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Jakob Wagner, smart products
Harmonies Magazine

Harmonies Magazine

Jakob Wagner, smart products

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October 6, 2020
jakob-wagner-ray-hay-override
Ray table for Hay

For danish-born designer Jakob Wagner, founder of design company Studio Jakob Wagner, a meaningful object must engage the whole person. The products he offers are endowed with both rational and playful qualities, with a stripped-down and sensually seductive visual expression.

Jakob Wagner, born in 1963, is one of the most respected and award-winning danish designers of his generation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Design Engineering from the Danish Academy of Engineering (now Technical University of Denmark-DTU), and also obtained a diploma in product design from the Art Center in Montreux, Switzerland. In 1993, following internships and studies in the United States, Italy and France, he founded the Studio Jakob Wagner in Copenhagen. The initial emphasis is on high-tech goods for medical and sports applications. Later, objects designed for home use were added, which led the designer to work for major brands, such as Alessi, Bang & Olufsen, Menu, Muuto or Stelton, and to imagine furniture projects for Cappellini, B&B Italia, Moroso and Hay.

Wagner has over twenty years of design experience. His creations are shown around the world and are part of the permanent exhibition of the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York. He has received numerous awards, including six IFs, three Red Dot, the Designpreis of the Republic of Germany in 2008 and Designer of the Year. In 2003 he was awarded a three-year fellowship from the Danish Arts Foundation. He has participated in numerous exhibitions including Coffre-fort at MoMA in New York (2005), Use-it in Tokyo (2005) and Nordic transparency at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1999). Jakob’s design is most recognizable for its characteristic landscape of form, motivated by the search for the right balance between opposing elements, such as masculine/feminine, static/dynamic, symmetrical/asymmetrical, etc. Its simple but sophisticated lines capture the essence of a product in a minimalist, poetic and playful solution. His approach is characterized by careful attention to detail and a strong understanding of user needs.

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Contemporary concept, sober and elegant lines, colors and muted tones resolutely in tune with the times, noble and quality materials… The multiple creations designed and sculpted by Terry Dwan have everything to seduce us. Take a look at this outstanding talent. An architect and designer at the same time, Terry Dawn has, for a long time, established his notoriety on the international scene, thanks to his remarkable style. Based in Milan, this native American but adopted Italian uses a language of her own. Born in 1957, in Santa Monica, California, United States, she began her career after studying engineering and architecture at Rice University, Houston, in addition to training in Fine Arts at Studio Arts Center International (SACI) in Florence, Italy. The designer, who won the Fulbright Fellowship to study the architecture of cemeteries and war monuments in Italy, graduated from Yale University in Architecture in 1984. After an experience alongside Antonio Citterio, with whom she collaborated from 1985 to 1996 and founded the Citterio/Dwan office, working on several projects and residential complexes, fairs and exhibitions, notably in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and Italy, she opened her own design agency in 1992 and got involved in great designs, whether in architecture or decoration. A book entitled Antonio Citterio & Terry Dwan: Ten years of Architecture and Design, signed by Pippo Ciorra, was published on the occasion of the exhibition that the duo organized in Bordeaux in 1993. At the same time, it multiplies design projects for the biggest publishers and won numerous awards at international competitions. In 1996, she began by developing industrial design plans for firms such as Sawaya and Moroni, Electrolux, San Lorenzo and Driade. An accomplished designer, she juggles with forms, materials and concepts, questions obvious codes, experiments and explores eclectic universes: from the architecture of private residences, public buildings and interior decoration, through the design and the from salon and exhibition design to furniture and porcelain or silver objects, she is interested in everything and comes out with flying colors. Marrying current vision with everyday functionality, some of her works are part of the permanent collection of the Design Museum at the Milan Triennale. Passionate, her career is marked by numerous explorations of the material where wood, her material of choice, occupies a privileged place. She enjoys working with it revealing its multiple aesthetic qualities, through several everyday basics, many models of which have become emblematic, such as Maui, seat in scented cedar wood, edited by Riva 1920, and the Napa armchair, object oscillating between functional piece of furniture and biomorphic sculpture, or even Implement, a desk composed of two juxtaposed and misaligned wooden boards. Her collaboration with Driade is crowned by the timeless Burgos and Bedda sofas. A sought-after speaker around the world, Terry Dwan has taught architecture at SACI, Florence, and co-taught architectural heritage conservation at the University of Milan. Since 2006, she has been Dean of the Council of the School of Architecture at Yale University and a member of the SACI Board of Trustees.
Terry Dwan, multifaceted designer

Wagner does not favor any material or technique, but bases his choices on what is relevant to the project in question. In his design work, he strives for consistency between purpose and meaning, in order to create smart objects that come to life and enjoy owning and using. To achieve this, he attaches great importance to clarity and understanding of things, but he also seeks to humanize them, by infusing them with a soul. For example, on his Point of View bench (2015), two people can sit and enjoy the view together. And most importantly, each of them can learn how different the world is through each other’s eyes. On one hand, the bench looks red and solid, on the other, it looks blue and transparent. In this way, the creator explores the intersubjective field and reminds that everything in life seems different from someone else’s point of view, introducing a radical shift in perspective.

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