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Aram Lello -
Freccia design : Recognizing the need, Charles Eames said, is the primary condition for design. Freccia was born from this famous quote looking for a new solution to storing books and magazines. -
TAG prototype : This fun and unusual bookshelf is a modular system that allows many exciting configurations. And because it looks equally good from all angles, you can use it as a room divider as well. -
TAG prototype : Tag comes in a variety of bold colors made of ABS but if you are intimidated by gaudy vividness, more tamed wooden finishes are available. -
TEX design- Winner of the 2013 WCFDI Jigsaw Award : As a family TEX is formed by a series of objects that can be selected individually or joined together to create a single unit, a “family”. -
TEX design- Winner of the 2013 WCFDI Jigsaw Award : TEX offers multiple functions and can be used by more people. If it is not needed, it can easily be put aside to make more room for other activities.
WORDS Claire Jowell PHOTOS Aram Lello
Aram Lello, an Italian architect and freelance designer based in the Mother City, brings together European and South African ideas in his clean-cut functional designs. As the Mother City readies itself for its tenure as World Design Capital for 2014 we caught up with him for a coffee to find out his thoughts on South African design culture.
“Recognising the need is the primary condition for design,” Aram Lello shows me this statement by Charles Eames on his iPad as we order a cappuccino at Loading Bay in De Waterkant, Cape Town. Clearly a frequenter to the trendy coffee spot that is just around the corner from his office, he often refers back to the Eames quote. One might call it his design mantra, and yes, he is a firm believer in design for purpose and functionality.
Aram’s winning design for the 2013 Western Cape Furniture Design Initiative Competition is a good example of his dedication to the mantra. The competition brief was to design a piece of furniture for maximum storage in a small space. The TEX prototype – “interpret the name as you wish,” he says – consisted of three separate furniture pieces that can be used separately or slotted together to make it more compact.
Like so many before him, Aram came to Cape Town on a holiday eight years ago – and he’s still here. He wanted to get in touch with his roots (his father is South African), and a short sabbatical soon turned into a lifestyle he simply couldn’t leave behind. After working at a large architectural firm for a while, Aram decided to open his own design studio, Lello Designs. He primarily focuses on product design, but dabbles in a bit of everything from creating logos for a laundry to designing a bench for Rock Girl, all while still working full time as an associate at DHK Architects
Having studied and begun his career in Europe, I was most interested in whether Aram considered himself to have a very different perspective to the South African designers he interacted with. He says that he considers himself a European designer, but is inevitably heavily influenced by South African design trends. According to him the design world is far more developed in Europe, thus it is much tougher being a designer in South Africa. “Local designers must do it all themselves – from the basic product design to all the technicalities involved in the making of the final piece. While this is a good learning experience and may develop a broader range of skills, it tends to pose massive limitations on the designer, who inevitably gets caught up in procedures,” he says.
“In Europe there are endless manufacturers looking for designers. There, a designer does not equal a manufacturer, but here the roles are mostly synonymous.” This unfortunately means that, while local designers often have an impressive array of competencies, there is little room for cross-pollination of ideas and skills.
Aram thinks that South African design is unique in its open-mindedness and its lack of major constraints. “Here you have real needs that require effective design. Yes, the country desperately needs food, education etc, but there is also a massive need for furniture and infrastructure. You can’t bullshit people here.” There is the mantra again: Recognising the need is the primary condition for design.
