We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Fater Saadat Niaki ("FSN").
While it is often quoted "Design is intelligence made visible..."(Alina Wheeler), I think real intelligence is to make design accessible to all senses in a way that makes our differences understood as intelligible nuances that are subject to changes of perspectives. I set out my journey in the design world on a mission to help people understand each other and their environment better. I think this is what the world needs now: more empathy and less egocentric consumption... and Yes! I am an idealist that takes pride in being one! I think if we do not picture our ideals and not talk about them in fear of name-calling, we would be reduced to clueless beings who ultimately would live a regrettable mediocre life. Therefore, I have manifested my vision in serving the less fortunate people in my community by designing goods that would empower their otherwise unrecognized skills and crafts.
Fater Saadat Niaki Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Fater Saadat Niaki.
Fater Saadat Niaki Design - Khayyam Lounge Chair
Designer Interview of Fater Saadat Niaki:
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?
FSN : I got my Bachelor of Arts in industrial Design program of the Fine Arts school of the University of Tehran and did my Master's degree in Integrated Product Design at Delft University of Technology. I remember my love affair with Design started at a rather young age, when I was 8 or 9 when I came across a magazine article about the famous coach builder and car design studio ItalDesign studio.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
FSN : I founded Behman Design in 2013 after returning back from a nearly seven year stay and working in Europe (mostly in the Netherlands). I always was fascinated with flat-pack furniture, for as expected in a student life, I had to deal with a great deal of assembling IKEA furniture. I always contemplated and imagined how the same principles of Flat-pack designs can incorporate ethnic vibes and reflect the cultural ques of each and every locality. Behman studio is founded with such mission in mind; incorporating local arts and crafts into modern practice of designing flat-pack furniture without compromising on the aesthetic values of either party and creating a seamlessly balanced piece of design that narrates a cohesive story of tradition and technology.
DI: What is "design" for you?
FSN : Design for me is: "re-imagining the possibilities of our physical and virtual world in the wake of ever-changing needs and aspirations"
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
FSN : currently I'm more or less entire focused on residential furniture as it is the area of focus for our design and production studio.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
FSN : Khayyam lounge chair was my first effort in juxtaposing a traditional craft with modern fabrication methods for a chair. I enjoyed the process of experimenting and learning about the weight bearing properties of typical Persian Rugs coming from different corners of my country, learning their weaving techniques and differentiating those that suits my designated application for having a suspended seating structure that is entirely dependent on the strength of the warps and weft of the rug and its attachment to the frame.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
FSN : It all started with a humble beginning: sanitary equipment for public restrooms (washing hose stowage unit and in-wall-mounted Anti-theft electric hand dryer)
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
FSN : I tend to adhere to the very basic practice of ideation on pen/pencil and A3 paper as the anchor for laying down the invisible imaginations. but I certainly see CAD as the only gateway to realize and materialize the design in 3D. I am still fascinated even after 20 plus years for how much CAD/CAM and RP changed our way of thinking and and facilitated designers' visions to become reality.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
FSN : I meditate as a common spiritual practice right before sleeping. Sleeping becomes the gateway to visions and inspirations. So yes! Sleeping is my creative time!
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
FSN : I tend to focus on human side of the product-human /object-human. I try to decipher the tacit needs and aspirations that couldn't be otherwise articulated in any interview but could be elicited through understanding emotions and feelings.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
FSN : Design and designer should be able to empathize with the final user and empathy is a very important asset in each designer's character. We need to walk in the shoes of our product user and feel how they feel. I'd like to put my endeavor in creating excitement and curiosity on first encounter for the first interaction and then give the user the comfort and engagement in a dynamic and intriguing way. I therefore might end-up designing a chair that might not "look" comfortable! but will surprise you for how comfortable it actually is when you sit on it!
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
FSN : obviously, other than pride and sense of achievement, I am excited and curious to see what sort of feelings and emotions would others have in the first encounter!
DI: What makes a design successful?
FSN : Long term engagement is the key to the success of each design! either by rising curiosity, or by enduring qualities such as memorable tactile feel, durable aesthetics and/or engaging interactions, designers are to opt for elongating the attention span and duration of engagement and spreading it on the life-time of product, rather than focusing on the first encounter charm!
DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
FSN : I consider each design as a narrative that the designer have chosen to share with us. So the story that it tells is the first thing that I consider, then the quality of expression and the execution.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
FSN : Designers are more than ever guiding the taste and behavior of their respective society. In the world that the fall-outs of consumer culture is reeking havoc on our environment and the planet's fragile ecosystem, the once glorified task of designer as making a product more appealing in the first encounter almost becomes a crime! Therefore, I see the most important responsibility of designers to think about the consequence of overburdening the resources and come up with durable designs that ideally have no plastics and no energy intensive production methods! I would think of reusable materials and up-cycling the waste. I Also would think of enduring aesthetics to name but a few...
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
FSN : I certainly think that AI is going to play a major role in any design effort. A lot of tasks such as making mood boards, developing user personas and even generating ideas are already done using AI. I personally don't see this as a threat, but rather as an opportunity of work more efficiently and focus on the creative core of the design effort.
DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
FSN : My last exhibition was on the premises of Polish embassy in Tehran on a project that commemorated Iranian-Polish relations on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the landing of polish refugees during the world war II.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
FSN : The primary inspiration in my designs is the local vernacular architecture and Iran's rich handcrafts and arts.
DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
FSN : I consider my design a hybrid between Boho style and Mid Century modern albeit using my locality as the source for vernacular motifs and its crafts for visual clues.
DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
FSN : I live in Tehran and Absolutely yes! I am an avid advocate of my country's rich and old cultural heritage and my designs clearly reflect such predicament.
DI: How do you work with companies?
FSN : we have sale representatives in Tehran and Isfahan, We sell our pieces in E-Market place websites both locally and very soon internationally, and we also cooperate with interior designers and architects willing to use our furniture pieces in their projects.
DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
FSN : I would suggest doing a pilot project in addition to a portfolio based selection.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
FSN : There would be two types of projects, if we have a client that commissions us to designs a bespoke piece we usually get a list of requirements. But there are cases that we see a market demand that we start designing without having an external client. In such cases we develop the list of requirements from our own observations and visualize them by making a mood-board/clientele persona. Next phase would be idea generation, when we usually use different media such as A3 dry and wet media, e-paper and tablets, to note down the general shape and visual attributes.
DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
FSN : I have many of my own designed pieces decorating my home which are my favorite pieces (a bit ego-centric it seems but if I ain't like my own designs why should expect others liking it!?) Hafez armchair, Sarv Rocking chair, Saba barstool and Band OShagh queen bed is my own favorite designs but I also have a lovely Poang rocking chair by Noboru Nakamura and made by IKEA (a very early 1990 example!) that was very inspirational for me in designing my latest design of rocking chair called Heach with similar elastic principle albeit with a totally different shape. I also love my Thonet No. 14 chair and Thonet No. Thonet 21 Art-Neuvou rocking chair (who doesn't!?), I also love the Opposed Sliding chest of drawers by Keiji Ashizawa (a piece that I asked politely to have a go on building one for my self from the designer).
DI: Can you describe a day in your life?
FSN : I'm a night owl and tend to work till 1:30 even 2:00 Am on our online content and answering to queries of my oversees customers. Therefore, I usually start later than usual in the morning (10:00) and on a typical crowded day will have to do an hour drive to my workshop (in the outskirts of south-eastern Tehran in an industrial zone) and look over the sensitive new designs fabrication method and engage in putting the first one by myself to get the feel of how smooth (or troublesome) it is. then do the final adjustments on sight and bundle up the last correct and trouble free files for machine shop and design, develop and give written and pictured instructions to craftsmen teammates for production.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
FSN : Design is a hands-on job that requires learning the crafts that it involves for making the pieces! So don't glue yourself to computer screens and CAD interface, but get up and get involved in making parts by yourself, be it removing the support structures of a 3D printed parts (known for minimal labor involved beyond the design itself) and put it together to learn your mistakes better!
DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
FSN : Positives is the whole experience of the core of the activity: designing something new with all the thrills and excitements that it entails... negative is very much whatever side-line activities that distract you from this creative core but are essential to survive a design entity: like haggling with suppliers and all the sales effort that if left unattended will make you go broke!
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
FSN : never think that your first iteration as the best result of your creative process!
DI: What skills are most important for a designer?
FSN : communication! the most important skill for a designer is to learn all the means and methods of communicating its ideas with peers as well as other stakeholders.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
FSN : Good old pen and A3 paper is where the magic starts! Yeah heard it right! call me old school and grandpa but I still trust my pen and yellowed recycled paper more than any E-gadgets that emulate that! but
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
FSN : depending on whether being commissioned to do a design and fabrication job for a client or just an internal project that we deem market needs, the nature of design jobs are fundamentally different. For the client case, the design brief is usually very clear and without much frill or dare I say, room for creativity! But there is an extra time restraint that makes on-time delivery of utmost importance. The simplest trick is to negotiate ample allocation of time and consider all contingencies such as supplier induced delays, power outage and what not, and put the deadline reasonably further away. Even then that rarely goes beyond 4 weeks mark for our typical design jobs. For our internal project, we usually take 2~3 months to complete a new design for a piece but there were cases that we were honing the final product well after the initial launch for even 2 years!
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
FSN : typically 2~3 months but we had cases that took awfully longer because of the novelty and the challenging choice of material!
DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
FSN : unfortunately, "how much does it cost!?" (I'm sure you expected something more inspiring, but that's the way it is!)
DI: What was your most important job experience?
FSN : my most important job experience was designing the drop damage proof packaging for a very delicate piece that was to be taken to literally other side of the globe and it was an antique wase from Persian Sassanid empire (Pre-Islamic Dynasty)
DI: Who are some of your clients?
FSN : I cannot disclose most of them... but honorable embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tehran for the residential quarter and Residential quarter of the Embassy of the kingdom of Norway are amongst those that I have privilege to disclose their identity.
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
FSN : Those that involves juxtaposing old and forgotten craft with modern technology and creating something that can generate income for marginalized communities.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
FSN : I'm trying very hard to expand business to overseas and grow out of confinements of our border! for this cause I'm thinking of opening a new virtual presence office in somewhere like Canada.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
FSN : we are a small team of 3~4 designers albeit I'm the senior designer and usually in charge of the outcome.
DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
FSN : we recently turned our attention to compliant structures and their potential application in furniture and home decor design. Structures that are monolithic in nature but due to intricate geometrical shapes and the material properties of 3D printed shapes could be re-animated for variety of mechanisms once a certain load is introduced in it.
DI: How can people contact you?
FSN : My email : fatersaadat@gmail.com My Instagram handle: @behmandesign My website: www.behmandesign.com My cellphone (WhatsApp & Telegram available: +98(0)912 219 6130
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
FSN : I think questions were quite thorough and complete! thank you for having me!