London-based designer Faye Toogood has joined Dezeen Awards 2024 as a choose. Right here, she selects 5 tasks that greatest replicate her work.
Whereas the founding father of the modern British model Toogood identifies herself as a designer, with work spanning interiors, objects, furnishings, clothes and artwork, her follow is also known as multidisciplinary.
“For myself, I just like the phrase tinker. I tinker with a variety of issues, however I am a grasp of nothing. I like working in interiors, objects, furnishings, clothes and artwork,” she informed Dezeen.
“There’s much less of an outlined rulebook due to that, helped additionally by the actual fact I didn’t examine design however high-quality artwork and historical past of artwork.”
“I am a designer, not an artist”
The British designer considers her design philosophy to be deeply rooted in 4 elementary rules.
“My work is and has at all times been rooted in 4 integral ideas, or 4 methods of seeing, that are drawing, materials, sculpture and panorama,” stated Toogood.
“I do not see any distinction between a coat, a chair or an inside. The strategy and the ethos are the identical,” she continued. “The whole lot I do and the studio does is related – it has a spot, it’s desired and it is not only for me. That’s why I am a designer, not an artist.”
As a designer, Toogood explains how she depends on trade and manufacturing to understand her imaginative and prescient, emphasising the synergy between human talent and technological innovation.
“I am very enthusiastic about craft, however much more so, in how I can industrialise craftsmanship,” she stated. “I am a designer who’s enthusiastic about how as a person you’ll be able to deliver man and machine collectively.”
The British designer is at present engaged on an upcoming vogue assortment alongside her sister Erica Toogood, in addition to a brand new vary of furnishings and collaborations for the furnishings honest Salone del Cell in Milan.
She additionally not too long ago debuted an out of doors furnishings assortment with Finnish furnishings model Vaarnii on the Stockholm Furnishings Honest.
Toogood amongst Dezeen Awards 2024 judges
Dezeen Awards 2024 launched final week in partnership with Bentley. On Tuesday we introduced our first 5 Dezeen Awards judges, together with architects Suchi Reddy and Gaetano Pesce, British-Ghanaian designer Giles Tettey Nartey and inside designer Bobby Berk.
Submit your entry by Wednesday 27 March to save lots of 20 per cent on entry charges. Click on right here to search out out extra.
Learn on to search out Toogood’s views on the 5 tasks that greatest symbolize the work of her studio:
Roly-Poly, 2014
“The Roly-Poly chair has been recognised as an iconic design of the final decade. Launched in 2014 as a part of Assemblage 4, its easy, rounded, voluptuous form was impressed by my expertise of motherhood.
“Additional editions of the Roly-Poly chair have explored working with completely different strong supplies and finishes, from brushed aluminium to gold leaf. Assemblage 5, entitled Earth, Moon, Water pushed the boundaries of manufacture with chairs forged in strong cob composite, patinated bronze and crystal barium glass.
“With its 4 plump legs and dish-shaped seat, the Roly-Poly chair’s beneficiant kind has advanced into eating chairs, stools, drawers and a cantilever desk. Examples of the Roly-Poly sit comfortably in main international museum collections, in addition to comfy and exquisite properties.
“I had kids after which Roly-Poly got here. Spherical, full, tender. I developed a uncooked fibreglass the place the fibres are uncovered. On this primordial jelly end, fibreglass has its glow. It’s extremely sturdy and has such a novel persona, which means that no two items are the identical.”
Assemblage 7: Misplaced and Discovered, 2023
“That is my third solo exhibition with Friedman Benda. The roots of this physique of labor are signalled within the title, which suggests an archaeological scenario, issues which were in some way misplaced from view, after which reclaimed.
“The 2 supplies used have a robust resonance in British historical past. Oak is the nation’s most dependable constructing timber and was the principal selection for furnishings within the medieval period. These easy, muscular kinds had been beloved of the British arts and crafts, and exert their evident affect right here.
“Notably when gathered collectively, the items recall the rings of the formed standing stones which can be Britain’s most historical artistic endeavors. I felt like I used to be revealing one thing that had at all times been there. One thing nearly prehistoric that had been misplaced to time, and it was my job to search out it once more.
“A pal informed me they thought that the items had been romantic. I believe there’s a variety of love in there, love, connection, relationships, intimacy, in addition to the panorama of the physique, our bodies collectively, ageing and rising.”
Assortment 020 / SS24
“Assortment 020 has a rebellious and playful spirit, impressed by painter Philip Guston. Initially a member of the summary expressionist brotherhood, he later turned his again on all that painterly purity with an outpouring of visceral, brutish, figurative and pink work, greeted with absolute horror by the critics.
“This assortment reasserts our parameters and reaffirms what’s vital about Toogood and made with Toogood’s chuck-it-on pleasurable ease: nothing too structured, however nonetheless with a way of sculptural scale.
“I believe Toogood is usually thought-about fairly a monochrome model and I wished to chuck that within the bin. In Assortment 020 you will discover a variety of electric-bright, life-giving pink. I wished there to be a way of drama and play within the assortment – one thing of the dressing-up field.
“Ten years in the past Erica and I created Toogood clothes from a spot of rise up – it was very black and fairly offended. I don’t essentially really feel offended now, I am searching for pleasure, laughter and playfulness.”
Dough Assortment
“The Dough vary – named to focus on the frequent floor of kneading in each baking and pottery – contains 5 items: a mug, a jug, a platter, a bowl, and a vase. It’s the studio’s first devoted assortment of ceramic homeware.
“Hand-shaped in Toogood studio earlier than being forged in stoneware, the items share a pared-back but playful simplicity. The mugs and pitchers boast chunky, outsized handles, whereas the platter has a rounded swelling high quality that calls to thoughts rising dough.
“The Dough assortment started with the mug and the jug being hand sculpted, reshaped alongside the best way for the suitable grip. The plump, swelling kinds had been then used to design the bowl, platter, and vase.
“The inspiration first got here while I used to be exploring frequent gadgets from the kitchen such because the tender volumes of rising dough and hand-shaped leavened pastries. With the ability to translate these experiences and kinds into purposeful but sculptural items has been thrilling, and represents an vital second for the studio.”
Esquisses, Toogood x Maison Matisse, 2023
“Esquisses is a brand new assortment of furnishings and rugs with Maison Matisse, launched at Milan Design week. Based by Henri Matisse’s descendants, Maison Matisse is a home of design objects impressed by the artist’s work.
“Utilizing drawing as the place to begin, I labored on making a library of gestures, traces and shapes responding to motifs in Matisse’s sketches, I stored coming again to a collection of desk nonetheless life drawings Matisse made within the 40s. Fruits, greens, and family objects, all rendered in his eloquent, important line.
“We ended up with multiple hundred sketches and initially simply to catalogue them, we selected the perfect 24 and caught them collectively in a concertina e book. That format instantly advised rugs and a blanket and so these had been the primary items we developed.
“The rug is produced from pure wool, so it is solely colors present in sheep. Maybe it is the contrarian in me, as Matisse is so recognized for his color, however I wished to maintain the entire collaboration in a palette of impartial shades. It is all concerning the line and form.
“We created an upholstered armchair and stool, and a espresso desk, all developed from the shapes and gestures discovered within the sketching course of. The completed items all have the power and slight irregularity of a drawing.”
Learn extra about Toogood x Maison Matisse ›
Dezeen Awards 2024 in partnership with Bentley
Dezeen Awards is the last word accolade for architects and designers throughout the globe. The seventh version of the annual awards programme is in partnership with Bentley as a part of a wider collaboration to encourage, assist and champion design excellence and showcase innovation that creates a greater and extra sustainable world. This ambition enhances Bentley’s structure and design enterprise initiatives, together with the Bentley Residence vary of furnishings and actual property tasks around the globe.
