Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 27
Occupation: Artist, creative director, designer.
Instagram: @_jobeburns and @orbe____
Hometown: Walsall, Birmingham, UK.
Studio location: East London.
Describe what you make: I essentially make sculptures. Abstract, spatial, habitable, and usable sculptures. Everything has a spirit and a character.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Nike x Hackney Half Marathon in 2019. This consisted of a full running kit, finisher medals, an ergonomic stretching space suitable for all ages, and the start/finish gantry. It was a fairly large project that in total had to service approximately 25,000 people. A big shift from creating small-scale items, it allows your imagination to be stretched beyond its current limit.
Describe the problem your work solves: Anything to convenience or improve our experience. Basically making continuous solutions to multiple problems. At the beginning of every project, collection or series, I always ask myself: “how can we communicate and improve the experience we have with this?” Materials, form, texture, tone, delivery; all systems of design to service the human!
Describe the project you are working on now: A design company called ORBE. It’s a living idea making furniture, objects, homewares, and soft goods for everyday use. Essentially fulfilling the needs of anyone who is moving into or around the city.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: I’ve designed and developed (still developing) a residence for a musician. It’s a full-scale redevelopment and expansion of a 17th-century farmhouse. We’re two years in, hoping to be wrapped by the end of 2022, but you know how these timelines go!
What you absolutely must have in your studio: No pessimism, curiosity, coffee, wall space, and music.
What you do when you’re not working: It’s a difficult question to answer as I don’t see it as work, I experience my life as one adventure that relates back to my output. I like to speak ideas with friends over dinner, I work out in the mornings, and I spend most of my time at the studio. I just got back from Madrid and New York, which were focused on work but were amazing! I enjoy sports a lot—both winter and summer sports—but unfortunately I haven’t been able to go skiing/snowboarding in a few years.
Sources of creative envy: Jacque Fresco, Steve Jobs, Virgil Abloh, Carlo Scarpa, Tyler, Kanye, James Turrell, Carlo Bugatti, Richard Serra, André 3000.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Fake news.
Concrete or marble? Concrete house with a red marble sink!
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouses in London.
Remember or forget? Remember the good ones, forget the bad ones..
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens all day!
Dark or light? Soft light.
