Interview with Kostas Metaxas & Sins

Kostas Metaxas & Sins ("KM&S") interviewed on Friday, 16 March.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

KM&S : My art/design background started in my teens when an uncle who was not that much older than me, showed me some art magazines with images from old master painters - I didn't know why, but I was drawn to the shapes, textures. Then he introduced me to a friend who was a crazy Hi Fi nutter - Luxman Valve amplifiers, horn speakers. That was it. I was lost in the art and more importantly, the music. Music is my core. I see art and design as "visual music". My clients [apart from myself] include S.T. Dupont [Writing instruments], L'Epee 1839 Clocks amongst others.

How did you become a designer?

KM&S : My "design" background started very early when I left university and set up my first company to produce very serious Hi Fi equipment. As a teenager, I couldn't afford to buy expensive Hi Fi, so I taught myself electrical engineering [you could do that in those days by just attending lectures at uni in the different campus]. So my hobby turned to my business. But even then, I felt that it was important not to be a "superficial" designer - to really know what goes on under the hood. So I pick things up very quickly. I do believe in form follows function, but within reason. The Hi Fi was a big success so I decided to start a magazine business as well - to be able to bother [with interviews] the heavyweights of art and design worldwide. To really learn by asking questions and exposing myself to great design. I've also consulted along the way. The magazine experience was converted into Broadcast in early 2000. I like to think that I've absorbed the creative energy of a lot of very interesting people. Most of my clients are mid-sized to very large luxury companies.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

KM&S : I’m both an artist and engineer and I can work in both intellectual planes at the same time. In my earlier designs, I was more BAUHAUS – form follows function, but these latest designs are very different. I remember a conversation with Christian Louboutin [shoes] who told me “Form Follows function can end up being boring and repetitive”…and I agree. This explains the “same-ness” of many audio products. In the case of my new collection, the design came from some ideas I was developing for an Italian furniture manufacturer. In particular, a Chaisse Longue. I was also developing a “helix” pen for S.T.Dupont , which naturally became the “heatsink”, so the combination of these elements led to the amplifier cases. The speakers, essentially follow similar organic, flowing lines but with a female form. It probably represents beauty in its purest sense. The power amplifiers deviate slightly and seem to combine a flowing organic form with a more “animal” masculinity – like a crouching tiger.I love working with metals, whether casting them, CNC machining them, milling them. It's the precision and the longevity. Also, I love subverting technology - using dentistry to make jewellery or watches. I'm a real tech-head. I love 3D rapid prototyping. At my age, I'm old enough to know traditional forms of manufacturing [virtually anything] but also the absolute latest software. I applaud Frank Gehry's use of CATIA!

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

KM&S : Ideas are forever swimming in your mind until they are ready to emerge - there is Euphoria...like when you're listening to Sviatoslav Richter playing Brahms with the Chicago Symphony recorded by Lewis Leyton. Or Joni Mitchell's "The Sire of Sorrow".Or Emma Matthews singing julius Caesar's V'adoro Pupille"...Then after you realize your idea, its like the birth of a child. You wonder how they will be received and interact in the real world.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

KM&S : Inspiration can come from anywhere. But mostly it's the mind slowly weaving through past ideas until they become interesting enough to become present ideas. I feed my creativity by talking to extremely creative people - like Romeo Gigli the fashion designer once told me, every designer has peaks of creative energy, which quickly [through media] stimulate/challenge their peers. They are then re-energized when their peers come up with something even more spectacular. It's like intellectual ping-pong.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

KM&S : The design field is changing similar to music, video and other creative fields where there are incredible pressures to innovate, but at the same time to be mindful of the divides between creative nations and manufacturing nations and the respect of a designer's IP. There will always be a need for great design to inspire. The enabler - as always, is technology. It's no coincidence that the best designers [and artists] are always at the cutting edge of their craft.