Posted by Harry

Brion's nine young Argentinean designers (not in order of appearance); Augusto Medina, Leonardo Sarra, Leonardo Liberti, Julian Ortiz, Vera Kade, Juan Pablo Elorriaga, Emiliano Britos, Darío Stanziano and Federico Varone.

When did you decide to become a designer?

Vera Kade (VK): When I finished High School the problem was that I had a lot of different interests. One of them was art but not the only one. I found in Industrial Design a way to combine some of my interests; artistic, technical and social. I'm not a born designer, I'm a designer by choice.

Julian Ortiz (JO): Since I can remember I have a close relationship with different modes of artistic expression such as music, movies, drawing… On the other hand I went to a technical High School… I didn’t decide one day to be a designer, it came with my training.

Leo Sarra (LS): I always had a certain inclination as much by the aesthetic as by the technique. When I was finishing High School I had the opportunity to know an industrial designer, and when he showed me what a designer could do, I decided to become a designer without doubting it.

Augusto Medina (AM): Since I was a kid I liked to draw and to disassemble devices and anything with mechanisms. On the other hand in High School, the last years of study I started to develop an interest in the artistic side, drawing mixed with the technical side of my school, an electro mechanics school. At the age of 16 or 17 I knew that I wanted to study industrial design when I searched for careers that could mix parts, artistic and technical, to develop a product.

Lullaby wall lamp and Night Table from the Brion Empathy Collection.

What's the biggest obstacle for designers at the beginning of their career?

VK: The Independence. In our country it is very difficult to start a career as an independent if you don’t have external support. And being an employee it's very difficult to create an identity for your work and get recognized and become independent. It’s a problem that only can be solved working as an employee and an independent designer at the same time.

JO: Beyond the fact that our country didn’t help our discipline for some years, in my case the first obstacle was to overcome the mental hurdles, to listen to me and to begin to form my own experience and proposals. And the second obstacle definitively is to maintain what you've got and to renew oneself....

LS: The contrast between the academic and the professional. Once passed that barrier, if the independent way is chosen, you chose the most difficult but also the most rewarding way.

AM: To respond to a client with less conceptual work, in most of the cases, and also to see how difficult it is to self produce a piece economically.

Good Morning Melody, Direct Current light switches.

Where do you do most of your design work?

VK: I think about design all the time and everywhere, I try to do the operations part in the studio, but I try to not get too involved because I think it’s not healthy to me as a person and designer. I think it’s wrong to think that the designer “creates”, the designer only connects information, and it's part of his job to recharge his mind again.

JO: I do the operative part in the office since I spend a great part of the day there, but when it comes to ideas, they are working all day in my head.

LS: At a creative level, at any place, at any time, then work it out at the office.

AM: Most of the designs I create are at the office since I am practically all day in the studio, but also at home where I generate designs that are more conceptual and not so commercial.

Lanterna candle and Hunted Hunter rug.

Where, or from what, do you get inspiration for your work?

VK: I work a lot with humour, not because my work is funny, because I think design and humour have a lot of mechanisms in common. Both discover situations, reformulates them and compares with other situations.

JO: As I said before, my inspiration comes from music, the cinema, cartoons and Japanese animation. I try to feed my imagination with everything within my reach and to enjoy. When I'm happy I design better.

LS: From my reality, from my daily scenes. From the things I feel everyday, the city and its images, a book or a dialogue…

AM: I believe in not being a consumer of the most common aspects of design like exhibitions, art galleries or circuits of the local design, my inspiration has much more to do with my everyday life and things such as music or sports that influence my ideas. The inspiration comes from enjoying those aspects of my life.

What is your favorite part of the design process and why?

VK: The first part and the last part. The first one because it facilitates all the work, it’s the key to eliminate doubts in the process, if you've got a good start the rest is just linking logical decisions. And the last one because I like to take care of the details, to touch the product, decide the textures and colours… it’s like a maternal instinct.

JO: The stage of generation of the ideas and the refinement are the stages that I enjoy the most. If in addition this stage is done in a group... I enjoy it more. The development and the manufacturing are also interesting, but in the generation phase I feel more alive. When one begins to see a potentially good idea, I feel the adrenalin.

LS: The first part of the process is the one I most enjoy. Before the idea flows - the search itself.

AM: My favorite part of design is the last stage of the idea, where it begins to really solve a problem, developing functions, the use of materials and technologies. I also like to work in the development of the idea and concepts.

How would you label/categorize your work?

VK: It’s a work that proposes. Almost every time it’s noticed because of the conceptual content and that’s very rewarding for me.

JO: In the case of “Empathy” all the work was created by a group, but if I can distinguish one of my elements within the group, it’s the humour. It’s hard to label my work… My search is constant, I would like that that was my label... a design of search.

LS: I try to transmit any idea or concept using the object like a medium, at least this is what I am looking for.

AM: I consider myself a designer with a technical bent. Although I work in all the projects with a conceptual base, my technical part directs almost all of my designs.

Do you have a signature style? If yes, what are the hallmarks of your style?

VK: What almost all of my work has in common is that when you see the finished product, it's possible to understand the idea behind it. I would not define myself as a friend of styling.

JO: I think that being literal is one of my marks... if it's possible to call that a mark. The idea expressed in the form in a literal way. Sometimes crude.

LS: I’m in that search for a more semantic position, perhaps pulling apart the strictly formal and functional side.

AM: I don't have an objective, at least today, to follow a trend or style of design, but in all my works I try to solve a problem, I like to respect and to work the aspects and languages of the materials.

Who are your favorite designers and/or architects?

VK: For conceptual design, I like designers not linked to an aesthetic, as an example Droog Design. In a formal way I like Scandinavian design. It gives much pleasure to see the nobility of products and the use of the materials.

JO: Architects Wright, duo Herzog & de Meuron... designers Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, Droog design... the list is very long, but I'm also influenced by sketchers, film directors and musicians.

LS: At a formal aesthetic level, I like what Mark Newson does. At a conceptual level, Droog Design.

AM: A favorite is Scandinavian design, it has a very rich style and history. As for architects Calatrava or Tadao Ando, they generate attractive new forms, studies in the space in which we live.

What item (PC, pen, etc) can you not do without when you are designing?

VK: In the beginning, pen and paper, because they transport me to a state of total concentration. In order to continue I use the PC, but that is operative work.

JO: Pencil.

LS: Pencil and paper at the moment of creation of the concept.

AM: I just need a pencil. The PC is also an important tool in the generation of an idea.

What's next?

VK: I don’t know. In the long term I think my independence. Meanwhile I am sailing and loading my backpack with the greatest amount of possible experiences.

JO: Continue my work with Brion, but always thinking about my independence. At the moment we are collaborating with two very talented colleagues, who are also friends, in a project called “Fuga” that serves as an escape from our routines and with which we give loose rein to our imagination. Without filters. I hope you'll hear about us very soon.

LS: To continue somehow what we initiated with "empathy", to make some specific independent projects, and to be able to find a place in design definitively.

AM: Next step for me is to explore as an independent designer, I would like to have a line of 100% personal products and projects. It’s good and attractive to work for clients and have a profile with a company, but I want to experiment with my personal work.

About Empathy
“Empathy implies one’s ability to experientially feel the emotion of another, to share his feelings and ideas and perceive his desires. From this perspective, we question common behaviors and simple acts of our everyday life, in order to create a link of complicity and even solve unprecedented situations. This task results in a compendium of ideas that comprehend elements of social criticism, and some others that, in an absurd tone, show up problems of everyday life and accepted habits.“

Comments

Dear madam and sirs,

it was very interesting for me when a friend send me the link to your website with the Brion design team.

I´m Jana Brion, Master of Ceramic und Glass Design and my label for my company is Brion Design&Art.

I wish the designers of the Brion design team many, many creativity and ideas.

Best regards,

J. Brion-Kraft
Brion Design&Art
Germany

Posted by: Brion Design&Art (Jana Brion-Kraft) | January 5, 2007 8:28 AM

I've been trying to find the "direct current" light switches. Where can I or my architect get them?

Posted by: Nina Hale | April 9, 2007 12:29 AM