Kenneth Cobonpue’s making waves globally and there’s no stopping his rise to the top. His collections never fail to steal the spotlight, whether he’s showing them in Paris, Shanghai, or here in the Philippines. You probably first heard his name when Brad Pitt bought Cobonpue’s pieces, and when the Ocean’s 13 guys used his furniture as part of the sets in the film.
In this Super! interview, world-renowned designer Kenneth talks about learning to laugh at his own work, finding beauty in the ordinary, and heads of state turning into schoolboys at the sight of his pieces.
What is the one thing that people don’t know about you?
That I applied for the UP Fine Arts Program in Diliman and failed the entrance examinations because I couldn’t draw well enough.
When did you know that you wanted to go into design?
I knew I wanted to go into design when I was drawing instead of listening during Accounting 11 class at UP Diliman.
How did your experiences in school influence you as a design professional?
The Pratt Industrial Design program, during my time, was conceptual and form-oriented; different from the commercial and technical approach taken by most schools today. It worked very well for me because I could not have adopted industrial manufacturing processes in the Philippines where most production is craft-based. The visual training in form and space coupled with conceptual thinking allowed me to apply my education to everything I do here.
Talk about your work. What differentiates your work from the other design professionals?
I try to keep my work as pure and simple as possible. I don’t believe in decoration or embellishment. Every visual element in my work has to be there for a reason. I think most designers find it hard to understand that restraint is the toughest discipline one has to learn when creating something. Dieter Rams, one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th century, said that “Good design is as little design as possible.” How true.
What projects are your most proud of and why?
I am excited by all my projects which have little to do with furniture like the architectural interiors of the Z Bar in Cebu; the experiments we are doing to create alternative transportation; and the odd commissions I occasionally get to design trophies and spaces.
What do you hope people think or feel when they see your work?
Seeing adults become like children again in front of my work gives me a fulfillment that’s out of this world. I outfitted the entire Ministers Lounge at the recent Asean meeting in Cebu. This was an exclusive place where the heads of state retreated to between meetings. Here was a space where prime ministers and presidents became like schoolboys again. They were gushing, laughing, trying out everything, and taking things apart to see how everything worked. Objects around us should still have the power to make us happy.
Who are your major influences?
Life is a series of experiences and I learned something from everyone I have had the chance to work with. Budji Layug and my fellow members of Movement 8 had the biggest influence on my career. We dreamed, worked and dared to challenge every prejudice the world had about Filipino design. Over the years, I have personally worked with several designers like Marcel Wanders and Ross Lovegrove. Marcel taught me how to laugh at my own work and Ross showed me the value of what I was doing.
What inspires you? What fuels your passion to create?
The challenge of every designer is to find the beauty in the ordinary. Cebu and the islands have always been an inspiration for my designs because I live and work here. The desire to make something new and different in the world inspires me to create.
What about your current position do you like and dislike?
I enjoy the designing part of my work, but I have to contend with the realities of business, production, economy and our government. In my efforts to make Filipino culture global, I become an informal ambassador of the country. But it’s tough to always wear a smile when you know that things in our country are not going right.
What are your most memorable experiences as a designer?
I have so many memorable experiences as a designer but the best ones had to be with my fellow designers from Movement 8. I remember going to international furniture exhibitions in the 80s and 90s as a young student with my mom. The Philippine booth was always located at some faraway hall beside a bathroom. You needed a map to find it. That’s how esteemed the show organizers viewed the Filipino furniture industry. Then Movement 8 was formed. It was the Philippines’ new weapon. We showed the world the best of Filipino design in a fresh, stylized and modern setting successively in Valencia, Milan and Paris. Suddenly, everyone was raving about the country. Now people were pulling out their maps to find out where it was. I remember standing in 2002 in front of the M8 booth in the middle of the biggest atrium of the Cologne Fair in Germany, what used to be the snobbiest and biggest fair in Europe. It was the best spot in the whole exhibition and the booth was crowded with press, designers and society. We were giddy, drunk and beaming with pride. Today when I am in a rut, I draw inspiration from that experience.
What do you think of the state of design in the Philippines? Are we moving up?
I think design in the Philippines needs a shot in the arm. I look at the design and architecture landscape today and I don’t see anyone promising under 40. That is alarming. You have people doing good work by Filipino standards with ideas borrowed from the magazines and coffee-table books they read, but no one really doing anything different. It goes back to the quality of design education we have. When you think about it, design is the last competitive advantage we have in manufacturing. We have been looking for our strategic role as a country in the world today. It’s in the creative sector where we should cast our lot. It’s here where Filipinos excel … from performing to designing.
What does it mean to be a designer?
I think that designers should question everything in the world and propose changes to make it better. We bear the responsibility of introducing new objects that people live with. This requires an understanding of the reality in which people live: their dreams, their desires, their worries, their needs, their living habits. We make an impact on the way people live because they come into contact with our objects everyday. It’s amazing, but the designers of our laptops, iPods, cell phones, cars, houses, furniture and office desks have power over us more than we can imagine.
Furniture designer Patricia Urquiola said in an interview for Icon magazine that perhaps in five years time, she won’t be doing either architecture or design. “Perhaps I will be doing macrame in Tuscany.” How concrete are your career plans for the future? What’s next for Kenneth Cobonpue?
I am at this stage in my life where so many things are happening and so many projects are on the table. Each one has the power to change my direction. I have several plans in life but I have seen them change so much that I have stopped making them. I personally would like to design other things aside from chairs and lamps. I want to make my design language into a total experience encompassing interiors, architecture, transportation and lifestyle.
What advice would you give to young, upcoming and talented designers?
Create something new. Simplify. Purify. Then you will find your place in the world.
Cobon ... who?
Wallpaper magazine recently nominated Kenneth Cobonpue as one of the icons of contemporary design along with such world luminaries as Philippe Starck and Antonio Citterio.
Kenneth studied Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in New York. While completing his degree, he apprenticed for a leather and wood workshop near Florence, Italy. In 1994, he studied Furniture Marketing and Production at the Export Akademie Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany under a private and state scholarship program, and subsequently worked in Bielefeld and Munich.
He returned home to Cebu, Philippines in 1996, to manage Interior Crafts of the Islands Inc., a furniture design and manufacturing company founded in 1972 by Kenneth’s mother Betty Cobonpue, a designer famous for creating new techniques in working with rattan. Discovering that modern design could have a new face using natural fibers and materials as the medium, he slowly created the pieces which form the collection today. Integrating locally sourced organic materials with innovative hand-made production techniques offered an alternative to the Western definition of modern design.
(SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.KENNETHCOBONPUE.COM)
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