I was fascinated by a half-glass, half-knitted vase I spotted at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in February, so I tracked down designers Sofia Lazzeri and Alexandra Denton to find out more…
What’s the most important thing to know about you as a designer?
Sofia: The projects I do are usually born from personal fascination, they grow by breathing air from different contexts, and become concrete with a balance between constant research, material awareness and experience-oriented approach. My aim is to capture the poetry hidden in the folds of daily life and make it tangible to awaken curiosity.
What interests you about combining different disciplines and different crafts into one object?
S: Finding new and unexpected possibilities by combining something that has been there for ages is really fascinating. The object that comes out becomes an hybrid made of contrasts, and you start getting triggered and asking yourself: “What is it?” and “How has it been made?”
Alexandra: By combining different disciplines and crafts we also learn about things beyond our comfort zone and understand the benefits of using different techniques, by exploring what they can do to enhance each other.
Where do ideas come from?
A: All things are sources of inspiration and can be linked together or extracted into fragments. The surface of a material, the scale, the form… they all tell a story, and as a designer you have the privilege to be the director of that story. The most important source of inspiration will always be people, their habits and ways of experiencing life.
S: Ideas come from what you experience, what surrounds you, what you see, read, eat or need, and the people you interact with.
How do you overcome creative block?
A: A creative block is also a shape created out of something. By giving the block a three dimensional shape I try to understand what it consists of and add the opposite to overcome it.
S: When I’m stuck on something, I change my environment and do anything that takes my mind away from what I’m doing, like going outside and having a walk by the water. Moving is an amazing way of getting focus and inspiration.
How do you get from an idea to a product – what’s your process?
A: Our process is not linear and takes different forms depending on the project aim and context. In the case with Innesti the process was experimentally based starting with a shared passion to explore two contrasting materials – glass and textile.
S: It depends on the product, and whether you work on your own or collaborate with somebody else. Sometimes it can be linear and spontaneous, I have a rough idea in mind and then try it out, adjust it until it works in reality. In other cases I start from a material and its features and then shape the project intuitively, which was definitely the case for Innesti. The outcome wasn’t set from the beginning, we started with the idea of finding techniques to work with two materials, textile and glass, and merging them together. We made several experiments and most of the decisions were made on the way, according to our discoveries.
What’s your favourite part of the process?
A: When I’m being the explorer on an expedition into the unknown trying to learn new things and connect the research, dreams and experimentations into reality.
S: The research, the explorative phase and the actual making. All the parts are engaging, and they are all fundamental for each other.
What are you most proud of?
S: Often it happens that everything I have imagined as easy and clear in my head becomes impossible in reality. I feel proud of being stubborn as hell When I suddenly find a solution to make it work after struggling.
A: I must agree with Sofia here, when a dream becomes reality due to hard work and being stubborn, the satisfaction goes hand in hand with being proud.
What advice would you give to an aspiring designer?
A: I believe all designers are aspiring designers – it is part of our profession to always aim to learn more and keep on developing.
S: Yes, I agree with Alexandra. But I think as designer you also have to be able to have the flexibility to aspire to being something different depending on the project and the people you are working with. Sometimes you need to be a scientist, sometimes an alchemist, a businessman, a detective, a builder… and that is one of the most interesting aspects of this profession.
What’s next for you?
A: There are a lot of exciting projects happening this spring. With the Innesti project, we are developing the second part – people visiting our exhibition during Stockholm design week have been part of creating patterns and statistics. It will be presented later this spring.
And finally, what’s your favourite colour?!
S: Black. I could never get bored by it.
A: I love all colours but I have to admit, blue is one of the favourites.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- interview :: gamfratesi
- interview :: zoe attwell
- interview :: kristina dam
- interview :: leonhard pfeifer
