Marcel Wanders is an Amsterdam based designer who first came to the worlds attention through his ‘Knotted Chair’, which pairs high tech materials with low tech production methods. Since then Marcel and his team have worked on over 1700 projects for clients ranging from Alessi and MAC cosmetics to KLM and Puma. The New York Times dubbed him the “Lady Gaga of Design” while Business Week selected him as one of Europe’s '25 Leaders of Change'. Marcel focuses on bringing the human touch back to design, ushering in what he calls design’s ‘new age’, in which designer, craftsperson and user are reunited. He also serves on the advisory board of THNK, School of Creative Leadership and is a co-founder of the successful design label Moooi.
In this episode of The Creative Life Podcast Marcel tells us about moving to Milan and stepping out from his own culture. He talks about doing experimental work in San Francisco with start- ups and also shares with us how he got hooked on design.
"Experiments are made to get results."
"If we don't have order, then we get nothing done and if we cannot have our chaotic process and it's only order, we get something done, but it will never be super great. We need each other to be outstanding."
"You'll only loose the game if you stop playing."
-Marcel Wanders
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
Marcel Wanders Show Notes:
- My designs are my babies (7:00)
- Department of Chaos (11:18)
- Looking for complexity (15:07)
- The obstacle is the way (22:36)
- Creatives as generalists (24:47)
- Art as a remix (25:29)
Favorite Tools:
- Italian dictionary
