Marcel Wanders has a golden nose. Its a clowns mask that challenges the self image,yet makes visitors to his website step back and question what they think design means. The Dutch designer has been called many names,from Peacock Prince to the next Philippe Starck (a celebrated French product designer),yet for Wanders,being a jester is a responsibility he takes seriously. From furniture and cosmetics to jewellery and hotels,his designs have courted leading Italian furniture brands such as Cappellini and Kartell,British sports brand,Puma,and French crystal ware company,Baccarat,among others. Some day he hopes to design a mosque. In Delhi for the India Design ID 2013,his talk had the design fraternity wanting to shake hands with the king of modern industrial design. Six-feet-something tall,with peppered grey hair,a string of beads around the neck and satin chequered shoes on his feet,Wanders was at once a rockstar and an honest designer. I have to buy what I sell, he says. This is the ground rule of any product he makes. His Knotted Chair,which won him world recognition in 1996,was a meeting point for industrial technique and handcrafted finesse. Today,it sits as part of the permanent design exhibition in MoMA,New York,and V&A Museum,London. Wanders had joined Droog,a design collective in the Netherlands. In 2001,he co-founded Moooi,a venture that would be a platform for innovative designs from creators across the world. Being both designer and creative director of Moooi,Wanders is in a position of being on either side of the table. Each product is rooted in the same core. Its character has to have an element of surprise,it should ignite curiosity and be something truly innovative, he says. There were several designs that caught his eye at India Design ID 2013. As he talks about these,he reveals the businessman in the designer. He wants to pursue an MBA in Paris,and is known to give young designers marketing tips. Why should you make a teaspoon if you dont have a reason to? he asks. To make a product one must have a reason, he adds. His famous Zeppelin light was an ode to his mentor,Italian designer Achille Castiglioni. I call him my uncle,he was part of my creative family. He designed the cocoon light in the early 60s,making the simple look beautiful. The Zeppelin is a modern take on that, says Wanders. His collection of tableware for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is poetry in porcelain,its lightness softened by the curves on platters,the cutlery tattooed with intricate design and the glasses bearing the hard core stamp of purpose. So how is it different designing a spoon from a hotel room? In product design,you have to make a good object,take it away from all the noise and get to the core. Its like finding a sculpture with a marble block. But interior design is like an opera. It needs many ideas,yet each has to hold, says Wanders,adding that his latest project is the Andaz Amsterdam Hotel of the Hyatt group. While his concepts are grounded on functional truths of implementation,his products do take flight,such as the Pebble table,which has a fairy-tale setting frozen in time,of colourful stones,flowers on the wall,path seeds,sunlight,and freshly baked bread. There is after all space for make-believe in the real world of design,with or without golden clown noses.
