design odyssey beyond 2010

[by Katerina Kyselica] There is something precious about knowing that what you just bought is not only the result of creative genius, but also an outcome of great care and passion. Owning such an object guarantees that you encounter beauty on a daily basis. They call it the ‘art of making,’ and François Chambard, founder of the UM Project, is one designer who makes it happen.

The objects designed and made by François may appear simple, yet they are fitted with details that make you smile. The Milking Stool has three rounded legs – like the classic farm stool –and the bottom of the seat is painted with a bright yellow or red. The Pocket Table dressed in white teases with a wooden circle placed on the top, which slides and reveals storage for your books. And the Jottable desk? Its porcelain-enameled steel top serves as a white board you can write on. Oh, and it houses openings to hold your markers. The design of the joints engages industrial, aluminum end stretchers. Paint it a bright color, combine with warm, sustainable materials (ash legs and apron, MDF) and you get a one-of-a-kind desk with unique, architectural details. These objects can speak for themselves.

Jottable desk / photo: Francis Dzikowski

I was curious about this man who playfully combines natural and man-made materials and uses machines to help him create and craft. I met with François over a cup of Earl Gray tea in his studio in Brooklyn. The loft houses a workshop on the first floor and studio on the second floor. The smell of freshly sanded wood in the air makes you aware of the fact that you have entered the sanctuary of a designer-maker. Prototypes, samples of materials, details in various stages of development and all sort of objects occupy every inch of the perimeter of the walls.

We sat at the DTL table – a piece with a bold detail of joints that connect walnut legs with a Corian top. The color and texture of the dark walnut joints contrast with the pristine white of the top. Chic. There is something comforting when you talk to a designer while using an object he designed and made. Somehow you know you can trust him. We indulged in a relaxed discussion about François’ vision, the role of design and the direction of his work.

Francois Chambard in his workshop / photo: Katerina Kyselica

The path to design is not always straightforward. How did you become a designer?

I always knew I would be a designer and a maker of things. I always drew and built stuff. It’s interesting. The thing is I grew up in a traditional, prominent middle class French family of doctors and engineers. Becoming a designer wasn’t acceptable. I let others convince me that I had to go to business school, which I did. It’s funny. I don’t complain. But I always knew I wanted to design and build. It just took me a while to assert it.

So, I went to business school. Afterwards, I worked for design agencies as a marketing guy. The first two years I wasn’t doing creative work but business development. Later, I did strategy work for large corporations, such as Nike or Orange. I worked with great clients, traveled all around Europe and here in the US. It was fantastic. And I learned a lot. But the more years that passed, the less fulfilled I was. I needed not only to come up with design concepts but to make it happen, to execute the designs. I needed to get ‘hands on.’

15 years ago I came to the US to be with my girlfriend, now wife. I set up a branding business. After 12 years, I decided to make a living of design. I went to RISD [note: Rhode Island School of Design], but I didn’t finish the program. Although the school is great, it didn’t work for me. Maybe it was too late in my life because I was clear about what I wanted to do. In 2004 I set up the UM Project [note: UM stands for ‘Users and Makers’].

As a designer-maker, that is someone focused on custom production rather then the mass market, how do you see the relationship of design and the industry today?

I think design has evolved into a very conceptual field or trade. Today, designers like to develop concepts, and they’re not much involved in executing their designs.  The trend of separating design from making dates back to around the 1940s. I think for some reason the pressure of industry required a designer to be more focused. I feel that today there is a comeback of making. Take the MIT Media lab or MAKE magazine. Some people realize that design cannot be only a matter of conceptual practice. People seek connection, they want to relate on a very personal level. People want to know where things are coming from, who makes them.

I also think that we are experiencing something similar to what was happening in the early 20^th century when designers grouped in Bauhaus and Futurism embraced a new trend – a new force in the industry. I think it was fantastic. Unlike designers in the Art& Crafts or Vienna Secession movements who fought really hard to resist this new force as part of the creative, the design, and the making process. Today, this ‘trend’ is the inevitability of the digital age and the digital process. You cannot deny it anymore. It’s been happening in graphics design. In the making of things, digital processing technologies are becoming more and more important. I think it offers the same opportunities today as it did at the rise of the industrial age in the last century. As a designer-maker, I realize that digital technology can help me bridge the design of things with the making of things. I use simple tools like CNC and laser cutting, but I think I will go further in this direction. When I collaborate with architects, the tools they use to design are very similar to what I use to make things. I think the era of digital processes will help reconcile the designing and the making.

Where or how do you find inspiration for your work?

It’s a weird question. Picasso said that genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. It’s totally true. I have family [two children – son Milan and daughter Una] who are my best supporters. I spend time with them and the rest of the time I spend here in the studio. I’m not a genius, just a hard worker. Being a designer, you basically work all the time.

When I start the work, I start coming across ideas. I’ve begun developing archetypes and things I like – for instance this kind of joint [Francois points at the walnut joints of the DTL table]. Doing so, one develops a way of thinking, a way of designing and a way of making. And then, one thing leads into the next. The prototype of a table I’m doing for the 2010 Brklyn Designs and ICFF shows uses similar detail, although it’s simpler. There is evolution in my work. It’s not like I’m going on field trips, in the country, looking at birds and trying to find ideas. It doesn’t work like that for me.

Also, the economic pressure and the constraint of the resources I have available affect my ideas. It’s expensive to make a new, custom table. Although people love my work, it’s not easy to sell it. So, in order to make it accessible, I’ve done a few ‘generations’ of the table with the goal to lower the price without sacrificing the design. I’m using the same details.

Your objects are often made of a combination of natural and man-made materials. Is it your aesthetics that drive this decision or do other factors affect your choices?

I love composite materials – fiberglass and carbon fiber. I like the way I have to rely on my hand to make them work well. However, I have a small shop and a small network of five or six subcontractors I like to work with. These limited resources put constraints on what I can design. I have to invent with a relatively limited palette of tools. For example, a piece I’m making for the forthcoming shows is in cork. I would love to do it in plastic. But there is no way for me to spend so much money on a mold. Yet, the bench is successful in cork.

What are your plans?

I want to re-invent the old world atelier for the 21^st century. You see, my role models are Jean Prouvé and Isamu Noguchi – not only for their work but also for the way they functioned. They were very much designer-makers, great designers as well as inventors. I would like the UM Project to become something like a new atelier of the 21^st century – a studio and a shop, with projects which allow us to create, invent and build.

Thank you, François.

…

Make sure you check François’ work at either BRKLYN DESIGNS 2010 (7-9 May) or the ICFF (15-18 May) in New York. He will be showing his three new objects – a bench, a chair and a table. Knowing his attention to detail, I bet there is a surprise waiting for those of you who like to look. [Hint: check the underneath of the table.]

Milking Stool / photo: Francis Dzikowski

Parenthetical Shelves / photo: Francis Dzikowski

Pocket Table / photo: Francis Dzikowski

DTL table and Nebu chandelier, both by Francois Chambard / photo: Francis Dzikowski

installation of City Pendants / photo: Francis Dzikowski/ESTO

Filed under: Design, New York City Tagged: | Brooklyn, Design, Designer, Interview, New York City, Technocraft