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FINION INSIGHTS

Interview with Patrick Frey

The designer Patrick Frey talks about the art of getting the power and freshness of the initial idea into the finished product, and how his design for the Finion collection combines the qualities of wood into ceramic.

Inspiration needs curiosity

Inspiration doesn’t just come to you. The basic requirement is curiosity and recognizing details and connections. Inspiration can appear in many places, and often unusual ones at that. Common places are things like exhibits, concerts or trade shows. But it can also come from a conversation with other people.

Creativity needs investment

The creative process is never stringent, it’s an alternation of phases in which ideas flow easily or are stuck. 
It takes a lot of discipline and work to develop your own good idea for a design from this creativity and bring it to a finished product. The power and freshness of the initial sketch is often lost in the conversion to a draft. For example, I can recognize many of my first ideas in Finion.

Ceramic precision

The meticulousness and complexity of production - such as the extensive manufacturing of the shapes or the controlled shrinkage of the ceramics during the kiln process - have really impressed me. Those are things that have to be taken into account already in the design development phase.

Working with the material

A successful collection can only emerge from a deeper understanding of the special qualities of ceramics. My design idea rests on the desire to design in harmony with the material, in other words, to work with the potential of the ceramic. I took this approach a step further in Finion because the hardness of the ceramic should melt with the warmth of the wood.

‘Experience’

The mystical shine and precision of the surface immediately fascinated me. But first I had to learn that a curve emerges from a straight edge through shrinkage in the baking process. The reverse, maintaining an exact right angle or straight edge in baked ceramics, is unequally more difficult. It takes a lot of experience.

Warmth from the ceramic

Basically I am a furniture designer and work with warmer, more pliable materials such as wood, leather and fabric. Ceramic, in contrast, is very hard and smooth and quickly can feel cold - which is why I try to coax out its warmer, softer side. The special challenge was thus creating comfort and a feeling of softness and warmth with ceramic.

Finion flows

As a furniture designer, working with ‘cold ceramic’ was an inspiring experience, one that motivated me in the development of the collection. It was important to me to combine the warmth of the wood with the haptic of the ceramic. In particular, the very slim dimensions of the TitanCeram material played a decisive role in this collection. The precision and simultaneously flowing design of Finion would not have been possible without it.

Go to the Finion collection