Boffi Paris in collaboration with the Manufacture de Sèvres, Normal Studio
10 new talents have been sponsored by Philippe Starck, Maison’s 2010 Designer of the Year to be part of a showcase curated by Chantal Hamaide, editorial director of the Intramuros magazine at next week’s now! design à vivre exhibition, as part of Maison & Objet, Paris.
The 10 designers are 5.5 designers, Sam Baron, Gilles Belley, Michel Charlot, Constance Guisset, Joachim Jirou Najou, Mathieu Lehanneur, Philippe Nigro, Normal Studio and Marie-Aurore Stiker. Philippe Starck has challenged them with the question ‘What is missing? and the designers will offer an initial reaction through a five minute video at next week’s event – the starting point for a show to be held in Paris in June 2010 as part of Designer’s Days.
Normal Studio was founded in 2006 by designers Jean-François Dingjian and Eloi Chafaï. The studio’s style has a geometric approach creating timeless objects, a certain slowness, a timeless character. For example, the Boffi Paris exhibition during the Designer’s Days event produced a series of objects produced in collaboration with the Manufacture de Sèvres.
Issima collection Bosa 2009, Sam Baron; Vaso Vaso, 2009, 5.5 designers
Sam Baron is Director of the Design department at Fabrica, the Benetton communication research centre in Treviso and was a graduate of L’Ecole des Beaux Arts de Saint-Etienne and l’Ecole des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. A ceramist, he produces collections for a wide range of companies, such as the Issima Ceramic collection of vases, fruit bowls, candle holders, tables and cake plates for Bosa in 2009.
5.5 designers is a collective of four designers: Vincent Baranger, Jean-Sébastien Blanc, Anthony Lebossé and Claire Renard.Their approach is based on the principle that objects can have a second lease of life. For example, the Vaso Vaso vase was produced for a show where each designer was invited to reinterpret the word vase by changing a letter. Vaso Vaso reworks the champagne bottle used to inaugurate a ship into a flower vase in marble that hangs from the ceiling by a rope.
Notan, Gilles Belley; MOLD lamp for Eternit, Michel Charlot
An ENSCI-Les Ateliers graduate from 2001, Gilles Belley opened his design studio in 2004 and he has developed a range of concept products aimed to reducing energy consumption as well as raising awareness of users. Following a partnership with EDF R&D Design, he continues to study energy-related objects, such as Notan, a range of plugs, switches and skirting board covers consisting of a minimalist white wall lit by a coloured back that creates a soft light and indicates the electrical function of the object. Gilles Belley now lectures at the Ecole Supérieure d’Arts et Techniques and is also director of studies at ENSCI-Les Ateliers.
Michel Charlot, an industrial designer trained at ECAL, graduated in 2009 and worked on several research projects during his studies. The winner of a grant awarded by the Ikea Foundation in 2007, he developed a prototype stool in cast aluminium. He took part in Design Miami/Basel, an art and design fair, for two years running and presented the MOLD lamp now made by ETERNIT, then a glass lamp prototype. He won a one-year internship at the Manufacture de Sèvres with which he developed a long-term research study on the theme of the container and its possibilities by exploring the technique of turned porcelain. At now! design à vivre, he will present a new prototype, an industrial porcelain wall lamp.
Age of the World Demographic Jars, Mathieu Lehanneur; Around, Joachim Jirou Najou
On graduating from Ensci-Les Ateliers in 2001, Mathieu Lehanneur opened his design and interior architecture studio, with an emphasis on the scientific world – the “human body and its environment”. For example, in 2007, in conjunction with David Edwards of Harvard University, he imagined BEL AIR, an air filtering system using plants, a hybrid object where nature and technology combine to create a design object. Mathieu Lehanneur also works for the luxury market, designing packaging and display for labels such as Cartier, Issey Miyake and Paco Rabanne for whom he was art director in 2008. He created the Age of the World Demographic Jars in 2009 for the Issey Mikaye stores, a three dimensional visualisation of the age ratio of the population in individual countries.
An ESAD (Reims) and then ENSAD graduate, Joachim Jirou-Najou works freelance for Pierre Charpin. From his Phi project developed at ENSAD, a scalable bookcase, to the Portée series edited in 2005 by the Parisian Gilles Peyroulet & Cie gallery, Joachim Jirou-Najou designs furniture with bold eye for colour and shape. In 2008, as part of the VIA Project Support (French organisation offering support for interiors designers), Joachim Jirou-Najou designed Around, a solid wood and lacquered steel storage unit covered in fabric. His most recent project is the Goldleaf range of objects produced in Rennes by the Mica gallery in 2009.
The Dancing chair, Constance Guisset
Constance Guisset is a designer, and was also the administrator of the Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec studio between 2003 and late 2009. An obvious relationship with the body is essential in her work as it is necessary for the operation and measurement of objects. The Dancing Chair, created with VIA support, engages our body to take complete advantage of its calming properties: a revisited rocking chair that follows our forms like a cocoon and rocks us gently using a footrest. A relationship with the fashion world is also noticeable in this latest design: the wooden structure recalls the nineteenth century crinoline.
Trained at La Martinière in Lyon (BTS in Industrial Design) and at Ecole Boule (DSAA Product and Furniture Design), Philippe Nigro has been a freelance designer for ten years. He frequently works with the De Lucchi Studio for major Italian companies such as Poltrona Frau, Artemide and Alias. Philippe Nigro’s work is linked to modularity and the adaptability of furniture to our changing lifestyles.
Universal legs for table Editor Via 2009, Philippe Nigro; La Pliée Chair 2007, Marie Aurore Stiker
An ENSCI graduate, Marie Aurore Stiker initially studied philosophy with a specific interest in aesthetics. Her end-of-studies project in domestic techniques was a reflection on the assembly techniques of the different elements composing furniture. In 2007, Marie-Aurore Stiker developed a prototype of an aluminium sheet chair – La Pliée – as part of the VIA Project Support grants, made from a laser-cut stainless steel sheet which, like origami, is folded, structured and rebuilt to reveal the seat. This chair as well as a table and stool based on the same principle, are now featured in the catalogue of Ligne Roset.
Sam Baron
5.5 designers
Normal Studio
Gilles Belley
Michel Charlot
Mathieu Lehanneur
Joachim Jirou Najou
Constance Guisset
Philippe Nigro
Marie Aurore Stiker
VIA
