Interview with Guilherme Torres

Guilherme Torres ("GT") interviewed on Monday, 19 March.

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

GT : I opened Studio Guilherme Torres in 2001, where is developed works of architecture, interiors and design. The goal about our work is contemporary and international touch, mixing a midcentury style with innovation. Today we are based in Sao Paulo in New York, and we are working in projects in many countries.

How did you become a designer?

GT : I became a designer because I needed to. Starting my career as an architect in the interior of Brazil, soon I realised that I could design furniture to compose my residential projects. This work claimed the attention of the media, and I became to be recognised first as a designer and later, as an architect. However, I can't see antagonism between the two fields, on the opposite: both has the same criteria, but in different scales.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

GT : Design for me is a very emotional, deep and difficult process. I normally see the sketch passing through my eyes and disappearing. It is like wanting to remember a dream, but only having fragments and sensations. I try to treat design in a passionate way. Maybe this is the big difference to the way that I view architecture, made up of more logical processes.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

GT : What excites me most about design is the fact that shortly after completing the designs and sending them to the factories, I can soon see it taking shape in the real world. It's a great pleasure to be able to sit on a sofa I designed myself, it's amazing to open a magazine and see a dinner table designed by me in a family home. Design for me turns out to be a participatory, inclusive tool - unlike architecture, which is usually crafted for a very specific purpose. There is great beauty in the anarchist role of design, which can always be redefined.

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

GT : I believe that the differential of my work as a designer is the way the eye looks at objects. I have different perspectives: as an architect, I end up putting drawings on pieces of paper that I would love to specify, but which I do not find available in the market. As a consumer, I evaluate the difference between a design that would yield a beautiful photograph, but that would not necessarily attract me to buy. As a designer, I let my imagination flow, following my references, especially the design appeal of the '70s.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

GT : I started designing for my architecture clients. in a second phase, I began to collaborate with industries, but Brazil does not have a tradition or respect for this type of work. This made me set up my own design company, NOS Furniture. Today my goal is to internationalize my projects. My first international collaboration started this year with Classicon.

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

GT : The new generation of designers must take a proper look at the new generations because the world has radically transformed in the last twenty years. People today no longer need objects, but rather efficient, hybrid, multi-product products. Surely there is the responsibility of designing to live with less.

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

GT : I advise designers to leave their egos aside, and focus on enhancing existing products. Resignification is also very important - turning the use of an object is something incredible.

What is your day to day look like?

GT : I always start my week doing a planning of what I have to create, the meetings I have to do with clients and suppliers, and I try to set aside time to be present with my team. But this planning undergoes a thousand changes, because the terrain of creation is 99% unpredictability. I end up doing a thousand things at the same time!

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

GT : I do not spend a specific time for research. I believe that everything is research and my process is by associations. Many times I'm having coffee, I look at the cup and I think it could be an inspiration for a table base. It is an extremely chaotic process throughout my creation.

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

GT : Good design is what excites you, and what you never imagined would ever be needed. Today a good design is what combines technology and product at the same time. Ten years have passed since the launch of the Iphone, and the whole market was inspired by this product, which revolutionized the market. It would be impossible to separate the product design from its functions.

How do you decide if your design is ready?

GT : My design is always an ongoing process. What sets the release is obviously pressure for the need for a specific use, or even pressure from my company to launch a new piece. The great secret of finalization in the creative process is the pressure.

What is your biggest design work?

GT : I am particularly attached to my first table, Jet, created in 2007. I had an insight during a construction site visit, when I saw a tool fallen on the floor and at the same time I imagined a table. It took me minutes to draw it and months to develop it as a product. I consider this product to be timeless and that carries all my AND as a designer.

Who is your favourite designer?

GT : My list is so big! Charlote Perriand, Ray and Charles Eames, Mies van der Rohe are above all to me. Patricia Urquiola, Jaime Hayon and Nendo are my contemporaries that I love, to name a few. And my source of inspiration and respect comes from Brazil, with Sergio Rodrigues and our adoptive Brazilians, like Jorge Zalzupin and Joaquim Tenreiro.

Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?

GT : Lot of my references come from the geek universe of the 80s, like videogames, passing through the electronic music of the German group Kraftwerk. I see myself as a world citizen, everything that I see is constantly assimilated and reprocessed.

Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?

GT : I like working with young and curious people. For me, work must be a constant exchange, in which I teach but also learn. The collaborative process is fundamental to aerate my creativity and keep me stimulated. I work with a small and highly efficient team of employees.

What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?

GT : I highly value artisanal work. I like to raise the status of all my employees to a higher level. One of our furniture factories was set up in a cooperative system, where we donated the equipment and taught the workers how to run the company. I believe that artisans should be encouraged to pass on their art to the next generations. In a world of machines, valuing the manufactured is my legacy.

What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?

GT : A job without visibility is practically an unfulfilled job. we have to spread our practice as a professional to the world, and a very powerful tool are the world competitions. A professional recognition that undoubtedly brings respect and fills us with pride. Be a designer of the day, the month, the year ... always a pleasure!

Guilherme Torres Profile