HAOS, The Slow Self-Design

HAOS, The Slow Self-Design

Sophie and Cédric wanted to get involved in every step of the design of their realisations. And all this without making any concession on the creative process or on the materials quality and techniques. This is why they created HAOS and chose self-design.  The first object they made together is also one of the most common: the light, a product which, after thorough reflection, will be made in seven styles, both lamps and ceiling lights. Organic forms made of brass and ceramics which remind either the 60’s or the Art Deco : HAOS modern sculptures don’t look like anything else and put the brand at the rank of slow design, favouring small quantities and crafts techniques. Getting an object from Sophie’s and Cédric’s first collection is like flying to Giens Peninsula in a potter workshop face to the Mediterranean. It is like imagining the work of glass blower, in the North East of London. All this while investing, design being made to be stronger than time.

Lampe à poser Blanche HAOS Paris
Dossier Presse Luminaires HAOS
Nature Morte Design Auto-édition HAOS

Sophie, Cédric, what does HAOS mean?

Sophie

The Haos is a tree in which flowers are white on the morning, yellow at noon, red on the evening and die during the night. Well, it’s what the explorer that wrote it in La Revue des deux Mondes around the end of the XIXth century believed he saw. It is the last time a book referred to it, so we can reasonably conclude this tree has never existed.

What did you want to achieve with your brand?

Sophie

We wanted to put pleasure at the heart of a creation project and see if it worked. It is HAOS’s essential value, and the measurement standard of each of our decisions. It may seem odd to highlight this, but it seems an essential condition to us and the best guarantee we can offer: the guarantee our objects will always be designed with our heart and with attention to detail. In order to be coherent over the long term, and with this raison d’être, we set three goals: work at our own pace, be proud of the result of our work and never get bored.

Cédric

You can find these requirements in all of our choices. Self-design enables us to get involved in every step of the product design without making concessions on the creative process or on the quality of the materials and techniques. Our field of practice goes from first sketches to scenography, prototyping and production launch. It is more than a shield to monotony, it also gives some coherence to the brand, its products and representation. Every piece is handmade by craftspeople: there is also the richness of the meetings, the precision of the know-hows and obviously limited paces that we have looked for.

Why have you decided to create it together?

Cédric

HAOS is the expression of desires we share since we have developed them together. So it was natural to keep going together.

Photographie Décoration Brigiette Bardot Studio HAOS Paris
Petite Lampe à Poser HAOS Rose
Salon Sophie Gelinet Cédric Gepner Créateurs HAOS
Livres Inspiration HAOS Studio

How do you make your collections?

Sophie

Our role of self-designers leads us very soon to the contact with the craftspeople. It enables us to think the object while integrating to it, since the first sketches, the ideas of people who have tens of years of experience working with the same material. It leaves space for good surprises: the powdered pink on some of our lights was born from a baking mistake.

Cédric

We work together on the design phase and we don’t take any decision if we don’t agree! In other words, we both have a right of veto over the ideas of the other one. We are both perfectionist but we don’t always focus on the same details: it is sometimes a little difficult to move on but we prefer this solution to the listless consensus which prevents the conflicts but satisfies nobody.

Why did you start with the lights?

Cédric

We wanted to start with a common object. We decided to set constraints to move on and we arbitrarily chose the lights.

What’s HAOS style?

Cédric

Our goal is to create smart objects that you would not get tired of seeing after 3 months or 3 years because the concept is convoluted or very into the current trends. That’s the goal, but of course only time will tell us if we succeeded in doing it. The choice of our first collection was ceramics, a raw, subtle, sustainable material which fits with this ambition. And let’s not forget the simplicity of its shapes.

What’s your philosophy?

Cédric

Marcus Aurelius’s moral: “Without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

Lampe à Poser Créateurs HAOS
Table Basse Chez HAOS Studio
Portrait Sophie Gelinet et Cédric Gepner Créateurs HAOS

Where do you find your inspirations?

Cédric

Of course, we are interested in design, but we are curious about everything. By the bye, we have a lot of projects embryos in a certain number of different fields! Inspiration may come from a condensation of all of this, the books we read, the people we meet, the places we visit, our current interests that one day crystallise and we don’t even know why. A more precise answer would be a view of the spirit.

Whom are HAOS objects made for?

Cédric

To the widest audience possible, even if the handmade production processes rank us obviously into the high quality level.

Do you have particular pieces of advice to give to highlight your objects?

Sophie

On the opposite, we can’t wait to be surprised.

On which object are you going to focus for your second collection?

Cédric

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

What are the design places for HAOS, in Paris or elsewhere?

Cédric

Golden Age, a gallery specialised in the Glorious Thirty furniture, and leboncoin!

Sac Bordeaux Parquet Studio HAOS
Lampe à Poser HAOS
Portrait Créateurs Sophie Gelinet Cédric Gepner HAOS

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