Hasta La Ideas

Interview: German industrial designer Richard Sapper has launched a new website chronicling his work dating back to the 1950s. In an interview looking back on his career he tells Dezeen how he turned down the chance to work at Apple, how design has been “degraded” by commercialism and how 3D printing could help solve unemployment (+ slideshow).

Speaking from his home in Milan, Sapper, 81, recounts how Steve Jobs once tried to lure him to work for Apple, “but the circumstances weren’t right because I didn’t want to move to California and I had very interesting work here that I didn’t want to abandon.”

When asked if he regretted turning Jobs down he said: “Sure I regret it – the man who then did it [Jonathan Ive] makes $30 million a year!”

In a career spanning almost 60 years, Sapper has designed iconic products including the Tizio lamp, the ThinkPad range of laptops for IBM and the 9091 whistling kettle for Alessi.

Sapper says that he admires the work of Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs at Apple, citing the company as an exception in an industry he feels has been “degraded” by an overriding focus on profit. “If a company asks me to design something, the first thing I hear is how much money they’re making, how much money they want to make, and I’m expected to produce the difference.”

Richard Sapper was born in 1932 and was first employed as a stylist with Daimler Benz in Stuttgart. He founded his own studio in Milan in 1959 and worked as a consultant for many of Italy’s leading companies, including Brionvega, Fiat and Pirelli.

He is renowned for his work with technology brands, including IBM, for whom he has been chief industrial design consultant since 1980.

When asked about 3D printing and its impact on the design industry, Sapper describes it as “a huge revolution,” and adds, “it is revolution that allows anyone who has such a machine the possibility to produce something that they have invented themselves. This can help to reduce the problem of unemployment because people are able to produce something without having to be employed.”

Sapper’s 9091 whistling kettle for Alessi is one of several iconic kettles described by Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic in a film made by Dezeen for the Design Museum Collection App for iPad.

Other clients include Alessi, Artemide, Kartell, Knoll, Lenovo and Magis.

Despite his prodigious career, Sapper says he launched a new website, designed by London studio Julia, because “I’ve been working in design for over 50 years and most people still don’t know my work.”

Here’s a transcript of Richard Sapper talking with Alyn Griffiths from Dezeen:

Alyn Griffiths: Your website documents a career going back all the way to the 1950s. How has design changed in that time?

Richard Sapper: There have been enormous changes. When I was young and starting out, industrial designers all worked for somebody who owned a company. Some of those company owners wanted to make good-looking things because there is pleasure associated with good forms. In many ways these people were idealists. They didn’t make more money because they made a beautiful design. Today, it seems to me that money is the only reason to make design.

If a company asks me to design something, the first thing I hear is how much money they’re making, how much money they want to make, and I’m expected to produce the difference. It is a completely different relationship and it isn’t as much fun to work in such a relationship. From that point of view, my profession has degraded.

Alyn Griffiths: So do you think there are too many products and too many designers today?

Richard Sapper: There are certainly too many products and too many designers, and the idea behind design has changed. Today it’s all [about] money. Back then it was just an interest in producing something beautiful. And this is very similar to the interest a designer has in making a design. They want to do something beautiful. If you find a manufacturer who has the same interests then it is easy to work together. Today, most of my clients are so big that there is no one person who is responsible for the appearance of the product.

Apple has been a real exception because it was a company that, up until last year, still worked as my old clients used to work. They would come and see what I do, they would tell me their opinions and it was just [Steve] Jobs who did that. He absolutely wanted to make beautiful products.

Alyn Griffiths: You never worked for Apple did you?

Richard Sapper: Jobs once wanted to hire me to do the design of Apple [computers] but the circumstances weren’t right because I didn’t want to move to California and I had very interesting work here that I didn’t want to abandon. Also, at that time Apple was not a great company, it was just a small computer company. They were doing interesting things so I was very interested, of course, but I had an exclusivity contract with IBM.

Alyn Griffiths: Do you regret it at all?

Richard Sapper: Sure I regret it – the man who then did it makes $30 million a year! [Laughs] so how can you not regret it?

Alyn Griffiths: How have technologies like 3D printing changed the processes of designing and manufacturing?

Richard Sapper: 3D printing is changing not only the way design is made – that has already happened – but it is also changing the way things are produced. In a few years, many things that are now produced in big factories will just be done at home.

Alyn Griffiths: Do you think that’s a good thing?

Richard Sapper: Yes, I think so. It’s a huge revolution, and it is revolution that allows anyone who has such a machine the possibility to produce something that they have invented themselves. This can help to reduce the problem of unemployment because people are able to produce something without having to be employed.

Alyn Griffiths: Do you not worry that the quality of design will deteriorate?

Richard Sapper: I think it has already deteriorated! [Laughs] I’m always asked, ‘Was there more good design when you were young, or is there more good design design now?’ My answer is that there is more good design now, but really good design was rare when I started and is still rare now.

Alyn Griffiths: Are there any designers working today who you admire?

Richard Sapper: Of course, I admire Jonathan Ive’s work very much. But you mustn’t forget the contribution of Steve Jobs because they worked so closely together.

Alyn Griffiths: What makes a good design for you?

Richard Sapper: It has to transmit a message to whomever is looking at it, or who has it in their hand. What message is another question, but it has to tell them something.

Alyn Griffiths: What you are currently working on?

I’m currently working on several things; one is an LED ceiling lamp to illuminate a whole room, I’m working on a system to support computer monitors for Knoll, which is a big project that I have been working on for five years. I’m also working on computers for Lenovo and I’m a consultant for IBM, so I have stuff to do!

The post “Steve Jobs once wanted to hire me”
– Richard Sapper appeared first on Dezeen.

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Interview: we caught up with Miguel Fluxá, head of shoe brand Camper, at the opening of the brand’s Nendo-designed boutique on Fifth Avenue in New York last month (below). In this short interview, he explains why the company uses different designers for each of its global stores for cultural, rather than business, reasons (+ slideshow).

Designers as diverse as Jaime Hayón and Shigeru Ban have designed stores for Camper. “The world today is becoming a little bit boring, everything is becoming the same,” says Fluxá. “So we thought it was interesting for the brand, and for the cities, to do different designs from one place to the other.”

As a family-owned company, Camper is able to experiment with different design approaches without worrying too much about the commercial impact, he says: “Some concepts work better than others but we don’t measure it really.”

See all our stories about Camper. Below is a transcript of the interview:

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about yourself.

Miguel Fluxá: My name is Miguel Fluxá. I work at Camper and I’m a member of the fourth generation of the company. My great grandfather founded the business 136 years ago and I’m from Mallorca, where Camper is from and where my family comes from. This week we’re in New York, at the store opening on Fifth Avenue that we just did with Nendo.

Marcus Fairs: How did Camper start?

Miguel Fluxá: The story started in 1877 when my great grandfather founded the first shoe factory in Spain, 136 years ago. He had the idea to make good-quality shoes. He was a farmer and he probably didn’t speak any English and he probably didn’t have any money, but he went abroad, to France and England, and he came back after a couple of years with the machinery to set up a shoe factory.

Then after many years, in 1975 my father joined the family business and created Camper as a brand and he incorporated this heritage of knowing how to make quality shoes with design and comfort. He tried to make well-designed shoes that you can wear every day. This is the basis of the product today.

To that we added some cultural values. We come from Mallorca, from the Mediterranean, there’s a slow way of life there. Camper means farmer in Mallorquin, which is the language we speak in Mallorca, and when you mix all these ingredients together, you get Camper. I think the success has probably been trying to make something different, something original with quality.

Marcus Fairs: Camper uses different designers to create different store interiors around the world. Why did you start doing this?

Miguel Fluxá: When we started to open stores outside Spain we thought it was interesting not to repeat them. The world today is becoming a little bit boring, everything is becoming the same. So we thought it was interesting for the brand, and for the cities, to do different designs from one place to the other.  We started to do this many years ago and it’s something that has given us a lot of identity and has worked quite well over the years.

We’ve worked with many people, from Martí Guixé, a Spanish designer, who has a sense of humour and irony, to Mariscal, who’s also Spanish, to the Bouroullec Brothers, the Campana Brothers, Alfredo Haberli, some Japanese designers – Nendo and Tokujin Yoshioka, Shigeru Ban who’s an architect, because we also work with architects, Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic, a lot of people actually.

Marcus Fairs: Do you do this for cultural or commercial reasons?

Miguel Fluxá: It’s more a cultural thing. We’re lucky to be a privately-owned company, a family-owned company, so we look at the long term and we try to do things that we like to do. Of course we think it’s of benefit to the brand. It’s given a lot of identity to the brand, and customers recognise it.

Marcus Fairs: Do you measure the commercial impact of the interiors?

Miguel Fluxá: Some concepts work better than others but we don’t measure it really.

Marcus Fairs: Footwear, especially sports footwear, is getting really technological with high-tech materials and embedded technology. Is this a path Camper may follow?

Miguel Fluxá: We are interested. For sure we are interested. The DNA of the brand is more in natural leathers, European leathers, and this is our heritage. We are shoemakers, we’re not a sports brand. But it’s true there are more and more techniques, more and more materials. For example in the outsoles there is a lot of development in the lightness of the materials, and also in the uppers.

Marcus Fairs: What’s your opinion of New York?

Miguel Fluxá: Personally I love New York. I spent six months here when I was young. For me it’s probably the capital of the world. A lot of things happen here. A lot of good culture, architecture, museums, food, everything. It’s good to come here from time to time especially if you come from an island, which is completely the opposite.

Marcus Fairs: Do Americans appreciate design in the same way Europeans do?

Miguel Fluxá: In America they do have a good tradition of architecture and design. It’s true that it was probably more in the forties, fifties and sixties than today. But I think there are people who appreciate design, European design. Our design is more European, more refined and more casual, but there are a lot of people here who appreciate it.

The post “The world today is becoming
a little bit boring” appeared first on Dezeen.

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