Moments Within Materiality – Works by Dutch Designer Sabine Marcelis

Excuse me if I sound like a bit of a romantic, but I really enjoy the idea of us humans having a connection with an object. Some start off as a blank canvas, letting us attach our own memories, others already have a sense of history or aura around them. Others are purely functional but still have to resonate with us in some sort of way, whether that’s backing up an ideology, or a sense of style that drew us toward it. I like all facets of design and admire the different reasonings behind our choices, but these are small expressions within the material itself.

Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis would class these as “magical moments within materiality”, and I think she’s hit the nail on the head. Industrial designers have a particularly hard job at conveying this, a craftsman for example can use his own individuality in the making process to achieve this aura, but industrial designers have to work within the constraints of machinery. Sabine has used the manufacturing process as a starting point to create an unexpected experience, one that a person wouldn’t of imagined otherwise.

A few series that she’s designed stuck out, but one in particular was “Seeing Glass”, a collection of glass objects which are based on the study of optical effects. I like how she’s tried to get creative with glass as a material, trying to use it to create new possibilities, mainly colour and layering, but also playing with ones visual perception. Overall I recommend a browse through her portfolio, there’s a nice selection on offer for you to view.

sabinemarcelis.com

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