LANSERRING have been shortlisted for Bespoke Cabinetry/Installation Award and Kitchen Design Over £150,000 Award in The International Design & Architecture Awards 2020. Read more about Director of Design, Alex Beaugeard below:
Name: Alex Beaugeard
Company: LANSERRING
Position within company: Director of Design
Website: www.LANSERRING.com
Tell us a little about your background in design:
I have a degree in Naval Architecture and a Master’s Degree in Industrial design. After initially designing Superyachts at the beginning of my career, I moved to Mark Wilkinson Furniture, working alongside Mark himself to design ranges of furniture for clients.
I then moved to LINLEY as sales director, where I developed the new Fitted Furniture division, designing new products. This gave rise to the first batch of LINLEY fitted kitchens, rolling out all over the world.
Following a spell as Co-Owner and Design Director at McCarron and Company, I moved to LANSERRING to develop the brand with Bernd Radaschitz.
How would you describe your personal design style?
I have always been deeply inspired by the beauty of complexity, interfaces of dissimilar textures and design work that follows an emotional narrative. I really love furniture that reveals itself to you over time; I feel your relationship with this layered and intense work develops as you live with it, facilitating a rich relationship with your home. The relationship between emotion and geometry remains fascinating to me and efforts to decode this relationship remain ever present in my work.
Where does your design inspiration come from?
Obsession – I am obsessed with the way people live and the differing vision of how they want to live. At the beginning stages of the design process, we work very closely our client) to shape their new interior world. This unpacks into conversations regarding their relationships with the special people in their lives and what the property needs to communicate both about them and to them.
These are not new challenges and have been faced by designers for many centuries. Inspiration often comes by looking at historic perspectives on the way we can improve the quality of life and reinterpreting them for now.
Finally I obsess about the provenance of materials, where they have been used historically and the stories they can whisper.
In what direction do you feel that design is moving towards in a general sense?
I feel that the impact of social media has been profound on design, Clients are so well educated, the morality and principals with which a company conducts itself are now available for anyone to see. This has created an appetite for fewer, higher quality things with which to surround yourself. The term “quality” has changed also.
An understanding that a piece has been made by a skilled artisan rather than a factory, or produced from a palette of materials where its sustainability is implicit in its beauty matters more today than traditional interpretations of “richness”. Recent enforced changes in our perceptions of freedom have also made designers and clients more attuned to the fragility of a lifestyle we used to take for granted. I believe we will see a strong theme of personal, ethical responsibility embroidered through design projects in the coming 24 months.
Name five key themes to consider when approaching design in 2020 and beyond.
1. A focus on spaces that promote open-mindedness and facilitate easy relationships.
2. Principles of mindfulness and space that promote good metal health.
3. Repurposing of special objects in an ornamental sense- The principal of reusing items remains very interesting.
4. Continued reliance on metal detailing in projects, including explorations into a broader range of metallic colours e.g blacks.
5. Implicit “edginess” derived from the impact of Manga and Hip hop cultural queues (Note, this is whispered and not explicit. These are often expressed through art as general subversion of traditional design principals.)
If you could offer one piece of advice when it comes to design schemes, what would it be?
Above all, it has to feel right… You can forgive everything else.
How important are The International Design & Architecture Awards?
These awards have, for many years remained a pillar of the international design scene and represent something of a gold standard for designers and projects. They drive us designers to be better as we are exposed to the best work in the world.
What projects are you currently working on?
LANSERRING has had a breath-taking 18 months, we are currently working on multiple projects in London, 4 projects in New York, 2 in LA, 2 in San Francisco, and further projects in Dublin, Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Norway. These are all kitchen projects where our clients have sought out our particular company values, aesthetic vision and Austrian crafted quality.
What are your aims and goals for the next twelve months?
We are opening a new office in New Your to help facilitate some of the business we are working on in the US. I love the East Coast’s contemporary aesthetic and I am looking forward to further developing the LANSERRING aesthetic to respond to that demand.
Final thoughts; tell us a little more about yourself and your daily inspirations:
Your most treasured possession?
Vintage steel push bike – I go everywhere on it!
Your favourite holiday destination?
Herm Island in the Channel Islands. I have been there every summer since I was a boy.
Your favourite hotel, restaurant & bar?
Little beach house in Malibu is fun to watch the sun go down. Other than that, I am a big fan of wild camping with my children (No hotels please).
Your favourite book?
Favourite Book – Face to Face: Polar Portraits by Huw Lewis Jones. It’s a staggering examination of the mind-set of the historic explorer, illustrated by breath-taking photographs.
Your favourite food and drink?
I have always enjoyed cooking on an open fire, I have a South African Poyke pot that I place right in the flames to fry up vegetables and halloumi … Food always tastes better when you have prepared it with your family and eaten outside.
Your favourite way to spend an afternoon?
The best way to spend a sunny afternoon is on a sailing boat! I used to teach sailing as I grew up in the Channel Islands, I am trying, and failing to get my children interested in the water.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you be?
Struggling to figure out why drawing pictures is really of no value as an accountant.
LANSERRING have been shortlisted for Bespoke Cabinetry/Installation Award and Kitchen Design Over £150,000 Award in The International Design & Architecture Awards 2020.
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