In every new edition, the Maison et Objet Paris chooses the Designer of the Year, an award to honour the remarkable work of an outstanding designer. This January, Maison et Objet 2018 decided to celebrate the talented work of Cecilie Manz, whose signature style ascends from the much-appreciated Scandinavian Design. Keep up with Best Design Events and find out more about the Danish designer!
Cecilie Manz took the Center Stage at Maison et Objet 2018 to headline a Conference entitled “Designer of The Year”. She addressed a crowded hall to speak about her passion for design, her creative perspective and what design means to her.
A hard-core Scandinavian style follower, Manz’s projects strike us by their simplistic elegance and functionality. For her, materiality and textures are of crucial importance, and, despite the fact the designer’s not quite fond of extravagant tones, she considers colour to be imperative on her work.
But, exactly how does her creative process work? Well, she defines it has a sheer-pure mess. Before she hits the drawing board, the designer usually thinks a lot about what she wants to accomplish with her design. She’s always keen on functionality, but, for her, creativity plays too a rather important role.
No wonder she ends up having hundreds of sketches with different versions of the same product. That’s the result of an immense thinking process that’s the full torque behind her creative power.
After the sketching phase, she moves on to the process of materialization. She stated that, like most of the traditional designers in Europe, she prefers to work with models rather than with rendering. Even though she believes technology is very important for the Interior Design industry, Manz prefers to have a hands-on reference to her products. All in all, Manz believes in having fun during the creative process. It’s that work hard, play hard motto. For such reason, she usually inserts some sort of extravagant element to it, like painting some models with spray cans in her basement. It’s a process she loves and that liberates her from the stress that product demand puts on her.
Her exhibition at Maison et Objet 2018 is a full representation of her studio and her work. She has a small studio with only a few people to be able to always follow the process and sign off everything they do. This is how she likes to work, and this is what her exhibition in Paris says to the audience.
In terms of products, her exhibition includes products and projects that nourish design and that fully represents her Nordic identity. Besides pieces of furniture, Manz also works with lighting fixtures, so you can expect to see a couple of lighting products at her stand.
Image Source – Cecilie Manz
Source: CovetED Magazine
