We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Lila Demarcq about their original and creative Sofa design work. Lila Demarcq is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original sofa works.
Lila Demarcq ("LD") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Isiqu Sofa. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
LD : My first principle is to make the user dream. Make him dream with a story. Isiqu was created from a childhood memory, spent in South Africa. The memory of an elephant, lying on the ground, the body half in the water. He’s covered with delicate reflection and its skin is adorned with textured details. With his slow and delicate movements I feel that he’s there to protect others. I then made an elongated structure in the space that offers the user a soft relaxation area where he can lie down, sit, sleep, rest, work, chat ... With Isiqu, I sought to create unity and cohesion with space, give new sensations and inspire questions. By its different forms, materials and possibilities of use, I wish that the user appropriates the object with emotion.
LD : My goal was to materialize this memory in a subtle way so that everyone could appropriate it with their own feelings. For this it was necessary that the form doesn’t stuck the object in only one function. This object proposes and opens the doors of the imagination.
LD : I propose this hybrid sofa to individuals who lives in spacious spaces but also companies that offer to their employees and their customers relaxation areas where they can work and take a break with serenity.
LD : I took about 4 months to design Isiqu, from the first drawing to the realization of the first model.
LD : Isiqu was created in connection with my memories of South Africa. Several years later, my need to tell my feelings was more than vital. This long trip marked me and I wanted to let people discover the beauty and poetry I had seen there.
LD : I practice self-publishing. I'm looking for my manufacturers myself.
LD : It's the travels, the landscapes that have marked me. They are an inexhaustible source of inspiration that allowed me to give free rein to my imagination and thus create this new concept of sofa with multiple materials.
LD : It offers a different way of seeing and experiencing space and material.
LD : Isiqu means "trunk" in Zulu language. A very spoken language in the small town where I lived in South Africa.
LD : I first write poems describing my feelings. I then made drawings related to these poems. When these drawings corresponded to what I had in mind, I looked for a function which could be alsow related to my feelings. So I went through the writing, the drawings, the physical model and the actual size plan.
LD : Freedom of form and use. It allows people to dream more easily, to give free rein to their imagination.
LD : Yes I worked with a metalworker, a seamstress and a custom foam cutting company.
LD : Most items are handmade. Only the foam is cut with machines. I was able to obtain complex shapes very well done with great precision.
LD : The hardest part was to find the type of forms that offer a good comfort.
LD : To make Isiqu, I learned to knit because I wanted a handmade production, with love. I think this project has also enormously developed my imagination.
LD : Isiqu is part of an objects series. In connection with my memories of Africa, I also designed Indlu, a rack and spaces creator, as well as Isihla, a removable shutter in steel and ceramic.
