72 — Germans Ermičs

Sculptural Design

GERMANS ERMICS 72

A slant of light, 2019 Photo: DSL Studio

GERMANS ERMICS Reflections on the shape and colour of things

Cover: Mirror Chair, 2022 Photo: Yvet van Der Naalt

Alchemist, Miami, 2018 Photo: Michael Stavaridis

Ombré Glass Chair, 2021 Photo: Filips Šmits

The Circle Of Fifths, 2019 Photo for Wallpaper: Leon Chew Collaboration with Bang & Olufsen

Isometric Mirrors, 2011 Photo: Filips Šmits

Lux, 2021 Photo: Julien Vonier

Blue Presence – Absence, 2018 Photo: Jussi Puikkonen Collaboration with Boris Berlin

Blue Glass Chair, 2021 Photo: Filips Šmits A slant of light, 2019 Photo: DSL Studio

Shaping Colour Installation, Design Miami/Basel, 2021 Photo: James Harris

Did you always want to be a designer?

What was it that made you move in that direction?

No, I was into sports when I was younger. I dreamed of becoming a professional ice hockey player.

It was my schoolmates. When I played ice hockey, I only had ice hockey friends. We were only interested in sports. The whole day revolved around sports. But in high school I started to hang out with people who were into music and art and photography – creative things. That sparked some interest in me. Then I got into graphic design.

I was really passionate about graphic design and typography, at least partly because that was something I could do on my own. I had some computer programmes, and I was designing stuff.

And then, at one point, some of my friends were in bands, and they were doing all kinds of events. So I was doing posters, CD covers, T-shirts and whatnot. So, without really thinking about it too much – I was just enjoying it – I realised, okay, well, actually, this is what interests me. Moreover, it helped that I could earn some money. I could actually see this as a potential career.

When I moved to Eindhoven to start design studies, I came there as a graphic designer. But, after a couple of years, I realised that school offered so much more than what I thought it would, in terms of learning about materials, thinking conceptually and working with your hands. That’s where the shift really happens.

Do you still play?

I do. Every week. But in an amateur league, we call it a beer league. We’re part of the national competition, so we have home games and away games.

It’s somewhat serious, I would say, but we’re doing it just for fun.

When did you decide to give up on the professional hockey ambition?

It was in high school. I had some injuries and that was a bit of a struggle.

Then, at some point, I realised that you have to decide whether you really want to be a professional athlete, and then you have to give it everything. Or, you could continue to study. So I had to choose. I was more interested in finishing my education. Even though, at that point, I didn’t know whether I would study art or economics or whatever. But the choice had to be made…

Do you come from a creative family?

My dad was a carpenter. I spent some time just making stuff in his workshop when I was a kid. But I wouldn’t say I was being particularly creative. My mom is an accountant. Maybe I don’t have a very typical upbringing in arts.

What was it like growing up in Latvia?

I grew up in Riga. I didn’t really think about design or art when I was a kid.

Riga is a beautiful city. There are many Art Nouveau and mediaeval parts of the town. You could also see different eras and styles. There’s the Soviet heritage as well, with some interesting brutalist structures. But I don’t think I was actually aware of any of that, I wasn’t thinking about it. Somehow, it just didn’t cross my mind. I didn’t have design – as I understand it now – around me. I grew up with utilitarian things. But then I moved to Denmark, to study there. I lived there for two years after high school. That was when I realised the meaning of design. How people live with design. They have signature pieces by architects and designers. They lived with it, and somehow it was important to them.

They were proud of it. That inspired me.

Design is a natural part of life for the Danes?

In Denmark, I saw these beautiful objects, and the people always had a story to go with it. I wanted to learn more and understand this. So I began preparing myself to go into design study. Even before I found the Eindhoven Design Academy I discovered Droog design. They were from the Netherlands, they had this concept or mentality about things that they were doing. And that resonated with me because it was so different from what I thought design was. They had a chandelier made out of milk bottles and rugs made from old clothes. It had humour and wit. I thought, “wow, this is so cool! I want to go to the place where this comes from.” That was what led

me to the Design Academy Eindhoven.

At that point, I was still a graphic designer, really. I was doing a magazine with my friends.

What was the magazine about?

The magazine was called ’Veto’, and it focused on various creative fields like art, music, literature, and theatre, along with other forms of artistic expression.

We were based in Riga, Latvia, and were the only publication in our area that covered such a wide range of creative topics. It was an interesting period for us.

What was it like studying in Eindhoven?

I studied with a really international group of students in Eindhoven.

French, British, Scandinavian and Asian. One thing I noticed was that I just had a very different upbringing.

When did you start actually making stuff?

At the Design Academy, we always made stuff. That was how we learned.

By making material samples, experimenting and failing. Discovering things and making models. I didn’t even use a computer. We didn’t show up with a rendering of a thing, we brought the thing itself. That’s the way we were trained, and this is very much how I think about my work now. I start with an idea, a clear idea of what I want to achieve, but this can have very many outcomes, physical manifestations.

But that’s usually how we approach a project. And sometimes you can end up with something other than what you were expecting. I have some specialities and materials that I work with. But it always starts with an idea and a feeling that I’m trying to reach.

How do new projects usually happen?

It’s really varied. Often, my clients have a space, and they give me some direction.

Then I think something up specific to the space. There’s also self initiated projects which are often more conceptual. Whether I’m interested in exploring a new material, a technique, or I just want to create a specific object. The third part of my work is collaborations, where I work with a brand or architecture company or a design studio. For those projects, there’s usually a bigger context around things. So the scale and type of work that I do is very varied.

On the subject of scale, was your pavilion for Instagram the first time you made something big enough to walk around inside?

I had made some large scale projects before, architectural interventions.

But this was a rather special project.

Instagram approached me to create a glass pavilion on the beach in Cannes.

Every year they go to the Cannes Lions Festival. And for them, this is an important thing. All the brands are there. I remember there was YouTube and Spotify, these big Tech brands and all these ad agencies too. Anyway,

I was asked to create a space and an experience. So we designed and engineered a glass pavilion. For the concept I was just given the question, ‘where does the rainbow end?’

Rainbows are optical illusions caused by sunlight bending, breaking into colours (like a prism), and reflecting inside water droplets. They don’t have a fixed start or end. It’s about how we see the visible light’s different wavelengths separated and beautifully displayed in the sky. So when you approach the pavilion, you see the rainbow colours at the front, and then they all fade out to the side. It’s a three dimensional pattern of colours that wraps around the whole structure. Inside, the room is completely white. I was interested in creating a sound and light experience. So the sound and the colour is a choreographed dance between what you see what you hear. It’s a stressful, busy event. So I wanted to create the very opposite of that. When you’re inside the pavilion, you can have this meditative experience of sound and colour, You forget where you are. And it really worked, so I was very happy.

Interesting that you give viewers the chance to form their own experiences Yeah, for things like this, I don’t want to create a specific, guided experience.

I don’t want to tell you how you should feel or experience the work.

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Where the rainbow ends, 2019 Photos: Filips Šmits Collaboration with Instagram for Cannes Lions 2019

Sunburst Mirror Beam, 2021 Photo: Jussi Puikkonen

Sunburst Tall Glass Chair, 2021 Photos: Jussi Puikkonen

Split Mirror Dining Table, 2022 Photos: Jussi Puikkonen

When did you discover glass as a medium?

Actually I always say my work is about the colour. I really enjoy working with colour. That’s what motivates me the most. Glass is a medium for me. It’s the perfect medium for me to work with because it’s transparent, it’s reflective.

I would never think of colour as decoration, as just a finishing for an object. It’s the defining component that you work with to create the object and describe the shape. In fact, I have this concept of ‘shaping colour’. I link this to my graphic design background where I worked with colour as something two dimensional. And now, I’m working with materials that give me a chance to create something three dimensional.

So, how do you shape colour?

When it comes to my work, I’ve always been deeply passionate about colour.

It’s what truly excites and drives me.

Glass, for me, serves as the perfect medium to explore and express my fascination with colour. What excites me most about glass is its unique materiality – it can be transparent, reflective, opaque, and you can manipulate these different material qualities in your creations.

Do you work mostly on the computer these days?

I learned how to work from a concept, so there’s a lot of thinking involved up front. The thinking comes first, and then I write it down and maybe do some

hand sketches. But later I spend time modelling and testing things in 3D. I often also work with prototyping.

Making samples and scale models.

It depends on the project. But I don’t really do 3D renders. My sketches are nice, people like them, but they’re not too realistic. This saves me time, not having to create hyper realistic images.

But also, I deliberately don’t want perfection, because there’s a thing about people seeing the rendering, and they think it’s a real thing. Then we get into unnecessary discussions…

When you have a rather simple sketch, that gives you a feeling, it sparks the imagination, and people actually connect to it better. This is how I prefer working.

Do you have any exciting new projects in the pipeline?

I get really excited when I get to do something different, to think differently and work with different people and materials. In some ways, the marble project I’m working on at the moment is something completely different.

Drawing inspiration from the natural erosion process, I have been developing a new method of processing that allows me to showcase and enhance the raw, untamed beauty of the marble, rather than imposing a preconceived vision onto it. Using this method, I aim to honour the inherent character of the stone and celebrate its natural, organic form, which has often been masked by centuries of artificial polishing in the art and architecture industries.

By freeing the marble from these constraints, I believe that we can truly appreciate the wild and captivating beauty of this timeless material.

How does that work?

Basically, I digitize the vein pattern in the marble and then three dimensionally carve it. So it’s a kind of processing method where the beautiful, unique pattern of the marble becomes three dimensional, tangible. This is another project that I think has a huge potential.

Another project that was really interesting is a sound sculpture that I created this with Bang and Olufsen. It’s called Circle of Fifths. I was interested in the physicality of sound. So you have a circle of fifths, with all the notes of the scale aligned in a circle. And I gave this a physical form. Then the B&O engineers connected this with sensors, so when you touch the object, you feel the shape physically, but you can also hear it.

I wanted to connect touch with hearing.

So my idea was, once again, to bring something intangible into the physical, so it’s materialised.

Do you like to your get your hands dirty, making things?

I wish that I could do that more.

But I usually work with craftspeople or production companies and fabricators.

I really respect and admire their skill, it actually inspires me, the skill and knowledge they possess. Over the years I’ve learned a lot, and I always try to educate myself about the processes I’m using, but often I am also a bit

clueless about exactly how things are made. That’s why I can ask the artisans to do things that they wouldn’t think of.

“Oh, that’s impossible” they say. If I knew it was ‘impossible’ I might not ask.

So I think that being slightly oblivious, and not knowing everything, makes it more interesting to work with these people. They know the limits of the material or the machines they use.

Then I think of something that they see as difficult or impossible. That’s where the project starts - and eventually you meet in the middle. I really enjoy that.

Talking about difficult or impossible objects. This gigantic, blue glass table looks amazing.

It’s four and a half metres long. It looks very simple and very clean on the outside, But on the inside there’s a beautiful structure. It’s a two part dining table that slides together on a railing system, and all aligns perfectly, which is incredible because it’s such a huge surface. It’s beautifully engineered.

We just installed it in LA last week, in a private home. That was quite a special one-off project.

Do you have a regular group of collaborators?

Well, I work with galleries. Rosana Orlandi is the one who really got me started in this whole design world.

Straight from my graduation show at the Design Academy, she invited me to come to Milan and work with her. So that’s where I’ve been presenting my work and collections. Another gallery

that I work with is Maria Wettergren, in Paris. But my everyday collaborators are the craftsmen and the fabricators.

I work with architects too, some companies, interior designers. It’s constantly changing.

Are you settled in Amsterdam?

Amsterdam is great, to be honest.

It’s such a wonderful place for work – life balance. Everything is accessible.

It’s just such an easy, lovely place to live. The creative industry here is really strong too. The appreciation of design and possibilities you have here is amazing. Education, funding, a great creative scene and space to work.

So for now, this is the right place, but I don’t think this is the final destination.

The fabricators, the artisans and companies are quite open too.

Regardless of your scale, the culture here is very creative. Let’s do it! Let’s try. It’s not always money driven.

There’s often curiosity and an understanding of the design world and how things work. Although, my fabricators are now in many different parts of the world. I have people that I work with in Portugal. I have a carpenter and a metal worker back in Latvia, I have fabricators in Italy. I have fabricators here in the Netherlands. So it’s all over the place, depending on the project.

Do you travel a lot?

I’m trying to do less because it’s tiring.

And, since COVID, I actually do travel a lot less. Before the pandemic I wasn’t really happy with how this whole design

scene was moving. You almost had fashion weeks, these dates in your calendar that you always have to be ready for. It was so stressful. So I was happy not to participate in all that. I guess a lot of other people had the same feeling. That things just needed to calm down. Now, I’m happy that I have a good number of projects, so I can enjoy working. And then, for myself I have time to other things that I enjoy… sports or just doing nothing, or hanging out with friends. I’m not really building an empire. I really care about what I do.

But it’s not a race for me. I really enjoy taking my time over things, considering them slowly.

The Circle Of Fifths, Milan, 2019 Photos for Wallpaper: Kim Høltermand Collaboration with Bang & Olufsen

Chroma Radiate Rug, Milan, 2019 Photo: Helenio Barbetta Collaboration with CC-Tapis

Transient Storm Dining Table, Miami, 2018 Photo: Michael Stavaridis

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41 LAURA STRAßER Product Design

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68 CHRISTOPHER NOELLE Light Design

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14 MARIO LOMBARDO Editorial Design

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42 PHOENIX DESIGN Industrial Design

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15 SAM HECHT Industrial Design

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43 UWE R. BRÜCKNER Scenography Design 2018

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45 ISABELLE CHAPUIS Photography Design 2018

17 LERNERT & SANDER Art & Design

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46 PATRICIA URQUIOLA Product Design

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47 SARAH-GRACE MANKARIOUS

19 NICOLAS BOURQUIN Editorial Design

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20 SISSEL TOLAAS Scent Design

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48 STUDIO FEIXEN Visual Concepts

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21 CHRISTOPHE PILLET Product Design

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49 FRANK RAUSCH Interface Design

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22 MIRKO BORSCHE Editorial Design

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50 DENNIS LÜCK Designing Creativity

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23 PAUL PRIESTMAN Transportation Design 2014

51 IAN ANDERSON Graphic Design

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24 BRUCE DUCKWORTH Packaging Design 2014

52 FOLCH STUDIO Strategic Narrative Design 2019

25 ERIK SPIEKERMANN Graphic Design

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53 MARC TAMSCHICK Spatial Media Design 2020

26 KLAUS-PETER SIEMSSEN Light Design

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54 TYPEJOCKEYS Type Design

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27 EDUARDO AIRES Corporate Design

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55 MOTH Animation Design

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28 PHILIPPE APELOIG Graphic Design

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56 JONAS LINDSTRÖM Photography

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57 VERONICA FUERTE Graphic Design

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29 ALEXANDRA MURRAY-LESLIE High Techne Fashion Design

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30 PLEIX Video & Installation Design

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58 CHRISTOPHE DE LA FONTAINE Product Design

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Design Research

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64 JOUPIN GHAMSARI Photography Design 2022 65 LOTTERMANN AND FUENTES

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MARTIN HABLESREITER Food Design

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70 KLASIEN VAN DE ZANDSCHULP Interactive Design 71 VALENTIN VODEV Industrial Design

2023 2023

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Horizon Screens, 2017 Photo: Floor Kaapen