radu abraham
2016
portfolio
personal information
Radu-Constantin Abraham Born on 21st of May 1988 e-mail: radu.abraham@gmail.com phone: 0040748115165
about me I am a young product designer with a tireless passion searching for new perspectives through research and exploration of the multitudinous varieties existing in matter. I am presently involved experimenting with diverse materials and techniques in this pursuit of developing creativity. Inspired by geometrical shapes and ratio, with simple lines and a clean composition, I am always looking to experiment different contrasts, through color or by associating various materials with different properties. In my approach on design I am interested in exploring craft, with functionality and simplicity being my main focuses.
education and training 2011-2013 Master in Design; University of Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca, RO 2007-2010 Bachelor in Visual Arts, Specialization Design; University of Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca, RO
work experience 2013-present - Freelancer, Product Designer 2015 Aug-Nov - Intern, Atelier Haussmann, Berlin 2011-2012 - Industrial Designer/CNC-Laser Operator, Pretext Advertising
workshop and exhibitions 2013 March - Exhibition: Walking Design - exposed products: walking canes 2014 May - Workshop: Communication through images, words and design 2015 Oct - Cluj Design Days / Seating Object, Satellite Lamp, Sofa 2016 May - Romanian Design Week / Geometry Clothing Wrack 2016 Sept - ZAIN Accelerator 2016 Oct - Cluj Design Days / Summer thoughts 2016 Nov - ZAIN - Design Expressions / Summer thoughts
press https://www.dezeen.com/seven-best-designers-to-watch-romanian-design-week-2016/ http://www.wallpaper.com/design/romanian-design-week-2016-the-highlights
languages Roumanian - Mother language English - Proficient
specialized skills Carpentry Good knowledge on how to operate woodworking machines Welding Ceramics Leadership Project Management
computer skills Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Google SketchUp
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Side table 2016 Made out of oak wood with a metal frame and topped with a glass, it’s a composition of basic volumes, with the cilinder made on lathe, and combined with the steel and glass. I wanted to express myself in a sort of tridimensional collage, and created a contrast out of materials, shapes and volumes.
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Sun in space 2016 It’s a composition made of steel glass and marble, with a touch of wood on the front leg. It has a rough approach on the metal frame that it’s balanced by the contrast created between the black marble and the colored glass from the top.
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Inspiration It’s a project started in Berlin, while I was involved in an internship. There’s a prototype that was made at that point, but it took one more year to get to this combination of materials. Behind the story of it’s name, there’s the idea of the Sun as we rarely think of it. In space and on a black background. It’s being said by astronomers that that’s a life changing experience. With this in mind I chose the materials used, and created the “Sun in space”.
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Stand up 2016 Stand up, comes as an answer to a need of mine for a setup needed to be used at fairs. It had to be detachable in order to be easy to transport it. At the same time, it had to be easy to set-up, so the solution I came up with, was to be all with mechanical system of fixation. It’s made entirely out of steel with a wood countertop, and a neon light setup on top of the structure.
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Candle holder 2016 The candle holder project comes as a wish of mine to get back into the attention, an object that tends to be forgotten. It’s a simple yet dynamic approach on this object, with the possibility of a modular use for it. It’s a composition of geometrical volumes, made out of concrete, wood and brass, and finished with touches of color, given by plastic shapes. The colored plastics, can be used as a color filter as well. It could either dim the light down, or the shape and the color can be projected on the wall, if the distance it good enough.
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Geometry clothing wrack 2015 Each clothing rack is a structure made entirely out of steel, with visible welding points, and roughly finished surfaces. I wanted to suggest transparency, by using a material that is exactly the opposite of transparent. Trying to express elegance but in a somehow brutalist approach, I chose thin steel pipes, that gives you a really pleasant visual contrast with the round block of marble. At the same time, steel can be considered a rough material and marble a noble rock, so in definition, I could say they mean the opposite of what you visually perceive. A very practical feature of this project is their mobility. This offers you the possibility to modify the dynamic of the place where used, by changing their position through the space and combining them to each other in various ways.
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Inspiration The story of the clothing racks begins with the three basic shapes in geometry (circle, square, triangular ), as a starting point for my inspiration. I then combined these shapes in each of the racks and used lines to connect them, in the search for a perfect balance.The line has a powerful meaning as well in geometry as in visual arts, being a starting point for everything.
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Light for the night 2015 Decorative but also practical, offering a warm light and creating a cozy atmosphere, the candle holders were for a long time part of the main accessories existing in a house. It is an object with a lot of potential, that lately was forgotten, so I am trying to bring it back to the attention of the public by offering a modern touch to it. It can also be used as a decorative object, and also as an alternative source of ambiental light. It is made by hand, the shapes being obtained on a lathe, and combined with brass and colored perspex. It is inspired by the simplicity of the Bauhaus, the colors and composition of Memphis, and the mid-century design.
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Wire chair 2015 A simple, clean line chair, made out of steel wire and oak wood. It’s a contrast of materials, with their colors and properties, but also a contrast given by the thin-thick approach.
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Sattelite lamp 2013
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This project it’s made out of wood with a few touches of copper and plexiglass. It is a LED light, floor lamp that uses simple thin lines and basic shapes, in combination with each other. I used height on the vertical element in order to create the impression that the upper part of the lamp, defies gravity. There’s a satellite look that it’s given by the wands that are holding the cooper pipe together with the body of the lamp. Besides the look, the wands have the purpose to give you the opportunity of changing the direction where the light goes, as they give the permission to rotate. They are also used for a quick assembly/disassembly.
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Sofa 2013 This sofa, comes as a response to a clothing store need, in order to offer their clients a place to rest. There’s a frame that it’s made out of welded iron wire, with two huge pillows on top of it. The pillows are tighten up together with two textile straps. There is the idea of a nest, that stays behind this project.
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Polygonal lamp 2013 The construction of this project starts at the bottom with a polygonal plaster base and goes up with a thin aluminum pipe, that has a LED light at the end. A small lampshade it’s used, made out of brown glass. At the other end of the lamp, connected through a wire that goes from the LED, through the pipe and the base, there’s a plaster box where the batteries are. As it will be shown in the following photographs, cork was also used in order to secure the pipe in the base, and the lampshade on top of the pipe. Another very important purpose of the cork is to give subtle touch of contrast between the white of the base, and the grey of the pipe. The lamp has several positions in which it can be used.
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Inspiration The inspiration for this project comes from a need of mine to experience constrasts between materials. By contrast I mean also texture and color. I tried to follow straight lines in order to create the volume as you can see it here. There’s also a subtle industrial touch on the lamp, the reson for it is that at that time my workshop was being located in an old abandoned factory. I tried to make the lamp fit into this background by giving the idea of hope; a light born out of ruins.
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Seating object 2012 A contrast between only two materials, this chair is made out of iron wire and oak wood. The structure of the chair is built from bended iron, which was then welded together. On top of it, there’s a thick, straight edged, oak wood. The contrast between this two, starts from the material itself, and it goes to the thickness of it, shapes and finally to colors. There’s also a contrast in matter of perception, between the warmth of the wood and the coolness of the iron.
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Walking Cane 2012 Organic shapes inspired, walking cane. Made out of oak wood, with an insertion of natural shell at the top in order to create some texture material and color contrast, this project was built and shaped by hand 100%. It’s basically made out of two wood boards put together in opposite sense of their fiber and then cut into shape before polishing until the wanted volume was reached.
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Inspiration The inspiration for this project were the natural organic shapes and structures. I believe that most of the documentation that we need in order to design any shapes we want, can be found in nature. It’s too bad that this connection between human and nature it’s getting weaker and weaker, because I feel that we forget to consider the simple things around us, now that we make everything so complicated. I believe, things should be kept simple as a line.
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Radu Abraham object designer
p: 0040748115165 m: radu.abraham@gmail.com f: abraham design b: behance.net/raduabraham