Design Archieven - POM Magazine

Saskia Diez- Devine Design

The German jewelry designer Saskia Diez thinks that jewelry is always a gift, regardless whether someone gave it to you or you bought it yourself. Saskia Diez designs jewelry for people like herself. Her designs are very accessible, playful, artistic, progressive and androgen. “The way I think modern people are”, she explained in an interview with POM Magazine’s Anke Verbeek

by Anke Verbeek

I find it interesting that your designs are minimalistic and at the same time very present and visible.
I try to have both sides in my work. The designs are totally present without screaming. Size doesn’t matter, even a tiny piece of jewelry can change your posture or your attitude for the day. Choosing a piece and putting it on is a moment of self-awareness. It doesn’t matter what outfit you’re wearing, with jewelry you can totally change your appearance. Depending on what jewelry you choose it can shift your look to glamorous, avant-garde or chic.

Jewelry has many social aspects. It could be a gift from a family member, it could be a status symbol or it could make you feel more confident. What do you think of these social aspects?
I am not interested in jewelry as a status symbol. I’m pretty sure that the people who buy my pieces don’t buy them for reasons of status because they are price-wise too accessible. People who look for status will choose the big brands. I think jewelry is like a container that keeps situations, happenings, stories, moods, love. This social aspect is a big part of jewelry. I have never met people who couldn’t tell me how they got the jewelry they are wearing, when they got and why.

Your website states that you design for a woman like you. What kind of person are you?
What I mean is that I design for someone who has the same values and same views on how to wear jewelry. When I started in the jewelry business there were only a few categories. There was the expensive fine jewelry that people bought because it was a status symbol. There was the gallery jewelry that was hard to wear and was more of an object. And of course there was custom jewelry. I wasn’t interested in any of these categories. I wanted to make pieces that make you feel stronger, prouder and more aware. I am originally a goldsmith and started to work for a jewelry workshop that made high quality, expensive jewelry. I didn’t want to wear any of the pieces I made there myself. They were all unique pieces, very artistic, very elaborate. If I wore something like that I would disappear behind it. I wanted the pieces to emphasize me, and not make me disappear.

What does your creation process look like? How do you start?
I make drawings to get the ideas I have in my head onto paper. Then I quickly start mocking things up to test how something shows on the skin, how it moves and whether the length is good. I believe in a quick and dirty way of making mock-ups, using cheap materials like paper, dough, beads, threats or aluminum foil. Working with precious materials for the mock-ups makes me feel intimidated and less free because I want to do it right and don’t want to waste material. I try to be open-minded when I work with these mock-ups. Gradually, the process of leaving out starts until I have the feeling that the idea I wanted to work on is clearly visible.

Where do you find the inspiration that triggers your creative process?
I like to have a starting point, which could be anything: an idea, a song, a movie or a friend. It could be a certain feeling I want the wearer to have, to make something that shows happiness or makes you feel secure.

How do feelings influence your designs?
When the Covid pandemic was over I worked on a series based on the feeling: Ok, let’s go out and party. The pieces are sparkling but in a gunmetal colour. It has this feeling of going out at night, something we hadn’t done for quite a while. And one of our best-selling series was inspired by an armchair with a very thick backrest. When I saw this chair I wanted to do a collection of jewelry pieces based on the feeling this chair and its thickness evoked in me. When I launched the series, customers were a bit hesitant. It took two or three seasons before people started to buy this collection and it is a collection that still sells very well.

When it comes to craftsmanship, do you like to work with your hands?
Totally, because I think your mind and your imagination can cheat you. I could have the most fantastic idea that I would love to translate into a piece of jewelry. But then I start working with my hands and at some point I think: yuck, actually no it’s not such a fantastic idea! Then one thing leads to another. A mistake in the design or something that went wrong during the creation process, will lead to the final design. It is very important to stay open to what is happening during the creative process. When I worked on a series where I used leather, I had this idea of fancy weaving. It turned out to be very complicated and the pieces wouldn’t really connect with your body. I got frustrated and thought maybe I need to add this or that. But it only got more complicated. Then I cut fringes into a piece of leather and the final version was ready! It didn’t need anything anymore. It was a very long and complicated design process that resulted in a very simple design.

What type of materials appeal to you?
Obviously I like gold and silver. I also use plated material if the pieces are bolder. It doesn’t make sense to have a bold piece made of gold if it means that you have to spend a lot of money on it and only few people could buy it. But for delicate pieces I will use gold. At the moment I am very much in love with silver. Silver is the whitest metal there is because it reflects the biggest spectrum of light. I like stones, pearls and beads, but I don’t work a lot with precious stones. I work more with semi-precious stones.

How do you source these materials?
I work with precious metal suppliers who provide gold and silver. We mainly work with recycled metal. I work with a couple of stone dealers I have worked with for a long time, and who I trust. We also do reworking of old jewelry. A lot of people have rings, necklaces or earrings that they inherited from family members. Quite often they are not worn because they are outdated, out of fashion or may not be the person’s style. These pieces often have stones of a quality and size that you don’t come across these days. They came from a certain mine and at a certain point that mine is exhausted. I love taking stones from these existing pieces and rework them together with the metal, into something modern. You get a unique piece that you would never find anywhere else and that retains its emotional value to the wearer, even though it’s a new design. I love making these unique pieces.

website Saskia Diez

Neon Muzeum Warsaw

Warsaw has a unique museum that exhibits neon signs from the Cold War era. Graphic designer David Hill and his photographer wife, Ilona Karwinska, are the founders of Neon Muzeum Warsaw. David and Ilona became accidental curators, and what started as a stroll through the city of Warsaw ultimately resulted in a collection of more than 300 neon signs. POM Magazine’s Giulia Weijerman spoke with David Hill to find out what is so special about Polish neon lights from this particular time period. During the interview, Giulia fell from one surprise into the next.

by Giulia Weijerman

David, why are you so interested in Polish neon lights?
When I met my then future wife Ilona in London in 2005, she invited me to visit Warsaw. Ilona is originally from Poland, but she moved to the UK as a teenager and spent most of her adult life there. She then knew as much of Poland and its design history as I did. When we walked through Warsaw’s streets and boulevards, I immediately noticed these fantastic, but rather dilapidated neon signs on the buildings. I am a professional graphic designer and typographer. It struck me that these neon signs seemed so fresh and original, with letterforms I had never seen before. I found them exciting and incredible and at the time nobody seemed to have any interest in them at all. Ilona is a portrait photographer and she had just finished a major anthropological project in Syria and the Lebanon, and wondered what she was going to do next. So rather cheekily, I suggested: ‘why don’t you go from photographing people to photographing neons?’ This ultimately led us from photographic documentation, to preservation and restoration of these historical neon signs. We now have more than 300 neons, the first and largest such collection in Europe.

So you were the first ones to recognise that these actually are important pieces of art?
We would love to say that we immediately recognised the inherent cultural value of these neons. But it was initially just a graphic design project, during which we discovered a lot of unusual typography and designs which eventually led to the publication of a book and an exhibition. That is what opened flood gates for us. People began contacting us, asking us: ‘would you like to have these signs?’ We also noticed that many of the signs were being taken down by workers and thrown into skips or lorries. We were horrified that these neon signs, that had been on the buildings since the 1950s, were being taken down and destroyed so thoughtlessly. We always asked the workers if we could have them. Of course, they thought we were quite crazy, but they gave them to us anyway. So initially, the neon signs were either donations or we had saved them from destruction. It was then we started to emotionally invest in the project instead of considering it simply a transient documentation project.

What makes the neon signs in your collection so special?
What’s interesting is that they were created within strict rules and regulations established by state authorities. Graphic designers had to work within these parameters, there was no ‘carte blanche’. Despite this, the signs were so avant-garde and many were absolutely wild. It was a carefully controlled medium, which is why it is incredible that these designers created such beautiful, expressive neon signs. Each neon sign was designed for one purpose; so for one building, one product, one service or one factory. The signs were completely original letterforms and symbols that were created once, never to be used again. Until later, when the original designers had retired and the technicians were charged with making the remaining neon signs. That is when they started using the Swiss fonts. They started using, Grotesk Neue or Helvetica fonts everywhere. All these newer letter forms appeared in the late 80s, which is when the originality of the early style started to fade. The later signs don’t have the same visual or emotional impact, in my opinion.

How did you come to start a museum?
My upbringing was very much geared around collecting and documenting. It prepared me for the museum, I think. It just seemed like a natural process, collecting neon artefacts and showing them to the public in a museum. We found a space in the building that we now occupied for almost 12 years. Ilona originally said to me: ‘let’s open a pop-up exhibition for a few weeks and see what happens.’ Luckily, we were participating in the European Museum Nights Event called The Long Night Of The Museums, back in May 2012. We put an advert out and 6,000 people came to visit the museum in a single night! We were taken aback by the positive public response. We had expected negative commentary from people, since the neon signs were symbols of the communist occupation. Yet they were designed by the best graphic artists, but the initiators of the neonisation campaign were the communist authorities.

Does the museum tell us something about the history of the signs itself? Or is it mainly focused on the aesthetic?
We are big on history! We have an archive of thousands of original drawings, project packs and blueprints. In the museum we display a lot of information on text panels alongside the neon signs; information about the history, the designer and the original location of the building the neon once adorned. In the 1950s the public was restless in Eastern Europe. They wanted their freedom back and remembered life in the interwar period. The Soviets and communists were very concerned they were losing control. Some genius must have stood up during a conference in Moscow and suggested- let’s neonise, to make the cities look like they did in the interwar period. Early on we were concerned that the public would perceive our exhibition as a big statement about communism, which it certainly isn’t. Over the years, we’ve managed to carefully strip away the political connotations. We wanted people to focus on the design and aesthetic. It is amazing that a society that was so restrictive and controlled, created such beautiful images in neon.

Do you only collect signs from the Cold War era?
We are specifically interested in the designs from the time period running from 1955-’56 to the end of the regime in 1989. It was initiated by the communist authorities, it was a state project and it was run by an internal trade body. These are not commercial neon lights and they were not advertisements as such. They were socialist messages. They were symbols to ‘inform, educate and amuse’. The state refused to allow competition and in Poland there was just a single company handling all the neon sign production. We discovered that other countries in the Eastern Bloc behind the iron curtain, were also engaged in their own neonisation propaganda campaigns. So there was a vernacular style in Poland, Hungary had a style, and the former Czechoslovakia had its own style of neons.

What do you think the museum will look like in 5 or 10 years?
Well, much bigger! We are currently exhibiting and have fully restored, about 125 neon signs. But in our storage we have hundreds of neon signs just waiting to shine. Some of them are quite large in size. We have for example, both the largest and the oldest neon sign from the former Eastern Bloc. It was made during Stalin’s life who, famously hated Western neon advertising. Why on earth the authorities would build a neon globe of 5 meters in diameter and place it in the heart of Warsaw in 1950, is beyond us. We have the original in our collection and we would love to present it as the centre piece of our exhibition, since it represents the genesis of the neonisation campaign. We currently have about 500-600 m2 of space but we would like to double that. Next year, we hope to move the museum to a new building, located closer to the centre of Warsaw. People visiting us now, are determined to come and see us. We don’t have many accidental walk-ins. Visitors have ventured all the way across the city to find us. The Neon Muzeum is on the eastern side of Warsaw, across the Vistula river, and a fairly long journey across the river to find us. Despite attracting more than 100,000 people per year, by moving to the centre of Warsaw we hope to attract even more visitors.

Do you have a favourite neon sign?
The neon signs are like children to us, we love them equally. But secretly I do have two favourites. One is a large blue circle with an electric red word ‘Mydlła’, meaning Soaps, and to the lower right the word ‘Farby’, which means paints. This is my favourite because people are always so surprised that it was made for such a mundane set of products, soap and paint. When they see this neon, they immediately think it’s a sign for a jazz café or a cocktail bar, it just looks so spectacular. My other favourite neon displays the word ‘Syrena’ in dazzling bright blue. I simply love it because the typography is just stunning. It was found in Elbląg on the Baltic coast, in an abandoned movie theatre that was due to be demolished. The workmen of the demolition company went into the building to check if there was anyone left. All they found were pieces of a neon sign that once adorned the building. The real estate developer offered not only to donate it to us but also to completely renovate it. It was such an unusual and generous act that we had a special lighting up ceremony in the museum, for this neon.

Are there new exhibitions planned for the near future?
We recently won a grant to create a pioneering new exhibition highlighting the work of the many women neon designers of Warsaw – we have called it, Women Designers of Light. Despite the fact that the neon sign companies employed thousands of women tube benders at the time in the late 50s and early 60s, the neon designers tended to be men. Later on however, many talented women began designing neons. On November 21 we opened this fascinating and original exhibition. Going forward, it will remain part of the Neon Muzeum’s permanent exhibition.

Designer in Los Angeles-Camilla Lonis

Camilla Lonis lives in Los Angeles where she works for graffiti artist, Shepard Fairey. She designs for the OBEY Clothing fashion brand, and is the design director of Studio Number One. Camilla talked to Klaartje Til about her life in Los Angeles and explains why she loves Los Angeles so much.

Camilla how did you end up in Los Angeles?
After I graduated from art school in Rotterdam, I worked for several years as a freelance designer in the Netherlands. At some point I started receiving more and more assignments from agencies abroad; especially from agencies in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. So I decided to visit those cities. I assumed that I wouldn’t find LA that exciting. But once I got there, I quickly changed my mind.

Why did you assume that Los Angeles wouldn’t be so exciting?
San Francisco seemed more interesting to me. There is a hippie culture, the people are more relaxed, there is beautiful nature. I had a certain image of LA, a flat city with a lot of palm trees, hot weather and people with attitude. But that wasn’t the case at all. However, it is true that LA is a city where you need a car. It’s hard to get anywhere without a car or driving license. As soon as I drove through LA, the way I thought about the city changed. It’s not one city but thirty towns that form Los Angeles. That was a surprise to me.

What made you stay in Los Angeles?
Art and my work as designer. A few months after I moved to Los Angeles I met Shepard Fairey by accident. He is a successful American street artist. He hired me to work as design director for his art gallery, Subliminal.

Shepard Fairey is a big name in the contemporary art scene. How was it to be hired by him to work for him?
It felt bizarre. I read about him in art books when I was still at art school. I admired him enormously and a few years later I was sitting at the table with him. In no time I started to work for him. Shepard is the creative director of Obey Giant and Subliminal, and I work directly for him. I am often called to help choose between one design or another, for a poster he is working on. He always looks and listens very carefully to what is happening around him. He is open to other opinions and his art has a positive influence. That inspires me.

You also design for OBEY Clothing. What is the typical LA look?
That depends very much on the neighbourhood. In Echo Park people dress super casual: vintage jeans of good quality, but old, with a clean T-shirt, blank with a single, small graphic design. Don’t try too hard, that’s not cool. Actually, you can’t dress as “a LA person”. There are so many cultures so there isn’t one LA look.

And to which culture do you belong?
In everyday life I work in Echo Park. I am an artist and I listen to punk and metal music. Street art influences my work. But I also go out in Beverly Hills and then I wear fancy clothing. When I go to a party in West Hollywood I dress cooler. That’s what I like about this city, there are so many different cultures.

You work in the design world. Is design important in Los Angeles?
Design and art is important for the city. There is much to see, so much to do. A lot of museums have free entrance. The art scene is young. Graffiti art is important, very visible and an important form of expression in LA. If you look at Shepard Fairey’s work, you’ll notice that he has made countless murals. They often became a movement. Because I do a lot of graphic design for local projects at Studio Number One, I often see my posters, banners and murals in LA. At some point I became the creator of the LA culture. That’s a serious responsibility. It means that I have to create with respect for the people who are actually from here, the LA natives.

What is the biggest adjustment you had to make, when you arrived to live in LA?
I had to get used to the way people drive here. They drive like crazy and then there are also these eight-lane highways in the city. But if you love the city, you want to be in every neighbourhood, so then you have to drive. The city is a grid and I can get everywhere very quickly via the road network, no matter how far a location is. The highways are built in such a way that you are suddenly at your destination. Los Angeles is easy to access as long as you have a car. And as long as you drive outside the rush hour (laughs).