Our bed, our smartphone, the doorknob, the mug, i.e. the objects that accompany our everyday life, are just as important as the people around us: they affect us, evoke emotions, and help us in life situations. Why and how is design related to this? We talked to interior designer Gáspár Bonta.
Design is a quality indicator, a way of thinking or a faded word. How to approach?
Design, "designer" as a term is really overused and misunderstood, which is why it is perhaps worth looking at it more sensitively, from the direction of applied art and high art. While you don't come across the latter if you don't want to - concerts, exhibitions, operas, ballets - but design is completely different: if you like it, if you don't, it's all around us. From the age of compromise, it was possible for the entire cross-section of society to bring home and buy pieces of domestic practitioners of object culture. Together with the existence of light industry, this was made possible by the conscious development and communication of industrial art at fairs and exhibitions. Design is a way of thinking, a language. In addition to the design of products, its role in society and in our daily lives is also part of the process.
You say that design not only defines, but also makes our lives lovable. How would you express this?
Functional object culture evokes memories in all of us: colors, shapes, sounds, smells. Just think of the glass jug used in the school canteen, the pill stool at grandma's or the clinking coffee maker. If we look at it in the present tense: our telephone, the coffee mug, the door handle and the chandelier, so our objects are the products of a functional art process created during a coordinated design process (product development). In other words, they perform tasks, but at the same time they make everyday life more beautiful and better. Today, we pay attention to our vitamin consumption, our REM cycle, and we buy fewer fast fashion products. The next and desirable step is to pay careful attention to our environment as a curator. If we are more conscious in our choices, we win in terms of both design and emotion.
Everyone wants harmony - in their lives as well as in their homes. Can design play a role in this?
Everyone has an urge for harmony, and design can also open up certain sensory triggers in people. A professional I hold in high esteem, Nóra Winkler, spoke while guiding the exhibition of 360DesignBudapest about how one of her favorite activities is the harmonious arrangement of matching objects. A Czech glass vase from the 60s, a contemporary candle holder and a wooden sculpture brought home from a trip to Asia can look great together, and it's a good feeling to feel this, to experience the ideal end result. There is some inner harmony and logic in this process, there is no need to prove that it means a more balanced, calmer life situation and creates personal spaces. Well, design can do this wonderfully!
How to buy design today?
Our lives are incredibly parameterized, and our objects need to be tailored to new and newer life situations. Here, for example, is the sofa: while a certain age group uses it to watch TV and accommodate guests, it means something completely different to Generation Z. They work on the laptop while sitting on the couch, so they spend an entire working day on it. If this has changed, then the procurement, the "hunting" method must also change. This is where a multi-brand store like MaxCity comes into the picture, where the selection is properly and even very well put together, and this is a pleasant simplification of catching current design trends and classics in our lives. And while we're choosing, let's not forget for a moment: objects (and through them design) are just as important players in our lives as the people around us. They involve us, influence us and contribute to our well-being. Honestly, is there anything more important than that?
MaxCity Q&A
Flash questions about design. Interior designer Gáspár Bonta answers.
What do you think was the first design object?
I don't know if they are the first pieces of stone or even more the leaves covering the body. But maybe it could have been something leaning towards the home, for example the dishes - the words closed space, protection, fire quickly lead to this answer.
What is the task of design?
In short, I would perhaps put it this way: make the gray, repetitive objects of everyday life special.
Is it your current favorite in MaxCity?
Czech glass art is an important part of European object culture, and Brokis' contemporary lamps continue this with exceptional quality.
Products shown in the pictures:
- VA Design – Artemide – Tolomeo MICRO Table Lamp Gold
- Zsanett Kalácska – SZETT – Company of carpet designers
- Remodel Studio - Simon sofa