OnOffice chats to the award-winning, Danish designer about her approach to work and passion for craftsmanship
Cecilie Manz is an award-winning designer based in Copenhagen, where she combines the Scandinavian tradition of simplicity with a modern, international expression. Her pieces are understated but always memorable, and she has worked with the likes of TAKT, Muuto and Fritz Hansen on rugs, furniture, lamps, ceramics and home accessories. We met her in her studio to find out how she balances her own creative vision with brand requirements.
OnOffice: You’ve said that you work primarily in two lanes: ‘freewheeling’ projects and commissions. Is the process different?
Cecilie Manz: For me, every project begins with function. The degree of functionality can vary, but I never make things simply for the sake of making them. So take one of my freewheeling projects: the coat tree I made years ago. The origin story for that piece was very low-key practical. I remember I was hanging my newly ironed shirt on the door handle at home, and in a way, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I thought maybe I could make a piece of furniture to improve this.
At the beginning, I didn’t have a vision of what it should look like, but the process of hard work on paper and models led me there. It was the functionality – the need for something in the world – that made me start. In this case, it was really a demand from my own personal life, and that’s always a good source for inspiration, I find.
When you work with a client, you need to think about this question a bit more broadly, about needs bigger and more universal than your own. But I still always have this simple rule for every project, which helps me to edit and stay sharp: I must be able to bring every object I make home with me, and it should look natural in my home. If I don’t want to live with it, then I shouldn’t make it.
OO: What changes or evolutions have you witnessed in the industry?
CM: When I came out of design school, the industry in Denmark was not like it is today. We didn’t have HAY; we didn’t have Muuto – all we had were the old players, the legacy designers, and they were creating classics. They didn’t know what we young kids could offer, and they weren’t interested in us. I was rejected a lot, so I decided to do my own experimental work. I jumped into being a freelance designer and I learned by doing. I’d create design experiments and stage small exhibitions, but no brands paid me attention.
The exception to this rule was Fritz Hansen. All those years ago, the company was the first to say, “OK, let’s see what you can do.” We didn’t succeed in collaborating for many years, but they had the guts to let me try. At a time when everybody else was only working with dead people and Italians, Fritz Hansen took a chance on me.
I’m not saying that it’s easier now for young designers, but I do think that the industry has opened more to new ideas. I don’t think you can do anything today that would really shock people. If what you make doesn’t fit with what’s on trend, you can just decide to put it in a new box of ‘art design’, or something else. In my time, what was accepted and embraced was much more limited.
OO: How do you balance your own voice with the specifics of a brand you work with?
CM: I’ve become good at figuring out whether I can understand the client and connect with what they stand for before I get involved. If we take the Monolit chair as an example, it was very easy for me to connect with the brand and feel myself in it. The resulting chair is a harmony of us both: I created a shape that is a bit bolder than I might propose for someone other than Fritz Hansen – it works because the company has a history of powerful visual pieces. Then there are the materials used, the linen and the canvas, that are core materials for Fritz Hansen, part of its DNA.
It felt very intuitive for me to work within the Fritz Hansen frame – I feel a longstanding connection to the company. But for any brand I work with, it starts with me trying to distill and understand its essence – then decide if I want to bring my vision into a relationship with theirs. The connection has to be there, and it has to be right.
OO: What was the biggest challenge in blending Fritz Hansen’s heritage with the demands of modern design?
CM: There were many challenges with Monolit in terms of balance, angle, engineering… But there always are, that’s part of the process. And I would never stay out of that process. I see it as my responsibility to follow the project to its very end. Monolit took a lot of adjustment; changing the proportions and the angles back and forth, always sitting on the chair at every stage to be sure it felt right. These kinds of decisions are a combination of aesthetic experience, knowledge, vision and preference.
People often say that designers need to strike a compromise between form and function, but I don’t believe that. At the end of the day, all elements need to meet somewhere that makes sense, where structure and shape and function and aesthetic come together in balance and harmony. I don’t believe it’s compromise, because a design simply doesn’t work if any elements are out of balance.
OO: How would you define ‘impactful design’?
CM: I think this is something Fritz Hansen is very good at. Our Essay table is bold because it has no apron underneath; just these two gables, or runners, and a plank of wood set on top. Fritz Hansen was very slow, and very serious, in this process. They were careful to check the dryness of the wood to see how it would hold up over time and in different climates. They actually sent it to different countries and waited months to observe it.
To me, that makes all the difference: doing things the right way means that you create something that is actually sustainable. Because now this table stands strong for decades – it doesn’t bend or crack. For me, timeless doesn’t mean it should look a certain way; it means doing the groundwork, testing the wood and finding the right solution – not the easy or convenient solution.
OO: What shifts or evolutions do you think the industry must embrace in the coming years?
CM: I really believe that if we are making something new, it should be made the right way from the very beginning. That means taking it slow, being thorough – design from the inside out, not just to keep up with the trends. I think people become obsessed with these ideas – like hygge, for example – and are convinced that ‘Scandinavian design’ is a look or a style that you can just buy in a small bottle and sprinkle on top, like a colour of the year. But that’s not how I work. It’s a fine balance, of course, because companies are under pressure to sell. But if you work that way – superficially – then real design is reduced to just a sprinkle. Stuff for stuff’s sake rather than taking the time to make things that can stand the test of time.
Images courtesy of Fritz Hansen
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