Wood, metals and glass are commonly used materials in industrial design. But why stick to predictable staples when you’re enriching the world with your aesthetics? Totally Stockholm lets three Stockholm-based designers battle it out in their usage of unconventional and innovative materials.
ROCK:
David Taylor
What brought you to Stockholm and how is your work received here?
A Swedish woman lured me here. We met in Asia and coming to Sweden seemed like a good idea. That was 20 years ago now. I went to art school at Konstfack, in the metal department, graduating in 1999, and have been living on the back of my work since then, which is a good indication of how well my work is received here – although nowadays most of my clients for my studio work are outside of Scandinavia.
A lot of your work involves the use of concrete – from a layman’s perspective considered a rather mundane material. What do you personally find interesting in including concrete in your work?
Concrete is like an instant object. You just add water. It’s cheap and available everywhere and can be used and formed with the most elementary of tools. As a medium of artistic expression it’s the next step up from sand. It’s as low tech as it gets.
What do you see as the primary advantages versus constraints in using concrete?
The advantages are many and the drawbacks few – it’s heavy, its environmental credentials can be questioned and it can be difficult to achieve nice clean colours when adding pigment. I have found that colouring concrete can make the material very crumbly. When I started using concrete it was from demolished buildings of local social significance. This was the Rubble series. I used material from places of work and place where people congregated.
What do you hope to achieve, featuring concrete as a major component?
Crafts are all about risk. You can never be really sure of the outcome. I am a trained silversmith and silversmithing is on the low end of the risk scale because of the nature and cost of the material used. Concrete is cheap, and cheap mitigates failure in my world. A series of small cheap failures is so much more constructive than one large expensive catastrophe.
If you could choose your dream assignment, what would it be?
To be involved in the production of a significant building. Architects draw a building, designers draw the functional stuff, artists and craftsmen provide the finishing touches. I’d love to be involved in a project where these roles were challenged and the contributing disciplines were much more integrated.
PAPER:
Clara von Zweigbergk
Clara, tell us a little about yourself and your professional background?
I am currently working as an art director and graphic designer out of Stockholm with collaborations in the USA and Italy. My most recent works are created for Danish design company HAY, Artecnica based in Los Angeles and French furniture designers Moustache/Domestic. Currently, I do scenography and art direction for HAY.
Tell us about your affinity to work with paper as a main ingredient in your work.
Paper gives me a very tactile and palpable experience. It is a tranquil pastime working with my hands; cutting, gluing and letting shapes form through improvisation. You get an instant and obvious feel for the size and format of the object. Regardless of intended final material, all prototypes are made of paper, even if it is supposed to turn into a metal, wood or ceramic design in the end.
Do you see any major cons in using paper in design?
The only limitation that I can think of is the difficulty to make objects that combine round and three-dimensional shapes. That is the only time I have to resort to 3D software.
Do you feel that you have a specific philosophy or objective in creating your designs in paper?
No, not really. I don’t start out having a very specific shape in mind for the end result. Instead, I tend to potter until something that I like magically appears.
If you were given your dream assignment – and still had to use paper as your material – what would it be?
Luckily, I tend to have a dream assignment in whatever I am doing at present. I am currently working on designing a lamp, which I enjoy. If I had to pick a general idea, I find making very large objects fun, but quite a challenge when using paper.
SCISSORS:
Simon Key Bertman
Simon, tell us about yourself.
I am a textile artist and designer, living in Stockholm. I tend to focus on artistic extracting and produce surface textures and patterns that in two or three-dimensional fabrics reflect a process, a mathematical thought or sometimes a game. I sometimes use physicality and movement patterns of the human body and my own practice of Racketlon [a Swedish-Finnish multidisciplinary sport which includes badminton, table tennis, tennis and squash] to produce several textile works.
Your description of yourself contains both the words “designer” and “artist”. How does the “art” bit manifest itself in your work?
I work right on the border between the two. My design is close to the arts – subtle storytelling, anecdotes and small editions. My art is close to design – often practical and with bespoke elements to suit the desires of what the client wants or needs.
You obviously enjoy working with textiles. Why did you choose textiles as the main material in your work as a designer, and who would you say is a great role model or source of inspiration?
Conceptual and minimalist designer Sol LeWitt inspires me. He was prolific in creating two and three-dimensional works in the form of various geometrical shapes. Other sources of inspiration are my own deceased relatives Ellen Key and Isaac Grünewald – both well known as writer and artist respectively. But in the end it all boils down to the fact that textile is a suitable material for me in executing my ideas – above all weaving, which is a technical routine involving aesthetic solutions.
What are the main pros and cons in working on textiles?
The pros are mainly that it is easy to make low production runs and that the material itself is technically well-suited to make intricate and intriguing combinations. The primary drawback is that textile as such is not prioritized or acknowledged among design or art buyers. People tend to spend more on other substances such as wood or metals.
If you had the opportunity to pick one dream commission, what would it be?
I would love to be involved in creating public spaces – hotels and hospitals, to name a couple. I like large surfaces where techniques and aesthetics can roam feely and without restrictions, and where my craft is showcased using optical solutions and light to enhance my ideas.
