Interview

GRCIC: I think the biggest change is how much broader the spectrum of work I’m doing is than what I originally thought was done by a designer. For me, design was a very clear profession, where, as a designer, you design products. That means you build them, you construct them, you give them form. And that would have been nice. It’s still part of what designers do, and it’s a part that I definitely enjoy, but what designers do today has really become much broader.We are involved in many more aspects andlayers of what it means to actually design a product and bring design ideas into realization. We are confronted with an industrial culture, and with strategies and knowledge about technologies and materials, and even psychology andergonomics and human relationships. It really is so much broader, and I think it should havealways been. That’s the beautiful thing aboutdesign, that it really is not just a skill—it’s anattitude of how you approach things. Even our use of the word design has become so much broader. We talk about design in relation to politics—you know, designing a strategy for getting out of the financial crisis, and so on. I quite like that, actually, because it’s exactly what design is. It’s an intellectual process. It’s very analytical. It has a logic of trying to identify a scenario and then creating a scenario that makes situations better, or simpler.

COGGINS: Right.

GRCIC: And, in the end, it’s not so different to design a toothbrush or a timetable for trains.

COGGINS: And what about the increasing reliance on computers?

GRCIC: The computer has totally changed our work, because now we have a tool that enables us to do things that we were not able to do before. And it’s beautiful, because it really is a very skillful tool—a magic tool. For me, the big problem with computers is that we are taking on many more responsibilities. In the old days, there was the designer and the technical office inside a company of engineers. Now, because we have computers that have engineering programs, we’re expected to do the design and the engineering, all at the same time. That’s something I find really dangerous because, in the end, I’m not an engineer, and I much prefer working with an engineer. My work has an interest in engineering—I like understanding materials and how things work—but I’d feel much better collaborating with an engineer, sharing his or her know-how with us.

COGGINS: You’ve designed so many things—sake labels, light switches, chairs, espresso makers. What are you looking forward to doing in the future? Is there anything that you have always wanted to design, like Bayern Munich jerseys, or the interior of a BMW?

GRCIC: [laughs] What I’ve always wanted to do is design a bicycle. For me, it’s a dream project. A bicycle combines beautiful engineering and an idea of design that’s very close to how it’s actually built. It’s a fascinating object. It’s the best form of mobility. It’s an old idea but it is still so modern and appropriate for our life today. That said, if a company came and asked me to design a bicycle, maybe I’d be disappointed because I’ve been dreaming about it for so long. And maybe at the same time, something else comes up that I’ve never thought about. Right now, we just started to work for Adidas . . .

COGGINS: Really?

GRCIC: Yes, designing sports shoes, and I’d never thought about that. I’m fascinated by this whole world of sports equipment, and now, here we are. It’s these things that you never think about, and they come up out of the blue, and suddenly they are the real dream projects.

David Coggins is an artist and writer who lives in New York.