Every other piece of industrial design is a pot or a dish or something insignificant. But when you have a chair, it's like a sculpture of a person: it's alive. It's big. You can't miss it. It's a 'look at me!' item.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Most industrial designers do a bottle or a pen or a computer - things that go right past your eye. When you see a chair, it's almost like a person. It's this great big thing in front of you. It hits you more.
But I don't think that sculpture belongs in everyday life like a table does, or like a chair.
Outside of the chair, the teapot is the most ubiquitous and important design element in the domestic environment and almost everyone who has tackled the world of design has ended up designing one.
The attitude and capacity of the factory, the old metal table and the new ideas of the wooden furniture quickly and naturally suggested the possibility of metal furniture.
When you have a bunch of comfortable upholstered pieces, a single bronze or brass chair really turns the energy up.
I don't call myself an 'industrial designer,' because I'm other things. Industrial designers want to make novel things. Novelty is a concept of commerce, not an aesthetic concept.
A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.
I'm drawn to furniture design as complete architecture on a minor scale.
People buy a chair, and they don't really care who designed it.
I look at every piece of furniture and every object as an individual sculpture.