Last week, Ronan Bouroullec took some time out of his surely hectic schedule to answer our 3 Questions.
Ronan and his brother Erwan have a big week ahead of them, with four major products launching at the Salone. The excitement has been spreading internationally over their Vegetal Chair designed for Vitra – a lovely chair that takes inspiration from plants and nature – as well as Clouds for Kvadrat – a beautiful system of textile pieces held together with rubber bands to form spontaneous modular room dividers. The Bouroullecs are also introducing Quilt Sofa for Established and Sons and the Steelwood Coat Hanger for Magis.
Vitra: Vegetal
Vegetal Growing
Kvadrat: Clouds
Established & Sons: Quilt Sofa
Magis: Steelwood Coathanger
What is your favorite example of great design?
My favorite for a few different reasons is the Thonet Chair. On one hand, it’s a very pragmatic object, well thought out and intellegent. But most importantly it has a magic about it, a real sensuality and beauty that is hard to describe. There is an abundance of objects out there that are intellegent and quite well designed, but this one has a mythical nature to it that is hard to capture.
What is the most memorable moment in your career as a designer?
Certainly the first one was when I was 18 and rejected from the best design school in Paris. I attended a comparably terrible design school instead. It was very dramatic for me, but was also very good in a way because it forced me to work for myself. I started to draw my own projects that no one even saw, and my self motivation became very important.
The second was when Erwan started working with me, which was certainly one of the most important moments of our careers. We are both designers individually, but when we work together, the body of the work becomes more dense, I think.
The third is when we met Giulio Cappellini. At this time Cappellini was very important in the discovery of young designers, and the fact that when I was 25 and Giulio Cappellini asked us to work with him, was very important to our career. It felt like we were stepping on a train, and the train hasn’t stopped since. After working with him, we never had to knock on doors for work.
Finally, the most recent pivitol moment was when we met Rolf Fehlbaum of Vitra. This was the beginning of a very dense collaboration, and actually, the body of our work is based on the work we’ve done for Vitra.
What is the most important factor that influences and/or inspires your design process?
I think it is most important to be able to question ourselves, while keeping our standards of quality high. To be able to, at any point of the process, stop and start over if needed.
