MATALI CRASSET b. 1965 "Red Cell" desk, booksh

Provenance
Red Cell advertising agency, Paris, France

Literature
Gareth Williams, Matali Crasset, Paris, 2004, pp. 50-51

French designer Matali Crasset's career started in 1992, shortly after finishing her studies at the École National Supérieure de la Création Industrielle, when she exhibited her graduation project "La Trilogie Domestic" at the Triennale di Milano. A year later, she joined Philippe Starck and his studio. When Starck was appointed Art Director of Thomson Multimedia, she became Head of the company's Design Center, known as the Tim Thom. However, after a fertile collaboration of five years, she decided to strike out on her own.

Her approach to design is atypical. She refuses to rely on pure form in favor of a duality founded on function and humanity. Each piece she creates expresses a story, and the simplicity with which her concept is expressed is often contradictory to the complexity of the design. It is with humor and wit that Matali Crasset observes, interprets and uses our day-to-day routine in her designs. This approach enables Crasset to work on a wide range of projects of diverse scale, through the full spectrum of industrial, graphic and interior designs; from single pieces like the "When Jimmy Comes to Paris" bed to the realization of the HI Hotel in Nice.

The Red Cell advertising agency, the origin of the present lot, was her first interior design project and fully reflects Crasset's design philosophy. If one considers the office a second home, she based the design of a working unit (desk, bookshelf and screen) on the shape of a house. Working in an open space, it nevertheless gives the user as much a sense of privacy as of hospitality. The unit is modular and flexible and can work in many interiors despite having been commissioned for Red Cell.

In 2006, in addition to being named Designer of the Year in the Salon du Meuble in Paris, Matali Crasset is exhibiting an installation at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, from May to September.