Hasta La Ideas

The Dutch design wunderkind on putting the human touch to design

Dutch designer Maarten Baas deals in the unexpected. “Beauty and ugliness is something that I find interesting,” Baas explains. “I have the feeling that our sense for beauty isn’t so pure anymore. I sometimes try to shake up the way we see things, to kind of ‘reset’ it.”

His famous series “Hey, chair, be a bookshelf!” repurposes items from second-hand stores into seemingly precarious arrangements, reinforced by hand-coated polyester. Whimsically stacking old chairs and lamp stands, he fuses the disparate group of items that might’ve been called “rubbish” in another incarnation together into a unified structure, with piles of CDs and potted plants peeping out at playful angles.

Even before graduating (he got his degree from Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2002), Baas’ unconventional sensibility was getting attention when his design “Knuckle”—a bone-white holder for various sizes of candles—was already being produced. It didn’t take long from there for renowned design company Moooi to pick up his “Smoke” series, which was shown at international exhibitions and museums like London’s Victoria & Albert, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at NYC’s gallery and design shop Moss, effectively launching his career.

The particular poetry of these pieces essentially define Baas’ aesthetic core. Eschewing conventional notions of aesthetics and preservation, for each of the unique works in the Smoke series, Baas blowtorches the furniture and preserves them with an epoxy coating, giving them a velvety, matte-black finish that belies its charred, primal appeal. Soon after Groninger Museum in Amsterdam commissioned the young designer to transform an entire suite of antique furniture by fire, and NYC’s Gramercy Park Hotel commissioned several one-off Smoke works, including a billiard table.

From there Baas began collaborating with Bas den Herder in 2005, and the two founded Studio Baas & den Herder shortly thereafter. The studio now produces Baas’ work on a slightly larger scale, though most of the pieces continue to be made by hand according to his own seasonal schedule. “I do industrial design rarely, only if I think the fact that it is industrially made has an added value,” he emphasizes. “I prefer not to make anything, rather than another boring, impersonal product. When we make things in our studio, it literally has fingerprints in the product. It’s human-scale.”

This hands-on approach translates into otherworldly design that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of a Tim Burton film. His 2006 “Clay Furniture” collection is modeled by hand without the use of molds. The dreamlike, vibrantly-colored pieces look as if they’ve been made by a giant child who pinched the delicate arms and legs thin with
awkward fingers. His newest collection, “Plain,” takes this concept and remodels it for
more everyday use, making it more “resistant to scratches and so on,” Baas acknowledges.

Baas’ genius lies in recognizing that that there is more than one kind of beauty. An
attractive woman doesn’t need to resemble a Titian-haired Aphrodite, so why should a beautiful cabinet have to have perfectly straight lines and ornamental woodwork? “I
think the design world is lacking a kind of experimental, expressive part, compared to art, or music, or fashion,” said Baas. “But the mainstream of design is still a compilation of greatest hits, rather than a big room for experiments. So if people are experimenting I seriously don’t consider that as ugly, but as interesting.”

Images by Maarten van Houten

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

A renaissance man with an intrinsic sense for color and shape boldly redefines modern interiors

by Meghan Killeen

Rafael de Cárdenas‘ signature blend of saturated colors and stark geometry turns classic architecture into a common language of striking patterns and eye-popping hues. “Graphics lend themselves to a very immediate reception, which I’m very drawn to,” he recently told Cool Hunting. With an impressive roster of diverse projects in his portfolio, de Cárdenas’ ability to translate color and form across platforms stems from his varied background, which began in the fashion world. Shortly after graduating from RISD, de Cárdenas worked for Calvin Klein as a menswear designer, but he reflects, “I never explicitly set out to pursue any one thing. I was fairly schizophrenic in my various pursuits as a young boy and teenager. But more importantly, I was interested, and always have been, in moods and generating atmospherics.”

While completing a Masters in Architecture at UCLA, de Cárdenas became acquainted with progressive architect and mentor, Greg Lynn—who he later collaborated with on a proposal for the redesign of the World Trade Center, a finalist for its beautiful series of interconnected buildings reminiscent of a cathedral. “Every time I left a meeting with him, I felt like something I’d previously not known was revealed to me. The WTC competition was a dream-team and possibly one of the most awe-inspiring projects ever,” he enthuses.

After working as creative director of experience design at Imaginary Forces, de Cárdenas opened his own design firm called Architecture At Large, where he continues to take “note of the past while daydreaming the future,” with projects focused on the conceptual design of residential and commercial interiors. His ingenuity has been the leading force behind customized interiors for celebrities and CEOs alike. He explains, “I don’t think about things going or not going. I think if something has an interesting story it will work.” For supermodel Jessica Stam, de Cárdenas returned to the referential silverscreen theme of decadence, styling her lavish apartment in monochromatic jewel tones, specially curated eBay finds and vintage wallpaper.

De Cárdenas’ ability to personify spaces is as iconic as it is personal, as encapsulated in his design of Nike’s experiential store, Bowery Stadium. Integrating his own interest in running and love of Brazilian culture, de Cárdenas created the space using vertigo-inducing zig zags and illuminated pegboard, accented by yellow and green flooring. De Cárdenas elaborates, “With Brazil as the theme and a soccer field as the visual start, I played with visual ideas of gravity and space through the use of everyday materials. The stadium’s disorienting stripes and floating elements are key in bring out a sense of actual play within the sport rather than competition. The aim of the stadium was play for the sake of play. We used pegboard as the unsung hero emblematic of the amateur athlete.”

His brazenly dynamic aesthetic continues to make its mark, appearing at the many OHWOW galleries and concept shops popping up around the world. De Cárdenas cites diversity and atmosphere over set style as the key to artistic longevity, adding “I like to bend the rules of traditional architecture to produce moods and elicit emotional response.” This can also be seen in his work for Cape Town’s new men’s store Unknown Union, where he used a gradient of bold colors and square shelving units to create depth.

Stepping outside interiors, de Cárdenas recently co-curated an exhibition entitled “New York Minute” with Kathy Grayson, director of NYC’s The Hole. The exhibition features fifty New York-based artists and is on view at Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture through 5 June 2011. He will also debut his first furniture collection, a neon colored homage to Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff, at NYC’s Johnson Trading Gallery from 13 May to 25 June 2011.

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

Clean, smart graphics from freewheeling designer Aaron Draplin

Portland, OR-based designer Aaron Draplin is the upshot of a stubborn dedication to chasing dreams. A role model for anyone with uncompromising passion who refuses to let social norms interfere with their goals, Draplin started his current career path from very humble beginnings—with a single graphic for the company Solid Snowboards. For the 19-year-old Midwestern refugee, landing the gig was a shock to his system. “Let me tell you, I lived off that $300 for months,” he told CH. “It was the first building block in this new world that suddenly became clear in front of me. You can actually do this. For loot. For fun. For cool people.”

The logistics of turning a distinctive vision into a paying career eluded Draplin for awhile, including one memorable summer in which he worked at a carnival. But a few years later, he packed up his gear and moved back to the middle of the country, obtaining a degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Soon after graduating, he was hired as the Art Director of Snowboarding Magazine in what he refers to as “Shithole, Southern California.” Soon after, he moved to the much more accommodating climate of Portland, OR, and in 2004 began Draplin Design Company as an umbrella for his freelance projects.

Since then, he’s cobbled together an impressive array of clients, including Burton, Ride, Forum Snowboards, Coal Headwear and Absinthe Films. With friend 
Jim Coudal, Draplin launched the now-ubiquitous Field Notes notebooks, modeled after the simple memo books he uses on the road. The productive designer also gives talks on contemporary graphic design and produces innumerable one-offs for events like this past weekend’s “Push: Skatedeck Art Show” in Bend, OR.

Draplin’s designs are characterized by a clean, bright, street-smart aesthetic that looks equally at home on a skateboard deck or letterhead. Besides a fearsome work ethic—”It only feels like work if I’m under the gun,” Draplin says—he attributes his success to a simple philosophy: Do good work, for good people.

“I like to think of my target demographic as ‘adventurous motherfuckers who love what they make, and are willing to roll the dice on the DDC’,” he says. “That’s been the goal all along: Work for the people you love. Nothing sucks more than hating the chump on the other end of the project. And I’m proud to say, there’s only been a few of you over the years. You know who you are, fuckers.”

Check out Draplin’s work and online shop on his website.

Colorado’s creative community bands together with a temporary retail space

Taking a cue from the commercial world, a Colorado organization recently jumped on the pop-up bandwagon again with YesPleaseMore, a temporary store featuring locally-crafted goods from more than 70 Colorado-based artists and designers. The retail project is part of a three-pronged initiative to provide an economic development platform that gives credence and support to a recent report that the state’s creative industry is its fifth largest economic producer. (An unsurprising fact since Colorado ranks fifth nationally for it’s high concentration of artists.)

The resulting shop offers a massive variety of made-in-Colorado products, including furniture, skis, jewelry, stationery, art prints and larger installation pieces.

Founders Brian Corrigan and Samuel Schimek give 70% of the profits back to the original designers and artists, while the remaining 30% benefits YesPleaseMore’s ongoing development efforts, including a free work space for networking opportunities in an environment conducive to its participants’ working needs, as well as starter grants for creative entrepreneurs. Every three months, three local applicants whose projects earn the most public votes will receive $500 dollars in funding.

Visit the shop, located at the Denver Pavilions, through the end of February.

Singapore spreads the news with a unique magazine dedicated to design

A foreword by BBDK design agency founder and Thinkingforaliving’s Duane King on the modern definition of craft kicks off the inaugural quarterly issue of Singaporean magazine Bracket, featuring interviews with an international who’s who in the creative industry like Aaron Rose, Geoff McFetridge, Frank Chimero and even musician and skate punk Tommy Guerrero.

“But craftsmanship doesn’t pertain just to the handmade,” King writes. “Instead, craftsmanship is a basic human impulse; the desire to do a job well for its own sake. A craftsman is engaged in their work.” To that end, the artists starring in the issue are design studio SILNT and its research arm Anonymous’ picks of those who they believe best exemplify the issue’s theme.

The format is simple. Subjects respond to a questionnaire by writing out their answers by hand and sending them back that way. While seemingly primarily geared toward those who recognize the names in the issue, questions like “What keeps you going?” and “Who/What do you have a bone to pick with?” keep it interesting for casual readers. Many of the interviewees sprinkle their sheets with doodles, while others like Amsterdam creative agency KesselsKramer take the cue and run with it, sending back a photographic accompaniment to answers.

Only eight issues total, each between 24 and 36 pages, of the newsprint-printed issue are planned. Michel Gondry is already confirmed for the next edition, and upcoming topics will cover hunger, ethics and failure. Out in February 2011, the debut issue is $23 including postage for those outside of Singapore, and can be ordered directly from the site.