We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Marek Blazucki ("MB").
Marek Błażucki - furniture and interior designer, professor at the Faculty of Interior Design at the Jan Matejko Academy Of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, where he teaches students by implementing his own didactic program in his Furniture Design Studio. Owner of the B&B Design studio. Co-founder of the proprietary furniture brand Bozzetti
Marek Blazucki Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Marek Blazucki.
Marek Blazucki Design - Kalky Ragged Pendant lamp
Marek Blazucki Design - Diag Desk
Designer Interview of Marek Blazucki:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
MB : I think that being designer was always on my mind. The environment in which I grew up was probably important here - I had artists, although they did not deal with design - in my family. I was also guided by my predispositions that I showed at school - from artistic to technical. When I decided to study at the interior design faculty at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, it became official. Obviously, graduating from studies does not make you a designer, so while I was studying and right after I started working on my first interior and furniture designs. At the same time, I started teaching in the studies that I had just finished. It continues today.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
MB : B&B Design - my Author’s design studio, offers its clients a wide range of design services, mainly interior design and interior design elements, but also graphic design. Interior designs include both residential and public spaces. These are projects prepared for individual orders and also include individually developed furniture for the needs of the designed interiors. Recently, a separate activity is own furniture brand Bozzetti, entirely created on the basis of our own ideas. I mean both: the development of the product offer and the brand image itself.
DI: What is "design" for you?
MB : In general, I can risk a statement that design is everything that surrounds us and what has been made by a human being. I am omitting in this sentence its quality, of course. Design is primarily about making decisions - how to implement functional assumptions, what shapes should have designed objects, what materials and what technology to use - these are the basic questions. Then comes 1000 detailed ones. It is a kind of talk - you have to ask the right questions to yourself an then find the right answers for them.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
MB : I like variety of topics. Diversity is an excuse to constantly develop my skills, it is something that provokes me to practice mental gymnastics, something that stimulates my creativity and something that keeps me from getting bored. That is why I am satisfied with both designing a large hotel and a small apartment with a cleverly solved function. Sometimes this small apartment can be more difficult and satisfying.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
MB : I understand that the question is about my project? There are many of them, but at the moment it is probably Diag's desk, as a project that gives me great joy due to the awards it receives all over the world. It has been appreciated in the USA, Canada, Germany, Slovenia and, of course, in Italy. Good Design, Iconic Award - Innovative Interiors, German Innovation Award, Grands Prix du Design, (silver), Big See and others. And of course A'Design - bronze this year. It is a simple structure, the design of which gave me a lot of fun. It seems to me that I managed to obtain a light form with an unusual solution of accessories allowing for the storage of various types of utensils.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
MB : Each material has something interesting, specific properties, colour, graphics, texture. The question is how will we use them, how will we combine them into a coherent whole. I do not set myself any limitations here, I rather try to choose the material that meets my expectations the best than the other way around.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
MB : There is no rule ... I like the moment when my own idea intrigues me and provokes me to further search for the best solution. When I can say to myself, "this is it", I have to develop that thought. From then on, work is pure pleasure.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
MB : Design is such a multifaceted field that it is difficult to ignore something if you want to get a good effect. I can't tell myself that for me only form matters but function is less important, or that functionality is more important than structural strength. The point is to find a balance between all the elements of a good design. Treating any of them briefly will not bring the end result of the right quality.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
MB : I think this is exciting. I find it fascinating when the thought process first materializes on paper (or virtual space - I prefer paper), and then it is realized on a 1: 1 scale. It is a source of joy, especially when it turns out that all the design decisions made were right.
DI: What makes a design successful?
MB : A project is successful when it works well. I've always been jealous of musicians and filmmakers because they can evoke real emotions with their works - until I realized that designers can too. Of course, it is much more difficult, but it is possible. But we can judge the true success of design years later - if emotions are still alive, solutions are still fresh, form is timeless. This means that we design something that is trend-proof - and by the way, trends aren't good. The trends are seasonal, and I don't think that's good for design.
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
MB : I think I answered that before.
DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
MB : It's just positive to be a designer :). Negative - You can't turn off your thinking. Eating, walking, driving and thinking at the same time - You never know when you will find a solution to a problem you are working on - it's because your brain is working all the time. The fact that it's negative is such a joke.