A Seat at the Big Table with Alain Gilles

Alain Gilles

“The fact that I have lived several lives and worked in different fields has certainly helped me develop a different eye but also a certain rationality that even the most daring projects need” – Alain Gilles

Award-winning designer Alain Gilles has long been on our radar for his unique and thrilling designs.  Whether it’s a new table, an armchair or a mirror – with Gilles you know you are going to see something exciting and out of the ordinary.

Several of his products have been awarded international prizes. Titles include ‘Designer of the Year’ by the prestigious ‘Interieur Kortrijk Fair’; the ‘Henry Van De Velde Label’; the ‘Design for Asia Golden Award’; The ‘Red Dot Best of the Best’ for his Bonaldo Welded table and the ‘Good Design’ award for Bonaldo’s iconic Big Table.

Alain Gilles & Big Table

Gilles’ Big Table has become an international best seller and is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.  To mark this milestone year Bonaldo has produced a Special Edition in beautiful Saint Denis green marble with matching steel legs.

GM:   What was the original idea behind Big Table?

AG:   The original idea was to make a table that didn’t feel static. A table that, because of its four different legs in different colours, always looked different depending on where you were looking at it from. It’s really a table that has an evolving personality.  Where the base plays with light and shadow through its openings. It’s also a large rectangular table that feels like it is resting on one central point.  So the idea was also to make people wonder how it could really be stable.

GM:   Has its success surprised you?

AG:   Yes, definitely!  I think it surprised everyone!  How could I ever have expected that it would ever become the design icon it has become? When I designed it 10 years ago, I had just started designing on my own after changing life.  I wanted to do something striking, I wanted people to notice that I existed as a designer!

GM:   What was the thought behind the materials/colour for the special anniversary edition version?

AG:   With Bonaldo we really wanted to do something special.  I also wanted to show that we could still surprise people with a Big Table that had just turned 10 years old.  There are now a lot of different version available of the Big Table, but none ever had a marble top because marble was deemed too heavy for the base. Mable also very much seemed fit for a Special Edition…

So we used a “lightweight marble”  ( “marmo alleggerito” in Italian ).  Its a marble which is resting on a lightweight technical structure that enables the production of a table top that is a lot lighter.  We wanted a very deep marble so we used the very special green Saint Denis marble that comes from a very specific region in the Italian Alps. As for the legs, they were lacquered in a matching green since I wanted the whole piece to feel as whole and to be very sculptural.

GM:   Where do your ideas come from?  Do you work to a brief or are you given carte blanche?

AG:   I believe that in my life as a designer I only ever received three or four real briefs.  In general, when I visit a producer, a design house such as Bonaldo, we talk in a rather informal manner. I try to understand what their strengths are.  What special know-how they have, and what their general values are.  How I could play and have fun with all these things in order to create something unique and meaningful that also corresponds to my own DNA.  In some cases I will answer their request but in a lot of cases I very much have a carte blanche as long as what I am proposing makes sense to them at that specific moment.

“In general most of my ideas will come when I am either walking in the city, or just driving on the highway. In those moments when in my head I am between dream and reality and I just start seeing parts of a concepts”

In my work in general there are some recurring themes. Very often, when designing, I play with the architectural aspect of the product.  I envision it from a different point of view. I play a lot with the visual weight of the different parts of a product. I try to create discussions between the various elements in a piece. My work is also very graphic. Since I design a lot in 3D I can play very easily with material and colours and experiment.  In general I like my designs to have a certain visual dynamic, but lately I have also experimented with the concept of mass and stability. But above all, the concept needs to fulfil its function correctly.  When possible to create new logics and functionalities that correspond to the social changes happening in society.

GM:   As well as having your own Design Studio, you have now designed several products for Bonaldo.  If you had to rescue just one of these for your ‘Desert Island’, which one would it be and why?

AG:   This is the very impossible question!  I always consider my products as my “babies”, they are all different but how could I like one more that the other!

So, if I had to furnish my own little place on that “desert island” I would take more than one piece from what I have done for Bonaldo.  Definitely the Big Table because everyone needs a table, a Structure sofa and Eddy armchair because you want to be seated comfortably and in style.  A few Assemblage side tables, a Frame sideboard to hide all my things in.  And last but not least, one of my large New Perspective mirrors because you just might what to know what you look like and because it is almost an art piece!

Structure sofa
Eddy Armchair
Assemblage side tables
Frame sideboard
New Perspective mirrors
GM:   Which part of the design process gives you the most pleasure?

AG:   For sure, it is when I come up with the concept.  It doesn’t have to be the full final design yet.  But when I know which concept I want to work on, then I can find the solutions and work on all the details with a more relaxed state of mind. I almost always need to have a strong concept.  A strong vision, in order to go forward with a design and to start investing time on it.

GM:   And which part normally is the most painful (if any)?

AG:   I enjoy all the stages of the design process.  What I do find painful is when a project drags on forever. Then every time you have to go back to it you need time to remember where you were at exactly. And to be sure you are again in the right mood for the project…

GM:   What are the biggest challenges you face when designing a new product from scratch?

AG: With most projects, once you have your concept in mind, the most important and usually also the trickiest is to choose the right proportions. But actually, the most difficult projects are those where you are really coming up with a new functionality.  A new typology.  And so also a new way to live and interact with a product.

GM:   Have there been any major changes in the design world from when you started out?

AG:   One of the biggest changes over the last 10/15 years is that a lot of designers have now started to produce their own products and to become designer-maker. They have sometimes skipped altogether the logic of finding a producer for their concepts.  Of working with a design house. In a way, this allows them to save a lot of time to showcase what they can make.  They also get to keep a bigger part of the pie, but in most case only reach a much smaller market.  A bit more like gallery pieces would. Though they may only be reaching a very tiny part of the market, with usually expensive pieces, through social media they may be able to very cleverly make a name for themselves with nicely staged pictures and niche products.

GM:   Was there anything in your young life, in your upbringing for example, which you feel has influenced your work?

AG:   I have lived in different countries and because of that went through quite a few different school systems.  I was born in Brussels, but then moved to Washington DC as a teenager. Later on, the family settled on in Montpelier in the south of France. Eventually I came back to Belgium to study at University and stayed in Belgium.

Whether you want it or not, travelling at a younger age opens your eyes.  So I think these were very formative years.

GM:   You originally studied Political Sciences and Marketing Management, and then went on to work in the international financial world for five years before studying Industrial Design.  Does your ‘former life’ ever influence your design in anyway?

AG:   Design is very much about understanding people and the world we live in. The fact that I have lived several lives and worked in different fields has certainly helped me develop a different eye but also a certain rationality that even the most daring projects need.

The influence of my previous life where I was working in large open space offices in the financial world has also given birth to some concept since, unlike most designers, I had experienced first-hand of what it feels like to work in the real world. This has been a source of inspiration.  Also a drive to create products that could help architects design more human and homier working spaces.

GM:   What can we look forward to next from Alain Gilles?

AG:   In the very near future, in September, we will be launching several collections of small products in Paris.  During the London Design Festival we will launch two collections.

As far as Bonaldo is concerned, we have started working on some new projects for Milan 2020. The first prototypes are on their way, but only time will tell if they make it to the fair…