smow Journal Logo
Category: Interview
113 stories found
Timon and Melchior Grau with their Fire lamp (photo courtesy GRAU)
Architecture | 28.08.2024

smow Blog Interview: Timon and Melchior Grau - We want to create lighting moods that really touch you

Timon and Melchior Grau with their Fire lamp (photo courtesy GRAU) There is an argument to be made, one indeed we've often have made in these dispatches, that the (hi)story of human society, essentially, begins with the harnessing of fire, a harnessing that conceptually someone had to arrive at and which poses important questions as to how 'primitive' 'primitive' societies actually were: could you conceive harnessing fire, and then work out how to? We couldn't. A harnessing of fire that was

read more
The EW 1192 by Horst Heyder (l) and the EW 1192 Horst by Jacob Strobel (r), as seen at Der ungesehene Designklassiker, Deutsches Stuhlbaumuseum, Rabenau
Designer | 18.02.2024

Hallo Horst! Or, How, and why, the EW 1192 became Horst.......

As noted from the exhibition Der ungesehene Designklassiker at the Deutsches Stuhlbaumuseum, Rabenau, alongside the introduction, re-introduction, enabled to the EW 1192 by Horst Heyder, a work that was, in all probability, the most widely found, most widely used, chair in the DDR and, potentially, one of the chairs existent in the greatest population densities anywhere ever, and thus a chair that inarguably shouldn't need to be re-introduced, but which on account of the nature of the

read more
Cornelius Réer at work in his Nürnberg studio
Awards | 26.01.2024

smow Blog Interview: Cornelius Réer - Honing the good ideas so that they result in fantastic products, that's the task

Born in Coburg, Franken, in 1961 Cornelius Réer took his first steps in the world of glass via an apprenticeship at Glashütte Süßmuth, Immenhausen, near Kassel, followed by periods working in Austria and Sweden and a nine month course at Brierley Hill Glass Center in Dudley, England, before returning to Franken and establishing his own studio in Fürth in 1992. If a return to Franken punctuated by long absences: the next 11 years seeing Cornelius lead an, essentially, nomadic life, travelling

read more
Annabella Hevesi & Gábor Bella a.k.a Line and Round I O
Awards | 24.11.2023

smow Blog Interview: Line and Round - It is a bit of a mission impossible to try to make a career as a furniture designer in Hungary

Line and Round, I O, was established in Budapest in 2017 by Annabella Hevesi, a Masters graduate from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and Gábor Bella, a Masters graduate from the "School of Life", with a background in carpentry and numerous years experience in a variety of construction/interior/design fields, including the creation, development and realisation of escape room games, a concept that enjoys a particular popularity in Hungary, and in which context Annabella and Gábor

read more
The Rowac-Schemel, Rowac Stool
Bauhaus | 18.03.2023

(smow) introducing: Rowac

The return of an old favourite, and no not (smow) introducing, although Welcome Back!!!, but the Rowac-Schemel, the Rowac stool, a work initially launched in 1909 as one of the world's first sheet steel furniture objects, a work that once graced not only innumerable industrial workshops, craft ateliers and educational institutes, but the workshops and ateliers at Bauhauses Weimar and Dessau, a work that became lost in the confusions of post-War eastern Germany. A work returning in 2023, some

read more
West Germany Neues deutsches Design (l) and more rational 1980s West German design, as seen at German Design 1949–1989. Two Countries, One History, Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden
Architecture | 09.11.2021

German Design 1949–1989. Two Countries, One History at the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden

Whereas politics, economics or sport in West Germany and East Germany are well and widely studied, and the similarities and differences regularly and publicly analysed and contextualised, thereby allowing for more refined, nuanced, popular understandings; design in and from the two Germanys remains, largely, a niche subject for a small band of specialists, and on a popular level something not only repeatedly reduced to a few works, institutions and protagonists, but also defined by

read more
Ionna Vautrin
Designer | 16.11.2018

smow Blog Interview: Ionna Vautrin - For me objects need to relate to the human, to human forms...

French designer Ionna Vautrin first reached a broad international public with her Binic lamp for Italian manufacturer Foscarini, a design which, it's fair to say, is/was one of those genuinely, gloriously, joyous moments in the (hi)story of lighting design, a work full of character yet devoid of vanity, universally applicable yet always individual. Ionna Vautrin is however more than Binic: before Binic Ionna had enjoyed a varied, international career working with a diverse roster of studios

read more
Helmut Jakobs FH Aachen
Interview | 14.05.2018

#campustour Interview: Professor Helmut Jakobs

As with all creative professions, design is something into which one grows, where over time your position to it develops and evolves until such time as you reach a place where you are comfortable with what you are doing and why. Sure one starts of under the impression you understand design, the wise quickly realise they don't, step back, reconsider, listen, observe, reconsider, experiment, listen, observe, reconsider, experiment and slowly but surely form their own position to and understanding

read more
Florian Petri, Professor for Industrial Design Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften München
Designer | 01.02.2018

#campustour Interview: Florian Petri, Professor for Industrial Design, Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften München

It is arguably just us, but we firmly believe that there are ever more design students studying ever more design degrees in ever more design schools, which (potentially) means ever more designers. In itself no bad thing: assuming that is that what they learn is relevant for the ever evolving nature of not only the design profession, but the society they will/should serve. To better gauge the current situation of design education in Europe we embarked in 2017 on our #campustour, an ongoing

read more
Okolo Magazine Lausanne (Photo courtesy Okolo)
Architecture | 08.12.2017

smow Blog Interview: Adam Štěch, Okolo

We can't remember exactly when we first came across Prague based creative collective Okolo, but certainly by the autumn of 2014 we were very much liking what they were doing: April 2014 seeing the exhibition Okolo Offline at Depot Basel and in September Okolo Offline Two – Collecting at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, both of which in their own gentle ways guided the visitor into and through the Okolo world. Keen to better understand that world we met up with Okolo co-founder Adam Štěch.....

read more
Kant by Patrick Frey & Markus Boge for Nils Holger Moormann
Designer | 13.11.2017

smow Blog Interview: Patrick Frey - I find it unashamed that the furniture industry isn't prepared to pay young designers a discretionary payment for developing a project

When we spoke with designer Patrick Frey in context of our #campustour, the plan was quite simply to discuss contemporary design education; however, the natural flow of the conversation took us in a raft of interesting directions, including his experiences as a freelance designer, the question of development payments in the furniture industry and the background to his and Markus Boge's joint diploma project, a project in many regards personified by the tables Kant and Marketing. Kant by

read more
Spiegeleye by Fabian Seibert (Photo Patrick Randriamanampisoa © Sülzkotlett )
Designer | 10.10.2017

smow Blog Interview: Fabian Seibert - I believe you can only create things based on your own personal experiences

Aachen is famous for its Cathedral, its Rathaus, as a sedes regia, Royal seat, and coronation location of Germanic monarchs for 600 years, and its confectionery. But for its design? The network Designmetropole Aachen aim to change that, through both promoting the work of Aachen based designers in exhibitions and events, and also through being a network, a variagted structure in which local creatives support local creatives. Among Designmetropole Aachen's current projects is as co-curators of

read more
Kant by Patrick Frey & Markus Boge for Nils Holger Moormann
Designer | 06.10.2017

#campustour Interview: Patrick Frey, Assistant Professor, Hochschule Hannover

Just as the Eamsien adage proclaims that "the details are not the details; they make the product", so too are a design school's teaching staff not the teaching staff, they make the school. Consequently, it follows that to better understand not only an individual institution, but also both the wider contemporary condition, and possible future directions, of design education, it is important to talk to, and understand, design school teaching staff; both those full-time Professors, and also those

read more
Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec in their atelier in Paris Belleville
Designer | 22.09.2017

smow Blog Interview: Ronan Bouroullec - For me the most important place is to be in front of the sea...

Having grown up near Quimper, Brittany, Ronan Bouroullec moved to Paris in 1989 to study industrial design; since when the French capital has not only witnessed him complete his studies, but establish a studio, achieve his first commercial success and together with his brother Erwan develop projects for a roster of international clients including, and amongst many others, Vitra, Magis, Flos, Kvadrat and Samsung, in addition to realising numerous collaborations with Galerie kreo. We met up with

read more
Designer and tuor Peter Marigold with an object from his Split series
Designer | 06.09.2017

#campustour Interview: Peter Marigold, Studio Tutor, The Cass, London

On our recent #campustour we didn’t only view the students' works, and chat to students about their works, we also spoke to members of the design schools' teaching staff about their motivations, methods, experiences and views on contemporary design eduction. Ultimately if you want to understand contemporary design education, you have to understand contemporary design educators. Whereby one of the peculiarities of design eduction is that any given school's staff is a mix of full time staff

read more
Peter Barker, Head of Industrial Design, Design School Kolding
Designer | 11.07.2017

#campustour Interview: Peter Barker, Head of Industrial Design, Design School Kolding

In addition to visiting design schools and viewing the students works we also want to use our 2017 #campustour to gather impression on contemporary European design education from those directly involved, on both the student and the teaching sides. If, as we are so fond of repeating, the works the students produce are secondary to how they got there, not only are the views of those people who help them get there important, but also how the students experienced the trip. We can't speak with

read more
Flare by Klaus Hackl for Hausgenossen (Foto Eva Jünger, courtesy Klaus Hackl)
Designer | 05.07.2017

smow Blog Interview: Klaus Hackl - Designing isn't an artistic, pseudo-genial, process but rather is based on a practical understanding and observation of daily life

German designer Klaus Hackl's understanding of design is one based on the principle of evolution not revolution, of understanding the context in which a project arises, and of the value, and logic, of craft processes and craft scale production. And of the value, and logic, of craft processes and craft scale production augmented by digital technology. Keen to learn more, we met up wit Klaus Hackl in Munich.... Flare by Klaus Hackl for Hausgenossen (Foto Eva Jünger, courtesy Klaus Hackl) A

read more
Peacock by Hans J. Wegner (foreground), Trinidad Chair by Nanna Ditzel (background), as seen at Much More Than One Good Chair, Felleshus Berlin
Interview | 20.06.2017

smow Blog Interview: Thomas Dickson - We need to reinvent Bauhaus and Danish modernism, isn't it time for history to change once more?

The exhibition Much More Than One Good Chair. Design & Society in Denmark at Felleshus Berlin explores the development of Danish design, and by extrapolation Danish society, since the end of the Second World War. To find out a little more we spoke to the exhibition's curator, the Danish designer and author Thomas Dickson. Much More Than One Good Chair @ Felleshus Berlin A graduate of both the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen and the Danish School of Journalism Aarhus, Thomas Dickson's

read more
Les Trois by Mark Braun (Photo: Andreas Schimanski)
Designer | 07.03.2017

smow blog Interview: Mark Braun - Reducing, reducing, reducing, while always maintaining an aesthetic tension in a product, that for me is the ultimate challenge.

The exhibition Divine Golden Ingenious. The Golden Ratio as a Theory of Everything? at the Museum for Communication Berlin featured two projects by Berlin based designer Mark Braun, projects which, largely, if not exclusively, owe their form to deliberations on and experimentation with the Fibonacci number. A state of affairs, we considered, makes Mark Braun an ideal person with whom to speak to about the role, attraction and relevance of the Fibonacci number and Golden Ratio in product design.

read more
Ply_Wood Stool Box by Thorsten Franck (Photo Andreas Mierswa)
Designer | 16.12.2016

smow blog Interview: Thorsten Franck - I understand design as an evolution, we make something, and then we make it better

One of our highlights of 2016 was without question PrintStool by Munich based designer Thorsten Franck for German manufacturer Wilkhahn. Less because of the object itself and more because of what it represents: the first step by a major furniture producer towards industrial 3D furniture printing. We met up with Thorsten in Munich to discuss PrintStool, 3D printing and the changing role of designers. PrintStool by Thorsten Franck for Wilkhahn, here as seen at NeoCon Chicago 2016 After

read more
PrintStool by Thorsten Franck for Wilkhahn, here as seen at NeoCon Chicago 2016
Designer | 06.11.2016

Orgatec Cologne 2016: PrintStool by Thorsten Franck for Wilkhahn

Whereas 3D printing is omnipresent in the media, and a ubiquitous tool in contemporary research and development, in most daily realities it remains scarcelypresent. Save for tablet holders, cosplay accessories and Star Wars chess sets. Or put another way, as a popular activity 3D printing is still very nerd niche. Often very, very trivial. And certainly not a widespread, commercial, industrial process. Yet. But will be. Of that we are certain. How that will be in context of the furniture

read more
BuzziJungle by Jonas Van Put for BuzziSpace, as seen at NeoCon Chicago 2016
Architecture | 20.10.2016

NeoCon Chicago 2016 Interview: Tom Van Dessel, CEO, BuzziSpace America

"The fact that you are European allows you to be quirky. Europe has a great reputation for good design but that is just the ante to the game, and allows you then to be interesting, but you also have execute." BuzziJungle by Jonas Van Put for BuzziSpace, as seen at NeoCon Chicago 2016 Established in 2007 as a producer of office acoustic solutions, the Belgian manufacturer BuzziSpace has quickly grown to become not only one of the major producers of acoustic products but of what one could

read more
Plane Secretary and Mobile Container by Felix Stark for Müller Möbelwerkstätten
Designer | 01.10.2016

Cologne Creative: Felix Stark - As a designer you always have to make it clear what you stand for

Continuing our series of posts on creativity in Cologne, historic and contemporary, we met up with product designer Felix Stark. Born in Bonn Felix Stark initially completed a carpentry apprenticeship before studying product design at the ecosign/Akademie für Gestaltung in Cologne, where in 2004 he established his design studio "formstark". In addition to realising projects as varied as, and amongst many others, the ARK tap and bathroom fittings collection for Spanish manufacturer Stanza, a

read more
Sofa? Desk? SofaDesk! Hack by Konstantin Grcic for Vitra, as seen at NeoCon Chicago 2016
Interview | 14.08.2016

NeoCon Chicago 2016 Interview: Josef Kaiser, Chief Sales Officer, Vitra

Although geographically the (hi)story of Vitra begins in Basel, spiritually it begins in America and arrives in Switzerland in 1957 with the licences to produce works by US designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard; and then grows over the subsequent decades under the influence of the close co-operations which thus developed, for all those with George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames. Given this close affinity with and to America it was perhaps

read more
1
23
...
5