To support and honor French creativity. This is the mission of Le French Design 100 festival, the only design prize in France that promotes French designers in the world. Now at its second year, the event is organized by the governmental association VIA, based on an idea of Philippe Starck, with the support of the French President Emmanuel Macron.
The aim of the festival is to select 100 projects (products and interiors) that convey the essential values of French design, namely art de vivre, elegance, audacity, creativity and know-how.
Komachi Beni by natacha.sacha
“How can we export French design to the world? Two parameters must be complied with,” says Philippe Starck, creator and guest of honor of the festival: “First, designers, artists and creatives have to remember their social, humanistic, ecological role, and then they have to forget about the ultrafast cycles dictated by fashion. Today we need to get back to the true values of a profession, to offer a true service.”
The projects have been selected by an international jury chaired by Hervé Lemoine, director of Mobilier National, together with many experts, including Deyan Sudjic, director emeritus of the Design Museum of London, Jennifer Flay, artistic director of the FIAC in Paris, Leila Anna Wahba, director and curator of the Architecture + Design Museum of Los Angeles, and Miryon Ko, director for art and culture of Cartier Japan.
Ines Le Bihan
The output is a variegated database also published online in the form of a digital map, to promote talents and to measure the impact of French creativity on the international scene.
The 100 chosen talents include outstanding names like the Bouroullec brothers, Christophe Pillet, Christophe Delcourt, Constance Guisset, India Mahdavi and Jean-Marie Massaud, just to mention a few, as well as a range of emerging talents: one of them is Inès Le Bihan, inserted in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2019, who works in Seattle as part of the Facebook design team, after having worked for Yann Kersalé in Paris, Nendo in Tokyo and Ideo in China. Her projects include connected wearable devices, smart furnishings and virtual reality experiences for companies like HTC, Xiaomi and Samsung, and the Oarlock headphones for Klipsch, where the designer has reduced the components, eliminating visible fasteners, for example, to bring out the function and the materials like wood and leather.
Ines Le Bihan, Oarlock Headphone
The selection also contains the duo natacha.sacha, winners of the Rising Talents 2020 award of Maison&Objet. Before launching the studio, Natacha Poutoux had the chance to work with Stefan Diez, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Possible Future, while Sacha Hourcade worked with Klauser & Carpenter and then India Mahdavi. Together, they focus on the poetic reinvention of uses for products, furnishings and spaces, as in the case of the Cosmétique make-up set in ceramic and wood for the Japanese cosmetics brand Isehan Honten.
Ludovic Roth ©Thomas Lang
Another rising talent is Ludovic Roth, born in 1983, based in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, who has collaborated with Mathieu Lehanneur, Fabrice Berrux and Erik Arlen Arro Studio; recent projects include the Lux Tempora Line, an astronomical clock that redefines the image of time, representing the speed of light through the voyage of a photon in the solar system.
Ludovic Roth, Lux Tempora Line Clock©Thomas Lang
Finally, Samuel Accoceberry, hailing from Bordeaux but based in Paris and Biarritz, is an experienced designer still not very well known outside the boundaries of France: he has worked with Arik Levy, Antonio Citterio and Rodolfo Dordoni, and his creations have been shown in prestigious settings like the Musée d’Art Moderne and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and the Design Museum of Holon.
Samuel Accoceberry Studio©Alexandre Delamadeleine
Samuel Accoceberry stands out for an artisanal approach applied to all disciplines, from furniture to public spaces, lighting to set design; in 2018 he and the metalworker Bruce Cecere launched the brand SB26 to explore – like goldsmiths – the limits of working with metals, to produce unique objects and lamps.
Samuel Accoceberry Studio, Rigel Table Lamp ©Alexandre Delamadeleine
The results of the selection will be on view during the upcoming Salone del Mobile, in an exhibition titled Voyage en Intérieur: Le French Art de Vivre.
