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Ils sont artiste, cheffe étoilée, designer ou apiculteur, pilote automobile ou créatrice de mode. Leur point commun ? Ces personnalités glamour ou au cœur de la vie culturelle, économique et sociale régionale sont les moteurs de l’actualité azuréenne. Découvrez sans filtre le témoignage de leur parcours, leurs rêves, leurs ambitions et leurs projets à venir.

October 2014

Sacha Lakic

  • The art of movement
 
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This internationallyrenowned designeris a true maverick who loves collaborating.



A design legacy 
I always seemed to want to be a designer, perhaps because I grew up in the fashion world. My father was a fashion designer and his job was having ideas, making prototypes, adjusting and so on – what I do myself today. That helped because he taught me, or naturally passed on to me, a sensitivity to style and the basics of aesthetics: proportions, how to combine colours. But at the same time, like all boys I was fascinated by motorbikes and cars. Eventually I had to make a choice, and as my father discouraged me from going into his profession I went for my other passion.


Liquid creativity 

My speciality is not having one! Car, motorbike, furniture, watch, tableware, hi-tech gadget... I go with the flow as it all happens because I meet someone. For example, I didn't set out to design furniture; one day I came across François Roche of Roche Bobois, who was absolutely convinced I was capable of working on extraordinary projects. That makes you want to trust the person and not disappoint them. The same thing happened with Gildo Pallanca-Pastor who owns Venturi Automobiles and Voxan. He knew the scooters and bicycles I'd designed for MBK and my automotive experience, in Peugeot's design offices in particular. In 2001 he asked me to design the first Venturi – I was thrilled to bits! We've been working together ever since.


Dynamic stillness 

My passion for cars, speed and technology has permeated other fields. To start with, I don't see any point in designing a piece of furniture if I don't bring something new to it. I like to treat the object in the way a photographer shoots a moving athlete: the image is frozen, of course, but you can feel the effort and dynamic movement in the photo. I take the same approach to designing furniture, trying to give it soul by creating an idea of movement somewhere; my pieces either play with balance a little or have asymmetrical aspects. It's my way of adding a touch of poetry.


Anti-trendy 

The word "trendy" makes my hair stand on end. I prefer to be outside, above, ahead even; in a word, alternative, and to offer things made with the heart and that are unlike anything else. Then the word "trendy" automatically invokes the idea of temporariness and that isn't how I see design. The thing has to last, and to do so it must not disappoint in quality, conception or functionality but it also has to allow its owner to appropriate it. For example, for Roche Bobois I've designed the Speed Up sideboards that have various motifs on the front so they move and communicate different messages depending on the surrounding light. A bit like a photographer, you can adjust the angle at which the light falls on it and consequently the intensity of animation on the front. In a way it's up to you to finish the piece! And there's no end to that, you never tire of it. Or if you do it isn't the kind of piece you chuck out; you sell it or pass it on to your children. That's my way of designing ecoresponsible products.


Wattman, a 2.0 motorbike 

Designing the Wattman electric motorbike for Voxan was one hell of a challenge, very different to a car. That you can define as a house with an interior, an exterior, and between the two, things you don't necessarily want to show. With a motorbike you can't cheat, everything you see is both a vital component and a style element. In addition the idea was to relaunch the make by proving that an electric motorbike could be a sexy, intriguing, almost mysterious product exuding technology and power. And when you look at the Wattman that's what you see: a real thrill machine. Maybe it is an avant-garde product for geeks, but when we presented it at the Paris Motorbike Show in December 2013, even the hard-and-fast Harley fans with badges and fringed jackets came to congratulate us!

 


By Alexandre Benoist

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