Product Design
NEW TENDENCY
61
META SIDE TABLE (cover) Mirror polished stainless steel Photo: Haw-lin Services
NEW TENDENCY
Manuel Goller Founder and Creative Director
NEW TENDENCY – Not just a name but a guiding principle Manuel Goller, Founder and Creative Director of the Bauhaus-born studio applies modernist ideas to a new generation of timeless furniture.
STANDARD SOFA
Coming from the Bauhaus, it must be important to you, but what does Modernism actually mean to NEW TENDENCY? Modernism, in art or architecture – and in our case, the Bauhaus as our strongest influence – is known for its form language and visual recognisability, much more than for its attitude, politics, or poetics – but it’s the latter that I’m most interested in. “The poetics of production”, it sounds “new” even a century later. The approach and values of this revolution from the early 20th century are what I believe is worth translating into the now: agility, modularity, decentralization. Setting new standards. A new attitude to ownership, to creativity, and the disciplines that play a role in culture. This is the kind of thinking that NEW TENDENCY sets out to re-render into ideas for today. To “re-render into ideas” Does this mean re-present the ideas of the Bauhaus to a modern audience? To me, re-rendering means a lot more than re-presenting the same ideas. We’re facing different questions and challenges today, but we take inspiration from the attitude, the approach and the ideas of the Bauhaus. Then we translate, re-contextualize them, to a different time and cultural context.
What is it about the current situation which a return to modernism can help with? I don’t believe a return to modernism is necessary per se, but I believe that certain ideas and attitudes are worth holding onto and reminding ourselves of. To me personally, the Bauhaus idea translates to approach, a dedication to changing how we do things, and a willingness to face and embrace the challenges of our time.
YUHI LAMP
I believe that certain ideas and attitudes are worth holding onto and reminding ourselves of.
I think the current discussion about how important the physical manifestation of an idea is, compared to the idea itself, is extremely fascinating. TOREI TRAY
ATLAS BARSTOOL
How is our attitude to ownership and culture changing?
You are interested in the borderlands between ideas and production?
Today, it’s mainly the influence of digital technology that is changing what ownership means, and with it, new creative and cultural players gain more weight than before. Blockchains, non-fungible tokens, virtual fashion, the promises of the Metaverse that we can’t really imagine yet. I think the current discussion about how important the physical manifestation of an idea is, compared to the idea itself, is extremely fascinating. These developments influence our thinking more strongly than what’s going on in interior and furniture design right now.
Think about music: for decades, music only gained a scaleable commercial value when pressed onto a physical record – now its value is in the experience itself, and new distribution formats and strategies have been developed accordingly. If something similar happened for objects and products, maybe we will question which of our objects need a physical manifestation, and which ones might just as well exist as an idea – for example, the ones that we attach stories, intangible values, and memories to.
META SIDE TABLE STANDARD SOFA
THRONE CHAIR
THRONE CHAIR
META SIDE TABLE Photo: Haw-lin Services
How did NEW TENDENCY come into being? Who were the founders and what were your goals? We started out as a group of friends, and students at Bauhaus university in Weimar, designing and organizing exhibitions of works from industrial design, graphic design and the arts, as an open platform. And whilst the project has transformed into a brand and a company, the platform idea stayed at its core: NEW TENDENCY is a stage for collaborations and re-interpretations, as much as for our own ideas.
What makes a good collaborator for you? A good collaborator is someone with a unique point of view, who isn’t shy to turn our work on its head – because they’re on eye level. Mike Meiré covered our Throne Chair in band stickers from his youth, and Haw-lin shot the Meta Side table in a way that was way more rich and playful than I ever would have suggested. During a panel discussion at Salone del Mobile last summer, I observed how curator Hans Ulrich Obrist used our Standard Sofa’s
surfaces to organize his notes. My long-term friend and collaborator, photographer Jonas Lindstroem, staged our objects with ballet dancer Patricia Zhou. And Matthew M. Williams wrapped the Alyx signature rollercoaster belt around Meta. We initiate collaborations with artists, designers, and architects to tell different stories and create opportunities for looking at the objects from different angles. Their perspectives and vision turn our products into something new, every time. Through collaborations, our products themselves become platforms.
ATLAS BARSTOOL
If you live with an object, it takes on another meaning, it helps tell your story – and I believe that is a poetic need every human being has. CLICK SHELF
You mentioned poetry earlier, how does this influence your design decisions? In fashion, the limitations of design are artificially created, to create new needs and crazes around the clock – we just choose not to subscribe to that. An object may satisfy an intellectual need when it has more than one function. Meaning, for example, if it challenges you to reinterpret it. When an object has that capacity, then it can integrate with the different situations of your life. It can be open enough to resonate, harmonize or contrast with different settings, surroundings, styles. If you live with an object, it takes on another meaning, it helps tell your story – and I believe that is a poetic need every human being has.
So, the object you live with is one which becomes a part of your personal history? Like the tools which I fix and sharpen rather than replace? Yes – which is what humanity has always done, with the exception of the last few decades. When you zoom out, that time-frame becomes negligible, and I hope we will overcome it, soon. This is very different to the “disposable” culture we have developed, isn’t it? Indeed. There are other ways to connect with and contribute to contemporary culture, than releasing new products all the time. We want to create new narratives from objects, spaces, and contexts.
PLATE EDITION 2020
DECEMBER SIDE TABLE
We end up with a whole cloud of ideas, which we then distill down into the essence of an idea: an idea that comprises the characteristics we have identified, but is as minimal as it can be.
Refining your products to Modernist simplicity must make your choice of materials and your treatment of them much more important? Could you talk me through your creative process?
Minimal enough to be expressed in a simple drawing, a silhouette, a graphical composition. This is why many of our objects have a bit of an archetypical character.
Our design approach starts conceptually, as a conversation or exchange of views – with architects, customers, or within the team. Identifying a problem, analyzing existing solutions, interrogating whether a new idea is really needed.
From there, nearly all of our products first come to life as cardboard prototypes, folded from flat pattern into object, a drawing transforming into architecture, a merging of disciplines.
Working with large boards of references and notes, we end up with a whole cloud of ideas, which we then distill down into the essence of an idea: an idea that comprises the characteristics we have identified, but is as minimal as it can be.
CORPORATE TABLE
That’s a lovely way to transition from idea to reality. This play with 2D and 3D is quite important in our work. The translation into production processes is what then informs the form – for example by folding metal or using precision welding, with consideration for
materials input, energy input, stability, and weight. Our form language is often an imperative of production techniques as much as it is conceptual, and that is very close to how the Modernists worked with the new industrial production techniques of their time. The refinement and production quality of our products is a logical consequence of our purpose: we want our products to be long-lasting enough to go through the different stages of your life with you, and to be a projection surface for everyone’s personal narrative.
APEX SHELF
Are there any new techniques from “now” which you look to incorporate? You mention energy, as a consideration, do you use “green” technologies? We use limited resources and energyintense ways of production, so using the term “green” would be wrong. Processing steel needs a lot of energy, but on the other hand, it is one of the most recycled materials on the planet. It’s also very robust, nearly indestructible. We try to act responsibly by designing timeless and long-lasting products which are made to be used for at least a generation – if you think about tools or objects from the iron age, the potential life span of our products is in fact way longer than just a generation ;-). To make that happen, a design needs to be (multi-)functional
For me, a design is “timeless” not when it has a revival after 20 years, but when the form is open enough to become a life companion. Open enough to resonate, harmonize or contrast with different settings, surroundings, styles.
and flexible enough to integrate with the different situations of your life. You could have one of our side tables in your student dorm but also in your family house. For me, a design is “timeless” not when it has a revival after 20 years, but when the form is open enough to become a life companion. Open enough to resonate, harmonize or contrast with different settings, surroundings, styles. I believe, if you really think about your purchases and maybe invest a bit more money, that’s possibly the most important step towards a more responsible way of living.
META SIDE TABLE Photo: Haw-lin Services
FLOAT SHELF
A design needs to be (multi-)functional and flexible enough to integrate with the different situations of your life.
Do you have a typical customer for your products, or a target market? Decidedly: no. Allowing the objects to tell a different story, however, wherever, whenever they are used or set in scene, is key to our approach and a way that we interrogate and validate a design for our collection.
HASH COATRACK
PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS 01 CHRISTOPH NIEMANN Illustration Design 2009
31 LA FILLE D'O Fashion Design
2016
59 DAVID KAMP Sound Design
2021
02 MICHEL MALLARD Creative Direction
2009
32 RUEDI BAUR Graphic Design
2016
60 THOMAS KURPPA Brand Design
2021
03 FUN FACTORY Product Design
2009
33 ROMAIN URHAUSEN Product Design
2016
04 ANDREAS UEBELE Signage Design
2010
34 MR BINGO Illustration Design
2016
05 HARRI PECCINOTTI Photography
2010
35 KIKI VAN EIJK Product Design
2016
06 KUSTAA SAKSI Illustration Design
2010
36 JEAN-PAUL LESPAGNARD
07 5.5 DESIGNERS Product Design
2011
08 NIKLAUS TROXLER Graphic Design
2011
37 PE’L SCHLECHTER Graphic Design
09 JOACHIM SAUTER Media Design
2011
38 TIM JOHN & MARTIN SCHMITZ
10 MICHAEL JOHNSON Graphic Design
2011
11 ELVIS POMPILIO Fashion Design
2011
39 BROSMIND Illustration Design
2017
12 STEFAN DIEZ Industrial Design
2012
40 ARMANDO MILANI Graphic Design
2017
13 CHRISTIAN SCHNEIDER Sound Design
2012
41 LAURA STRAßER Product Design
2017
14 MARIO LOMBARDO Editorial Design
2012
42 PHOENIX DESIGN Industrial Design
2018
15 SAM HECHT Industrial Design
2012
43 UWE R. BRÜCKNER Scenography Design 2018
Fashion Design
Scenography Design
44 BROUSSE & RUDDIGKEIT Design Code
16 SONJA STUMMERER &
2017 2017 2017
2018
2012
45 ISABELLE CHAPUIS Photography Design 2018
2013
46 PATRICIA URQUIOLA Product Design
18 MURAT GÜNAK Automotive Design
2013
47 SARAH-GRACE MANKARIOUS
19 NICOLAS BOURQUIN Editorial Design
2013
20 SISSEL TOLAAS Scent Design
2013
48 STUDIO FEIXEN Visual Concepts
2019
21 CHRISTOPHE PILLET Product Design
2013
49 FRANK RAUSCH Interface Design
2019
22 MIRKO BORSCHE Editorial Design
2014
50 DENNIS LÜCK Designing Creativity
2019
23 PAUL PRIESTMAN Transportation Design 2014
51 IAN ANDERSON Graphic Design
2019
24 BRUCE DUCKWORTH Packaging Design 2014
52 FOLCH STUDIO Strategic Narrative Design 2019
25 ERIK SPIEKERMANN Graphic Design
2014
53 MARC TAMSCHICK Spatial Media Design 2020
26 KLAUS-PETER SIEMSSEN Light Design
2014
54 TYPEJOCKEYS Type Design
2020
27 EDUARDO AIRES Corporate Design
2015
55 MOTH Animation Design
2021
28 PHILIPPE APELOIG Graphic Design
2015
56 JONAS LINDSTRÖM Photography
2021
57 VERONICA FUERTE Graphic Design
2021
MARTIN HABLESREITER Food Design 17 LERNERT & SANDER Art & Design
29 ALEXANDRA MURRAY-LESLIE High Techne Fashion Design 30 PLEIX Video & Installation Design
2015 2016
Art Direction
2018 2018
58 CHRISTOPHE DE LA FONTAINE Product Design
2021
Design Friends would like to thank all their members and partners for their support.
In collaboration with
Support Design Friends, become a member. More information on www.designfriends.lu
Service Partners
Partners
COLOPHON PUBLISHER Design Friends COORDINATION Claudia Eustergerling LAYOUT Sebastian Schichel INTERVIEW Mark Penfold PRINT Imprimerie Schlimé PRINT RUN 250 (Limited edition)
BOARDMEMBERS Anabel Witry (President) Guido Kröger (Treasurer) Heike Fries (Secretary) Claudia Eustergerling, Reza Kianpour, Dana Popescu, Hyder Razvi
ISBN 978-2-9199655-7-1 PRICE 5 €
COUNSELORS Charline Guille-Burger, Silvano Vidale
DESIGN FRIENDS Association sans but lucratif (Luxembourg)
WWW.DESIGNFRIENDS.LU WWW.NEWTENDENCY.COM
Design Friends is financially supported by
This catalogue is published for Manuel Goller's lecture “NEW TENDENCY – Not just a name but a guiding principle” at Mudam Luxembourg on 23th February, 2022 organised by Design Friends.