Designing an Icon - Roland Kreite - Mysqueeze

Here in the UK we celebrate Shrove Tuesday (today) by eating pancakes. Not for me pancakes with all sorts of weird fillings I like simple lemon and sugar on my pancake, the way it's meant to be.

Let me get to the point here. The lemon will be squeezed fresh, directly over my pancake. So today in celebration of the humble lemon and sugar pancake I bring you an interview with Roland Kreite the young man who impressed Phillipe Starck so much back in 2010 that he helped him turn his Mysqueeze lemon squeezer into a Design Icon. I love a story with a happy ending, read on.....

Firstly Roland let me congratulate you on your achievement, at such a young age this must have been a tremendous boost to your career. Has anything else exciting happened to you since?

No, not that exiting... well Mysqueeze was awarded with the design plus award 2011 that was a great experience to see my product presented on an huge international exhibition . I now have my diploma with best grade... and i m still waiting for that tremendous boost on my career... ;-)

I am being careful not to ask the same questions as were asked in your brilliant interview with Mydeco but you were asked about your design style at home. Hopefully by now you are not just a student and maybe have a little more cash to spend. What is your favoured style assuming you now have some cash?

Now I'm a Diploma Designer (FH) working as a freelancer. My favourite style is, mixing up classic and modern. Old classic furnitures, real material with patina, full of detailed hand crafted and soul besides modern furnitures, clean, minimal, manufactured.
so it's lovely to create my own space with harmony and contrast.

What have you brought away from your time working in Phillipe Starck's studio in Paris?

Working on many projects at the same time, working fast, creativity and quality.

I used to own a prestigious lifestyle website and we used to stock Alessi designs. I am lucky enough to have some of their pieces which I have found are a great investment. How does it feel to be the designer of one of these iconic pieces?

It's unbelievable... 3years of hard work and now everybody can go to a store and buy my product it's like a dream come true.

What do you think is the most important component of good design?

The idea, harmony and beauty.

What is your favourite city and why? Mine is Paris by the way.

Paris too. It's so full of life, small beautiful places everywhere.

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm working on many projects at the same time... furniture, tableware, concept, interface and some more. and I am looking for manufacturers to collaborate with

Where do you find your inspiration?

I'm open for any kind of inspiration, for example: nature, art, mistakes, new materials and technology. but the most is playing... playing with materials, shapes, try to solve problems with unusual objects in usual ways and see what happens.

Have you got a favourite product that you either own or desire?

Le Corbusier LC4 black leather, chromed I would like to own.

I have to ask this one - where do the pips go?
Pips? I don't know the word and I haven't found the right translation... but in context I understand it as money, where do I spend my money? Well I spend a lot of my money in product prototypes, materials and living.

The last answer made me smile as I just didn't think about how the word pip would translate. Roland is Romanian and speaks English a darn sight better than I do Romanian or any other language come to that. Shame on me.

Go and take a look at some brilliant films commissioned by Mydeco to celebrate this new design icon. My favourite is the one with the Mysqueeze being thrown from one scenario to the next - excellent!
Lastly thanks Roland for making an English blogger very happy on Pancake Day.