We interviewed Daniel Figueroa, who designed the new Yoyo chair family for OMP.
Q. What is the source of inspiration for your work?
A. I’m a very curious person, always in search of new materials and innovative technical procedures. I love experimenting, so I discover many aspects and details which I then transform into products, but this is only the purely technical aspect of my work as a designer during the construction of a project. What’s even more important for me is the motivation behind the design of something new, because I believe that anything new should be better than what already exists, in terms of both utilization and its relationship with the resources used.
Q. Working for different sectors like residential/private and the office/conference sector means expressing different creativity and research: tell us about your approach to these 2 worlds.
A. In reality the method is the same, because you have to be very pragmatic when facing a problem you want to deal with and solve. Personally I like to begin every project by analysing what exists already and looking for the weak points in creative, functional and/or production terms. Then we decide whether we can improve on these aspects and whether it’s possible to develop a new concept.
Q. How did the Yoyo chair project for OMP come about and develop?
A. YOYO CHAIR is an essential concept, developed for a family of chairs with a wide range of uses. I wanted to find a shape that was stable but using less material, and at the same time fairly flexible to offer a good level of comfort.
The result is a type of ‘single piece’, where seat, backrest and armrests are all in one, with lines that are both rounded and stable. OMP was also looking for an idea of this kind and after lengthy discussions with Marco Ceccato, the first ideas were developed.
Q. What are the most important values you express in your work as a designer?
A. Honesty. We develop honest products which clearly show their purpose, their function and the way in which we try to use limited resources. I believe that products like this have a meaning of their own, which obviously doesn’t prevent us from designing products that are always beautiful.