Serial: Auxiliary Line for Things and People #11: The Designer Named Cecilie Manz
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PROFILE
Mai Tsunoo / Design Writer
After graduating from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, she worked for a manufacturer and then from 2012 to 2016, she served as an assistant to design engineer Toshiharu Yamanaka. Afterward, she spent a year in Scotland and is now working as a freelancer. While exploring expressions to unabashedly convey what needs to be communicated, she writes for media outlets like "Nikkei Design" while taking on tasks like organizing exhibits and copywriting. Some of her main work includes organizing University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science 70th Anniversary Exhibition "Potential Future: Engineering x Design" (National Art Center, 2018), and text writing for "Insects: Models for Design" (21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, 2019). Instagram / Web
The first solo exhibition of Danish designer Cecilie Manz in Japan was held at the art space "BaBaBa" in Takadanobaba and "maruni tokyo" in Higashi-Nihonbashi. The title of the exhibition was "TRANSPOSE: The Circulation of Ideas". The installation by Manz featured not only her own works but also sources of inspiration and tools from her office. Displayed on the long table was "Floyd", a design she created for Kvadrat, a leading fabric manufacturer in Northern Denmark.
Since interviewing her last year during the unveiling of her new furniture series "EN" for the Japanese furniture brand Maruni, I apologize for not being able to share our conversation until now, but I decided to take this opportunity to do so. The main topic I asked her about at the time was "Women and design work". I was interested in how she built her career and what her early years were like.
In addition to Maruni's furniture, the most famous of Manz's works in Japan is probably her speaker for Bang & Olufsen. As a product designer who has undertaken a wide range of designs for furniture, home appliances, and tableware, she speaks with an honest mindset, "Design is useful, functional. There are many constraints such as materials and manufacturing methods, and it's essential to understand the client". At the same time, she says these constraints do not "kill ideas". Because certain requirements are narrowed down, you are able to focus on the work.
