Richard Yasmine: Connecting People Through Design

For Lebanese interior architect and product designer Richard Yasmine, design means the whole world. Minimal yet audacious, bold yet subtle, there’s a certain paradoxical quality to his designs. Yasmine treads a delicate balance. He draws heavily from the world around him, as much as he does from the world within. He relies on visual influences and traditional techniques unique to the Middle East, as much as he does on latest technologies. And yet, in spite of being so layered, his designs exhibit a deft lightness of being. A+D caught up with this eclectic designer for tete-a-tete…

Your first encounter with design?
Yasmine: My paternal family were in the business of couture. I was intrinsically drawn to shapes, colours, fabrics and materials. Besides, my home was brimming with influences. When I was very young, my only hobby was sketching elaborate dresses and houses, on every single piece of paper I could lay my hands on! I’ve been told that I was talented little boy. I think design was around me. I had this inane love for art, architecture and design. It was very clear to me right from the beginning that I would pursue design.

What inspires you?
Yasmine: I use my imaginary world as a simulation to try out new ideas creating new objects inspired from life, emotions, and the human body; physiology and needs. I also focus on internal chaos combined with a certain innate sensitivity; sometimes extreme and provocative, unexpected more often than not, but still minimal, bold and straightforward without disguising or hiding true reality. I never tend to identify the difference between reality and imagination. And that helps me in creating intriguing and controversial design objects. The production process might be complicated, but that’s me! Social issues and cultural taboos also govern my design language.

Your design aesthetic?
Yasmine: I make it a conscious effort to reflect a dynamic representation of my city and country. I always include an additional methodology in each of my project related to my culture and ritual by choosing the lines, shapes, materials; also by collaborating with skilled craftsmen from the region. The process is sometimes muddled, but the outcome is always sharp. My ultimate concern is to keep integrating the Lebanese soul in each of my designs. How do I define my design aesthetic? Well, it’s sober, geometric, ornamental, rhythmic, poetic and nostalgic. There’s a story behind each of your collection. Does the story come first or the design? Sometimes they come along, but most of the time I focus on a story or a social matter and try to raise awareness in my own way. You could call me a storyteller.

Tell us about your latest collections…
Yasmine: ‘AFTER AGO’ is an ode to an arch, a tribute to a city, an elegy of lost souls, altogether converted to emotional fantasy objects, transmitting functionality, however, remaining timeless and sculptural. It’s a hybrid collection inspired from the metaphorical Postmodernism/Memphis movement with a twist of graceful Art Deco lines assorted to monolithic Brutalistic sobriety. ‘

AFTER AGO’ is handcrafted and painted using multiple materials such as foam, lightweight concrete plaster, acrylic and stone ware/clay. The alteration between drawn black and white stripes on each side of the object translate a dramatic illusion of the internal and spatial chaos. Black is mysterious; it is associated with the unknown future, the undesirable or sad past while white is considered to be the colour of serenity and safety. Black traps space, while white opens space. Black evokes sophistic¬ation; the white communicates innocence and renewed beginnings. The objects induce an emotional alteration of the self, sad/happy, mad/sane, anxious/calm, death/life hate/love…, just like the fascinating history of my city Beirut with its multiple lives and layers throughout centuries, yet after each disaster it always rises from the ashes longing for eternal life.

‘WAKE UP CALL’ is a limited edition of table lamps composed of brass structure and hand blown organic-shaped sandblasted bulbs emphasizing the light on a landscape of multiple types of semi-precious rocks while highlighting on abandoned bird nests accentuating the call for help. ‘WAKE UP CALL’ is a mission acting as nature alert, with every tick of the clock; Nature is being destroyed let’s wake up and act fast.

Another recent collections of yours — The Cure. It goes beyond product design. There’s almost something philosophical about the design. Tell us more.
Yasmine: THE CURE’ (HEAVENLY PIE(A)CES) is an assortment of unconventional, serene yet hypnotizing white on white blended set up conceived as an experimental installation yet an interpretation of our inner spiritual substance with a deep therapeutic message associated with the notion of time and the philosophy of karma with its idea of renaissance after each failure moment creating an influential emotional charge reflecting forgiveness and self-reconciliation. As time is not an object or substance we can touch or see, not just a dimension, a quantity or a concept, however, it has many aspects and appears to represent different things to different people in diverse circumstances. Another way of looking at time is as the totality of three separate elements: past, present and future, while considering the past, living the moment though getting ready for the future/eternal life. Knowing the end of time awaken in us alertness for every moment of existence, this motivates us to disconnect from the present nevertheless overcome the harms of the history by focusing on the prosperous indefinite instant in a peaceful neutral kind of mania. The collection is made of white powder coated aluminum structure with various other materials such as brass, neo-cement, suede, Carrara marbleCarrara marble and couture handmade embroidery with beads, pearls and silk.

What next?
Yasmine: Next is already ‘Now’. I am showcasing at the moment two new collections in Milan 5VIE, ‘FLOWING FRAGMENTS’ and ‘SIZE MATTERS’… ‘SIZE MATTERS’ is an edition of several playful, however, glamorous volumetric pieces of furniture, conceived with multiple static elementary geometrical figures such as cylinders, cubes, prism, parallelepipeds, and more…Combined together to form dynamic useful objects, some made of brass and glass, others made of recycled compacted material structures concealed with oversized fabric compressed as drapery to fit each of the shapes then detained by a belt to fix yet to prevent the excess fabric from falling down. ‘SIZE MATTERS’ highlights on several social subjects, in particular, the overconsumption interpreted physically by the extra fabric inches, oppositely how communities or consumers should rethink, reduce and obstruct, well this is reflected by the belts precluding superfluous material… Furthermore, ‘SIZE MATTERS’ accentuate the ‘less is more’ theory, this approach involves stripping a design down to its bare essentials using minimal lines, casting aside any elements that do not contribute to the pure beauty or function of an object while keeping vital, graceful and practical shapes deprived of unnecessary embellishment. ‘Flowing fragments’ highlights on the production waste, left overs and offcuts, harvested during the production process, yet how can be turned into dramatic sculptural pieces as a way of sustainability. Showing how opposite forces are complementary, interconnected, and interdependent moreover how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

Have you ever suffered a creator’s block? What do you do, when you do?
Yasmine: Well sure it happens, we need to be in a mood to create, therefore lately I seek peace of mind. I do a lot of hiking in the woods discovering the splendour of nature, while contemplating the scenery I stimulate my imagination to pick up new substances inspired of its beauty. I love to walk in the old tiny streets of Beirut city while sipping a lot of coffee, the only inspiration you need at times!