What do you get when you cross a nice German boy with Las Vegas?
Uh-oh.
Well it doesn’t necessarily have to be sordid fodder for a CSI episode. Meet Oliver Beckert. Born of German parents and bred in Vegas, he’s a broad-based designer/metalworker, an innovator with an old soul, now working in Oakland.
For Oliver, as with others we’ve profiled, there’s no artificially bright line between the thinking and the designing and the making. The making comes, obviously, from the design, but the practicalities of the making and the materials themselves inform the design. And the design always comes from thinking about the underlying problem.
Oliver’s work–and the man–are pragmatic, thoughtfully intuitive, a little subversive. There’s a strong organic, industrial, humanist (as in human-centered) streak running through his work, along with a heavy dose of wit.
But there’s been a long path between Germany/Vegas and Oakland. It includes a history degree at UT Austin, unfortunate incarceration in a cubicle doing translation of German auction catalogs, a master’s from the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York, a long stint at a premier furniture manufacturer in NY, founding a buzzy design collective, and finally, a move to the Bay Area, just 3 years ago.
How’d you find your way from history to design and metalwork? While at UT, I realized that I wanted to be surrounded by good looking stuff but couldn’t afford it–so I took a welding class, made some lamps, kept some, sold some. Then, after I graduated, I was visiting in NY and found myself at the Cooper Hewitt museum. There was some great looking silverware in there, and I asked my friend where it came from. And then he told me all about industrial design. Went to Pratt, where I explored all aspects of design.
What did you learn at Pratt? Lots of things. Mostly that what I really found interesting was the design interface (where object meets person) and problem solving and how the craft worked into that (and not vice versa.) Oh, and I figured out that I didn’t want an office job.
So what did you do after Pratt? I got an office job. I was translating German auction catalogs.
How long did that last? It didn’t. So I tried to go back to what I thought I knew, which was metalworking, but I got fired because I really didn’t know how to do the job. A friend took me by another place (Atlas Industries) where I saw a couple of guys eating lunch at their desk, another couple sitting on the floor, and a little person, and two cats. I started the next Monday and stayed for 7 years. I learned a lot.
Talk about elseware, the design collective you helped found. It was made up of a group of friends and fellow students from Pratt…we started out just talking about design, then moved into actually designing things–a lot of prototyping. We got a lot of great buzz, and some of our products got a fair amount of notoriety. We did a lot of shows around themes–I was pretty proud of that. I’d love to get into doing that again around here. I think the Bay Area design community could be brought together a little more.
We love the Aquarium Toilet. Yup, that was mine. People seem to like that one. I’m also proud of the River Table I designed.
Why didn’t you get into an industrial design firm? I don’t do that well in a corporate setting, and nor does design….it tends to get watered down. And frankly, I didn’t want to do what a lot of other industrial designers do and design car fenders for the rest of my life.
So what do you love the most about design? Problem solving–that’s really what great design is. That’s the great thing about working in a small group or directly with the client. Design in corporate settings tends to get watered down a lot. I also like it when you get real about working with materials: it forces flexibility, which forces more problem solving. It’s a great challenge, a great discipline.
And what kinds of commissions do you take on these days? I do a wide variety of things, and it ranges from design to pure execution. I’m working on a fair amount of architectural exterior work these days–a lot of entries, guardrails, awnings, staircase systems. I also design things like handles and rails inside the home.
What kind of design do you want to do more of? I’d like to do limited run products–that way you can blend design with commerce, when the costs come down a little. I’d want to work in a collaborative setting, with people who share a strong design sensibility. At the same time, I’m also a big fan of vernacular design–that’s really something that should be brought into design more than it is today.
What’s wrong with product design today? A lot of American design today just doesn’t make sense. It’s just bad. Design-wise, we’re closer to Europe than we used to be but it’s still not thoughtful, it just doesn’t work properly. Coffee makers are my pet peeve.
What would you redesign if you could? Anything that harms people. It’s just so unnecessary. And bathrooms….everything about the bathroom is hard, where we’re fundamentally soft. Makes no sense. And why can’t people customize handles on toilets? (Check out his designs for a safer cutting board, and gorgeous custom flush handles.)
What five objects define or reflect you? I’m not into things…I’m about function. I have this decrepit Toyota truck….it’s functional, does the job, isn’t over-designed like a lot of cars are these days. I have a motorcycle–it’s convenient, easy to park. I play music but it doesn’t really matter which guitar I use. Really, geography defines me more than anything else: Germany, NY…these places have really made me.
Guilty pleasures? None. Not enough religion in my upbringing.
What have I forgotten to ask you? My sign. I’m a Leo with a bad moon rising.
Contact Oliver at
obeckert@yahoo.com
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