Jonas Edvard is a Danish product designer, manufacturer and artist who likes to dig into raw, natural materials and turn them into design objects for a more connected future.
Edvard has worked independently for the past decade researching and developing innovative materials with the aim of locating the functional value in sustainable natural resources. In his hands seaweed, limestone, plant and mushroom fibers and recycled paper waste turn into lamps, furniture and art installations. In 2018, when the Danish restaurant NOMA - voted several times as the best restaurant in the world - opened its doors in its new Copenhagen location, people sat down for the ultimate Nordic culinary experience under Edvard’s Gesso pendant lamps crafted from limestone and compressed seaweed.
In the beginning of his career Edvard worked with more traditional materials such as plywood but has since specialized in investigating raw natural materials. Finnish design holds a special place in Edvard’s heart as he considers it to be the most emotional and intuitive among the Scandinavian design traditions. He has a quote from Tapio Wirkkala at his workshop that says:
“The craftsman has the advantage that at every stage of his work, his material is there at his hand to feel and command.”
This thought from Wirkkala has influenced how Edvard started to approach his materials. In industrial design there is traditionally a distance between the designer and the material, but Edvard wants to zoom into the materials, into the hidden deeper aesthetic, find the rhythm of nature and sculpt a shape that can inherently carry that material and bring the best out of it. In what he calls a ‘chaotic approach’, random combinations together create a deeper layer of understanding of aesthetics, which can be found in nature, where different organisms collaborate and benefit each other in the changing rhythm of nature. All of this is present in the material and then in the piece of design, Edvard describes his design approach and continues:
“At school I was taught how to draw and to design, but I need to sculpt a material before I can understand it and know what shape it will take. My approach has become a combination of handmade and minimalistic shapes, I avoid machining whenever possible.”
Connection with ourselves, each other, and the natural world
“I grew up in the abundance of the 8o’s and 90’s when everything was available and there was very little talk of nature or its limits”, Edvard says and continues that to create a more meaningful life, we don’t necessarily need to limit ourselves but to re-evaluate what we need and what makes a good life. He says that the next generation will again be more conscious and seek a deeper connection when they are starting to spend their money on things that they believe in and want to support.
“In order for us to use an object, we need to know what it is. But we also look for a connection with it in a deeper way. After the period of over consumption in the past couple of decades it is important that the objects we have in our homes or items we carry with us contain a deeper meaning. It can be emotional or somehow reflect our mood, our temperament, or social situations. It tells a story of us as people.”
Edvard sees a lot of good things going on in the design world right now. The people who have been interested in design are now looking to know why and how objects were made. Edvard continues that the pandemic made people question their values and, in that solitude, to confront the stuff they have at their homes. He believes that these changes in our way of viewing objects that we own or wish to acquire reflects the broader social context in which we live. When we live so much through our screens, we look for the counterbalance, which is connection.
“I believe that no matter what, there will always be a need for human beings to gather objects and materials that they believe in. Nowadays people increasingly want to surround themselves with things that tell a story and evoke certain emotions or moods. There is a growing understanding on how we can stimulate ourselves in an emotional way – or to limit that stimulus.”
The work of Jonas Edvard has been shown internationally since he established his studio in 2012 – He has received several awards and prizes for his work on sustainable design including The Finn Juhl prize in 2016 and Green furniture Award in 2014. His work is a part of the permanent collections of: The Danish Design Museum(DK), Centre Pompidou(FR) and The Art Institute of Chicago(US). and Trapholt Museum of Art and Design. Currently Edvards continues to work with mushroom-materials on several projects.