Interview with Mariel Nina Lazo
Mariel Nina Z. Lazo is a furniture designer based in Manila, Philippines. Growing up in a family of doctors, she knew she was different because she wanted to be a carpenter - a dream she told her…
Design Legend Interview
4 May 2017
It was in 2007 when I realized that I wanted to become an industrial designer. My friend, who was then an industrial design student (and I was a computer applications student) at a Philippine based school, asked me to sit in her prototype presentation finals class. I was in awe at how my friend and her classmates were able to make mock-ups on their own from scratch. So after my first college graduation, I decided to study industrial design at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, USA. I graduated in 2010 and decided to go back to Manila, Philippines. My path to furniture design started when I joined Red Box, a design development program for young designers initiated by Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). Julia chair was showcased in October 2015 at Manila Fame, an international furniture show based in the Philippines.
When you look at a cylinder on top view, you see a square shaped form, when you fold a square then it looks like a triangle. These simple views motivates me to be a designer - to see things from different perspectives.
I choose to become a designer.
I design home furniture pieces and I wish to design more on functional commercial spaces for my country, Philippines.
My suggestion to young designers is to keep thinking of ideas and put everything in writing or draw your ideas. There is no such thing as a bad idea to do not take it for granted nor disregard it;keep it and maybe in a few years you'll go over it and find it useful. Always remember to keep all ideas simple but unique.
A good design is being able to to meet its main purpose while a great designer is adding more to the main purpose. For example, a chair is used for people to sit on it and be comfortable. For it to be a good design, the user should be able to sit on it comfortably. What will make it a great design is when you add an additional function to it - the chair can be transformed into a table or a cabinet or you can add a drawer under the seat.
In a good design, the first thing you consider is being able to meet its purpose. The second would be the durability of it. The last would be the aesthetics. For example, a chair to be a good design: 1. You should be able to sit on it; 2. When you sit on it, the chair should not break; 3. The chair should blend in with your existing pieces.
A good design is basically a product or service that meets your expectations based on its main function. Everyone should invest in a good design because not only it adds beauty to your space but it also defines who you are and what you want other people to see in you.
My dream project is to be able to participate and design a furniture landscape or creative street furniture for my country, Philippines and for the Filipino people. I also would want to design a furniture piece for Pope Francis. Also, I would want to design/work with Filipino furniture designers such as Kenneth Cobonpue and Budji Layug.
My dream project is to be able to participate and design a furniture landscape or creative street furniture for my country, Philippines and for the Filipino people.
I do not have a secret recipe nor secret ingredient of success in design but I think it is important that you ask for help, listen and consider what other people think of your design for improvement.
I get inspiration from Donal'd A. Norman, the author of The Design of Everyday Things. He simply explains what a good design is, which is the plainness of a function and how it should be able to have a good communication between the product itself and the user.
I like the Dragnet Lounge Chair of Kenneth Cobonpue. The inspiration is from a fisherman's net and yet the design of it it not too literal.
I also like the designs of Zaha Hadid. Although her designs were structurally challenging for me, I think it was brave, persistent and bold of her to make it possible. She is a perfect example of making impossible things possible.
I also like the designs of Zaha Hadid. Although her designs were structurally challenging for me, I think it was brave, persistent and bold of her to make it possible. She is a perfect example of making impossible things possible.
I believe my greatest design is the Julia Chair. I like how the wood slats were applied in a radial form. I also believe that my client, Triboa Bay Living, was a big part of making Julia a great design through their very clean and good craftsmanship.
Listen to your client, mentors, friends because they are your (potential) market and they can tell you a different perspective from your own.
If I hadn't become a designer, I would be more focusing on our family business.
Design for me is a continuing process of creating something new from an existing object. It can also be a combination of two or more existing objects, creating a new form and/or function. In the end, design should not only be an idea or a plan, but it should be executed and expressed. For the design to be a success, I think your audience should be able to have his/her own interpretation, making it their own.
My biggest support is my mother who gave me the opportunity to study industrial design in another country and be able to experience a different design approach.
I listened to my mentor and friends on their opinion on my design/s.
During the production of Julia, there were problems along the way like time constraint and trial and errors since the technique applied on the chair is new to the manufacturer/client. At that time we were beating a deadline. I didn't have a back up plan because I really wanted Julia to be out in time for the exhibit.
It actually depends on how comfortable you are in presenting your work. But for me it works when I show a small scale mock-up of my designs rather than a drawing. With a small scale mock-up you'll be able to see all perspectives while holding it.
The latest I did for Triboa and for Julia chair is pair it with a nesting table. I would want to make more pieces to partner it with Julia/to be able to make a collection. In addition, I still would want to focus on using wood as a material for my design pieces.
My goal is to be able to promote Filipino handcrafted pieces through my design and ideas. In addition, through my designs, I want my audience to be able to have their own interpretation of it and be able to express it through design and execution of it.
People expect you to be consistently good and it can be a good or a bad thing on your part, depending on how you take it. For me, just be yourself, take your time, and do not be pressured. A good design will just come out naturally anytime.
I think the participation of a designer and his/her design to the society is making things around us more interesting and useful. From there, we are able to discover something new, something not only what the society needs but also ourselves.
I am currently working on design collections to be able to create a story.
Julia chair and Lolita night lamp. I liked how it turned out to be - the simplicity of the materials and clean look of it. I believe it is the craftsmanship that made these projects beautiful.
I hope to see design industry to be focused more on hand craftsmanship than dependent mostly on technology. In additional I hope design industry would focus on including nature as part of a design piece without causing damage to it.
I think the design filed is headed towards designs being multi-functional and use of materials that are less hazardous.
Two weeks to one month
I start looking for inspirations. So far, most of my design projects are based on things that I see at home and at my workplace.
Less is more.
I believe it is the design that sets the trend.
The role of technology when I design is making your design faster and easier to execute and express especially when you show it to your client/market.
For software it would be Sketch Up. With tools/equipment, I usually use a cutter, ruler and power tools.
Color, materials and ambient adds beauty not only on your design but also at your home, work office, anywhere. In addition, it gives character to yourself.
The inspiration about my design. I love to share people about the story of it so they can understand the passion and hard work that I invested to it.
Wanting to own it.
Yes, I believe in co-designing. It gives new meaning to more than one idea.
My mentor, Mr. Budji Layug and Triboa Bay Living's Mr. Randy Viray.
Basics Product Design 01: Idea Searching by David Bramston, The Art of Tinkering by Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich, The Design of Everyday Things by Donal'd A. Norman.
Always have a pen/pencil and paper with you and draw, sketch or write as much as you can.
Leonardo da Vinci, Zaha Hadid, the creative person of Coldplay (or Chris Martin).
I feel happy and honored to be representing Julia chair and the furniture industry of the Philippines.
Favorite color, blue. Favorite place, home, San Francisco and Japan. Favorite food, crabs and shrimps. Favorite season, spring. Favorite thing, cutter and ruler. Favorite brand, Uniqlo and Giordano.
I will never forget the time when I made an agreement with the client to make a full scale mock-up of Julia chair. It was memorable for me because it was my first time to make a mock-up and I had to say yes right away so that they will be able to help me in making Julia possible. I did the mock-up from scratch with a little help from my friends in helping me find scrap materials.
When you look at a cylinder on top view, you see a square shaped form, when you fold a square then it looks like a triangle. These simple views motivates me to be a designer - to see things from different perspectives.
While I was studying industrial design in San Francisco, California, USA, my friend reminded me that, when we were kids I once told her that my role model is St. Joseph and that I wanted to be a carpenter. I don't recall telling her that, but I do remember when I was a kid, I would play on my father's hammer and screw drivers.
Thousand years from now, just like technology, people will be very much dependent on design in every aspect - that design will be a part of hierarchy of needs - hopefully in a good impact in one's life.
Designer Interview
30 April 2017
It was in 2007 when I realized that I wanted to become an industrial designer. My friend, who was then an industrial design student (and I was a computer applications student) at a Philippine based school, asked me to sit in her prototype presentation finals class. I was in awe at how my friend and her classmates were able to make mock-ups on their own from scratch. So after my first college graduation, I decided to study industrial design at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, USA. I graduated in 2010 and decided to go back to Manila, Philippines. My path to furniture design started when I joined Red Box, a design development program for young designers initiated by Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). Julia chair was showcased in October 2015 at Manila Fame, an international furniture show based in the Philippines.
I am a project based furniture designer. My goal is to be able to promote Filipino handcrafted pieces through my design and ideas.
Design for me is a continuing process of creating something new from an existing object. It can also be a combination of two or more existing objects, creating a new form and/or function. In the end, design should not only be an idea or a plan, but it should be executed and expressed. For the design to be a success, I think your audience should be able to have his/her own interpretation, making it their own.
I like designing furniture pieces.
My most favorite design is the Julia Chair. It started when I was playing with two rubber armlets trying to make forms. As for the material, the first thing that came into my mind is wood slats and I thought it would work well not only as a wall accent but also as a chair.
My first client was Triboa Bay Living as I designed the Julia chair. I also designed a nesting table to pair it with the chair.
Wood is a common material for a furniture. But to me it is the most challenging material application because even if it is common, you have to make new styles, techniques and patterns for you, as a designer, to be unique and interesting.
I feel most creative when I look at basic things. It makes me want to add something to it, creating a new purpose.
During designing, I try to focus more on making it simple but unique as possible. I believe in the saying less is more.
As much as possible, I want to use all of my emotions and senses when I design. Even when you are sad, you try to get ideas from the reason you feel that way and make it into something tangible and useful.
When my designs are being appreciated, there is a sense of satisfaction but only for a short period of time because design to me is a continuing process and I should keep moving from one project to another. I sometimes get my drive to keep going from people who has seen my design and they give their suggestion for more ideas.
I believe a design is successful when you are able to make the other person or your audience have their own interpretation of your design. When I designed Julia chair, my interpretation of it is the element of continuity. And then during Julia chair's first exhibit, people shared their different interpretations - some say it looks like a fan, some say it looks like a twisted bracelet. And I think that's what makes a design successful.
In a furniture designed piece, the first thing to consider is the comfort and function of it. No matter how beautiful the furniture is, if it doesn't feel right, it doesn't serve its purpose and it doesn't make it a design at all.
I think the participation of a designer to the society and the environment is making things around us more interesting and useful and from there we are able to rediscover not only what the society and environment need but also ourselves.
I see more clearly now the union between design and art. I think this is where industrial design comes in - when you put an aesthetic feel to an object. Like when buildings used to be just a rectangular shaped structure to serve its purpose of providing an office space and now buildings are curvy and slanted, when a spoon are usually plain and has one function, now can be a fork or even a chopstick, which has multifunctional!
My last exhibit was in October 2016 at the Manila Fame Furniture Show in Manila, Philippines. I want my next exhibition to be in San Francisco California or anywhere in the United States - where it all began as an industrial designer.
My design inspiration works usually come from home. I start by holding on and staring at an object. Then I use papers and cutter to create different interpretations from the object.
I use basic elements and play around with them until something entirely new comes out of this reinvention of the old.
I live in Manila, Philippines wherein furniture manufacturing is an important and big industry in our country. What I like about our furniture industry is the variety of materials such as wood, metal, stone, bamboo, leather and mixed media collections, and that most of these materials are crafted.
Compromise and constant communication with companies to have a good execution of their ideas and my design.
Companies should learn how to compromise with and trust their designers. Designers will be able to execute their work well if the company will let the designer do their own strategy, after you have explained to them your thoughts.
My design process usually starts by holding on and staring at an object. Then I use papers and cutter to create different interpretations from the object. After creating more than one interpretation, I select one or two that suits best for what I want. The rest of the inspiration, I try to find another purpose to it.
Headboard
Bed
Toothbrush holder
Nesting Table
Lolita Night lamp
Bed
Toothbrush holder
Nesting Table
Lolita Night lamp
As a designer, I would focus on a basic shape or common object and try to see different view/s on it.
My suggestion to young designers is to keep thinking of ideas and put everything in writing or draw your ideas. If you find an idea bad or not useful, don't throw it away;keep it and maybe in a few years you'll go over it and find a new purpose to it. Always remember to keep all ideas simple but new.
A positive thing about being a designer is being creative and imaginative in anything. What's negative about being a designer is sometimes they don't accept criticism.
Less is more.
It is important for a designer to have his/her own identity in terms of uniqueness and creativity. If the designer is not certain on his/her design style, it will confuse his/her target audience and eventually his/her own.
Since I make small scale mock ups using paper, my main tool would be cutter.
Designing is hard when you try to manage your time or set a time period to it. It is because it loses my focus to it and I don't want to force myself in doing something that might ruin its beauty or purpose. But what I do, especially when there is a deadline to meet, is to ask help from other people for ideas or comments to my design so as to make it easier to finalize the design.
It can take up for days since designing deals with research and development, and a variety of forms and inspirations.
What is the story behind the name of your design?
My most important job experience was when I designed furniture pieces for Triboa Bay Living.
As of now, my first and latest client is Triboa Bay Living.
I enjoy tinkering and cutting papers when designing. It makes me create new forms and be able to be in harmony with outside factors such as light, shadow, even the blow of the wind.
The latest I did for Triboa and for Julia chair is pair it with a nesting table. I would want to make more pieces to partner it with Julia/to be able to make a collection. In addition, I still would want to focus on using wood as a material for my design pieces.
So far, all of my designs are developed by myself. I am not sure how well I will be working with a team but I think I'll be more productive in my own terms.
I would like my last year's design to develop it by creating a collection in order to create a story.
You may reach me through the following:
+63917 508 5296
mnzlazo@yahoo.com
+63917 508 5296
mnzlazo@yahoo.com