Dutch designer Tord Boontje melds craft, technology, and floral imagery to adorn everything from laptops to lighting with his pretty point of view.
Perhaps most recognizable to Americans for his wildly popular garland light—a frothy cascade of paper blossoms draped over a single bulb—Tord Boontje (pronounced boon-tee-ay) is a designer who thrives on paradox, marrying nature and technology in work that ranges from glass and lighting to furniture and even an HP laptop. Motifs of blossoms, tendrils, leaves, and dappled sunlight play prominently in his work, all expressed through ever more advanced technology. For the HP laptop, the design team pioneered a 3D printing process for the white-on-white design. A window panel with the look of eyelet used laser-cutting technology to achieve the delicately precise shapes.
But the boyishly enthusiastic Tord is dedicated to maintaining the primacy of the natural form. For him, it is always about the flower, never the technology.
“At a time when design seems to be dominated by the glossy, the slick, and the perfect, I automatically become attracted to the real, the raw, the unfinished,” he says.
Born in Enschede in the Netherlands, Tord was raised in an artistic household. His mother taught the history of art and textile design and managed not to discourage the experimental nature in her son, which wasn’t always easy. His website features a timeline with entries that read, “1973: Experiment One: Smashed all the windows of our house that I could reach with a hammer” and “1978: Wore any clothes as long as they were blue (cornflower blue).”
Tord studied industrial design first at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and then at the Royal College of Art in London, where he met glass artist Emma Woffenden. Now his wife, Emma became his collaborator on one of his earliest projects, tranSglass. Taking old beer and wine bottles and making them into new vessels, they used what materials were cheap and available and what tools they had on hand to create a new product. The line became an instant success, and, with the orders pouring in, Tord and Emma were able to invest in a new diamond grinder to increase production.
Now, the vessels are made in Guatemala, where the project teaches glass-cutting skills to the residents of an impoverished town. Employing 24 people whose skills have advanced rapidly, the tranSglass line is expanding to include a new mirror constructed with 3D glass cutting techniques.
Following his success in glass design, Swarovski soon came calling, asking him to develop a fresh take on the company’s legacy of ornate light fixtures. The Blossom Chandelier he created for them, with its organic shape and glass petals, was a complete reinvention of the typical fixture. With no central structure grounding the design, it follows the reaching trajectory of a tree branch.
“It’s like the ice palace of the fairy queen,” he says. “By using LED lights, we were able to place the light source directly next to the crystals, and, best of all, they can be programmed to flash off and on in sequence, all adding to the magic.”
Trees, and forests in particular have always held a fascination for Tord.
“I love the dappled light in forests, the glitter and sparkle of ice,” he says.
For his new line of furniture for Italian tile company Bisazza, Tord drew on that memory of dappled light on water (and computer programming magic) to create an abstract mosaic pattern that perfectly captures the highlights and shadows of a pond shaded by overhanging trees.
His work is undeniably pretty, embracing delicacy, refinement, and craft.
“I often look for attractiveness,” he says. “I’m drawn to the elegant, although I am also drawn to the imperfect.” An emphasis on craft is evident in the textile line he created for Moroso. “I spent a lot of time at the Victoria & Albert Museum studying 17th century English embroidery. Many of the techniques used to create these objects are very labor-intensive,” Tord describes. “New industrial processes enable us to explore the sensual qualities in these crafts again.”
His 2006 collaboration with Target brought his work to the mass audience of American consumers, who embraced the delicate tendrils and silhouettes of his holiday collection of tableware and paper goods. A recent jewelry line for Artecnica expands his work in the fashion world, and a current exhibition called “Lace in Translation” at The Design Center at Philadelphia University features his study of the Quaker Lace collection there.
Tord is a leading design influence internationally, but with a new role as Professor and Head of Design Products at his old school, the Royal College of Art, he is positioned to influence the future of design, too. It’s rare that someone with such commercial success would take an active academic job that keeps him out of his studio three days a week. But Tord is passionate about the place and sees his role there as nurturing his own growth as an artist.
“It’s the most creatively exciting place to be in the world right now,” he asserts. “So many of the students stay on in London after graduation. It’s a very stimulating environment.”
When Tord, his wife, and 10-year-old daughter want to relax, they escape to France, where they immerse themselves in rural life at their farm (formerly his studio) before heading back to London. It’s there that Tord’s infatuation with the natural world meets its limit.
“My daughter wants a goat,” he says with a giggle. “I’m not quite ready for that.”
