RADAR / BEHIND THE BRAND
FORM + VISION
ROCHE BOBOIS’ CREATIVE DIRECTOR HAS INVIGORATED THE VENERABLE BRAND WITH A SERIES OF DYNAMIC COLLABORATIONS, TURNING IT INTO A GLOBAL FORCE WITH A DISTINCTLY FRENCH TWIST.
To hear Nicolas Roche tell it, studying Carolingian structures and 14th-century Gothic sculpture—a nod to his days as a student preparing for a career in architecture—and serving as Roche Bobois’ creative director share some remarkable similarities. “It’s all related to volumes,” he reports. “Learning about them helps in dealing with forms and shapes, which I still do.” After practicing architecture for some 20 years, Roche assumed his role at the family business in 2005, bringing along his feeling for form, and guiding the stylish French brand through a series of compelling collaborations with a range of designers, beginning with Christophe Delcourt and the late Cédric Ragot (“He really moved us in the direction of innovative product,” notes Roche) and continuing with the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier and Missoni Home. Roche’s designer collaborations tend to grow organically. Beyond the landmark collections with notable names that happen every few years, there are also frequent collaborations with established and new faces. To identify those talents, Roche often visits fairs and looks through plenty of print sources. And, in the last few years, another source has proved to be a wellspring of talent. “The Internet allows me to spontaneously connect with designers,” he says, via sites focusing on architecture, contemporary art and style. Regardless of how he hits on a future collaborator, “I’m
interested in an original point of view, a surprising and different approach,” he explains. “More than a finished product, I look for the possibility of a project, the promise of a creative process.” Each collaboration is truly that, with Roche serving as part of a powerful form-perfecting trifecta: the core group of which involves him and the company’s in-house productdevelopment teams, the designer and the prototype manufacturer working with a backand-forth exchange. One recent collaboration— with Stephen Burks—grew out of a meeting in a Paris café and led last year to the Traveler collection’s American and European armchairs. This year’s iteration of the Traveler looks to Asia, with a complete outdoor collection marked by tubular steel structures wrapped with colorful cord. “It’s a traveling collection for a traveling designer,” Roche notes. While the firm’s pieces range from the cushy, aptly named Bubble seating, curved Iride tables and sculptural Waterline stools (all shown above) to the brightly colored Chroma lamp (right), Roche sees a common thread running throughout. “What makes it Roche Bobois is that the furnishings are striking in terms of image, strong shapes and graphic lines but are also good to live with,” he says. “We like our products to be friendly, and we do things that are rather rounded so you want to put your hands on them.”
PHOTOS: COURTESY ROCHE BOBOIS.
WRITTEN BY LISA BINGHAM DEWART PRODUCED BY BRIELLE M. FERREIRA