Harry & Camila

For the Love of Design

By Hend Seif El Din

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

From everything surrounding us…we designers watch the world though in a different way…and when we find this little that we feel that could make the difference we put some light on it…hoping that this little thing makes the difference, improving daily life by using it.

Could you briefly take me through your creative thought process?

That can be done in second and you have times that it takes months or years…every time its different… but still like to start with brainstorming, books, pencil, paper and dreaming or taking simply a bath.

How would you define “design”?

A small tinny little thing that makes a enormous difference

Are you inspired by other designers?

Yes of course… everything that is good in our eyes and where it comes from…art, music, movies, museum, street, people, nature, north-south, east west, outer-space, fantasy, 1St world- 3Rd world…we get inspired from so this could also be why not from other designers…to my humble opinion their is no difference in the field of design than in the field of the master painters…to achieve that level or to overcome that level…you first have to analyze and study them…nothing comes out of the blue.

When you’re designing, do you think of “form” first, or of “function”?

No rules…rules are to brake…we here to push boundaries…both go hand in hand…or not…that is the question, isn’t it?

Do you sometimes design objects solely for their aesthetic value, or does functionality have to play a significant role?

We do one off art pieces, were the function is absent as it is art in the sense that it is not an object to use than to enjoy it visually and that is a use to, hmmm…but to be honest we love this freedom… as sometimes to make it work…function wise you have to give in…as we don’t believe in useful objects with an aesthetic value only…these are empty and just become status symbols.

According to your point of view, what–do you believe–forms the basis for a good design?

This is always difficult, as who decides what is good design and what is bad… though think and feel that beauty is an important factor…as people always relate to beauty, therefore we designers are obliged to create as much beautiful projects as possible… and as at the end of the day those objects improve their lives, they automatic discover the difference and that is for us is already a huge gain.

I personally see your designs as pieces of art, more so than just functional objects, is that how you see your work as well?

Ha, ha, that cancels all of the above…we thank you for the nice words and great to read that you receive them as we pretend them to be, without being to pretentious…art is an important value, as is experimentation, as is trying to find new ways in whatever sense, however we would like to think that all go hand in hand and function is included in that…otherwise it would not make sense….but we like to stimulate the mind of the viewer, make them think…. not all can be taken simply for granted.

What motivates you?

My family and nature, but specially the sun.

Do you ever experience a “creative block”? If so, how do you handle it?

No…knock on wood…possible the contrary people read clients get afraid of the enormous flood of things we spew out or can spew out…and sometimes there is no logic to it and it goes in all directions…but we have to go there, we have to search under every stone, around every corner… to be absolutely sure that most of the times the first idea still was the best…but still than we are personally never satisfied for the 100% we always find something that could be improved, also for our best-sellers or most awarded products…a project is never done and the best still lays ahead.

What materials are your favorite to work with?

As with the work we don’t want to limit our selves, we like all the fields, we like all the materials (ethical), the more we don’t know about it or have never worked with it the better…we like to be ignorant…have no knowledge baggage…than working with super specialist, turning their world upside down, you come to the best and most original solutions…again no knowledge simply helps pushing the boundaries…

What’s the first thing you think of when you approach a new design?

When approaching the work of another designer, if I like the work I will be fully attracted to it this normally very direct and fast otherwise I will simply forget it and pay no attention to it. As for approaching a new design project for ourselves, it’s pure excitement… every time again…happy and curious to welcome and see the new born family member baby still to come.

I’m in love with your “Bubbles on the Rocks” design; how did that come about?

Bubble rock started many years ago as with many of our projects…they are long term before the see the daylight…don’t know if this is our fault or something else….but it seams that we are always ahead of time and that our clients or public need time to accept what we do or understand better why we do things we do….bubble rock started when we were doing material research for our trend-books and we had those huge bags with different size polystyrene balls in the studio…. we simply started to glue them and it started to grow and to grow like flowing clouds where you could nestle yourself down…we
presented them in Milan during salone del mobile as experimental work with HALL01 or HALL02….than a couple of years latter we were invited to do a workshop in Tenerife, Spain and they invited us to climb the volcano Teide, the highest point and the surrounding was incredible very lunar, a part of Star-wars was being shot there and it came all very logical together…
the surroundings the old projects the balls, the sculpture workshop…they did an incredible job, the moulds are huge and complex and still new ones are to follow, with different material combinations, copper, silver and hopefully a gold one…however this is an limited art project and for collectors only … the price tags are also impressive….

What about “Babylon,” which you designed for Dedon; what inspired that?

That is thanks to some old suede boots I use to wear during my youth. I have always been intrigued by the beauty and perfection of their wrinkles and the latest 3d software we had in our studio…this enabled us to come close and even take it a step further…. as there is apart in the design process with the computer that we can’t control it fuses together and is every time different almost imperfect almost hand-craft though made with most modern software and hi-tech machines…we try to bring this human touch into the work as in our philosophy a world only made by hi-tech and machines is cold…..the visibility of the human hand into the overall process is needed and will contribute to its success…..

Which of your designs is closest to your hearts?

An electric plug we designed for one of the major Italian electrical suppliers called Vimar…first we had a huge battle with their intern engineers…looking strange to these arty guys telling them what to do, you know safety and seriousness is really an issue here…after a month we toppled them over… convincing that our way of working was better and more successful…simply saying they start inside out… we outside in…anyway this piece is produced for years and in millions, you will find it all over Europe but specially in Italy in almost every private home and or public space…I always encounter it…nobody knows we did it but every time I encounter it, it still makes me feel very proud…

Tell me about your latest designs and collaborations.

We are working on two carpet collections one for LivingDivani and one for Nodus very special and all handmade of the highest quality…they are getting nuts of us but the results will be great and can’t wait… a table wood collection for the Bcn line of Kristalia and a multiple BCN shell chair is on its way, we launch a new outdoor line for Frontgate, USA a new five-piece place setting called cutlery Quinlan for Crate & Barrel and Target both American brands.