Yılmaz Dogan

LEGENDARY INTERVIEW

Design Legends ("DL") had the distinct honour to interview legendary designer Yılmaz Dogan ("YD") for their original perspective and innovative approach to design as well as their creative lifestyle, we are very pleased to share our interview with our distinguished readers.

DL: Could you please tell us a bit about your design background and education?

YD : I’ve been personally engaged in furniture design and production since my childhood. The fact that spatial shells are shaped around the furniture forms we manufacture and the objective and formal relationship between the space and furniture forced me to question the form, color and harmony of every object. So, I’ve been made in the mold of design, and then, received design education but what influenced me as much as design was “structure”. I think the limits of material are the biggest barrier to design, therefore I studied Civil Engineering to push the limits of objects. The Design-Resistance relationship, that is, combining the disciplines of Design and Engineering have contributed to me through unique experiences.

DL: What motivates you to design in general, why did you become a designer?

YD : Just like a novelist bringing their thoughts to life via sentences and a poet achieving a magical form through words, I believe a designer has the same magical influence. Design is the art of combining your thoughts, what you dream about with shape, form and function and visualizing them. This is the feeling that pushed me to become a designer. I believe design is one of the most important values to be able to create a better world, a more livable physical environment.

DL: Did you choose to become a designer, or you were forced to become one?

YD : I think design is not a discipline to be performed by force, without loving it, desiring it; being a designer means choosing a lifestyle beyond having an occupation. It is not much possible to design without wanting it with all your heart, feeling it deep inside and being bound to it.

DL: What do you design, what type of designs do you wish to design more of?

YD : I mostly design furniture for different living spaces. I like using wood with metal, glass, textile, marble and different materials in general. I am designing a very special kitchen collection formed by different styles. I have a particular interest in lighting. I am experimenting to integrate design approaches of different disciplines into the furniture design. I have started a long-term project for electronically integrated furniture. I am also working in inclusive design.

DL: What should young designers do to become a design legend like you?

YD : Design is a very long journey which requires great amount of loyalty and labor. They should take the time and show patience enough to become mature in such an age when everything is consumed rapidly. Otherwise, they will be disappointed most of the time.

DL: What distinguishes between a good designer and a great designer?

YD : I think a good designers act by defining the needs of today properly, but a great designer sets off by defining and considering the needs of not only today but also tomorrow.

DL: What makes a good design a really good design, how do you evaluate good design?

YD : This is a very relative matter. You need to answer accordingly if you design for masses; you need to have different answers if you design exclusively. But the common ground is “A good design should be honest,” as Dieter Rams said.

DL: What is the value of good design? Why should everyone invest in good design?

YD : A good design provides you with additional comfort, facilitates your life; give you time, status, motivation, productivity, safety. A good design can save your life. A good design essentially possesses a very special accumulation of thought. A good design covers today and tomorrow; therefore, I think it is a wrong investment not to invest in a good design.

DL: What is your secret recipe of success in design, what is your secret ingredient?

YD : 22oC room temperature, 20% humidity, environmental sound under 32db, a good music, a bit of concentration... Joking aside, there is no formulation, recipe of the creativity process in design. What you feed on, what you collect, anything you are influenced by at the moment takes you to a journey. With an image, a line, a dream, you try to go somewhere; you just chase a thought, a function, a meaning.

DL: Who are some other design masters and legends you get inspired from?

YD : I think I’ve been influenced by John HESKETT most about design narration and criticism. “Behind the whole chaos created by foam and bubbles of advertisement and promotion, behind the visual skill shows of master designers chasing the stardom, beyond the declarations of design gurus and the rubbish of lifestyle salespersons, “there lies a simple truth. Design is a basic characteristic which makes human. It is a must that determines the quality of human’s life,” says John Heskett. Philippe Starck, Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando are other three people who have affected me most.

DL: What is your greatest design, which aspects of that design makes you think it is great?

YD : I don’t believe in such a phenomenon as the greatest design. Design is a quite relative concept comprised of several disciplines. It is impossible to prove a claim such as “the greatest” and believe that in such a comprehensive conceptual phenomenon. One cannot achieve being the greatest in the end and decided it in a professional discipline of which learning and experiencing process lasts for life. “I think the best design is what is yet to be designed.”

DL: If you hadn’t become a designer, what would you have done?

YD : If hadn’t become a designer, I’d have become a designer. This is a passion; you sleep and wake up with this passion. I haven’t thought of anything else. I haven’t wanted to become anything else.

DL: What’s your next design project, what should we expect from you in future?

YD : We conduct several different design projects as a team simultaneously. We have many projects from living space furniture to a special kitchen collection and design of lighting products; some of them are complete, others are in the development stage, and some of them are just an idea. We are going to launch our own brand towards the end of 2019.

DL: How does design help create a better society?

YD : Design is a phenomenon that exist in every field that comes to mind such as communication, transportation, education, fashion, public services, living spaces and their accessories. It is the most exhaustive phenomenon which emerged with the history of humankind and has evolved and become mature with it and has caused technological, organizational and cultural changes. Good design means more function, better ergonomics, more economic production, and more efficient use of resources. As objectives of these values evolve for better, there will be better physical and communicational conditions. Such development will also enhance the quality of social life.

DL: Which design projects gave you the most satisfaction, why?

YD : The more I’m free and the more I can contribute from myself while working on a project, the happier I become and the more I own that project. I’m more content with projects of which boundaries I set. I usually like investigating the traces of ethnic cultures and their philosophies. I find their beliefs, cultures, lifestyles, and the symbols, marks, forms and philosophies which they derive from the sum of the former. I think these are the projects I’m most satisfied with in which I am most free and explore new things.

DL: Where do you think the design field is headed next?

YD : The very rapid change in technology in the last 30 years has caused unbelievable changes in the discipline of design. Technology and design are developing in parallel. I think our all lifestyles and consumption habits will transform completely in the next 30 years. Our ways of transportation will change, concept of space and boundaries will be questioned, and even our forms of communication will change. I believe the humankind will discover the limitless energy resource, and it will be a breakpoint which will change everything. I believe that the discipline of design developing in parallel with the rapid and merciless advancement of technology needs to develop by ensuring efficient and proper use of world’s resources and contributing to sustainability. I believe sustainable design and inclusive design will develop for a better and more livable world.

DL: How long does it take you to finalize a design project?

YD : Each project has its own timing. This also reflects the soul and story of that project actually. While some complex and difficult projects are completed in a very short time, other design projects cannot be completed for life. Some of the design projects have been designed to create a connection, a story between themselves and their users; this story builds up as it is experienced. Other design projects transform and evolve over time and acquire another function. Therefore, it is not much possible to assign a duration for a design project.

DL: When you have a new design project, where do you start?

YD : There is no certain methodology of starting a design project. An idea is like a seed; you sow it, and then, with a bit of water, it turns its first leaf to the sun. This is the first acquaintance of the seed with the sun. It is nourished by the sun; then it grows and fruits. A design idea is like that. That idea seed is first sowed in your thoughts, waits there and is watered with your practices. After the thought has completed its first maturation, a pen and a paper become a sun to that thought, and the idea grows on that paper. When starting a design project, I review all meaningful or meaningless source on that matter, take down notes and draw sketches. Then I combine them.

DL: Do you think design sets the trends or trends set the designs?

YD : Design is made to set the trend in the first place. After setting the trends, humans start to design to comply with the trend. It is a vicious cycle. It is the same as the chicken and egg situation.

DL: What is the role of technology when you design?

YD : I think design is one of the disciplines using the technology at its highest level. From artificial intelligence to augmented reality, virtual reality; 3D printers to laser scanners; multi-axis CNCs to high-capacity computers; new custom materials to very special drawing and rendering programs, many instruments and programs are used to produce ideas and practice in the discipline of design. I don’t think it is possible for the discipline of design to improve without technology. As the technology advances, there are fewer limits before the design.

DL: What kind of design software and equipment do you use in your work?

YD : We are using all instruments from 3D printers to multi-axis CNCs, laser scanners to molding systems, AR and VR systems to rendering programs within today’s technology. But we never let technology kill the spirit of our designs.

DL: What do you wish people to ask about your design?

YD : I believe everything has a story behind it. I want people to understand this story in our designs.

DL: When you see a new great design or product what comes into your mind?

YD : I cannot help my curiosity when I see a product that is new and I like very much. I try to examine all of it. Such curiosity makes you act unexpectedly in unexpected places, surely. You can find yourself laying under a table like a mechanic. But when I see an admirable product, I respect the designer most and feel the honor as much as them. Because good design will save the world.

DL: Who is your ideal design partner? Do you believe in co-design?

YD : Of course, I believe co-design. Another person may see a detail that you take a close look at but cannot solve. I believe there is no improvement without criticism. I care a lot about the opinions of my partner and team at QZENS Furniture & Design which I am the co-founder. We work as a team in many projects.

DL: Which people you interacted had the most influence on your design?

YD : I cannot give a precise answer to this question. We are in touch with many people; each of them has different perspectives and approaches. You take a piece of every person you touch and their pieces become a whole inside you. A designer creates a whole with what they see, touch, utilize, read and think and then express them in their own interpretation to provide a work. I think there are many colors like a rainbow, but their combination forms a single color, the while.

DL: How did you develop your skills as a master designer?

YD : I don’t claim I’m a master designer in a world in which so many precious masters have produced so many works. I’m certainly very proud of having contended and been deemed worthy of an award in front of such a great jury in the most participated design contest of the world; but, to me, such awards are like sources of motivation borrowed to do better, succeed more.

DL: Irrelative of time and space, who you would want to meet, talk and discuss with?

YD : I think, God bless their souls, I would do so with John Heskett and Zaha Hadid.