interview :: marlene huissoud - confessions of a design geek

This article was published 11 years

This is the latest in a series of interviews with one of the 70 designers identified by the Design Council as Ones to Watch. As we start to consider whether insects will become the food source of the future, bee-keeper’s daughter Marlene Huissoud goes one step further. In her ‘From Insects’ project, she uses by-products from the honeybee and the Indian silkworm to make vessels and furniture. Propolis, a natural bio-degradable resin made by bees has similar properties to glass, and she makes ‘wooden leather’ from the Indian silkworms’ discarded cocoons. Marlene’s project was selected in the Material World category alongside Wael Seaiby’s ‘PLAG’ in which plastic carrier bags are up-cycled into high end gallery pieces, and Fernando Laposse Madero’s edible ‘Sugar Glass’ vessels, which are made by treating sugar as if it were molten glass.

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

I’m a French designer based in London. I graduated last year from a MA ‘Material Futures’ course at Central Saint Martins. I’m fascinated by materials and processes.

What inspires your work?

I would say all the new wave of experimental designers, where the process is a footprint of the design aesthetic. The product is a way to communicate, to involve people in this kind of obsessive process. Designers have to be storytellers. I’m fascinated by the Japanese culture which is an extreme mix between authenticity and new technologies. I’m lucky enough to go to Japan for the first time soon and I’m very very excited about this travel. Something that you can find in all my projects is this relationship with an obsessional method of repetition.

Talk me through your design and making process.

For my latest project “From Insects” everything started with a fascination for the insect world. I come from a family of beekeepers so I have always been in contact with insects. I was curious and fascinated by their capacities to make engineered materials. The first step was the theoretical research phase when I read a lot of books about the topic of the project. The second step was a ‘crazy kitchen’, the time for experimenting. The idea is to take the material and try a lot of different techniques and processes. The third step is to continue to experiment but on a bigger scale; trying different shapes, modelling, judging the feasibility of the project by contacting experts if needed and collaborating with craftsmen.

What’s your favourite part of the process?

The crazy kitchen – definitely! You don’t know what to expect and it is very exciting! It is about discovering a new material and exploring its properties. You meet failures at this stage of the process and it is an important part of your project. Never be scared of the failure, it will help push your project.

What’s your favourite tool and why?

At the moment I really enjoy all the engraving tools that I’m using for the bee vessel collection. They are super-simple but very precise and give me the opportunity to repeat my gesture and create 3D textures inspired by the insect world.

Tell me about a really good day and a really bad day in the life of Marlene Huissoud.

A perfect day for me is a day in my studio. I start the day with a strong black coffee, and answer my emails. And then, every day is different depending on the project I’m working on. In the afternoon I generally go to central London for some meetings, and then come back to my flat to listen to music. I’m very happy to be able to do what I’m doing now, I don’t have bad days.

What defines good design?

A design piece has to tell a story and can create a debate. It can be subtle in its shape, colourful, but I think we are now thinking a lot about materiality. The material you use, why you use it and why is it different from another one, make a large difference.