"Working with designerbox was an opportunity to approach a project in a more personal way."
Furthermore, Egg is springing from a continuous work around wine he loves to pursue. An interest that started when he met his wife while living in Italy and that has been following him ever since. For years, the “Art de vivre” has been part of his daily life, of his life at large and ever since his moving to London, he has loved cultivating this tasty and cultural universe. Awards : Red Dot, Design Plus and iF Product Design Award
Sebastian, you primarily work on the object : highly practical (Tefal) but poetic as well. How did you approach designerbox project ?
As you know, my work varies a great deal according to client and context. It has always been more important to me to approach a project in a way that seems right for its context rather than applying a formal signature that people will recognise.
At one end of the spectrum I enjoy working for industry within the context of a brand. On the other, I make work for private clients or even my own small personal editions. Working with designerbox was an opportunity to approach a project in a more personal way. It is a meeting of a historic interest in glass and a new interest in trying to introduce a level of symbolism to my work. We will see how successful this experiment is.
TRAVELS
Raised in an international context, you settled in France, moved to London and you are currently residing in Italy, I believe. How to you apprehend these encounters with cities? Do they shape your work in any way? Is it necessary for you?
It is true that throughout my life I have lived in different countries, as a child with my parents and as an adult with my wife and children. This certainly exposed me to different ways of living happily and by looking around, to the idea that there is always another good way to make something. Both important lessons for a designer. That said, I am not very interested in tourism or travelling a long way to spend a week in an ‘incredible’ destination. I need to experience something close to everyday life to enjoy a place.
WINE
You have conducted many projects around wine ? Why this foray ? Are you a wine connoisseur? Which wine experience do you remember most fondly ?
My particular interest in wine started when I met my French wife and developed when I was in Italy. It was so much part of the everyday gastronomy, the landscape and life in general that when I came back to London I had a pile of ideas that I wanted to realize. The result was a Solo exhibition in 2008 at the Aram gallery called CRU. It was a series of objects and experiments on the subject of wine. It had a certain amount of interest at the time and seems to have contributed to a wave of creative work by others in this area.
Occasionally I have the pleasure of tasting an exceptional, very memorable wine, but as I am not a connoisseur, I rarely remember what they actually were. It is usually the meal as a whole that I remember. At the moment we are designing a wine label for a small producer near Bordeaux. This is much harder that I expected but also a lot more fun. I’ll let you know how it goes…
"It has always been more important to me to approach a project in a way that seems right for its context rather than applying a formal signature that people will recognise. "
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