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Interview with Flavio Oliveira |
Home > Designer Interviews > Flavio Oliveira |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Flavio Oliveira (FO) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Flavio Oliveira by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
FO: My design came from to produce custom made furniture solutions to customers. And I just like to draw ideas.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
FO: Our company has 20 years old developing customized furniture to local customers. Has focus on customer service and invests in people development and manufacturing technical solutions.
FS: What is "design" for you?
FO: Design is the beauty solution for a necessity.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
FO: the ones that I can achive the best solutions in furniture construction.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
FO: escher's designs because they are unusual and unexpected.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
FO: Workstation.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
FO: Panels.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
FO: when someone orders me for new solutions.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
FO: to be unexpected solution.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
FO: concentration and unrest.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
FO: power.
FS: What makes a design successful?
FO: when it achieves the purpouse necessity that it was made for.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
FO: what is it made for?
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
FO: create solutions.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
FO: everything...the design must includes new technologies and new ways of life.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
FO: the last one was at Casa Brazil in 2007 in Bento Gonçalves, RS, Brazil. And next, could be this year or next.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
FO: it comes from simple things and my curiosity to know how things work. i feed my criativity drawing things i see and trying to give others solutions or aplications, and to do this i search mostly on the internet.
FS: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
FO: my design is funtional. like i said before, i draw and test different ways to solve an idea. the main characteristic is simplicity. most of my time i spend drawing things.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
FO: i live in Brazil and i feel that we have different cultural inffluences from our colonization and native inhabitants. so we have many and different designs. i feel that the diversity of our country does not allow us to have an identity to seek, but the good thing is that i have freedom to create.
FS: How do you work with companies?
FO: first i need to understand the culture in order to work with.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
FO: the companies must be part of the project, so they can reasarch and help the designer with the best solution and material. also, the designer must be flexible and understand that sometimes they will have to change things around to get to the main idea / porpouse achievable.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
FO: i like to draft things that come up on my mind, sometimes with no reason, just for fun or relax and then suddenly i come up with a new idea. form this point i start to develop it first on paper and later on the computer.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
FO: Aristeu Pires - Julieta Ilse Lang - accessory Ingo Maurer - luminaire Alessi Lorenza Bozzoli - Fedro
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
FO: i wake up at 6am to open the factory at 6:45am. until about 7:30 i arrange the production employees. after that i start to read and answer my emails. daily i receive a lot of designers and architectures projects to analyse and set up production price. but, i have one thing in my routine that i do not miss: my swimming classes. it is my special moment to relax and even to think about everything that it is going on in my life and company.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
FO: definetely you are going to fail sometime in your career or in one project, but you should never give up. those mistakes that happens in life make us better professionals.
FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
FO: it is not a safe job. you need to be persistent and love what you do.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
FO: you must think outside of the box
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
FO: spatial vision, material combination and constructions methods
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
FO: paper and pencil are the main tools.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
FO: well, if you like what you do, then, work it is not a problem! even at home or on weekends, if i have an idea i just feel like drawing.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
FO: it depends, sometimes it goes really fast and others, that you initially thought it would be easy, it takes longer then usual.
FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
FO: how much and how long to have it done!
FS: What was your most important job experience?
FO: to start a company and develop people
FS: Who are some of your clients?
FO: Vonpar, De Lage Landen Bank, Dell Computer, Carlos Gomes Center, NSG, Novus Automotion
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
FO: contemporary and organic lines
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
FO: i have a furniture company and i want to get it as a lovemark brand.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
FO: i like to work with people. however, most of my projects i develop myself.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
FO: i am working on shelves that serve as dividers environments or as brise.
FS: How can people contact you?
FO: by my company website: www.interiore.com.br
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
FO: no.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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