This new series, Design bites, unveil the backstage of contemporary creation. Tackling various topics from personal designer processes to the position of Collectible design on the global design market; these bites offer different views to suit all tastes. Today we talk with ETAGE PROJECTS.

Back to Editorial

COLLECTIBLE: What are the challenges in presenting contemporary collectible design?

ETAGE PROJECTS: The challenge is, that with a translation of contemporary values, there is no established historic understanding or acceptance. You have to trust your own taste. You are the only one who can decide if this collectible design is worth collecting.

“When a designer cuts loose from the demands of the mass market and the practical implementations, it can result in a design with a strong connection between process, material and form where craftsmanship, poetry and conceptual values are stronger than function.”

C: What do you think about the position of contemporary collectible design on the design market? How do you think the contemporary collectible design market is evolving?

EP: There is a need to surround ourselves with quality, stories and substance. There is an urge for social identification. We have always read and decoded other people based on their choices, but today we stage our lives by displaying the objects we choose to gather around us - which sums up the story of us. Mass production and fast fashion/fast design is also increasingly associated with (a) bad taste (in the mouth). More designers have become interested in expressing their individuality, using unique processes and materials. It also helps that collectible design has become a pretty solid investment strategy. 

C: What tips would you give to a collector who wishes to start collecting contemporary design?

EP: Always choose the idea over something that is technically precise. It has always been ideas driving history.

C: What do you think collectible design brings compared to other more massively produced pieces? 

EP: Collectible design is not aimed for the mass market. Therefore the approach is much less filled with compromises. The designer is more free to experiment and is able to have a personal approach and a conceptual focus. When a designer cuts loose from the demands of the mass market and the practical implementations, it can result in design with a strong connection between process, material and form where craftsmanship, poetry and conceptual values are stronger than function. 

About ETAGE PROJECTS

ETAGE PROJECTS is a Copenhagen-based art and design gallery specialising in a cross-aesthetic method. Actively questioning and pushing the boundaries between art and design, abstraction and function, ETAGE PROJECTS works with creatives who form their praxis in-between established notions of contemporary art and design. These artists seek to extend and enrich the fields of interdisciplinarity and collective culture.