Hella jongerius biography of michael

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What message do you want your designs to convey to users?

Keywords

Hella Jongerius, industrial design, materials, color, composition, storytelling, functionality, craftsmanship, contemporary aesthetics, user experience, design narrative, textiles, ceramics, innovation. Twenty-five years later, Jongerius clearly remembers how difficult it was to fabricate the Porcelain Stool, even for the experts at Rosenthal.

The creation of fabrics today is rarely non-toxic, and the social aspect of traditional weaving has been completely lost. Traditionally, porcelain was used almost exclusively for refined tea services, dinnerware, and decorative figurines. For thirty years, this Dutch-born, Berlin-based designer has been creating brilliantly unexpected, beautifully crafted furniture, textiles, ceramics, and more for brands like Vitra, Maharam, Nymphenburg, and KLM, as well as for Galerie kreo in Paris.

Jongerius’s industrial practice is complemented by her projects for Galerie kreo, the preeminent contemporary design gallery in Paris that has represented her limited-edition work for decades. The political and cultural critiques present in her work from the beginning left an indelible imprint on global design culture in the new millennium.

How can you incorporate storytelling into your work?

In what ways do you see color influencing your emotional response to design? She started out as an occupational therapist at a woodworking shop for people with mental disabilities, however, she wanted to make things herself and so she started to follow courses in carpentry and furniture making. Misfit, she explained, is the notion of imperfection, which like handwriting reveals the humanity beyond the object.

Last spring when I curated The Female Voice in Modern Design, 1950-2000 at Carpenters Workshop Gallery—an exhibition celebrating outstanding female designers from Europe in the second half of the 20th century—it was clear that Jongerius must be included.

In industry, Jongerius told us, weaving processes tend to be shallow, lacking vision. She often challenges conventional design norms, creating pieces that are not only practical but also visually engaging.

Her work reflects a deep understanding of how objects can influence our daily lives, encouraging us to rethink the relationship between design and user experience.

Materials and Technique

Jongerius is known for her experimental use of materials, often mixing textiles with ceramics and plastics.

The couture-level production calls for risk-taking experimentation to bring groundbreaking ideas to life; nothing is impossible.

For her Swatch Table for Galerie kreo, Jongerius collaged resin in a range colors, from opaque to transparent, from matte to gloss, and seamlessly integrated the candy-like artificial material with earthy walnut wood to magical effect.

“We are all interwoven, it’s about connection.” Jongerius has always wielded her unique talent for blending tradition and innovation in service of a greater purpose: finding the humanity beyond the object. She made her breakthrough with the Soft urn, a vase made of rubber: her work is characterised by experiments with materials and studying shapes.

What role does functionality play in your creative process?

How can you challenge conventional design norms in your projects? True to Jongerius’s values, the project shined a light on critical issues in industrial textile production and the need for more sustainable approaches through a series of experimental installations and objects—most created expressly for the show using upcycled materials—accompanied by interactive performances, including a séance.

This goal has occupied many designers since the 1960s, but Jongerius has achieved it in her own way, using her own voice, while also urging the industry to follow suit.

In craft, she said, there is a sense of experimentation, material intelligence, and humanity, which tend to get lost in industrial production. Her clients include Cappellini, Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum, Rosenthal, Ikea, Marharam and Vitra.

The Louis Kalff Instituut is the Dutch heritage centre for industrial design, located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

www.jongeriuslab.com