Objects that Inspire - Valextra and Apple
Here are two more designs that have been influential in the development of our cases.
Design magazine Wallpaper led me to Valextra. My first visit to their website was a significant moment - discovering a company that combines immaculate leather craftsmanship with the purest of minimalist forms.
Valextra create luggage that lasts - once a design is in their collection it stays there for ever and only a few new pieces are created each year. It is my intention that Calder designs will have a similarly long life.
The Valextra Premier was designed in 1973 by Italian minimalist A.G. Fronzoni and is now in MoMA's permanent collection. The purity of the Premier sets a benchmark against which I measure my work. The Calder laptop case draws upon this Fronzoni design; I hope we have created something worthy of that connection.
Not handmade but designed with immense skill the Apple Powerbook is central to my life and an ongoing inspiration. The combination of materials, form and function seem pretty well perfect. Creating working tools that give great aesthetic pleasure is at the heart of my work.
categories: laptop case
Calder blog home page
Calder website home page
Design magazine Wallpaper led me to Valextra. My first visit to their website was a significant moment - discovering a company that combines immaculate leather craftsmanship with the purest of minimalist forms.
Valextra create luggage that lasts - once a design is in their collection it stays there for ever and only a few new pieces are created each year. It is my intention that Calder designs will have a similarly long life.
The Valextra Premier was designed in 1973 by Italian minimalist A.G. Fronzoni and is now in MoMA's permanent collection. The purity of the Premier sets a benchmark against which I measure my work. The Calder laptop case draws upon this Fronzoni design; I hope we have created something worthy of that connection.
Not handmade but designed with immense skill the Apple Powerbook is central to my life and an ongoing inspiration. The combination of materials, form and function seem pretty well perfect. Creating working tools that give great aesthetic pleasure is at the heart of my work.
categories: laptop case
Calder blog home page
Calder website home page
posted by Nick CC at
3:50 PM
2 Comments:
Actually, Nick, you'd be surprised how much hand-work and care goes into each PowerBook which is exactly why they look and feel they way they do.
I should know, it's my hands and it's my care which make them that way. (Other people help too.)
When we interview people at Apple for manufacturing development positions (my job is to figure out how to make our stuff awesome, not cheap, just awesome) we play "stump the chump" and hand people out parts and ask if they can tell how it's made. Few people can because no one assume we would use the labor and time intensive methods we do in mass production.
You attention to quality is admirable, though I would stress that hand-made is not the way to ensure quality, but it's attention. It my and my colleague's attention that ensure Apple makes the best electronics in the world, and it's your attention that will make excellent cases.
Your persistence is clearly paying off, and I hope it really does pay for you as a reward for your diligent work.
-Dave
P.S. I'm going to steal some design elements for a personal case I'm making for the guitar(s) I built in my time away from Asia.
Dave - I am very happy to have an Apple guy appreciate our work.
It makes complete sense that the special quality of Powerbooks comes from handwork. Yes attention is the key - and attention comes from really caring about what you are doing and why.
I'm happy you should take elements of my design and I'd like to see your case when its done.
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