Interview with Yilmaz Dogan

Just like a novelist bringing their thoughts to life via sentences and a poet achieving a magical form through words, I believe a designer has the same magical influence. Design is the art of combining your thoughts, what you dream about with shape, form and function and visualizing them. This is the feeling that pushed me to become a designer. I believe design is one of the most important values to be able to create a better world, a more livable physical environment.

I think design is not a discipline to be performed by force, without loving it, desiring it; being a designer means choosing a lifestyle beyond having an occupation. It is not much possible to design without wanting it with all your heart, feeling it deep inside and being bound to it.

I mostly design furniture for different living spaces. I like using wood with metal, glass, textile, marble and different materials in general. I am designing a very special kitchen collection formed by different styles. I have a particular interest in lighting. I am experimenting to integrate design approaches of different disciplines into the furniture design. I have started a long-term project for electronically integrated furniture. I am also working in inclusive design.

Design is a very long journey which requires great amount of loyalty and labor. They should take the time and show patience enough to become mature in such an age when everything is consumed rapidly. Otherwise, they will be disappointed most of the time.

I think a good designers act by defining the needs of today properly, but a great designer sets off by defining and considering the needs of not only today but also tomorrow.

This is a very relative matter. You need to answer accordingly if you design for masses; you need to have different answers if you design exclusively. But the common ground is “A good design should be honest,” as Dieter Rams said.

A good design provides you with additional comfort, facilitates your life; give you time, status, motivation, productivity, safety. A good design can save your life. A good design essentially possesses a very special accumulation of thought. A good design covers today and tomorrow; therefore, I think it is a wrong investment not to invest in a good design.

22oC room temperature, 20% humidity, environmental sound under 32db, a good music, a bit of concentration... Joking aside, there is no formulation, recipe of the creativity process in design. What you feed on, what you collect, anything you are influenced by at the moment takes you to a journey. With an image, a line, a dream, you try to go somewhere; you just chase a thought, a function, a meaning.

I think I’ve been influenced by John HESKETT most about design narration and criticism.
“Behind the whole chaos created by foam and bubbles of advertisement and promotion, behind the visual skill shows of master designers chasing the stardom, beyond the declarations of design gurus and the rubbish of lifestyle salespersons, “there lies a simple truth.
Design is a basic characteristic which makes human. It is a must that determines the quality of human’s life,” says John Heskett.
Philippe Starck, Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando are other three people who have affected me most.

I don’t believe in such a phenomenon as the greatest design. Design is a quite relative concept comprised of several disciplines. It is impossible to prove a claim such as “the greatest” and believe that in such a comprehensive conceptual phenomenon. One cannot achieve being the greatest in the end and decided it in a professional discipline of which learning and experiencing process lasts for life. “I think the best design is what is yet to be designed.”

If hadn’t become a designer, I’d have become a designer. This is a passion; you sleep and wake up with this passion. I haven’t thought of anything else. I haven’t wanted to become anything else.

We conduct several different design projects as a team simultaneously. We have many projects from living space furniture to a special kitchen collection and design of lighting products; some of them are complete, others are in the development stage, and some of them are just an idea. We are going to launch our own brand towards the end of 2019.

Design is a phenomenon that exist in every field that comes to mind such as communication, transportation, education, fashion, public services, living spaces and their accessories. It is the most exhaustive phenomenon which emerged with the history of humankind and has evolved and become mature with it and has caused technological, organizational and cultural changes. Good design means more function, better ergonomics, more economic production, and more efficient use of resources. As objectives of these values evolve for better, there will be better physical and communicational conditions. Such development will also enhance the quality of social life.

The more I’m free and the more I can contribute from myself while working on a project, the happier I become and the more I own that project. I’m more content with projects of which boundaries I set. I usually like investigating the traces of ethnic cultures and their philosophies. I find their beliefs, cultures, lifestyles, and the symbols, marks, forms and philosophies which they derive from the sum of the former. I think these are the projects I’m most satisfied with in which I am most free and explore new things.

The very rapid change in technology in the last 30 years has caused unbelievable changes in the discipline of design. Technology and design are developing in parallel. I think our all lifestyles and consumption habits will transform completely in the next 30 years. Our ways of transportation will change, concept of space and boundaries will be questioned, and even our forms of communication will change. I believe the humankind will discover the limitless energy resource, and it will be a breakpoint which will change everything. I believe that the discipline of design developing in parallel with the rapid and merciless advancement of technology needs to develop by ensuring efficient and proper use of world’s resources and contributing to sustainability. I believe sustainable design and inclusive design will develop for a better and more livable world.

Each project has its own timing. This also reflects the soul and story of that project actually. While some complex and difficult projects are completed in a very short time, other design projects cannot be completed for life. Some of the design projects have been designed to create a connection, a story between themselves and their users; this story builds up as it is experienced. Other design projects transform and evolve over time and acquire another function. Therefore, it is not much possible to assign a duration for a design project.

There is no certain methodology of starting a design project. An idea is like a seed; you sow it, and then, with a bit of water, it turns its first leaf to the sun. This is the first acquaintance of the seed with the sun. It is nourished by the sun; then it grows and fruits. A design idea is like that. That idea seed is first sowed in your thoughts, waits there and is watered with your practices. After the thought has completed its first maturation, a pen and a paper become a sun to that thought, and the idea grows on that paper.
When starting a design project, I review all meaningful or meaningless source on that matter, take down notes and draw sketches. Then I combine them.

Design is made to set the trend in the first place. After setting the trends, humans start to design to comply with the trend. It is a vicious cycle. It is the same as the chicken and egg situation.

I think design is one of the disciplines using the technology at its highest level. From artificial intelligence to augmented reality, virtual reality; 3D printers to laser scanners; multi-axis CNCs to high-capacity computers; new custom materials to very special drawing and rendering programs, many instruments and programs are used to produce ideas and practice in the discipline of design. I don’t think it is possible for the discipline of design to improve without technology. As the technology advances, there are fewer limits before the design.

We are using all instruments from 3D printers to multi-axis CNCs, laser scanners to molding systems, AR and VR systems to rendering programs within today’s technology. But we never let technology kill the spirit of our designs.

I believe everything has a story behind it. I want people to understand this story in our designs.

I cannot help my curiosity when I see a product that is new and I like very much. I try to examine all of it. Such curiosity makes you act unexpectedly in unexpected places, surely. You can find yourself laying under a table like a mechanic. But when I see an admirable product, I respect the designer most and feel the honor as much as them. Because good design will save the world.

Of course, I believe co-design. Another person may see a detail that you take a close look at but cannot solve. I believe there is no improvement without criticism. I care a lot about the opinions of my partner and team at QZENS Furniture & Design which I am the co-founder. We work as a team in many projects.

I cannot give a precise answer to this question. We are in touch with many people; each of them has different perspectives and approaches. You take a piece of every person you touch and their pieces become a whole inside you. A designer creates a whole with what they see, touch, utilize, read and think and then express them in their own interpretation to provide a work. I think there are many colors like a rainbow, but their combination forms a single color, the while.

I don’t claim I’m a master designer in a world in which so many precious masters have produced so many works. I’m certainly very proud of having contended and been deemed worthy of an award in front of such a great jury in the most participated design contest of the world; but, to me, such awards are like sources of motivation borrowed to do better, succeed more.

I think, God bless their souls, I would do so with John Heskett and Zaha Hadid.

QZENS is a company with a passion for creating elegant products and projects that blend art and technology, reject mediocrity and inspire awe.
We strive to share our view of luxury and offer an extraordinary experience with our products that have a story, where creativity and originality are felt in every detail, and at the same time have high material quality.
By combining modern production techniques with craftsmanship, we offer unique products and large-scale international projects with extraordinary details, personalized and site-specific productions.

Design, I think, is a spaceless and timeless journey that you start with a line and you don’t know where it will end. It is actually a deep hypnosis you start with a shadow, sometimes an image, a melody and sometimes a color without preparation and you get free of your self and identity. It is a talismanic disappearance in which you think you get somewhere but you cannot actually. Design is the state of productivity and expression you find during such disappearances.

I mostly design furniture for different living spaces. I like using wood with metal, glass, textile, marble and different materials in general. I am designing a very special kitchen collection formed by different styles. I have a particular interest in lighting. I am experimenting to integrate design approaches of different disciplines into the furniture design. I have started a long-term project for electronically integrated furniture. I am also working in inclusive design.

One of my favorite designs is GARDEN, designed by Peter Opsvik in 1985. Garden is an artistic object approach that changes all sitting habits. It is a design that breaks the patterns of seating behavior and function that we have memorized with a revolutionary and aesthetic rebellion. It is an icon and an art object at the same time. Peter Opsvik is too different a designer to fit into a few sentences here. As a designer whose Varier chair design was selected as one of the 50 designs that changed the world, he deserves more than our admiration.

I don’t recall a specific turning point as the very first thing I designed—it feels like shaping forms and following them has always been part of who I am. But looking back, the first design I can clearly remember for a company was a customer and teller counter for a bank branch. It was a complex piece involving a steel substructure, special cladding details, and custom glass elements.

Wood is my irreplaceable material. Yet when combined with marble, glass, and metal, these materials together open up the door to an infinite universe of possibilities.

There’s no specific time—it’s a fluid, abstract state. Sometimes after watching a film, listening to music, reading a book, or even just sitting silently, creativity strikes. There have been moments when I suddenly woke up at 4:00 a.m. with an idea, immediately reaching for my pen—some of those moments became pivotal in my life. Creativity is a kind of small madness that exists outside of space and time, yet somehow within it too.

I have a different approach to this question. Of course, when I design, I go through different emotions that go to extremes, but what is different is what the thing I design thinks. Although every design I make has emotions that it expresses through its form, its history, its source of inspiration, it has a feeling and expression that is formed at its core. Therefore, when I design this combination of form and function, I let it speak to me like a human being. This speaking is not a communication with words, but visual perception also has a language. Unfortunately, this is not a phenomenon that can be explained or taught. When you design a product, you give it a body and a set of meanings. The acceptance of what you design can only be possible with the way you approach it. I attach great importance to this inner peace and the product's appreciation of itself and its features. I think this approach is what makes it alive when it is inanimate. Therefore, when you look at a product, let it talk to you, listen to it, and it will open the doors to other worlds.

All efforts are sometimes made to make a dream come true. I think one of the greatest joys of my soul is to physically touch and feel a product I have designed. This is an indescribable feeling. The meeting of a design that grows in your thoughts and then materializes in your sketches and drawings with the real world. This is a process as miraculous as the moment of birth. The first meeting, the first touch, the first time you stand in front of it and watch it for the first time contains a lot of complex emotions.

“Beyond all the confusion created by the froth and bubble of advertising and publicity, beyond the visual pyrotechnics of virtuoso designers seeking stardom, beyond the pronouncements of design gurus and the snake-oil salesmen of lifestyles, lies a simple truth."
I believe what makes a design successful is that it presents you with the simple truth behind it.

This is a very relative issue. If you are designing for the masses you should have one answer, if you are designing for individuals you should have another answer. But what they all have in common is, as Dieter Rams says, "Good design has to be honest."

Design is a phenomenon that exist in every field that comes to mind such as communication, transportation, education, fashion, public services, living spaces and their accessories. It is the most exhaustive phenomenon which emerged with the history of humankind and has evolved and become mature with it and has caused technological, organizational and cultural changes. Good design means more function, better ergonomics, more economic production, and more efficient use of resources. As objectives of these values evolve for better, there will be better physical and communicational conditions. Such development will also enhance the quality of social life.

The very rapid change in technology in the last 30 years has caused unbelievable changes in the discipline of design. Technology and design are developing in parallel. I think our all lifestyles and consumption habits will transform completely in the next 30 years. Our ways of transportation will change, concept of space and boundaries will be questioned, and even our forms of communication will change. I believe the humankind will discover the limitless energy resource, and it will be a breakpoint which will change everything. I believe that the discipline of design developing in parallel with the rapid and merciless advancement of technology needs to develop by ensuring efficient and proper use of world’s resources and contributing to sustainability. I believe sustainable design and inclusive design will develop for a better and more livable world.

The last exhibition I participated in was part of a collective art event: the ARTNOVA Art Fair held in Ankara, Turkey. It brought together many artists, designers, and academics from different disciplines. As for the next one, I don't have a date set yet.

I usually like investigating the traces of ethnic cultures and their philosophies. I find their beliefs, cultures, lifestyles, and the symbols, marks, forms and philosophies which they derive from the sum of the former. I think these are the projects I’m most satisfied with in which I am most free and explore new things.

I believe everything has a story behind it. I want people to understand this story in our designs.

I live in Ankara, Turkey. I think that the rich history of Anatolia and the fact that it has been home to different civilizations has a direct impact and positive contribution to my designs. Of course, I can also say that the details of different cultures that I have observed during my travels in different geographies have inspired me and contributed greatly to my designs.

There is no certain methodology of starting a design project. An idea is like a seed; you sow it, and then, with a bit of water, it turns its first leaf to the sun. This is the first acquaintance of the seed with the sun. It is nourished by the sun; then it grows and fruits. A design idea is like that. That idea seed is first sowed in your thoughts, waits there and is watered with your practices. After the thought has completed its first maturation, a pen and a paper become a sun to that thought, and the idea grows on that paper.
When starting a design project, I review all meaningful or meaningless source on that matter, take down notes and draw sketches. Then I combine them.

There’s no such thing as a “standard” day for me. Every day follows its own schedule and rhythm. I always start early—usually around 7:00 a.m. I mostly work on product or interior designs either early in the morning or very late at night; I value silence and minimal movement. A phone ringing or a message popping up—routine business duties—can kill my focus and creative impulse. When I design, I need to shut out all distractions and lose myself in the moment, often with music.

Design is a very long journey which requires great amount of loyalty and labor. They should take the time and show patience enough to become mature in such an age when everything is consumed rapidly. Otherwise, they will be disappointed most of the time.

The best part is how the problem-solving mindset nurtured by design spills over into human relationships—empathy and understanding challenges become second nature. The downside? You begin to see every flaw, every tiny problem. Eventually, everything starts to bother you. Learning to live with that can be tough.

In such an abstract and immeasurable field like design, I don’t think there can be a single golden rule. But if I had to name the most important principle for me, it’s “understanding.” Not just understanding the client or the need, but understanding the material itself. Every material has its own language, texture, elasticity, load-bearing behavior, and thermal response. I start by having a conversation with the material in my mind. When I design, say, a table, all the materials come together in my head, flying around in various scenarios, forming and reforming to create conceptual integrity. Understanding and communicating with the material is my core design philosophy.

I believe the answer lies in what I just shared: the ability to understand. That is the most essential skill for a designer.

We are using all instruments from 3D printers to multi-axis CNCs, laser scanners to molding systems, AR and VR systems to rendering programs within today’s technology. But we never let technology kill the spirit of our designs.

When designing, time and space cease to exist. It’s impossible for me to design without detaching from both. That’s why I often lose track of time. Sometimes it creates chaos, but I simply can’t battle with time when I’m deep into the process.

Each project has its own timing. This also reflects the soul and story of that project actually. While some complex and difficult projects are completed in a very short time, other design projects cannot be completed for life. Some of the design projects have been designed to create a connection, a story between themselves and their users; this story builds up as it is experienced. Other design projects transform and evolve over time and acquire another function. Therefore, it is not much possible to assign a duration for a design project.

Under an NDA, I designed a 3,500 m² private mansion and managed the entire turnkey process—from architectural works to custom furniture and accessories. It was located in a geographically challenging area with limited communication infrastructure, and the project took about 2.5 years. I handled every detail. When the owner moved in, he brought only his clothes and a vast art collection. Since then, I’ve done other projects of a similar scale, but this one was especially intense because every piece was custom-designed and handcrafted. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality, it’s like writing in water—you can’t share your most important works. It’s a hidden garden.

We have a clientele that includes well-known personalities such as heads of state, important business people and artists. However, due to the confidentiality of our clients, I cannot disclose their names.

I enjoy designing furniture and lighting the most. More than just enjoyment, these are my greatest passions.

This summer, we opened the first store of our brand QZENS in Ankara. This space now serves as the main showcase for all our products and also includes an experience center. Following the opening, our next step is to make our products available at selected points of sale in different countries. The idea of my designs reaching more people across the world is one of the things that excites me the most right now.

I believe in co-design. Another person may see a detail that you take a close look at but cannot solve. I believe there is no improvement without criticism. I care a lot about the opinions of my partner and team at QZENS Furniture, Art & Design which I am the co-founder and Head of Design. We work as a team in many projects.

You can contact us via Qzens website qzens.com, our social media accounts and our offices in Ankara and Milan.