Inspiration
HAOS, The Slow Self-Design
Sophie and Cédric wanted to get involved in every step of the design of their realisations. And all this without making any concession on the creative process or on the materials quality and techniques. This is why they created HAOS and chose self-design. The first object they made together is also one of the most common: the light, a product which, after thorough reflection, will be made in seven styles, both lamps and ceiling lights. Organic forms made of brass and ceramics which remind either the 60’s or the Art Deco : HAOS modern sculptures don’t look like anything else and put the brand at the rank of slow design, favouring small quantities and crafts techniques. Getting an object from Sophie’s and Cédric’s first collection is like flying to Giens Peninsula in a potter workshop face to the Mediterranean. It is like imagining the work of glass blower, in the North East of London. All this while investing, design being made to be stronger than time.
Location
Paris
Author
Caroline Balvay
Photos and videos
Constance Gennari
TSF
Sophie, Cédric, what does HAOS mean?
Sophie
The Haos is a tree in which flowers are white on the morning, yellow at noon, red on the evening and die during the night. Well, it’s what the explorer that wrote it in La Revue des deux Mondes around the end of the XIXth century believed he saw. It is the last time a book referred to it, so we can reasonably conclude this tree has never existed.
TSF
What did you want to achieve with your brand?
Sophie
We wanted to put pleasure at the heart of a creation project and see if it worked. It is HAOS’s essential value, and the measurement standard of each of our decisions. It may seem odd to highlight this, but it seems an essential condition to us and the best guarantee we can offer: the guarantee our objects will always be designed with our heart and with attention to detail. In order to be coherent over the long term, and with this raison d’être, we set three goals: work at our own pace, be proud of the result of our work and never get bored.
Cédric
You can find these requirements in all of our choices. Self-design enables us to get involved in every step of the product design without making concessions on the creative process or on the quality of the materials and techniques. Our field of practice goes from first sketches to scenography, prototyping and production launch. It is more than a shield to monotony, it also gives some coherence to the brand, its products and representation. Every piece is handmade by craftspeople: there is also the richness of the meetings, the precision of the know-hows and obviously limited paces that we have looked for.
TSF
Why have you decided to create it together?
Cédric
HAOS is the expression of desires we share since we have developed them together. So it was natural to keep going together.
TSF
How do you make your collections?
Sophie
Our role of self-designers leads us very soon to the contact with the craftspeople. It enables us to think the object while integrating to it, since the first sketches, the ideas of people who have tens of years of experience working with the same material. It leaves space for good surprises: the powdered pink on some of our lights was born from a baking mistake.
Cédric
We work together on the design phase and we don’t take any decision if we don’t agree! In other words, we both have a right of veto over the ideas of the other one. We are both perfectionist but we don’t always focus on the same details: it is sometimes a little difficult to move on but we prefer this solution to the listless consensus which prevents the conflicts but satisfies nobody.
TSF
Why did you start with the lights?
Cédric
We wanted to start with a common object. We decided to set constraints to move on and we arbitrarily chose the lights.
TSF
What’s HAOS style?
Cédric
Our goal is to create smart objects that you would not get tired of seeing after 3 months or 3 years because the concept is convoluted or very into the current trends. That’s the goal, but of course only time will tell us if we succeeded in doing it. The choice of our first collection was ceramics, a raw, subtle, sustainable material which fits with this ambition. And let’s not forget the simplicity of its shapes.
TSF
What’s your philosophy?
Cédric
Marcus Aurelius’s moral: “Without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.“
TSF
Where do you find your inspirations?
Cédric
Of course, we are interested in design, but we are curious about everything. By the bye, we have a lot of projects embryos in a certain number of different fields! Inspiration may come from a condensation of all of this, the books we read, the people we meet, the places we visit, our current interests that one day crystallise and we don’t even know why. A more precise answer would be a view of the spirit.
TSF
Whom are HAOS objects made for?
Cédric
To the widest audience possible, even if the handmade production processes rank us obviously into the high quality level.
TSF
Do you have particular pieces of advice to give to highlight your objects?
Sophie
On the opposite, we can’t wait to be surprised.
TSF
On which object are you going to focus for your second collection?
Cédric
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
TSF
What are the design places for HAOS, in Paris or elsewhere?
Cédric
Golden Age, a gallery specialised in the Glorious Thirty furniture, and leboncoin!
