Material Tendencies: Todd Bracher
Design is about communicating the human experience. This is what drives Brooklyn-based industrial designer and educator Todd Bracher.
Anita Hackethal, Architonic: If you had to restrict yourself to working with just one material for the next three years, which would you choose?
Todd Bracher: Wood. It is a timeless material. And wood is remarkably flexible, you can do so many things with it. From building a house to making a toothpick, you can go to the extremes.
Can you identify certain trends in materials?
I try to identify what is truthful. If you are honest and loyal to the truth, your result is timeless. For example, if you look at a tree, I don’t think you question if it is beautiful or not. You don’t say that it looks like it is from the 1980s. It is a tree. It is beautiful. It is a truthful result. My goal is to create something that surpasses trends.
What do you think of the expectation to continually produce something NEW?
People haven’t changed. What is meaningful remains: shelter, security, health, happiness, love. I think it’s important that we design to these constant values. It’s the cultural context that is moving. I try to find the baseline that has linked humanity since the beginning of time.
This article originally appeared on Architonic, where TLMag presents articles in French and English.
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