Sylvain Willenz is Designer of the Year 2009

Sylvain Willenz is Designer of the Year 2009
by Mihai Gurei

“Belgian design will be the next big thing” some people say and they are probably right. We already experienced the bilingual country impact on fashion in the last decade and the show presented by Atelier A1 last year at Design September Brussels was impressive. One of the members of the collective already launched products for Vlaemsch, Freecom and Established&Sons. His name is Sylvain Willenz and has a bright future ahead.

Photo by Julien De Wilde

Brussels-based designer has been nominated Designer of the Year 2009 by the Interieur Foundation, Weekend Knack and Weekend Le Vif/L’Express magazines, the Design Museum Gent and Grand-Hornu Images. This seems like a big achievement for someone who opened his own studio only five years ago. Enough time for design conaisseurs to sniff his particular approach regarding archetypes and materials, especially rubber and steel. Willenz work is split in projects and also products developed for a specific manufacturer. This year during Milan Fair I was glad to discover a new range of lamps made for Established&Sons but also a whole collection of steel furniture presented again in a exhibition together with the colleagues from Atelier A1.

Landmark lights
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The table and floor lamps for Established&Sons are inspired by technical boxes and signage you would find along motor-ways or airports. The structure is made in powder coated steel with an acrylic diffuser.

Candy collection

Photo by Michel Bonvin

This was impressive. Steel reinforcement bars would not usually fit on materials list when you think about design furniture. Willenz took the humble bars, applied a high gloss polyester coating on them, a process normally used in the marine industry, and magically created a whole collection of shelves, tables and chairs.