Each week, Kristen de La Vallière, design curator, editor and founder of say hi to_, asks three questions to our participants. Today Kristen talks with Belgian designer Anton Hendrik Denys.

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Kristen de la Vallière: There has been a lot of focus on the negative aspects of the circumstances of the past year but we'd love to know how it has positively impacted your practice. How has the past year changed the way you view or run your design practice?

Anton Hendrik Denys: Last year, I moved to Denmark one week before the first lockdown started. Initially this gave me a lot of time to get settled and the opportunity to rethink my studio from scratch. At first, I worked from home until I found a small studio space that I now share with a few other people. The circumstances actually gave me total freedom to create new projects; which brought back memories from graduating from my design education.

“Craft has always been an important part of my work and I love the fact that I can never create the same piece twice.”

KdlV: What do you think are some of the most important roles of a designer in 2021?

AHD: I’ve never really felt the need to translate a certain zeitgeist into my pieces. Especially nowadays, I think it’s important to keep things light and approachable. Offering a form of escapism by creating something unique which can be weird, beautiful and trigger a certain curiosity with the user. Craft has always been an important part of my work and I love the fact that I can never create the same piece twice. In a time where things become more and more digital, an appreciation grows also for things that are unique and made by hand. 

KdlV: How are events such as COLLECTIBLE, important for your creative practice?

AHD: Especially under the current circumstances an event as COLLECTIBLE is super important for a young design studio. Taking part in it gives me the opportunity to create new work and showcase it to a broad audience. I also think a lot of designers share a big hunger to show new pieces, maybe now more than ever. Contrary to some other events, COLLECTIBLE gives us freedom to take control over our own project and its presentation. Allowing us almost to become our own gallerist while joining forces with other creatives who all have the same goal in mind.

About Studio Anton Hendrik Denys

Studio Anton Hendrik Denys is a Copenhagen-based multidisciplinary design studio, whose driving forces are their interest in materialities and new experiments. The studio’s works span large-scale architectural design projects and smaller scales, functional art objects.