This documentation of the MYTO project shows the process of its creation in a time lapse of photos, drawings, computer diagrams, interviews. The project is told as a story in three chapters relating to the three partners BASF, KGID and PLANK. Cologne based art director Mike Meiré was designed the concept and layout of this 80 page publication. The Dutch artist Viviane Sassen was commissioned for the opening sequence of photos.

Art direction: Mike Meiré
Text editor: Petra Schmidt
Production: Meiré und Meiré
Photography: Viviane Sassen and KGID.

In late summer 2006, BASF commissioned me to design an application/product using the BASF material Ultradur® High Speed. Its complementary characteristics led to the idea of developing MYTO, a cantilever chair conceived as monoblock plastic injection moulding. The design was significantly influenced by the material. Chemically speaking, this material belongs to the family of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). Its high flowability, coupled with the strength of this plastic, allows an elegant transition from thick to thin cross sections. The construction of the chair is based on a supporting frame which disolves seamlessly into the net-like perforations of the seat and backrest.

MYTO was presented for the first time on the BASF stand at K 2007, the world's biggest trade fair for the plastics industry. The fair took place from 24th of October until 31st of October in Duesseldorf, Germany. The official market launch of the chair will take place at the Milan furniture fair 2008 (16.-21.April 2008).

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Commissioned by: BASF
Producer: Plank

LUNAR provides a lighting solution for big architectural spaces, inspired by stage lighting. The concept is based on a tubular space frame which acts as a rig for different lighting elements. Different light sources (neon, halogen, hqi, etc.) create different lighting scenarios.The product was launched at the Light & Building fair in Frankfurt from April 6th-11th. LUNAR was also shown at the FLOS showroom during the Salone del Mobile (16th-21st of April).

Project assistant: Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Producer: Flos spa

In late 2006 ABSOLUT Vodka commissioned me to design a series of glasses to be used by professional bar tenders.
Thinking about ABSOLUT it is inevitable that the iconic bottle (designed by Carlsson & Broman in1979) comes to mind; it’s so simple but still cannot be mistaken for anything else. This is what I wanted to transfer to the glasses, without trying to compete with the bottle. The feeling of both simplicity and distinctiveness. When you hold the glass in your hand, see it in the bar or drink from it, it gives a feeling of natural elegance.
The result is a glass series that is modern yet timeless, in which the ABSOLUT logo is discreetly embossed in the bottom of the glass without being invisible or unclear. We took great care to balance volume and weight into a perfect form.
The ABSOLUT GRCIC series consists of four types of glasses. With the exception of the cocktail glass, all come in two sizes: Long drink glass, 20 & 33 cl, Rocks glass, 20 & 33 cl, Cocktail glass with a stem, 16 cl, Shot glass, 3 & 6 cl.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Commissioned by: Absolut in collaboration with Family Business
Producer: Rastal

Serafino Zani (founded in 1963) is a family business located in the small town of Lumezzane (northern Italy). In 2006 we started to work on a three year programm developing kitchen products and utensils made in steel. The first results of our collaboraton were launched on the market in 2007 and early 2008.

Project assistants: Pauline Deltour (KGID) and Jan Heinzelmann (KGID)
Producer: Serafino Zani

LANDEN is a large freestanding structure which defines a place to sit/stay outdoors - in public. While rejecting the inappropriate patterns of domestic furniture it proposes a structure more accurately modelled on the context of its destination: the city environment. The main structure is made from heavy gauge steel profiles and metal grillage - all coated in plack paint. Its physical presence and strong visual reference engages the public in an immanent experience of urban reality. LANDEN is a meeting hub, a retreat/shelter ... an anchor point.

Users of LANDEN climb two steps onto an octagonal platform which is elevated 60cm off the ground. The platform is paved with industrial rubber matting to provide a resistant but comforatble surface for sitting. A large circular cut-out in the middle of the platform allows for open legroom onto a lower supended platform. Four outward leaning metal shields form a protective fencing/enclosure around the seating area.

Project assistant: Sami Ayadi (KGID)
Prototype execution: Ludwig Michl GmbH
Produced by: Vitra Edition

The work MARMARA was made as a limited edition for the exhibition BLOCK, curated by Murat Patavi of HAAZ Gallery in Istanbul.
Working with marble for the first time I was intrigued by the possibilities of carving a form out of a solid ... which complies to the most ancient idea of 'sculpture'. Normally I work quite in reverse - constructing/building a three dimensional form up from elements. Also I liked the fact that marble is 'heavy'. Again, I normally work towards making things light and mobile. This time the weight became an integral part of the design.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID)
Execution: IMIB, Turkey

Somewhere between a curiosity cabinet and a multimedia treasure room the SPACE/-1 project is a suspended glass capsule housing the physical and digital collection of the museum´s (MUDAM) multimedia archive. The computer cables are not hidden but are integrated into a technological environment which is completely revealed.

Project assistant: Nitzan Cohen (KGID), Jonathan Olivares (KGID)
Commissioned by: MUDAM Luxembourg
Execution: Chloroform BVBA

Hermès Japan commissioned me to design an exhibition for a collection of photographs taken by Kimura Ihei (1901-1974) in Paris in the 1950s. The 174 colour photos had been edited from the original analogue material and digitally printed on the newest generation of CANON ink jet printers. The photos show a very personal account of the Japanese photographer's travel to Paris just after world war II. I decided to have the photos printed in a rather small format (a size common at the time they were taken) and framed in white passe-partout frames. All photos were arranged freestanding on a series of steel/glass tables, which we had desigend reminiscent of the traditional French garden table. The tables, which were made in different formates and sizes, helped to group the photos according to various themes/sets.
The exhibiton was shown at 8F Forum (Maison Hermès, Toyko-Ginza) from Oct.28 2006 - Jan.21 2007 and at Hermès Midosuji Gallery (Osaka) from Apr.6 - Jun.3 2007.

Project assistant: Nitzan Cohen (KGID)
Commissioned by: Maison Hermès, Tokyo.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Tera Crea

For some weeks Puppy had been sitting in one corner of my office feeling bored and kind of under-challenged. Finally I trained him how to stand up opn his nose and spin around like those cool New York kinds doing break dance in the early 80s.

NOSE JIVE THREE SIXTY is an interpretation of Eero Aarnio's PUPPY stool for Magis.
The project was realized as a one-of-a-kind piece for an auction to benefit the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Project assistant: Benoit Steenackers (KGID)
Project initiator: Luminaire

Commissioned by Stylepark in Residence, organizers of the Cologne Furniture Fair’s major fringe show, we created a kasbah-like temporary restaurant that became the social heart of the week-long festival. The ORIENT EXPRESS occupied the central atrium of the building (a former German Railway headquarter) and combined white chair_ONEs, OSOROMs seating elements and DIANA tables with Persian carpets, while MAYDAY lamps were hooked onto two huge, mosc-like chandeliers. By day the space was a hub of visitors sipping coffee, eating spinach quiche and admiring the lighting. By evening, the tables and chairs were cleared and the restaurant was transformed into a dancefloor, with partygoers swinging from the chandeliers (see film).

Project assistant: Benoit Steenackers (KGID)
Commissioned by: Stylepark AG

ON/OFF was the first comprehensive overview of my work as I see it – very subjective and free. Projects from almost the past ten years are presented in an order that adheres neither to chronology nor linearity but rather to my personal view of things. Finished products are accompanied by images and drawings that tell of their underlying development. By exhibiting photographs, which are arranged as image sequences or video clips, prototypes, cardboard and foam rubber models, sketches as well as excerpts from correspondence between us and our clients, the steps that led from conception to production of the designs are made visible and comprehensible. The exhibition was held at the Haus der Kunst in Munich from 16.03.-09.07.2006.

Project assistants: Nitzan Cohen (KGID) and Jonathan Olivares (KGID)

KGID (Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design) showcases a comprehensive portfolio of products and design concepts with especially commissioned photographs and original drawings. It also offers a rare insight into the design process by showing the various stages of a product’s development through sketches, models, computer renderings and snapshots at the workshops of KGID and several manufacturers. With texts by Konstantin Grcic, Pierre Doze, Francesca Picchi and conceived by Florian Böhm and Konstantin Grcic, this is the first publication on the work of Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID).

Project collaboration: Florian Böhm
Edited by: Florian Böhm
Published by: Phaidon Press Ltd.

Further info: www.kgidbook.com

Isn't the future of cars all about 'clean' ?

CLEAN MACHINE is an interpretation of the origional Playsam toy car. The project was made as a one-of-a-kind piece for a charity auction to benefit the World Childhood Foundation.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID)
Commissioned by: Fitzsu Society

Hanae Komachi, a Japanese design journalist and friend, invited me to an unusual project. She asked me to design a new bottle lable for the 200 year old sake brewery Hachitsuru in which her grandfather had been the master-brewer of Hachitsuru-sake. In the long history of Hachitsuru (founded in the edo-period in 1786) I was to be the first non-Japanese designer to collaborate with the company.
There are many types of sake. In short, all sake can be divided into two groups: that with added alcohol, and that made with rice only. Most mass produced sake made today has pure distilled alcohol added to it. Cheaper sake has more added alcohol. The type of sake which is contained in the SAKE 8 bottles is ’yamahai-junmai’ - Hachitsuru’s artisans brew SAKE 8 in an authentic sake-making process using only 100% rice. For the lable I played with two circle elements and formed the number ‘8’ -in Japanese culture the ‘8’ is a metaphor for the flow of tradition, without a beginning or an end. Also Hachitsuru means ‘eight cranes’ in Japanese - even the city's name (Hachinohe) makes a reference to the figure '8'.

In October 2005 an exhibition at the origional Hachitsuru brewery combined examples of my designs with ancient tools for sake production, traditional and modern sake drinking wares and more than 100 photographs of the sake production.
The exhibition was curated by Japanese design journalist Hanae Komachi. The exhibition was also shown at the Kestner Museum in Hannover in 2006.

Project assistant: Ika Künzel (KGID)
Curated by: Hanae Komachi
Produced by: Hachitsuru

I believe that no object ever exists purely on its own. This way of looking at the world turns even the simplest little thing into part of a hugely complex system. It would be strange to speak of a doorhandle without talking about the door. In turn, the door relates to space –or rather, to two kinds of spaces: inside and outside. Every space has its own sound and light. Than there are all the things, the objects and furniture, that are part of the space. And of course there are the people who inhabit it. We can never speak about objects without imagining people using them.

Project assistant: Benoit Steenackers (KGID)
Producer: Colombo

It may only be a simple ball-point pen, but it took four years to design and develop Vivo for Lamy. In this time we ventured deep into the world of specialist pen making, which revealed an unexpectedly sophisticated macro-scale technology, usually employed in medical equipment or Formula-1 racing. The construction of our pen aimed to reduce the number of mechanical components from four to three. This may not seem dramatic, , but to build a mechanical pen with 25 per cent fewer elements is a considerable challenge. Producing it on a fully automatic robot added an extra thrill. Every design step we made on each individual component of the pen was rigorously monitored in terms of technical feasibility and production costs.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Lamy GmbH

In 2002 we were contacted by the French Groupe SEB to conceive a range of products for Krups. If the microwave (CHEF) for Whirlpool was all about the future, our experience with Krups was all about today: technical and cost constraints, production in China, strategic marketing. The great thing about the work for Krups is that it was for real. We were building machines with a cable and a plug on the end. They have to function and be safe. The only way to achieve this was through research and development. The process is the laboratory situation I loved: testing rigs, transformers, electric wires, nuts and bolts. The work for Krups embraced the design of a whole range of household appliances: coffee machines, blenders, mixers, toasters, kettles. We were designing a set of formal codes, used across the different product typologies, that would rebuild the brand image. In a situation like this, design becomes a strategic tool for shaping a market identity.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)