I recently acquired an item designed by Tord Boontje and I will admit the item's design was probably the single biggest argument when making the decision to buy it. Being so impressed I decided to snoop around for other work by this artist, and I found a beautiful world of mystery and emotion.
Tord Boontje was born in enschede, netherlands in 1968. He studied industrial design at the academy in Eindhoven and followed with a master course at the royal college of art, in London. In 1996 he founded Studio Tord Boontje, where he still practices his philosophy of bringing together the emotional and the functional.
Speaking about his style the artist says that "it is layered. The layers shift, sometimes its really pretty and uplifting, sometimes its more dark and scary like a scary story, like an Alfred Hitchcock film! Sometimes its very floral and sometimes its much cooler and reduced and abstract."
Besides his layered style, the artist also uses mosaic patterns, which he says remind him of digital pixelated images, which we use every day to capture moments from our lives.
“A pattern of sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees can remind you of a nice summer day, a picnic in the park or daydreaming in the back of a car and watching the landscape going by.
These patterns become personalised memories for each viewer, we all share these memories."
There is, of course, much more to Tord Boontje, so don't hesitate to check out Studio Tord Boontje's website: http://www.tordboontje.com/
Oh, and I almost forgot ... here's the little bugger that started it all for me:
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