Interview with Steinn Sigurðsson

KulturogKaos is the name of a company that me and a colleague established five - six years ago. We specialize in making prototypes of lamps and tables but are preparing to make prototypes of sofas and chairs as well.

Design is very important to me and the way things in my surrounding look and are designed matter a lot to me. I enjoy good design in the smallest things, such as packaging, cutlery to furniture and cars. New design"twist" and rule breaking is the first attempt in developing new items.

I like to design almost everything and have designed lamps, furnitures, household items and cars.

My most favourite design was when I participated in an international design contest to design and build a body over an electric car chassis that only had 145 cm wheel base. It was a challenge to draw such a small car that still had to look like a car rather than a square cube. But the result turned out great and I won the first prize for it. I have to add my second favourite design which was also a car, which I named Xtremer and is a 4x4 super car built for the Icelandic wilderness.

The first thing I designed for a company was an exterior finish for digital "taxi fare meter" which was to be put on a taxi car dash board

My favourite material to work with is aluminum, plastic, plywood, iron and metaltubes.

Sometimes it can be difficult to be creative and solutions don´t always come when you need them but I find that sometimes the best ideas come when I relax and when I jog I often get my best ideas.

I first focus on apearance or looks, second on looks, third on looks. Simplicity and new solutions are important.

It is always exciting and challenging to start working on new design and ideas

Sense of achievement and excitement when an idea works out well.

In my view a successful design is when usage is not compromised by looks or appearance.

Originality, looks and usagecome first.

I think it should be the designer´s responsibility to think of the environment and use environfriendly material and stay away from wasteful developements.

A combination of simplicity, usage and decorativeness is the answer. In my mind design is always becoming more and more important

I exhibited four new tables at DesignMarch which was held at the new Orchestra Center, Harpa, here in Reykjavik in March 27th - 30th 2014. I would like to show my work in Europe, preferably in Italy, as I think my design would be appreciated there.

The harsh and challenging landscape in Iceland has had great influence on my work and sometimes when I travel in our extreme nature it gives me ideas. For example a few years go I was traveling in a remote part of Iceland I pictured in my mind a car, Xtremer, that I later designed and built.

Firstly I try to be original and different. I like to have my design be modern simplistic and hopefully rulebreaking.

I live in Iceland, a land of extremes, with hot springs,active volcanoes and glaciers. The landscape and extreme weather has given me inspiration and has affected my design more than the culture. The pros of living in Iceland is that the country is vast and everybody has a lot of space and that helps to have an open mind.

My small company KulturogKaos design and make prototypes and then we try to find companys that are interested in producing.

My suggestion is that the designer should be able to work as independantly as possible. For a company to select a good designer it is important for the designer to bring something substancial to the table, such as a working prototype

First I get an idea then I design it, often numerous times, and then develope it and finally make prototypes.

My favourite items are all items I have designed and built myself, stand lamp, table lamp, a concrete TV cabinet, sofa table (Kaos) and small tables that I call Sills that you bring with you and use next to you wherever you are, called Place to Place.

Each day is different, depending on if I am working on a new idea or if the idea is further along and I can start thinking about making a prototype. And at that time it is convenient to live in a small city like Reykjavik where it only takes a few minutes to get the material as most of the suppliers are close by.

In order to become a successful designer it is necessary that it is your dream and you have to realize that it is a lot of work and never be happy with your work but redesign again and again.

The positive side of being a designer is to see an item that you created that wouldn´t be there if it wasn´t for your work.

My golden rule is to be original.

To be able to see, think and draw in three dimensions

All my sketches are done on the drawing table and on later stages drawn in the computer.

Sometimes making a design works like a dream but otherwise it can be very time consuming.

Sometimes it can take years to perfect an item, like a household item that I made a few years ago, called Visio Vac, which is a culling device for vacuum cleaners.

How do you get your ideas.

My most important job experience was when making the Visio Vac device that includes hundreds of hours in design and mechanical drawings along with numerous travels to an engineer in Germany and business partners in Denmark and trips to Trade shows and to China for the production.

My culling device has been sold in department stores in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and a few European countries. My furnitures are sold under the name KulturogKaos mostly on the internet.

I enjoy most to design small,environment friendly micro cars, as I feel that is most challenging.

Chairs, sofas but also micro cars

I develop my designs myself, but also work as a team.

I have always work in progress but don´t want to discuss tha for now, I prefer to talk about the work I have already done.

Best by e-mail: steinnsig@simnet.is ; kulturogkaos@gmail.com

No, I think this has been very thorough