Interview with Heitor Lobo Campos
Heitor is a product designer from Brasília. He has worked on a variety of projects—bikes, watches, washing machines, lights, and more—and his designs often reflect a sense of peace and joy.
Interview about Pluto Task Lamp Design Interview
Design Legend Interview
4 May 2020
I was born and raised in Brasilia, Brasil. I have a Bachelors degree in Industrial Design by the University of Brasilia. I wanted to be a designer ever since I was 14, it just seemed like the perfect area for me, specially due to its multidisciplinary and creative approach.
I wanted to make things, no matter what they were, I loved creating so I got into design with still not much idea of what exactly to make. With time I fell in love with Industrial Design, specially the physical part of it, sketching, prototyping, and finally seeing your project come to life.
I chose it.
Right now I don't have much of a favorite type of design, although I do seem to gravitate towards lighting design right now.
Work hard and take any opportunity you get, it was seeking out Gantri to publish a design of mine that I got a Gold Award at the A' Design Awards. Don't skip on a chance to get your work out in the market.
Time and experience.
Good design fulfills its requirements as a project while still managing to go beyond them.
Good design has value for everyone, the client, the user, and designers.
The secret is that there is none. Just hard work and a pinch of luck.
A musician I guess, although to be quite honest I'm not nearly a good at it as I am at design.
Designer Interview
30 April 2020
I'm from Brasília, Brazil. I got my Bachelor's at Universidade de Brasília (UnB) as well. Since I was 14 I had decided to become a Designer, Design just seemed like a surefire way of being able to work with a plethora of diverse projects. That was specially appealing to me since I still wasn't sure of what area I wanted to work at, thankfully I finally decided on Industrial Design when I was 18.
I graduated in December of 2018, right now it's not much of a studio but just me working as a freelancer from home, but just this small time in the market has helped me grow immensely as a designer. Right now my work is mainly focused on small projects for local startups, with a special interest in digital and eco-friendly manufacturing.
For me Design is the interaction between user and product. One could say designing a typeface is dealing with the interplay between reader and the alphabet, and I believe Industrial Design is no different, we build the user-product relationship.
Charles and Ray Eames' Molded Plywood Chairs. It was one of the designs that inspired me to choose Industrial Design, it's also certainly one if not the most iconic chair of the 20th century.
My first lamp design for Gantri, Lago. I designed it in 2017, while still a student.
Anytime I'm working really, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you always need inspiration, but I find that diligently iterating and brainstorming ideas is much more reliable, creativity can be worked upon, not unlike a muscle.
If I were to choose one, function would obviously be the first. But I still believe a good design has to be well-balanced, beauty shouldn't justify functional limitations, and function shouldn't limit beauty.
It's hard to define, I'd say a mix of pride and relief. Proudful of designing a product that can be used and relief that I actually managed to get it to the end user.
Our responsilibities as designers are to always design with conscience of both society and environment. It's not hard to design in a bubble, not interacting with the environment you're designing for as much as you need. I reckon it's essential to always be aware of the context you're designing in.
Inspiration can come from anywhere, from visuals, sounds, stories. My main source of inspiration are the relationships between what I see, read, and hear. They all affect how I think, and therefore, how I design.
I would be lying if I said that being Brazilian doesn't influence my work, even more so in Brasilia, my first reference of aesthetics was Brazilian modernist architecture, it still is in many ways.
Just access my website: heitor.design . Or just DM me on Instagram at @heitor_lobo_campos