As admirers of your work, we were thrilled to invite you to be part of Dancer Editions. What appealed to you about the collaboration, and what aspects of the project resonated with you?
We’re obviously big fans of Coco Flip and we love a challenging brief with parameters so this was an invitation we had no hesitation in accepting!
Materiality is a big part of our work but we’ve never worked with clay in this way before so the opportunity to refine something collaboratively in this material was really appealing.
We also both studied the Bauhaus movement at university so it was also an opportunity to revisit these influences and underlying design philosophy.
We loved seeing your interpretation take shape. How did you approach tackling this brief and reimagining the Dancer collection, balancing its existing visual language with your own creative voice? Did you have a clear direction from the beginning, or did the idea evolve along the way?
We started by balancing the underlying purity of concentric geometric forms with functional purposes that they might align with. We wanted to ensure that the design both responded to the brief and represented DesignOffice, being true to our principles of design. Our aim was for a design which was functional, simple, edited and geometrically pure, but also joyful and beautiful. Initial ideas for a coat hook and lazy susan evolved into a wall light once we started to realise the way in which illumination could enhance the geometry and sense of pattern without adding decoration.
This collaboration invited a shift in material thinking. How did you find the experience of designing in a different medium, specifically ceramics, compared to your usual practice?
Delightfully constrained! Being able to focus on a small and individual object, in a single material was a rewarding change from our usual scale. Although we’ve designed ceramic tiles before, we typically work across a larger three dimensional scale, juggling a range of needs, parameters and constraints. The Dancer Editions brief provided an enjoyable focus!
We see this collection as a celebration of creative voices. What does your design represent for you and your practice? Was there a particular story, feeling or idea you set out to explore?
The process is underpinned by two of our favourite things:
Using the iterative process of drawing by hand in order to let the answer reveal itself
Working collaboratively with others and learning from their knowledge and experience to make something better and enabling it to become a reality
Essentially, we see design as problem solving and we approached this brief in that way.
Thank you again for working with us on Dancer Editions. At Coco Flip, we're fascinated by the different ways designers approach process and creativity. Could you tell us a bit about how your studio practice informed your response to the brief?
As a studio we don’t typically use decoration as an applied element and so the use of black oxide prescribed in the brief got us thinking. For us, texture and pattern normally present through materiality, colour and reflectivity. We really appreciated the specific parameters of the brief to make us focus on how we could stay true to both the Dancer philosophy and DesignOffice. A key part of this in our response is how the form accentuates shadow which create a sense of concentric geometry not purely reliant on the application of black oxide.
You're such a valued part of the local design community. What’s been inspiring you lately, any people, places or ideas influencing your practice? And looking ahead, are there any upcoming projects or directions you're excited to explore?
Everyday curiosity is still our favourite source of inspiration! Whether it is travelling around Melbourne, Australia or further afield we still find that the things that delight and inspire us the most come when we least expect it, from being on the move and having our eyes open.
The shape of a door handle on a train, the chromatic pairing of a parking bollard and an abandoned chair or the magic of sunlight filtering through the trees - its the everyday and unexpected that still inspires us the most.
We’re immersed in lots of exciting things on the drawing board and on site at the moment and looking forward to seeing them come together over the coming months. Put simply, we want to create spaces are not just beautiful but ones that contribute something to life, feel great and endure.
Learn more about Dancer Editions
View the Dancer Editions Auction
View the Dancer Collection
Learn more about DesignOffice
Product Images by Matthew McQuiggan
