to look at lighting, installations, I follow Zaha Hadid and enjoy what she creates. I use it for research and follow German and French politics. I read The Guardian online. I’ve looked for shoes. Ah, I don’t have much time to do any of this. I prefer working in the garden. Alfred lives on the computer and tells me everything that’s important. He tells me everything I have to know.

[DA] What’s next?
[EW] Monday we go to France to get ready for Geneva and Hamburg where we are still working with two stores who want our stuff and we do runway shows for their designer week. Then to Berlin where we will be in an art gallery. Then in London where we will be in Hadid’s design gallery. We were also thinking about being in New York at year end where a store wants us to come but we wonder if it’s a good time just before Christmas when everyone, the women who buy our work, are extra busy socially and don’t have the time to come to a pop-up. We are also talking to an artistic photo gallery in Berlin. I like the interplay of photography and my work.

[DA] Anything else?
[[EW] While in Chicago I really enjoyed giving a lecture at the School of the Art Institute fashion department where I was a guest of Katrin Schnabl. In my new space I miss my interns. We had a lot in Hamburg and now I don’t have the space and we live in the countryside and they would have to find a place to live and they would be bored.

[DA] DesignApplause has a roster of about 15 interns and they work when their schedule permits. What’s interesting for me is I pick the ones who are fast at what they do.
[EW] Ah, same here. I don’t pick them because of their portfolio. I first want to talk to them and then I give them a little test. I want to see their practical side and our working chemistry. I am also wanting to get back into objects. Maybe lighting. I am working on a pendant light where the light source is coming from the bottom. I would like to collaborate with a lighting designer and I am looking into that.

elke13-popup-pavilion-mug1at the pavilion pop-up

[ Elke Walter ] is a mainly self-taught designer who has always refused to learn from others. Her aim was to get down to her own creative impact. The inner need to create things and give shape to fabrics was her stimulus.

But after more than 15 years in fashion business, furnishing more than 20 boutiques worldwide, and feeling urged to get back again to her own expressionism Elke and her husband Alfred, decided to make a sharp cut.

In 2012 their 20 boutiques worldwide were informed that they will not be furnished with Elke Walter collections anymore. The Walters gave up store and atelier in Hamburg and moved to Southern France. The reset button was pushed.

In the Provence countryside new expressive design is created that is showcased and sold via a pop up system in Europe and the US. Based on a permanent basic line, the Essentials, one-of-a-kind items are created, as well as a genderless avant-garde and an accessories line. Good form on a base of sustainability.

Innovative design, combined with distinguished craftsmanship is able to produce the thrilling highlights of today.

[ 2014 schedule ]
Hamburg ( private sale ) end March,
San Francisco | Aidlin Darling Architects | 18 > 190 April ( Easter )
London | ZHD Zaha Hadid Design Gallery | 29 > 31 May
Frankfurt | location to be announced | 12 > 14 June

For the 2nd half of 2014 details to be announced
New York
Sao Paulo
Dallas
London
Miami

<a href="527-ronscope200about ron kovach

Talking to didier krzentowski of galerie kreo. Design miami/ 2013.

Dec 20, 2013

miami13-kreo122012 galerie kreo booth

[DesignApplause] We talked with Didier Krzentowski of Galerie Kreo in 2012 and 2013. But we never published 2012. The following is 2012 and Didier is going to start with where it all began.
[Didier Krzentowsk] OK, so like 15 years ago, I find out that in fact, if you speak about design and furniture design, or industrial design, we are living in a world where we remix everything, not much is really new. Even if you take the cars, you see fantastic design that happened between the ’50s and the ’70s. If you take the watches, it’s about the same. But after that, if you take into account much of the industrial design, even though technologically things get better and better, much of the design is a remix, a re-hash.

So I got the idea, at this time to have a gallery, one that could be like a collaboratory with the designers, where we could think about ‘new’ designs, plus thinking this new design could afterwards go to market. I never speak about decoration but more functional design. And all of the designers we work with like Konstantin Grcic, the Bourroullec’s, Pierre Charpin, or Martin Szekely or Hella Jongerius are also all thinking first in their head about industrial design with products going to market. And the gallerie concept in a good way allows them to pre-think, as you were, their designs and maybe helps them to build what they want the design to be in the future.

miami13-kreo12-grcic-465table1465 | konstantin grcic | galerie kreo | 2011

For example we are in the DesignMiami art fair, and here’s a table (465 from ‘champion collection’ that consisted of eight tables) by Konstantin Grcic. You see on the feet of the table you have decorative symbols which are unique to the table, and in fact, it is ideal to say, now everything is branded because of those symbols. And then a new idea arises that the next generation tables will be come in an assortment of colors. Each time the designer has an opportunity to see their effort, there are new ideas.

In fact, the very idea of the gallery is to be a platform where the designer, the collector, the visitor can speak of design in the future. That’s 90% of the work of the gallery. The rest of the work is aimed at collecting. I’m kind of a furniture collector. And for 30 years I’m collecting lamps. There is a book by jrp|ringier called The Complete Designers’ Light (1950-1990) where I was showing like 800 lamps from the ’50s to the ’90s. And this book lists all the lamps with the designers I work with. And in fact, the book was just to show that we invent and when people invent.

[DA] What did you do prior to 15 years ago? Were you just collecting or did you have a gallery?
[DK] I was a collector, an avid collector of art and furniture design. And when we sold the company I was working with, I thought that my next edition would be to do something I like and what I like was art and design. And before I opened the gallery, I was thinking about industrial design but the financial side of it. That perspective came when I was working in the sports industry, I was working with Jean Claude Killy, the skier, and I saw all these sports guys had agents and Killy signed on with Mark McCormack who headed IMG (International Management Group).

And I thought why can’t we bring these designers who also work in a huge industry and bring them together to think about new products. And the company was called Kreo. And in fact, everyone was quite happy with all the products that were introduced. There may be 30 million pieces in the world now. And at this time we work with Marc Newson, the Bourellacs’, with all of them. But we couldn’t succeed, because people were not in the mood to wait and they wanted the product right away. But some were ok with a copy of the product, which we can now call a limited edition of the product.

[DA] How, how do you collaborate with your designers? How do you commission them? What determines what you carry?
[DK] We are like partners. Well no, in fact, we are the first to work the way of the art industry, that means we are not exactly partners but instead we split the production and we split the margin that we earn. And this was different from everybody else. So maybe it’s for this reason, for 15 years or 14 years (Galerie Kreo opened in 1999), we continue to work with all these designers. And if you take people like Konstantin Grcic, like the Bourellacs, like Charpin, they have one gallery in the world, and we are that gallery.

[DA] When they have an idea do they approach you? Is that how that works?
[DK] Yes and no but whenever they do approach us and we begin to speak together, it can be really very long. Jasper Morrison, we had to wait five years to do an exhibition, but we have made two in a row.

strong>[DA] And what of the other way around? You have an idea and you want something to happen?
[DK] No. In fact, I never have an idea because I’m not a designer. So in fact, they work on research and when they ready they come to me. Though, if we have a group show, it can come from me. I will finish with a fantastic show, but with only three answers. The question with the missing object. (both laugh.)

strong>[DA] Do you want to say anything about Design Miami?
[DK] Of course, I’m very happy about Design Miami. Why? Because, in fact, you know, we went to see Craig Robins a long time ago to say a lot of art collectors collect our furniture, and we wanted to begin something with them. And we began the fair with them. So when we saw the success of Basel, Art Basel and Design Miami, we were really happy.

strong>[DA] You’re on the vetting committee to determine who’s going to be here. Obviously, since day one, right?
[DK] Exactly.

strong>[DA] Do you have to turn any away?
[DK] Sometimes we turn away. Sometimes we say people be careful, because you are showing the same thing, you know just like a vetting committee.

[DA] There are 36 galleries this year, so congratulations are in order. Is there anything you want to say about the business aspect in general?
[DK] Thank you. I’m really happy because in fact, we see that more and more people beginning to look at the furniture designer, and that’s great.

miami13-kreo13-didier1didier in 2013 galerie kreo booth

[DesignApplause] Back at it with Didier in 2013. What’s happened this past year?
[DK] I think people are more and more involved in design and look intently at furniture, especially at Design Miami/. They are also more interested in content and the story of the designer’s who are making the pieces.

[DA] Do you have an opinion on why this is happening?
[DK] I am not sure why. We have definitely seen a rise in the interest for design; you now have major Art Museums organizing very important design shows. Such as the Marc Newson exhibit currently on at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Design is at the forefront of contemporary creation, and has managed to capture a younger audience, as well as the more established collectors.

[DA] The designer’s that you’re representing are also very strong production designers.
[DK] Absolutely. The designers we represent, also work with the best industrial companies such as Flos, Vitra, Alessi…At the gallery we act like a research laboratory for them, meaning they have total freedom to create.

miami13-kreo-mendini-gold1poltrona gold | alessandro mendini | 2013

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gemstone table | hella jongerius | 2013

[DA] We were in Chicago at Art Expo this past September. Tony Kalman had a great show. Do you think design galleries would come and be well received in Chicago?
[DK] Of course. Chicago is a very important place in Art and Design.

[DA] At Art Expo, at some point after going from booth to booth the idea of are there any architects or designers hanging in the booths. I only asked a few booths and maybe sorry this idea didn’t come sooner. But out of 12 galleries asked, eight had designers or architects in Art Expo. One was Gyorgy Kepes who taught at the Institute of Design in Chicago. He taught a class on light and design. Gyorgy was very influential in Chicago and Moholy Nagy asked him to teach. Another Alexandre Arrechea, a Cuban born artist. His sculpture represented Chicago bridges which are all stacked. Even a gallery owner, Robert Koch, is an architect.
[DK] Interesting. To be an artist you are free if you wish to go into any field. For an architect or designer that may be a bit more complicated in it’s constraints.

[DA] Let’s flip it around. Are any of your designers here pursuing art that you know of?
[DK] No, they are all in design. Now fashion, if you think of Dior he’s a fashion designer but he’s also an artist with a big ‘A’. But the designers in our galerie are just thinking about design.

miami13-kreo-somers-truth1>mokoto (truth) | studio wieki somers | 2013

miami13-kreo-somers-truth2mokoto (truth) | studio wieki somers | 2013

miami13-kreo-charpin-rtable1large R | pierre charpin | 2013

miami13-kreo13-dubois-reflect1reflect | david dubois | 2013

miami13-kreo-newson-fastrez1carbon ladder | marc newson | 2009

miami13-kreo-paulin-elsee1elysée | pierre paulin | 1970s

miami13-kreo13-charpin-bouroullec1 ignotus nomen | pierre charpin | 22011 //desk light | ronan & erwan bouroullec | 2012

[DA] Didier, I do know what else is different this year.

miami13-kreo12-shoes1dk 2012

miami13-kreo13-didier2dk 2013

[ galerie kreo ] The kreo Gallery was founded in 1999 by Didier and Clémence Krzentowski. It enjoys an international reputation especially for its limited objects and furniture created by leading designers editions, satisfying it’s founding goal of getting design closer to the public and providing a “space laboratory” dedicated to the research work of these designers. kreo’s first location settled in the 13th arrondissement of Paris in the middle of a group of avant-garde galleries, first rue Louise Weiss, then to a larger space on Duchefdelaville street. In 2008, the gallery moved to the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés to 31 Rue Dauphine.

Brolab, formlessfinder, goebl, laffanour, meloche, muecke, ryan preview. Design miami/ 2013.

Dec 10, 2013

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above/belove> jonathan muecke at volume gallery. jonathan holds ‘cs’ the coiled stool, work that was made last week. the stool is the latest of a series of studies on using textile tubes and jonathan will explain what he’s learned in the process in the upcoming interview.

miami13-volume-muecke-stool1cs | jonathan muecke | volume gallery | 2013

miami13-monique1

above/below> we talk to monique meloche at untitled. she will tell us about her 12 years experience at design miami and what the exhibiting experience is under the tent, on the beach, at untitled.

miami13-monique-carter1effigy for a new normalcy | kendell carter | moniquemeloche gallery | 2013

miami13-brolabs

above/below> also at untitled, the collective brolab bridges art and design principles exploring minimalist objects where people can interact with both the artists and the work. brolab’s broad vision includes public sculpture, place making and site-specific interventions.

miami13-brolabs2moses transpo & bench press redux | brolab | 2013

miami13-zoe-formless1zoë ryan / garrett ricciardi / julian rose

above/below> at design talks zoë talks with formlessfinder and then with designapplause about what it’s like to be the curator for the second edition of the istanbul design biennial. then we talk with garret and julian about design, miami and sand.

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above/below> we chat with françois laffanour about this year and charlotte perriand, louis vuitton amongst many other things.

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miami13-marianne2

marianne goebl, director design miami will give us a post-design miami/ 2013 wrap-up. stay tuned / keep following.

[ design miami/ ] @DesignMiami #designmiami

Heijdens, krzentowski, palomba and torres previews. Design miami/ 2013.

Dec 7, 2013

miami13-swarovski-torres1

above/below> The Swarovski Crystal Palace collaborates with artist Guilherme Torres to create the installation ‘Mangue Groove’, inspired by mangrove trees to remind us of important aquatic conservation efforts surrounding mangrove ecosystems in Brazil.

miami13-swarovski-torres2guilherme torres

miami-perrier-heijdens1

above/below> Perrier-Jouët collaborates with London-based Dutch designer Simon Heijdens titled ‘Phare No. 1–9’, explores light and liquid. Simon will share in our upcoming interview how the Art Nouveau aesthetic evolved with him into the 21st Century.

miami-perrier-heijdens2simon heijdens

miami13-kreo-didier1didier krzentowski

above/below > DesignApplause combines interviews from 2012 and this year and Didier explains what amazingly happened over the past year.

miami13-kreo-mendi1poltrona gold | alessandro mendini | galerie kreo | 2013

miami13-kartell-palomba1

above/below> Kartell, Laufen and Ludovica+Roberto Palomba create the ‘Palomba Collection’, a clever and beautiful bathroom ensemble. Roberto Palomba shares with us in an upcoming interview how a new and unique porcelain reinvents how to work with the traditional material.

miami13-kartell-palomba2

[ design miami/ ] @DesignMiami #designmiami

A conversation about 'be original' with antoine roset. Westedge 2013.

Dec 5, 2013

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We are talking to Antoine Roset immediately following a Be Original panel discussion at [ westedge design fair ]
[DesignApplause] Please give us a little bit of an introduction to what the Be Original organization is and what its mission is.
[AR] The organization is a group of manufacturers, European and American. We decided to try to educate everyone regarding the knock off situation in the US and the origin of all these things, that’s why we are Be Original. The idea behind this is to share our know-how about the original product, and to share our passion. The concept is the more educated you are about this or that you will do the right thing. Coming to events like this is a perfect platform for our story. And thank you for taking the time to listen.

[DA] Be Original is new to me, maybe the last 6 or 8 months. Where did the idea came from, was it from one of the manufacturers?
[AR] It was Beth (Dickstein), next to me, who came up with this great idea. She’s very well connected, she knows a lot of people, a very interesting woman, and she came up with this idea one day. She called me first, and said ‘Can we sit together, can we organize everything, would you be in?’ And one day we sat, maybe like 12 or 13 people, all competitors sitting next to each other, and saying OK, yes – how can we handle this? I mean, the idea is really if not like saying it’s bad or good. It’s saying, how can we educate people about good design? And that’s how we started. This past spring it was about a year ago.
[Beth Dickstein] It was July 2012.
[AR] And slowly but surely, we created the group, we have Twitter, we have partners in the media helping us to spread the word. And we are now starting a membership. We could really use DesignApplause to spread that word.

beoriginal-logo1

[DA] OK. Maybe it’s worth it for you to say something about the membership option.
[AR] The membership option is easy to understand. It’s free to some, like students. They can spread the word to the next generation of buyers We are creating new membership levels for 2014 Beth can explain it better.
[BD] Yes, there will be four levels of membership and you know, students certainly are free. We are trying to figure out the various levels to make sure this is supported by true believers and those who want to support the importance of original design. We should be able to post the new levels around the first of the year. And it’s really towards the marketing efforts of this. We’re all pro bono at this point. The only monies we’ve received at this point have been from the founding members. But we do need to travel to places, to have collateral materials, and other items to make sure the “grass roots” approach is spread wide!
[AR] The short movie you have seen, for example, shows our costs and we have to pay for that, so. What we are saying if you want to help the, all, original products, you can also participate by being a member of Be Original.

[DA] And the members are in fact a part of this consortium. Because obviously it goes without saying that the manufacturers who are involved are putting up a significant financial contribution to that effort as well.
[AR] Yes, exactly.
[BD] One of our first member, our paid member, was Design Within Reach. So there’s- you know, that will be very helpful for them to support us. They have a lot of locations and catalogs and things and hopefully they’re going to support us in that way as well.

[DA] And do you see the Be Original program and the whole idea of an educational initiative, do you see that as sort of auxiliary to the legal battles that we talked about or is it actually sort of an alternative road saying maybe we’d reach more people this way and saying that model of legal action isn’t working?
[AR] I will make it clear because I think it’s very important to understand: it’s a totally different approach than a legal battle. A legal battle is case by case. It’s brand by brand. And everyone is free to do whatever he wants. I’m totally free to do that. The idea of Be Original is really to have a group of people, who have a know-how, who are able to share it with people. It’s a new path to, a new way to try to explain why a knock off is not such a good thing.
[BD] There are there key ingredients to the initiative: to inform, to educate and influence.
[AR] That’s our vision.

[DA] And specifically for Ligne Roset, does that mean, are you also actively pursuing legal battles?
[AR] A minute ago, I explained it very well. For us it’s not a big part because we don’t like to walk in the past. So fighting against these people and having lawyers, big things and things like that, we’d rather put our money into new things and buy new machinery, developing new products and things like that. But yes, we fight against the lawyers.

[DA] As someone in the design community, something that I’m very aware of is that there’s a lot of people that rally around these small designers, these small independent designers, particularly in the US. There was, for example, a basket weaver named Doug Johnson earlier this year who had a small basket company. They were essentially copied, not completely knock offs, but they were copied by Target. And this was something that really rallied young designers.
[AR] I know about that and it was a major thing. And it maybe feels like a different issue to some people, to say, oh you know, these are big name manufacturers, these aren’t independent designers. So I think it’s really worth connecting how knocking off a major classic design, how it affects an established brand as well as the smaller designer. When it’s a brand, like when Ligne Roset was attacked, some are saying, ‘Oh, it’s OK, it’s a brand, you know.

[DA] Because you’re the established, how much is it really hurting?
[AR] Yes. The big brand may still be making money, that’s fine. But in the end, each product is the designer. A knock-off hits the designer whether they are working for a large company or if they’re a small independent. So it’s the same problem.

Let’s talk about us, most of our designers are between, 18 and 30. They’ve gone to school, maybe their very first products. It’s the first time they’re drawing something and giving it to a manufacturer. The media sees it and the designer is saying, ‘wow! Here we are!’ Then a year later someone is knocking off your stuff. You’re pissed off. The designers are wondering why am I in the design business. I’ve studied like for 5 years. I’m doing something, and even if I’m working with a brand, I’m being knocked off.’ So we fight. The important message here is the patent. Before you go outside, before you go public with your product, you have to protect it.
[BD] But it’s also about the designer comes to you because they know they’ll be protected. They know that nobody will be allowed to knock off their product because someone would fight for it.
[AR] Yes. Every year we have a problem. Everywhere in the world. You can’t protect all of the products. It’s way too expensive, but you’re protecting most of them. And thankfully we are doing it and I think our designers are very thankful to us for this part.

[DA] I thought an interesting point in the conversation was the idea of different entry points, different offerings for pulling people into buying and as an alternative to buying the knock off unit. Providing the instant gratification of buying, you know, the $400 sofa. Is that something that you think applies to your company, the idea of bringing in consumers at a younger age. Is that something that you’ve talked about?
[AR] We can run some promotions from time to time to help people to buy it. But creating a cheaper product, for some products it can work, for some it can’t. For example, for this one you can’t. I mean you can change the fabric, but you try to find a fabric that is cheaper, but if we do a cheaper version, a less expensive version, if you want, you’re not talking about the same product.

It’s like, take the example of Porsche. When you see Porsche you have the Carrera, the ones that everyone knows. The less expensive model is the Boxter. But a Boxter is not a Porsche.

[DA] OK. (laughing) There’s always nylon versus leather.
[AR] But it’s not the same car. Same brand, but not the same car. We can have similar products, in spirit. Less expensive, but it’s not this one exactly. You want a new shoulder bag and you don’t want a cheapest version so you wait,
[BD] But you can still buy original design that’s not expensive.

[DA] Exactly. The idea of having having those entry points and getting people in young. Getting someone like me into Ligne Roset. Sort of moving past that campaign, maybe we can just talk a little bit about what the direction of the company is right now.
[AR] For right now, the primary focus for the company is always the same, meaning that we try to develop our network, especially in the US. We develop a lot in Asia and South America. And we’d say for us it’s the usual things. We are continuing to invest more and more into the production, because we have new products coming up in January.

[DA] Within your global strategy, is there something very specific and differentiated to a North American audience?
[AR] One thing that is very specific in the US that we are developing is how fast you can have the products. We are developing a program where you purchase a collection piece in certain finishes, colors and things like that, certain products that you can purchase and you can have them within two weeks. Maximum. And this is very important for us, that we do understand the American market. We are opening more and more warehouses so that we are able to ship faster. And we hope that in the future it will be a big part of our collection. And the new program is working very well.

[DA] focusing on warehouses or focusing on web-based ordering or the the showroom and/or the store?
[AR] It’s in the store. You go in the store and they have access to stock products where they know exactly what they can have and what you can have within two weeks. So it’s a lot of logistics, so it’s as you say investing a lot in logistics and warehousing and that’s one of the focuses.

[DA] Are there any new stores that are being planned for North America, South America right now?
[AR] We are going to have a brand new store in Dallas. With a soft opening, it just opened recently, two days ago we had the soft opening. And the real opening will be within a few weeks, a month. So that’s the new one. And in Latin America we are opening in one month or two in Sao Paulo, Brazil. So that’s two.

[DA] You’ve been in the US now for how long? Can you tell us what your role is?
[AR] With my accent, you can see that I’ve been in the US for 6 months. I’ve been in the US for 7 years. That’s unfortunate, but it is true. (laughing) My job, I’m the family inn-keeper who helps the brand develop in the US. We are lucky enough to still have our family working in this company, so if you’re ready I can speak for six hours. So that’s what I’m doing for one part. And the second part is logistical. We have an office running all of North America and South America. From Edmonton to Sao Paulo, so it’s a big market. And with my team we are making sure that everyone gets the best offerings, the best marketing, everything that you need in the US because we have no manufacturers in the US. We have only offices and such. So that’s my job.

[DA] In a nutshell, and I find it’s interesting that you say in a sort of stereotypical way, and I guess correct, that the primary difference in America is that there is this feeling that you’re entitled to receiving the end product much faster.
[AR] In seven years in the US I’ve learned some things that we don’t have in Europe right now. It’s serving the clients. We are always servicing our client, but in the US you have a way to serve the client which is exceptional. And we have to always push the limits for that, so it’s a constant, if you want, working on how we can service our clients in a better way.

[DA] Another interesting new development that came up in the panel discussion is the world we live in now where people do kind of come across high-end design through purely visual means. You know, through just the image, just the Tumblr blog, just the Pinterest board. And figuring out what are the positives what are the negatives of having this snapshot visual, and ultimately you know there are negatives, that it leads to a lack of education about the product in some ways. But how do you turn it into a positive? Have you changed your marketing strategies, your social media strategies?
[AR] Two years ago, we had almost nothing. We had a website. We are super low-key because we had the website, and people were like: ‘Ooh, website.’

[DA] Because it’s the classic company, you don’t need to shout.
[AR] Yes, it’s the classic company and nobody was asking two years ago about having an iPad. And then $500, and now it’s $800 bucks for an iPad, and it’s not a computer but a tablet. So everything seems very fast, the digital especially. And in these two years, we have created a Facebook page with more than 100,000 members or fans, one of the biggest folllowings in this business. We have a Pinterest. We have an Instagram. We have a Twitter.

[DA] You have an Instagram?! (laughing)
[AR] Yes.
[DA] Alright!
[AR] I think we have almost one of everything. What am I forgetting, ah, we also have Tumblr.

[DA] You know, Tumblr and Pinterest are now the primary platform for product and it is nearly entirely visual.
[AR] Yes and very user friendly, And you have a good picture, bad picture. Most of the time, they are crap because it’s taken by your phone, it’s blurry, it just looks off. So it’s our job to put up a good picture of our product looking good, and that helps others to understand our products. We can now just say ‘I like this.’ and it’s about fun.

[DA] Great. Let’s talk a little bit more broadly about what’s happening from a design perspective. If you could sum up what you feel the design philosophy is in the office right now, what’s really exciting to you all at the moment?
[AR] It’s an easy question for us. It has always been the same, the design philosophy, the DNA of the company, is to work with designers and to create products that we like. We are lucky enough to have a company that we own, and so we can work with designers famous or not famous. Our goal is to make products with designers and to share them with everyone in a nice way.

[DA] And what are your work methods like? What are the strategies that you employ as a company to look for new talent? Because obviously, you know, you work with extremely established names like the Bouroullecs for example, but you also bring in quite a lot of, as you said, designers right out of design school.
[AR] I won’t give you strategies, because there just is really one.
[BD] Your uncle.
[AR] Yes, we are lucky enough, we have my uncle who is the head of the design, and, I don’t know if you’d say that, but he has a very good nose for design. It’s feeling. It’s relationship. You meet a designer, you have a good relationship, you’re seeing the picture, you have a good feeling about the product and things like that. So that’s how it works.

We are lucky enough we are working a lot with different programs. In France. For example, for designers who are worldwide, we are known and designers are coming to us. So that’s a good thing. On the other hand, we are doing the fairs, so we go see the young designers. But most of the time we are working with the people who are like sending us products. And we are also meeting with, it might be at a restaurant and you are talking with someone bringing a friend, ‘oh, I’m a designer,’ and you chat. And then you say, ‘Oh, you’re pretty smart, let’s see how we work.’ There are two guys, two designers, Mark and Alexander. We had been chatting about a new collaboration with Mark for three or 4 years, Alexander for a year now. It’s just relationship. And one day, I’m sure that we will work together. But it’s not like saying oh, please- I’m begging you, please do my products. No. It’s not that. WE talk, we write to see if we can work together. It’s human. It’s a human strategy.

[DA] And in terms of specific products, how important is the balance between being on sort of the trend-driven edge of the industry versus really respecting or trying to consider both material and formal, an aesthetic heritage of the company of upholstery, of foam-driven, you know, how do you strike that?
[AR] It’s a difficult balance between having a very upcoming design, sleek design, modern design, and having a more classic design and try to understand the trends in the way for production, for sustainability and everything like that. The balance arrives, we say, as we test the markets. And I don’t know, it’s more like it’s a real feeling. It’s a balance that we try to understand. We know how it works, because we have been here for more than 150 years. So we know a little bit how it works. But the balance is always shifting, depending on the country and things like that, so we have to be open-minded and be highly interactive.

[DA] Can you talk a little bit about any young designers or even specific pieces that you’re really excited about right now? That have become involved with the company in the last year or so, or things that are upcoming in the next season?
[AR] One that we just launched, a very nice lamp from Benjamin Hubert, called ‘Container By’. Beautiful. It’s ceramic.

[DA] The lamp with the colored cord?
[AR] Yes, exactly. Benjamin Hubert is a UK designer, very talented. So we are very pleased to work with him, he has very interesting products. We have done a new partnership with a good, old friend of the brand, because he has been working a lot with us. It’s Didier Gomez with a very nice sofa, more classic. We try to have worked not on the shape, on the design path, but more on the parts path. Very, very comfortable, a lot of technology of form, things like that. The sofa is Nils. That’s two products that we say we are very glad to see today, coming out, they just arrived recently in our stores.

[DA] It’s quite interesting when one talks about modern and contemporary in the same breath with products that arequite old. Your company is…
[AR] A hundred-and-fifty-three years-old.

[DA] Yes, thank you. When you talk about a heritage company and you’re calling back work from the 30s’ and the 40s’, there’s something sort of great about the fact that you’re really working on a legacy that’s much more contemporary.
[AR] It’s part of our story also. Our brands have been doing this business from 153 years ago, but with different products. We started with doing the cross part for the umbrella, the wood part. Then we did the seats for the chair in wood, OK. And then, we had two worlds. In France, it was pretty tough to us. We lost out on things. And then we have really started to work on what we do today, furniture. In the 50s’, with my grandfather, we were rebuilding France at that time, and we are working more in hospitality. And we did another shift in the 60s’-70s. Pierre Paulin, for example, we are very lucky to work with him and take back some products he has done in the 50s’ and editing them again today, all over.

[DA] Can you talk a little bit more about that?
[AR] So far we have a desk called ‘Tanis’ and this desk is from the 50s’. So it’s really designed for us, but by Pierre Paulo in the 50s’. So we have products from the 50s’ or so, we can redo, with Pierre Paulin mostly. Before he left he told us, listen, I really want you to redo this product, because I know that with Ligne Roset, I’m sure that the product will be good. In the next years, or like decades or centuries, he knows that we will take care of his products.

[DA] So we should expect to begin to see more reissues of his earlier work coming from you in the future?
[AR] We’ll decide, we’ll see.

[DA] Any other interesting new directions you wish to mention? You touched on lighting, the lamp from Benjamin. These feel like really, really contemporary and that feels like something that’s maybe a little bit new for the company, you know?
[AR] Yes, we try to add more accessories to the brand. Like with lighting, it’s an important part for us. And then doing only a little of the occasional rugs, tables, things like that so we are working more and more on that part. It’s an important development for us. And I think we’re offering more and more. I think we’ll continue to develop this part of the business.

[DA] So textiles and things like that are also maybe a part of this?
[AR] Yes, we are working more and more with suppliers of textiles. So everything is always- we try to work on everything. So sometimes we focus more on some things than something else. As for the textiles, we have been pretty good to show very nice textiles with something.
even sheets for the beds. But accessories, we try to do to give us a complete atmosphere. It’s like we can do almost everything except bathroom and kitchen. So it’s a lot.

[DA] Great, that’s wonderful. Is there anything either about the Be Original campaign, about the direction of the business that you didn’t get a chance to say that you kind of want to communicate?
[AR] It’s very good to support Be Original. I think we are going in the right direction doing this group. And it’s very important that people follow us, and continue to support original design. It’s just a heritage and people have to understand it, so support Be Original, it’s important. That’s the message of tonight.

[ be original design miami panel discussion ] venue: dwr miami design district studio | 4141 ne second avenue | suite 101
date> 6 december 2013 | 10a > noon

[ be original ] is committed to initiating discussion on the importance and value of preserving original design across North America through informational, educational and influential marketing initiatives and consistent efforts to promote this agenda in various design contexts. Be Original founding members – including Alessi, Artek, Bernhardt Design, Cassina/Poltrona Frau/Cappellini, Emeco, Flos, Fritz Hansen, Herman Miller®, Ligne Roset and Vitra – believe that the value of authenticity cannot be underestimated or taken for granted in the marketplace. Through an aggressive program of lectures, workshops and roundtables, the movement campaigns to establish a set of industry standards that encourages consumers, the architecture and design community, producers, dealers and media partners to fully support creativity and authenticity to invest in the future of design, incentivize innovation and give back to the industry and the people it serves.

[ design within reach ] founded in 1998 and headquartered in Stamford, Conn., is the source for the best in authentic modern design. The company markets and sells its furniture and accessories to both residential and trade customers through its retail Studios in North America.

Talking to architect and artist johanna grawunder. Design miami/ 2012.

Talking to architect and artist johanna grawunder. Design miami/ 2012.

Dec 2, 2013

GRAWUNDER_NoWhining1collection > no whining on the yacht | carpenters workshop gallery | 2013

[DesignApplause] We’re talking to architect and artist Johanna Grawunder. Please share a little bit of your background?
[Johanna Grawunder] So I’m an architect. I trained in California, at Cal Polytechnic State. And then, at a very young age I moved to Florence to finish my degree in architecture and staying in Florence an extra year. Then of to Milan to work for Ettore Sottsass and ended up staying there 16 years. With Ettore I was doing mostly architecture. I became a partner in 1989. In 2001, I went out on my own. And since then I’ve been doing mostly limited edition art, furniture, custom commissions, some interiors, a little bit of product design.

[DA] Well you know what, you’re American bred, but you have the European combination of all the disciplines. How do you feel about the saying, ‘if you want to be a famous architect, design a chair.’
[JG] The chair is very difficult. I was telling you before about designing jewelry. Jewelry is an object that is so interactive on the body, very physical, a direct interaction and a little different than architecture where the body’s in space, moving through it. A chair is probably the piece of furniture you interact with most. A sofa is a little forgiving, because you can sit and lie on a sofa so many ways. But on a chair, pretty much everyone sits the same way. It has to be ergonomically quiet, you know, perfect and steady. And there so many really perfect chairs I have a difficult time thinking, what can I add that’s new? Whereas with lighting, I feel that there’s a lot I could still do as well as other kinds of more abstract forms of furniture. But a chair, someday, maybe someday.

DA: I predict your chair is going to be terrific. Describe your lighting. What do you try to achieve? Tell us about the white one with the panels. Zoe Ryan from the Art Institute of Chicago picked that out as one of the favorites at DesignMiami 2012.

4 line light | carpenters workshop gallery | 2012

[JG] That would be Line Light. I was very happy about that. They have one of my pieces in their collection, which is nice. Line Light is made of aluminum, steel and brass, LED bulbs. It’s a luminous wall light or a bas-relief sculpture, which plays with the surface of the wall it detaches itself from. Its arrangement means the light composes a veritable palette of colors, white and black modulated at will, reflecting off the wall to become a singular, ephemeral work of art.

[DA] Let’s talk about your light that’s in the Art Institute. Is it an LED light or is it a normal, energy-chewing bulb?
[JG] The Art Institute has ‘Boxy’ a luminous table in glass produced by Glasitalia. And it is LED. So, we’re good there. (Both laughing.) From the very beginning, even before LED was quite common, I used fluorescent tubes. At the time when I started doing them, the early ’90s, it was actually more for the form than thinking about the energy conservation. Because that wasn’t really on Milan’s design radar at that point, and it wasn’t really on my radar.

Although in the back of my head, I knew this was actually also a good form of light to use. But I was using it more for the form. When LED came along, there was this added advantage of the energy conservation. But as well, now, you can do so many different things with LED. When I started thinking about using LED, I didn’t feel like it was really ready for prime time. It was a novelty, and quickly was facing extinction because of the poor quality of light. Now I can use LED on almost anything.

[DA] Jake Dyson said the problem was you couldn’t get a reliable chip, and reliable chips have now been out for five years.
[JG] Lighting is polarizing for many right now. The incandescent is sufficiently entrenched and the options are expensive to switch to LED no matter what side you take. [ an aside: this conversation was a year ago and today there’s a shocking abundance of LED options. Home Depot was very smart to totally commit to LED before everyone else. ]

[DA] Making such a conceptually big switch in product is hard to visualize for most and even harder to execute. The car industry is trying to figure it out too because of the electric car.
[JG] But in the car industry, you have the third party, which isn’t just the car maker, it’s the oil companies. I didn’t mean to get so political so quickly.

GRAWUNDER_PinkVoid_02pink void | carpenters workshop gallery | 2013

above> Pink Void, exploits hot pink anodized aluminum to cast a warming glow sure to enhance any interior environment. Simultaneously minimalist and bold, the floor lamp was inspired by a snapshot Grawunder saw of sunlight reflected on mirrored barn doors.

[DA] Let’s continue that thought. How does ‘design’ bump heads with politics?
[JG] The green issue is very interesting. You could say, ‘Well I’m only going to use recycled materials.” But if you say that, you’re still not discouraging the originator of the plastic bags. A philosophy I practice is to use the least material possible. If for one of my pieces, it turns out that steel provides the most thin, lightest, most performance efficient material, then I’ll use steel. We also should take into consideration the amount of energy and bad byproduct waste it takes to reach market. Does that make any sense? It’s not original. Frank Ackerman comes to mind.

[DA] So, if you want to design a ball, you will turn it into a whiffle ball.
[JG] Exactly. Now I don’t do light with regard to weight, nor super, super light. And I’m doing quite large, architectural-scaled abstract pieces. But within that world, trying to use the least amount of material as possible. For example, the Line Lights is comprised of mostly the LED, the rest of it is just a very thin aluminum panel.

[DA] What about that nice, black coffee table I saw at Carpenters Workshop Gallery?
[JG] The coffee table is aluminum too.

[DA] And uses Tron lighting. Was Tron (the movie) in the 70s?
[JG] You are not the first one to bring up Tron and I looked it up: 1982. Blade Runner too. It was ’80s. It was actually, I, I re-looked at it recently. It was right- I think it was a year before Blade Runner. The first one. (DA: Yeah.) And then the second one came out a few years ago, but the first one kind of blew my mind. (Laughing.)

[DA] Not meaning to be cruel but when did the Tron concept burst out of the table?
[JG] I’ve always sort of put light into my furniture and I count light as another material. I think of light as a kind of paint, as a kind of color, as a way to give an extra sort of soul.

In that table called ‘Platform’ I didn’t want an ‘big’ light, nothing to obvious, not a hybrid light that’s also a table. It was really about a table that just has a slight delineation of light. The gallery (Carpenters Workshop Gallery) was a big part of the concept discussions and everyone was pushing for less and less light. They wanted it even more mysterious. Just a few little pieces here and there. I like it and think it worked.

[DA] So they were a good client?
[JG] A very good client. (laughing.) I think of them more as a collaborator.

[DA] What’s the conception to finished piece process like?
[JG] I first presented the collection pieces, maybe 15 drawings, two years ago earlier. We met here in Miami, and it took a year and a half, which is a little longer than usual but I wasn’t in any hurry myself. I hadn’t done a custom collection like it for a few years, and I wanted to finish things that I had already started before concentrating on this collection. We modified things. We made prototypes. We went to Italy to check the engineering out up close plus thousands of Skype meetings from San Francisco.

All of these pieces were made in Italy. The artisans are fantastic. The two pieces you’re referring to were made by artisan Marzorati Ronchetti. We’re talking about six pieces of each design, so it’s not really an industrial thing.

[DA] Why do you like doing limited edition?
[JG] For a couple reasons. I don’t necessarily want these things following me for the rest of my life, you know? In 20 years someone says, ‘I like that table, can you have it made?’ I’d rather just be done and have moved on. And the limited edition model is good for collectors. And it’s a way to keep being able to propose new things, because if you wind up creating that crowd-pleaser piece you get through that and get out. The designer now has many more opportunities to create.

[DA] Have you done anything that was a production piece?
[JG] I did some lighting for Flos. And glass pieces for GlasItalia and vases for B&B Italia, a mirror for Boffi.

[DA] So it doesn’t really make any difference whether it’s limited or production?
[JG] In a perfect world it wouldn’t. But in a realistic world, I have a lot more creative freedom doing limited. With limited the galleries only have to worry about selling it six times. If you have to sell thousands I have to change my design so a thousand people like it and can afford it. And I feel I can research and experiment more with limited than I would with production. Although more recently, the production side is also having to take more risks than before, just to stay relevant, so both limited and production are sort of converging and good companies like Flos and Glasitalia totally get that.

[DA] The client is a big influence with regard to research and experimentation. Well, it seems like everything takes about 2 years, no matter what.
[JG] That’s interesting, yes.

[DA] When I saw the coffee table I immediately thought of Ad Reinhardt. I learned about Reinhardt because I decided to paint and it took a few years to actually stretch a canvas and put paint on it. I didn’t trust my tools and I didn’t want to ruin my reputation. It was starting from point zero to paint. My first painting was a black six-foot square and people were asking me if I knew Reinhardt.
[JG] (Laughing.) Uh oh, did he do a coffee table?

[DA] I don’t think so.
[JG] I like your story, because I’ve had people reference me to Donald Judd or earlier work people said Dan Flavin. Of course you get influenced by things, but it’s really indirect. I mean, really indirect. And whether that’s intentional or you get it through osmosis. I see stuff now that even younger designers do, which is very derivative, not necessarily of me, but sometimes, you know of other people too. And it makes me more forgiving, because you realize, well maybe they saw that in DesignApplause or something. But maybe they just picked it up in the ether and, or maybe the thought process brought them to the same point. If you came up with the black square by a very pure thought process, you’re in good company. Ha. (Laughing.)

[DA] Like my memory is not very good. (JG: Join the club.) Especially the ‘instant recall’ But mostly a result of our selective memories. I think our influences, our inspirations are selective also. I mean, there are some things you see and you never forget it.
[JG] We’re pre-programmed to react to that (DA: Totally.) not to the other thing, yeah.

[DA] Can you think of anything that was alien, what you thought was unique, and you did it, you got it?
[JG] When I did it, and I got it? That’s interesting. I have to say, when I first went to work at Sottsass, I was just out of college, and my intention was it was only going to be a summer job and then back to California. His layers of, um, sensoriality, was really quite alien to me. Because I had, I think, a kind of minimalist soul. I had studied modernist architecture and grew up in a California modern house. So to go up there and see this like total orgy of color and texture and forms, in fact, was a little bit alien to me.

And I didn’t fight it, because of course he was the master and I was a lowly draftsman for the first few years. Slowly, I started to understand the reasonings behind it, that it wasn’t kind of this irresponsible, crazy, what people were calling it ‘zany’, you know, wacky- it wasn’t that at all. It was a very serious, political statement about design and how we live, the choices that people are given. So, from that, I tried to get into that a little bit. And some of the first work I did on my own was probably much more influenced by Memphis and by Sottsass.

Since I’ve been out of that, not out of it but stepping out and trying to make my own way, I find myself coming back to a more of an original root. Of course, now, hopefully much enriched by this incredible experience I had at Sottsass. And certainly not superseding in any way, but my natural tendency is to be more reductive. And to be a little bit harder, in a sense. And more what I was considering architectural, which was these abstract, straight line forms. Does that make sense?

[DA] Yes. So what was it like working for Ettore and what did you learn?
[JG] I learned enough that someday there might be a book. (Laughing heartily.) I doubt it, but there’s a lot there. It was just an amazing, mind-blowing experience to go up there. First of all, you’re a Californian living in Italy, is already a pretty amazing experience. A lot of people have done it. But he in particular, he was really a master with a whole school of thought. And he’s seeded so many different designers out of that school, who’ve traveled different roads and found different ways of expressing themselves.

I think that’s his main lesson. You have to find your own innate road and then work it and believe it, trust your instincts, but be very aware that every decision you make is – I keep using the word political- because he used that word- it’s actually a political decision.

If you’re using gold, well that means something culturally. That means something in the history of design, but it also means something in the history of class warfare. You have to be very aware of what you’re doing at any given time. And that was a huge lesson. To understand that everything you do has meaning and sort of reverberates in one way or another to what you really believe. If you’re true to yourself.

[DA] You worked with him for such a long time, how would you describe what his mission and vision was? What was his thing? What was he trying to do?
[JG] I worked with him probably I think longer than anyone, except for his original partner, Marco Zanini, I was there 16 years straight. And I do not feel, what’s the word?

[DA] Qualified?
[JG] Qualified. Thats the word. I don’t really feel qualified to try to summarize that. I can only say what it meant to me. So for me the lessons were what I was saying, everything has a reason. What may surprise many, he had no tolerance for decorative things, even when they were definitely the easier way to go. And even though people thought it was decorative. It was instead very precise ways of moving things around. I never heard him say, ‘I did this because it’s cool.’ Or, ‘Yeah, yeah I liked it.’ Or, ‘Well, let’s try that, the kids like it.” I never heard that kind of thing. It was always a very specific discussion about the meaning of things, and finding ideas and inspiration in common places, like the latteria on the corner by his house, which had a crazy op-art plastic laminate counter, in the 70s, and the thing is, he ‘saw’ that, he was open to that kind of stimulus.

And he was so very important in the history of design and you can see his influence all over Miami.

You know, Memphis and Alchemia before Memphis, were the original limited edition design, an experimental kind of really crazy, not normal, not production furniture. It was the first time they were showing these pieces in galleries. In 1981, the first Memphis show was actually in a gallery, and you know, it was a whole new thing.

grawunder13-sottsass-office1sottsass associati | ettore and johanna collaborate |

Before then, it was rare to see heavy, heavy experimentation with furniture, with few exceptions like Joe Colomobo, or the Radical Design shows in the 70s. In fact only recently has this area been dubbed art design. I think it was dubbed pretty much for Design Miami. With respect to my pursuit of limited edition helped me in the States. In Europe, limited edition design, experimental design was in place at this time. There were people collecting and or just wanting to see it. But in the US, I had a very difficult time early on explaining what I do. You know, they understood furniture design and craftsmanship. So when I did a show in San Francisco in 2003, with pieces from Europe, and people asked me questions like: ‘So you’re a glass blower?’ Because I had pieces in glass. Or, ‘Are you a metal worker?’ Because I had things in metal, and I had to explain, well no, I’m a designer.

Oh, but so are these in limited production? It was a very complicated thing and I think that the market here- although I hate to give the markets too much credit, but it’s been hugely important for this particular field. How valuable this field is, that’s a different question. For me personally, it’s valuable. I think for the history of design, it should be valuable. It’s valuable if product designers are seeing experimentation and using that patrimony of knowledge that comes out of doing prototypes and things like that.

[DA] I’m going to have to learn when and why the design galleries emerged.
[JG] Now I’ve got to check my history, because I’m thinking more 50s’ and 60s’, such as work by Jean Prouve for example, wasn’t really made for galleries. Those were commissions of private people or institutions asking to fill this government building with furniture. The fact that French dealers went in and saw the work and realized what it was and took it out of that context and then put it in a gallery. That’s a different situation.

[DA] Do you feel there’s supposed to be a design statement in your work? Or is it individual?
[JG] For me, after some years of experience, I feel it’s a little bit more individual. It doesn’t mean that I’m creating in a vacuum, but I don’t really necessarily try to consider design history or the direction of how design is going. I feel like it’s a little bit more my own personal road at this point, but hopefully a road that is still extremely valid. And takes advantage of new technology and philosophies about use of materials, any new materials, any new ways to control light. The materials, the technologies do drive the process but form and color, that’s more individual.

grawunder-mug3johanna | satai hotel miami beach | 2012

And I am aware when the street is going in a totally different direction, you know, the design street, I should call it. For example, a lot of very Expressionistic and almost organic. And I just don’t feel that’s my road. I’m an architect by training. I like straight lines. It doesn’t mean I won’t do a curve now and then, but I do like straight lines. I like the idea of order and geometry and to follow the basics, which would be technology, material science, function. And my respect for architecture and architectural form is really going to be hard to shake.

23

A final thing is designing within an urban environment. Space, or lack of space and lack of light pose challenges. These kinds of challenges for me are what hopefully will keep stimulating the design. (looking at her watch) OMG! Look what time it is!!

Johanna’s current work can be see at [ carpenters’s workshop gallery ] during Design Miami 2013

1> gold bar | carpenters workshop gallery | 2013
2,3> red devil | carpenters workshop gallery | 2013
4> line light | carpenters workshop gallery | 2012
5,6> platform | carpenters workshop gallery | 2012
7> corner light | carpenters workshop gallery | 2012
19> millerighe | acme studio

Harbor work lounge and designer nicolai czumj-bront. Neocon 2013.

Nov 8, 2013

neocon13-haworth-harbor-2

[DesignApplause] We’re are with Haworth designer Nicolai Czumaj-Bront. Nicolai, congratulations, a Best of Neocon Silver. Please tell us about your Harbor Work Lounge collection.
[Nicolai Czumaj-Bront] Thank you, very proud about the award. We are introducing this collection for Haworth. Technology today allows us to work anywhere and how we want to. Because of that, we bring a lot of stuff with us. Bag, notebook, iPpod, tablet, computer, laptop or your drink. Whatever you need to feel comfortable to work the way you want. Now you can work in a private space, collaborative space, hotel lobby / rooms, at home even…

The Work Lounge is meant to allow you to work where you want, how you want to work and have the things with you that let you do the work you want to do. It has a sliding tablet that slides away from and toward you to give you room to work. It has the wing, where you can put your other items next to your phone or tablet. Even a cup-holder to provide a place for you to put your drink. The ottoman even has a cup-holder as well in it. It also has high adjustability. This way, if more people come into a space, you can have someone sit in the ottoman and get more function out of it. There is a lot of variability in the options. You can do a partial upholstered, an exposed version…you can do veneer or laminate.

[DA] What is the exposed version?
[N] The exposed is the plywood form that you would see visually. You would also have a pad and a seating area as well as a little sway pad next to you. The exposed version would be fully exposed plywood. You can really dress it up or down. It has kind of a unique look to it, but also a lot of variability in terms of application, usability and aesthetics. It changes the way we look at lounges these days and how we work at them. How we can deal with different types of spaces, but also has something that is re-adaptable.

[DA] Yes, these are beautiful and lean. They almost look like they are wanting to fly.
[N] Yes. I think in airports they would go over quite well. Then also, you see the suede on the wing, which has a dual purpose. With a wool covered wing you would have slippery gadgets falling off if you twisted or moved around. But the suede keeps things where they need to be. It’s also water resistant so if you spill, it won’t stain the fabric.

The lounge and ottoman is really a nice composition of the aesthetics, the function of it. The heights and the posture are really a hybrid between task seating and lounge seating. You can be upright in this. A little bit more than a lounge, but not so much as a task chair. Everything between the function and the ergonomics of it are balancing between those two worlds of work and home.

[DA] What’s your relationship with Haworth?
[N] I’m an internal designer with Haworth. We have a program at Haworth where we explore 3-5-10 years out. If things make sense at the time, we move them forward. We look at how people are going to be working and how things work. It made sense to introduce the ensemble now as technology has evolved to allow us to work in many places. I had this concept about 2 years ago and have been working through it. We went 100% in January to bring it to NeoCon for the show. It’s been a fairly quick pace for the program.

[DA] Being in-house, is this thing built on things that are really Haworth-natural or are there new physical properties that bring innovation?
[N] Very Haworth-natural and easy to create as we are familiar with the materials and pieces. For example, you can do left or right handed. The nice thing about this is that it’s one piece of plywood. So inside the molded foam is plywood. But then they can either cut the left or right side out. Using the manufacturing capability to allow for the variability in application or function. Even the tablet is actually a larger piece of plywood they can cut from left or right hand. It’s simple tooling that’s been around for ages, but it’s about rethinking it and how we can do it differently to provide designers more variability in the aesthetics.

[DA] What did you learn while working on this project?
[N] Things can be beautiful and still elegant and pass all of the hundreds of thousands of BIFMA standards.

That’s always the goal. Everyone always wants it lighter, elegant and beautiful, but it still has to pass all of the standards that get greater and greater every year. In some ways, it was a reward for myself and the team that we were able to take the original sketch to the computer program while maintaining the aesthetics without sacrificing anything to pass the requirements.

neocon13-haworth-harbor2

[DA] The solution is so clean and light. You should do a sofa. How did you create the thin profile?
[N] Right now we’re talking about maybe doing a beam for this piece. You can imagine an airport having these two wings on the outside and a middle piece in between. We’re quite far along with all the pieces we need. A few more, we might be able to do this. After that, I think we’ll see a lot more evolution in home office products. With technology now, we’ll see how things go. We have some ideas in the works. It just depends on the market and if they are ready for it.

[DA] What’s really exciting and cool right now in the world of design?
[N] I’m really curious to see what will happen with 3D printing and how it will lend itself more to some of the big manufacturers. Imagine doing a chair that doesn’t have aluminum or steel tooling. Imagine making that one-off chair so each person could have a task chair that fits them more comfortably. What would it mean for more mass production? I’m really curious to see how that evolves as we go forth. There’s a lot of opportunity there to realize the ability to make things adjustable per the user.

[DA] Creative minds are really going to do things with it.
[N] The other thing is just sharing with technology. Just the evolution we’re doing internally at Haworth and what that will mean in terms of the workplace. Working wherever you want to. The beach, the park, a museum. I’m curious what will happen with technology both in terms of digital but also in terms of production. What that will mean for all industries in general. What it means for the flexibility of people. They can be more transient and work where they want to work while having more of a lifestyle. Merging those worlds.

[DA] Have you been with Haworth for a long time? Do you do other things besides furniture?
[N] I primarily do furniture and live in Chicago. I’m from here originally. I worked for a small consultant agency for a few years. I’ve been at Haworth almost 8 years. I’ve worked on everything from tables to task seating to more high-end things such as Haworth collection pieces. But mostly doing furniture.

I also do personal stuff such as work with reclaimed wood. I’ll take it and bind it together. All the old wood that has been weathered or rained on gets C&C cut it to reveal all these new colors and textures. The idea here is balancing how much control do I really have. I’m putting the wood together, but in the end, it’s the colors and grains that allows the wood to be what it is. It’s kind of imperfection, but that’s the beauty of it.

[DA] Are these winding up as sculptures?
[N] They are more stools and tables. But I’d like to do more sculptural pieces. Working with the wood the way I do, it’s wonderful how it evolves and how the materiality shines through when you let it be its own material and not try to control it so much. In that mindset I’m kind of working with this raw material with a very high-end manufacturing process which is very precise.

[DA] Like ‘I really want to make a grasshopper, but the grain turned it into a kangaroo.’
[N] Right, kind of just let it be what it is.

neocon13-haworth-nicolae2nicolai czumj-bront | haworth design studio

[ haworth ]

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