Margaux Keller – Design through reality
Auteur : Kris | 09-12-2011
Summer never ends at Cocotte Design and we are happy to be back to launch yet another Cocotte to follow: Margaux Keller, our up and coming star designer in Marseille. While sipping a glass of rosé in a café while watching the sun set, I chose the perfect setting to tell you all about Margaux’s career path:
At 14 years old Margaux was already destined to become a designer, even though she didn’t quite know what design was all about, she just wanted to create objects and her drawing and painting courses paved the way. At 15 she was already hopping the train in Marseille with her mom to visit all the art schools in Paris, and at 18 she jumped at the chance…..and studied at the L’ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres and was then accepted at the acclaimed Boulle School of Design in Paris to study product and furniture design.
Up until now Margaux was working with a team of designers at La Fabrica in Italie. Today she is working on her own as an independent designer and is happy to manage her own schedule which she find very exciting and challenge is motivating.
Aside from her personal work, she is working at the PAM design agency which is a global firm with Pauline Jaramillo, product designer and Amélie Bonnin, graphic designer. We are collaborating with provincial artists for the event ‘Marseille 2013, The European Cultural Capital’.
Her universe revolves around one’s behavioural habits which may be confused with other sciences such as sociology or psychology. “I’ve always been interested in people’s behaviour, and interactions between people, either alone or with others” Margaux thrives on her personal observations of these interactions and her designs reflect and are built upon a certain reality, “A reality that not everyone perceives immediately yet everyone is conscious of”.
Margaux’s originality stems from just this, her sociological analyses which give way to a behaviour, a habit or way of life. “Each object must have sense to tell a story. While looking at the object in use, we understand the message. An object cannot be freely created, without a justified existence!”
Most of us fear a blank white page however Margaux is thrilled by the adrenaline kick that a blank slate provides….. “The first idea seems right, but it’s just the beginning which creates an effervescent energy, leading me into an intensive production phase where i’ll spend hours and hours in research and development.”
Of course Margaux also enjoys when the artisan within her stands up and says “I’ve finished, come see!” That sense of completion and actually seeing the project come to life.
Her star piece which caught my attention is the “banc sans vergogne” which literally means “the shameless bench”. You can just imagine Margaux observing people’s different, classical postures in public to fine-tune the bench design which seeks to bring people together. “A classic public bench was originally meant for 5 people however there are never more than 2 or 3 people at one given time. In today’s world, proximity is taboo, provoking even, and we’d rather remain standing than sit too closely to a stranger.”
Margaux’s inspirations ”people, places”:
Paris, Marseille and those who reside between large cites. Those from Marseille, Parisians, Italians and their differing behaviors. Eugeni Quittlet (furniture designer at Phillipe Starck) for his organisational advise. Sam Baron who pushed me beyond my limits.
Dislikes : free design, purely decorative, design that proposes nothing new, that lacks surprise, that repeats an existing, boring product.
Likes : 1950’s design, Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand for the most famous, objects that fall under your senses, looking at an object and wondering why it was not discovered earlier? Or else: I would have loved to think of this myself!
Personal favorites :
Necklaces from Medecine Douce, Souleiado scarves, Maloles shoes, bespoke handbags by Sacs Mary in Marseille, Oliver People sunglasses, pastis and red lipstick!
Where to find Margaux in the coming months :
Salon du Meuble in Paris on Nelly Rodi’s trends parcourse who has selected her glass and wood piece, which is also on expo at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris.
12-15 October : Design fair in Shanghai (in the talent pavillion)
Now until Oct 23rd: Exposition in design by Fabrica at the Musée du Grand Hornu in Belgium
So watch your backs as Margaux may be observing you in the street, in a restaurant, in a park, at the post office, or everywhere!
Thank you Margaux for sharing your success with us, it is truly refreshing to see such talent rise from from ’out of the box’ in Paris (Marseille!)
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