A Physical Representation of Things – Objects by French Designer Ferreol Babin

Ferreol Babin is a French designer who was born in Dijon, France but travelled a fair bit whilst pursuing his interest in design. First he graduated in Space Design, later moving to Japan where he studied Art & Design but decided architecture and spaces were not the right scale for him to fully express himself, thus moving to focus solely on the design of objects.

I’ve enjoyed scanning through his portfolio, one of the most prominent reasons is his ability to use shapes and forms found in nature and give them some kind of function. Now, you may think some of these are gimmicky, but I always think about Alvar Aalto and his famous glass design for Iittala. This design by Alvar Aalto was inspired by the Finnish lakes, so he tried to depict it using a wavy design that later became very iconic.

This playful nature is quite rare to see amongst Industrial Designers, it’s almost as if this experimentation and creativeness is taught out of them, it’s a real shame. That’s why I think crafts are so important as you are able to work with the materials at hand and manipulate them quickly and easily. I think Ferreol is on a similar wavelength to that of Alvar Aalto and I can’t wait to see what else he comes up with in the future. Here are a few designs for Pulpo but more can be found on his portfolio linked below. Enjoy.

ferreolbabin.fr

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