www.maartenbaas.comwith his "smoke" (which he burnt furnitures then redesigned) and "clay" furniture collections, young dutch talent maarten baas seems to be a design duo in the future..here is a short interview that i made with him..
When did you decide to become a designer?
when I was around 15 I saw a sketch for a chair at my friends place. I thought: that's a nice job to do!
Where, or from what, do you get inspiration for your work?
music, video's, nature
What is your favorite part of the design process and why?
to do the stupid jobs, like sanding, or polishing. It can't go wrong, so you don't need to think at all. i like that the most.
What item (PC, pen, etc) can you not do without when you are designing?
I can design without anything. I once gave myself the assignment to improvise a design assignment while I was in the mountains without anything but a tent, some food and a camera. while I was there I made things from the objects I found and made pictures of it. It became quite a nice series of improvised products.
Are there any things or categories of things that you won't design? Why?
I have to have the feeling that it makes sense what I'm doing. if i make a chair i want to make a chair of which I think it's better/nicer/more beautiful or whatever than if that chair wouldn't have been there. Many products are "just another product". I couldn't make such products. If someone would ask me to design a vase, and I couldn't think of a vase which really makes sense, I wouldn't just make another vase. In that case I prefer making nothing: that saves a lot of time.
How would you categorize your work?
I don't like to categorize anything. One of the things which my works (should) do, is to erase any category and to invite people to look at it without forced borders of categories. Just see it as something you like or not. As something new, but don't try to categorize. (not only my work, but not anything.)
Your favorite designers?
Jurgen Bey, Bertjan Pot, Marti Guixé
