Marta Portfolio

PORTFOLIO MARTA BAKOWSKI DESIGN STUDIO

23 rue Béranger 92240, Malakoff 06.25.07.10.87 marta.bakowski.design@gmail.com www.martabakowski.com

B I O G R A P H I E S T U D I O P R O J E T S LA COULEUR P R E S S E

B I O G R A P H I E

B I O G R A P H Y

Née à Paris en 1986, Marta Bakowski est une designer Française d’origine Polonaise. Diplômée de la Saint Martin’s School (2009) puis du Royal College of Arts (2011) de Londres, elle part rejoindre la fraîcheur créative de Berlin où elle travaillera pendant deux ans en tant qu’assistante designer de la Néerlandaise Hella Jongerius.

En 2013, elle retourne à Paris pour y fonder son studio dans lequel elle cultive une production hybride se détachant des règles traditionnelles de la création. Guidée le plus souvent par le travail de ses mains ou de celles des artisans qu’elle rencontre, elle explore la couleur et la matière en donnant sa chance à l’accident et à l’intuition. Ses objets sont aujourd’hui édités chez Roche Bobois, La Chance et Ligne Roset, Designersbox et Maison Matisse.

Born in Paris in 1986, Marta Bakowski is a French-Polish designer. After graduating from Central Saint Martin’s School (2009), and Royal College of Arts (2011) in London, she moved to creative Berlin where she worked for two years as designer assistant of Hella Jongerius.

In 2013, she returned to Paris to set up her own studio in which she cultivates a hybride production away from the traditionnal rules of creation. Often led by the work of her hands or the ones of the craftsmen she meets, she experiences color and materials while giving a chance to accident and intuition. Her objects are produced by brands such as Roche Bobois, La Chance, Ligne Roset, Designersbox and Maison Matisse

c Thomas Louapre

S T U D I O

A mi chemin entre techniques industrielles et artisanales, Marta Bakowski - Design Studio est un studio pluridisciplinaire spécialisé dans le design d’objets utilitaires et de matériaux.

C’est par le biais de formes élémentaires et graphiques que la designer va jouer des matières et des couleurs, pour laisser une place de choix à la tactilité et aux qualités expressives de ses créations.

Somewhere in between industrial manufacturing and craftsmanship, Marta Bakowski - Design Studio is a multidisciplinary office specialised in product & material design.

It is through elementary and graphical shapes that the designer will play with materials and colours in order to emphasize tactility and bring out the expressive qualities of her creations.

P R O J E T S

HOPI

LA CHANCE (2021) Ottoman Technical knit and marble www.lachance.fr

TRADITION & TECHNOLOGY In Native American culture, Kachina is the spirit of a deity, representing a natural element, an animal or an ancestor.

Kashina dolls originate from the HOPI tribe, the first indigenous people to create them. Given to Hopi children during ceremonies, Kachina dolls were originally designed to educate them and help them learn about spirits. It is these dolls, beautifully crafted, carved in wood and decorated with very graphic polychrome patterns that inspired the silhouette and the textile design of the seat.

Another aspect of the ottoman concerns the choice of textile technique. Designed in 3D technical knitting, initially intended for the manufacture of sneakers, the fabric is made from a digital file, in one go and without seams, with decorative elements in volume with a quilted effect. In the design, each small chevron was considered a pixel, allowing for vibrant pattern combinations that echoed the Hopi aesthetic, often rectilinear, with treatment reminiscent of arcade games. The embroidered details that punctuate the seat, just like its marble base punctuated with engravings, give it a precious appearance.

Research into textile patterns for 3D technical knitting

Search for compositions with a ‘sportswear’ color range

FLAG

LA CHANCE (2021) Tufted wool rug with different wool heights 205 x 330 cm / Custom dimensions www.lachance.fr

FROM SPONTANEOUS RESEARCH TO PRODUCT Flag is a carpet designed as a superposition of colored volumes. It results from a free graphic research, which, through the practice of collage and gouache, experiences the interactions between monochromatic blocks and series of straight lines, generating colored rhythms and a feeling of depth. The drop shadows – a nod to the aesthetics of the 1980s and 1990s – associated with the different heights of the weave reinforce the three-dimensional effect.

Free color research that inspired the work on the ‘Flag’ rug

Composition Research Collage/ Tufted Wool Texture Test Prototype

LA MUSIQUE MAISON MATISSE (2020) Tableware collection (dishes, jug, bottles) Various formats Italian craftsmanship Photo : Alice Cuvelier / Styling: Valerie Weil

«I have worked all my life with the same objects. The object is an actor. A good actor can have a role in ten different plays. An object can play a role in ten different images. » Henri Matisse, 1951

DESIGN AT THE SERVICE OF ART Maison Matisse owes its name and purpose to Henri Matisse.

Created by the fourth generation of the painter’s family, it deploys its universe through objects imagined by emerging or established contemporary designers. The ambition of the House is to celebrate the exceptional heritage of the great painter and to continue to bring to life his unique vision of the world, his audacity and his optimism, through collections inspired by his work.

For the first collection of the permanent edition, we chose to work on the painting «La Musique», painted by Matisse in 1939. It was in his extraordinary work of synthesis that I found an echo of my practice as a designer. . The primary and complementary colors allowed me to play with the geometry present in the canvas, by confronting it with feminine curves and undulations. I wanted to work on a collection with generous dimensions that would allow the decorations to speak. The silhouette of the jug and the bottles is directly inspired by the curves of the female character and the guitar, translated into three dimensions.

Preparatory gouaches, color research, formal drawings

IDE TO PUGLIA, CERAMIC & FOOD ROUTE INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXPEDITIONS (2019-2020) Designer residency/ Ceramics collection (Olive oil bottles, carafes, juicer, centerpiece, cloche) Various formats Bottega Vestita & Fasano Ceramiche

DESIGN IN RELATION TO A PLACE & A CULTURE IDE is a traveling designer residency initiated by designer Mathilde Bretillot. It is a journey that invites to a work of translation and pushes designers and local artisans out of their comfort zone and challenges their methodologies and established creative reflexes. This first edition (IDE to Puglia / Ceramic & Food Route) took place in Puglia in southern Italy. It is the rustic, even archaic character of the region as well as the cuisine of authentic simplicity that inspired the collections imagined by the guest designers. To respond to the notion of primitiveness, of the ‘return to origins’, I drew on the elements of local architecture and the ancestral ceramic techniques found on the archaeological sites of the region.

Photo composition, color research & patterns carried out in situ, based on the landscape and architecture of Puglia during the International Design Expeditions / Ceramic & Food Route residency.

The project requiring direct inspiration from the local culture, its heritage and its environment, the palette naturally evolved towards the silvery green tones of the olive trees, the red of the earth, the whites of the lime and the luminous yellows of the fields of flowers.

The work of rustic motifs made by hand echoes the artisanal and archaeological techniques of the region and the architectural elements of the city of Ostuni.

These palettes constituted a basis for the re-working of the color with the glazes within the local ceramic factories.

‘Toccare le stelle’, bell to ring the meal of the Masseria

Bottles of olive oil and carafes ‘Modenatura’

Bottles of olive oil and carafes ‘Natura’

research for engraved decorations on enamel

Carafe ‘Generosa’

Juicers ‘Trottola-Cupola’

Centre de table, ‘Pagharro’. Inspired by the rustic countryside architectures of Puglia.

RAYS

ROCHE BOBOIS (2015- 2020) Collection of hand-woven lights. Mat in steel with matte epoxy finish, PMMA disc, waxed polyester cord weave L. 70 x H. 181 x D. 13 cm and L. 35 x H. 51 x D. 8 cm Edition Roche Bobois

BETWEEN INDUSTRY & CRAFT

The Rays lamps have been designed as a standing and table lamp version for the Roche Bobois brand. They are now available in 4 versions. From sophisticated gray tones to more pop and graphic tones, passing through an abyssal green and a luminous chartreuse.

The tubular base in matte epoxy steel gives them a mischievous character while allowing them to be composed more freely in space. Although it is an industrial piece, its weaving remains a manual production carried out by a caning specialist in the north of France, making the lamp unique each time.

RAYS COUTURE SELF-PRODUCED (2015 - 2022) Matt and glossy PMMA disk/ Waxed or braided polyester threads/ Solid beech/ E14 silver cap LED bulb/ Brass.

Small 35x35x6.5cm / Large 50x50x6.5cm Self-publishing / Hand-woven Distributed by Galerie Room, Paris 18th & Alibabette, Nantes.

Resulting from preliminary research on weaving and basketry techniques, in particular sun caning, Rays is the result of a reflection on the evocation of light and the capacity of materials and colors to shine according to the environment. ambient.

Elaborated by hand, the weaving of this wall lamp took shape through numerous prototypes worked in daylight, thus allowing a precise choice of colors in order to create a vibrant pointillist optical effect and a subtle mixture of shades by layering of materials.

Interacting graphic lines and fresh and surprising hues resulted in a series of pieces with a radiant appearance, taking on a completely different appearance depending on whether the light is on or off.

The Rays ‘couture’ wall lamps are made in house in limited editions for orders from private individuals and interior designers.

SORCIER

LA CHANCE (2016) Wall lights in perforated and bent aluminum sheet, Satin and/or matte epoxy finish. Polyester cable L 20 cm x H 46.5 cm x Prof. 14cm www.lachance.fr

AN INDUSTRIAL TRANSLATION Inspired by the Ngil ritual masks of the Fang tribe of Gabon, the Sorcier sconces are an industrial translation of a primitive art that in the past influenced many artists such as Picasso, Modigliani or Brancusi.

Made up of two sheets of folded and perforated steel with epoxy finish, this lamp was designed with the aim of simple and inexpensive production. The light is diffused through the perforations of the mask and radiates upwards in a projection that is both soft and graphic. More than a light fixture, Soricer inhabits the room and becomes a sculpture. The wall lamp changes personality according to the declination of colors, textures and openings which differ for each version.

SORCIER , Applique murale La Chance, Paris (2016)

Sorcier dans l’installation de l’exposition Chromascope/ Croquis de recherche/ Photo styling Lelièvre.

HAPPY RAIN Wallpaper (2017)

Descriptif: wallpaper, two-roll printing with metallic effect.

Edition: La Chance, Paris (M&O 2017)

Happy Rain is the first motif in a series designed for the publishing house La Chance.

Inspired by travels, research on the interaction of colors and printed in the Prague region, the patterns in this collection have been drawn by hand, leaving room for imperfect lines, ‘stamp’ prints and shimmering colors, sometimes illuminated with metallic effects. Lighting up the room, these wallpapers bring a graphic touch to interiors while enhancing the objects that accompany them.

Happy Rain colour range

Process and production (Czech Republic)

AGASHO DESIGN FOR PEACE (2016) Calabash container covered with goat leather and nylon thread, brass detail and rosewood ring (vases, baskets) Various formats Craft creations

ENGAGED DESIGN The Agasho collection consisting of vases and large bowls was created during the Design For Peace residency in Ouagadougou; a meeting between young French designers and Tuareg Malian craftsmen, refugees in Burkina Faso. Initiated by the UNHCR and the AfrikaTiss association, this project aims to promote the socio-economic integration of Malian refugee craftsmen in Burkina Faso by promoting their know-how and proposing an innovative and sustainable solution to allow their autonomy. The distribution of this first collaborative collection has made it possible to strengthen production and marketing capacities and the construction of appropriate workplaces.

This series of everyday objects imagined around the theme of Transhumance was inspired by the ancestral use of the calabash.

Present in abundance in various forms, this curious squash, once dried and emptied, serves as a container for locals and nomadic peoples (bowls, spoons, gourds...).

The Agasho collection celebrates the diversity of Tuareg and Burkinabe techniques and know-how by bringing together natural and synthetic materials enhanced by a mixture of geometric and organic shapes. As a tribute to the local decor, the colors are bright and the patterns both graphic and primitive.

Production process and details

MAQUIS

LIGNE ROSET (2017) Tufted wool rug (4 pile heights) 2.16m x 2.86m Edition Ligne Roset

Maquis is a rug with patterns inspired by Burkinabe refreshments. These very popular eating places present on every street corner also fulfill a social function where meetings, debates and exchanges are part of everyday life.

Undeclared and informal, the maquis are dressed in straw huts, sheet metal, welded grilles covered in playful colors, hand-painted slogans... So many elements that give each shed its unique character.

Like a photograph, the Maquis rugs frame these scenes in an almost abstract way, celebrating the superposition of colors and lines that are both naive and graphic in the form of flat areas and patterns highlighted by the technique of tufting.

From the African bar to the Western carpet, the Maquis series evokes a common function, that of meeting in the same space to share a moment of everyday life.

MAQUIS, collages and preparatory research Limited series 2017

MAQUIS , Graphic research

CACHE CACHE / HIDE & SEEK PERI’FABRIQUE #5/ D’DAYS (2017) Hand woven hanging screens / room dividers. Linen, nylon, lurex and rope yarns.

Double chain.

Unique pieces

Cache Cache/ Hide & Seek is the result of a collaboration between designer Marta Bakowski and weaver artist Maité Tanguy. It was designed for the PériFabrique #6 project organized by the D’Days, under the artistic direction of Chantal Granier and with the support of the Ateliers de Paris and Est Ensemble. Together, the creators wanted to work the weaving like a drawing, a landscape made up of geometric shapes in suspension. The result was a composition of three space dividers that look like an echo of the Memphis movement.

Process and production details

View from Salon Révélations at Grand Palais, Paris

HORLOGE 360 DESIGNERBOX #56 (2018) Lacquered Mdf / Steel/ Epoxy L 20 cm x H 46.5 cm x Prof. 14cm designerbox edition

360 is a clock that plays with its frame. Sometimes placed on a chest of drawers or hung on the wall, we install it or hang it in the direction we like. Its frame invites you to place a small object on it, like a nod to Buster Keaton, or simply to let the decor behind it shine through.

DOMESTIC PLAYGROUND Self Initiated (2017) ‘Lucent’ table and stools and ‘Noise’ rug Table = 75 x 90 cm / Stool = 28 x 43 cm / Rug = 1m60 x 1m10 Hand-blown bohemian glass / tempered glass / agglomerated rubber, molded in 2 and 3 dimensions.

Free to edit

ZOOM ON THE PROCESS The materials that surround us fulfill a specific function linked to a defined context through their various properties (mechanical, acoustic, chemical, thermal, environmental, etc.). Although they have not always been considered for their practical function or their comfort, certain materials have gained popularity for their aesthetics, weight or robustness, sometimes being elevated to the rank of ‘noble’ or even ‘precious’ material, as in the case of marble, solid wood or certain metals in our interiors. In this function/context relationship, this project plays with the preconceived idea that we have of a material and raises the question of its status, its position in relation to other materials and its legitimacy in a particular context. . The Domestic Playground collection explores the case of EPDM and SBR (recycled tire), two types of related rubbers, commonly used in the form of agglomerated aggregates for flooring in sports environments and playgrounds or as a surface for ‘insulation.

Through the diversion of production or use techniques, the collection explores the various ways of transposing the material into the domestic environment, exploiting its mechanical qualities in the principles of assembly while highlighting its tactile and expressive qualities in a work of de-contextualization thus elevating it to a more ‘distinguished’ status.

Molded in a cork then married to massive pieces of blown Bohemian glass for a table and a stool, cast in a frame in a graphic and colorful composition for a rug, EPDM rubber sees in this collection its visual and functional language transformed and refined, thus opening up a new field of adaptation possibilities, from public spaces to interior / exterior domestic spaces, Contract or retail.

Research process with EPDM material Formulation/ mixing/ molding/ sampling

Experimental phase in Paris and the Czech Republic

CNCRT-CONTAINERS SELF INITIATED (2014 /2015) Container in cement tinted in the mass (material and colors developed within the studio) Miscellaneous Formats Limited series, hand cast

‘Concrete Containers’ is a first collection born from ongoing research with the primary intention of radically transforming a common construction material: cement. Made in the workshop in cement tinted in the mass, this series with refined and cylindrical shapes evokes industrial landscapes while the colors bring a touch of lightness and a new dimension to the material. The collection is available in three series entitled ‘Chimney’, ‘Obus’, and ‘Table Towers’ whose function is intentionally not defined to leave freedom to the user. Each object can become a vase, a candlestick, an incense holder or simply a sculptural piece in the living space.

Container ‘Obus’ 17x10cm

Containers ‘Chimneys’ 21x10cm

COSMOS CNCRT MARTA BAKOWSKI DESIGN STUDIO (2014/ 2020) High performance decorative concrete, tinted in the mass Tailor-made creations

COLOUR AS A STARTING POINT One of the studio’s signature design approaches is to take color research as a starting point. The COSMOS Concrete collection is the result of continuous research into the impact that color can have on a surface and its ability to radically transform a material, allowing it new applications and a completely different presence in the interior context. .

The palette is made up of red, blue, dark and bright hues, all broken up by the gray or white of the cement base, which gives them a desaturated and pastel look. A constellation of bursts of color enhance each dominant hue with lively and expressive colors, giving surfaces a graphic and textured appearance.

Just like conventional concrete, the material can be cast on the surface or molded to the desired shape and applied indoors or outdoors.

Since its development, Cosmos Concrete has been used for custom-made projects in the context of interior projects and furniture production.

Cosmos Concrete Blue palette

Cosmos concrete multicolored

ESPACE ENFANT LE BON MARCHE RIVE GAUCHE (2018-2019) Furniture insert plates, pedestals, bases for clothes racks made of high-performance decorative concrete ‘Cosmos Concrete’.

Miscellaneous Formats Order / Custom made.

The studio was approached by the department store LE BON MARCHé RIVE GAUCHE for the design and production of all the plates intended to dress the furniture in the children’s area, as well as the drawer units in the shoe area and the rack bases.

The studio has imagined two color variants of Cosmos Concrete, corresponding to the graphic and color charter of the design of the children’s and baby spaces. All the elements were made by hand in our workshops.

Cosmos Concrete, made to measure for the Bon Marché Rive Gauche Children’s area. Production of plates for furniture, boxes and bases for racks

PI

SELF INITIATED (2015) Side table in ‘Cosmos’ material, agglomerated tinted concrete developed within Marta Bakowski Design studio.

40x50x16cm Unique pieces / free to edit

PI borrows the rustic language of frames and basic country furniture, while having the robustness and weight of marble.

This small side table is made of ‘Cosmos’ concrete, a tinted material developed in the studio, cast in the form of boards, delivered in ‘flatpack’, which are then assembled by fitting.

The palette is the result of extensive research around this construction material which here goes beyond its architectural application to become furniture and acquires a graphic quality and a combination of subtle hues, reminiscent of granite or Italian Terazzos...

PI prototype

MOTIFS RESEARCH Patterns for textile and wall coverings Vector or hand drawn, then reworked numerically.

Starting from the principle that the object is inseparable from its environment, it was quite natural to also focus on surface work, in particular the design of patterns intended for wallpapers and textile clothing.

The graphic research borrows the same inspirations as for my objects; a nod to Folk Arts, Primary Arts or painting...

Wallpeper pattern research

COLOR NATURALIS COLOR RESEARCH (2013) EXPERIMENTING Color Naturalis explores the possibilities of artisanal vegetable dyeing on wood through a series of experiments on veneer wood, intended for marquetry.

This simple research project gave birth to an installation presenting color research and the marquetry they inspired, during the Lodz Design Week in Poland (2013).

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PORTRAIT & IMAGES PAR JUSTINE DELPY & KIM FRANJOU http://jake-studio.tumblr.com

It was during the Off/Paris Design Week last September that we discovered Marta Bakowski. Designer of Polish origin, always with her head in her suitcases, she designs unique objects with strong emotional value, delicate and vibrant, placing matter and color at the heart of her creations. She received us in her Paris studio before the London Design Festival where she was exhibiting at the Mint boutique-gallery.

Child of the ball, Marta has always bathed in Art. As a teenager, she admired Alexander McQueen and imagined herself as a stylist, but it was ultimately in design that she developed her sense of volume during her studies between Paris and London. After graduating from Central Saint Martins, she moved to Berlin where she then worked with Hella Jongerius. At his side, she refines her style, navigating between industry and the production of unique objects. Anxious to preserve the emotional factor of her creations, she is driven by a need to apprehend the materiality of her designs herself — “With all these new technologies, we feel the growing need to return to natural materials and essential shapes”. The London frenzy has given way to a relaxed Berlin lifestyle more conducive to the development of his creativity. Back in France, she moved into residence at the Ateliers de Paris. Oscillating between art and design, Marta cultivates a hybrid production detaching itself from the traditional rules of creation, in a desire to free itself from a compartmentalization and a classification of trades still omnipresent. “I start from a form or a material to which I attribute a function. I like to shape my own raw material”. She diverts sometimes ancestral artisanal techniques, which she modernizes and decontextualizes by bringing in an unexpected color or material – as proof, the Rays lighting project was born from a search for weaving initially intended for carpets. In this series which combines radiant graphic lines with a palette where soft and pop colors confront each other, each piece is created by hand.

Marta’s creations are in her image, generous, lively, tactile, colorful.

When she confides to us her love for the kinetic and playful works of Calder and Tinguely, the parallel is established spontaneously. A collector of heterogeneous objects, Marta draws her inspiration from the cabinet of curiosities that she builds over the course of her discoveries: «I am a great collector: I have a real aesthetic fascination for the insects that I photograph compulsively, and for the Primitive Arts.

My favorite object is an African Ngil mask from Gabon”. To talk to Marta is to discover a bubbling and lively personality, which is reflected both in her musical obsession for the moment for Kuduro and in her love of working-class and chaotic neighborhoods - she playfully recalls her life in Brick Lane in 2006, of which she compares the authenticity of the scenes of life to the sincere and comical situations of the films of Jim Jarmusch, like «Blue in the face» with Harvey Keitel and Madonna.

She invites us to discover the works of her childhood friend Mara Fortunatovic, the sculptures of Rachel Whiteread, and the creations of designer Jean-Baptiste Fastrez, amazed by her Scarabée vase. Marta concludes our discussion with a final word: “Fabulous! «.

© Jake Studio, jake-studio.fr

www.martabakowski.com