25 Jan Story Driven Design with Stoft Studio
Stoft Studio is a Swedish based industrial design studio dedicated to the fascination of how materials fit together and flow. We are captivated by the way they configure material, adding movement in each piece to tell its own story. We spoke with the Stoft team to discover more about the styles and processes of their award winning works.
How would you describe the Stoft Studio aesthetic?
Our aesthetic is really an extension of the story we want to communicate with our projects, and so draws its appearance and shape from what inspires us. That could be a traditional craft, a material or an old children’s tale. We do believe in the function of the product as well, so the result is usually a blend of the poetic and the functional.
You mentioned that Stoft is a Swedish word for “millions of small particles, constantly moving and re-arranging into new and surprising constellations.” How do you create works that reflect this idea?
Our motivation really comes from challenging what is known, and create something that is both traditional and new. Our process really comes down to putting fragments of inspiration into a whole, and creating a narrative from that which guides us through the project. We believe that there’s a lot of knowledge out there that can be harnessed and used to create something that is a nod to what came before as well as something that hasn’t been seen before.
How do you keep your work innovative and unique? What type of research goes into your designs?
Our work always starts with something that inspires us and that we want to express in our product. It’s almost becomes like a script, a storyline that we keep as the core of the project. A lot of the time we don’t know what the outcome of the project will be, we let the story set the perimeter and lead us to the end result.
What is your favorite Stoft Studio piece? Which are you most proud of?
I think we all have different favorites, something that resonates more with who you are. The first project we did together as Stoft is “Mechanical Thoughts” does have a special place for us though, as it brought us all together.
What is your studio space like? Does this influence your process?
Our studio works both as our office, showroom and our workshop, and as such it’s great. We were lucky to find a place where we have room to experiment as well as getting peace and quiet when that’s needed (and it is!). For us it’s important to be able to try out new ideas both physically and digitally, so you need a place where you can do both. It’s not necessarily the place where our projects start or finish, but it is the core of what we do.
What’s next?
Our next big event will be showing new work at Salone Del Satellite, during the Milan Design Week in April this year, so the start of 2018 will be an exciting (and busy) period for us.
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