Interview with Product Designer Cedric Ragot

[BDCK category=3 Keywords=”BL-product”][/BDCK]

Cédric Ragot builds a cross-category approach of industrial design, getting involved into a broad scope of application fields: from cosmetics to consumer electronics, from tableware to sports equipment, from furniture to the electrical appliance industry. He worked with brands like Cappellini, Rosenthal, Panasonic, Roche Bobois, Alcatel, Swarovski, Schott, Paco Rabanne, Krups, Lacie, Azzaro or Häagen-Dazs.

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His creations have won him a string of honors, including a Good Design Award for his Fast vase with Rosenthal in 2007, a Wallpaper* Design Award for his Majordome pedestal tables with Roche Bobois in 2008, and two Reddot Design Awards, for the LaCie Flat Cables in 2009 and the Krups 3Mix 5000 Mixer, an emblematic product for the brand in 2012. In 2014, he received the Best Design FiFi Award for the design of the bottle of perfume Invictus by Paco Rabanne.

Credits: Cedric Ragot

In addition, certain of his pieces have been selected by the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain and are on view in Paris, Hanover, Vienna, New York and Milan. Read below our interview with this inspiring designer.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I really love experimenting with new fields, new materials, new contexts. I hate specialization.

2. Tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?

I have an industrial design background. I have always been fascinated by the manufacturing process. The way materials were transformed, assembled. It’s something I put in my design as I did for the Fast vase (Rosenthal) or more recently for the 13000 Volts lamp (Ymer&Malta)

3. What’s your favorite part of the design process?

There are two exciting phases during my design process. The first is when I’m convinced by my proposal, I found the right answer after a researches period. I know that this one is The One, there is no doubt about it. This moment is a kind of crystallization. I love that sense of fairness. The second one is when the process development is finished and I can discover the first prototype.

Credits: Cedric Ragot

4. For you what makes a product rare?

Products which tell a contemporary and innovative story are rare. Products must be linked to its time and not to the past. In general, I appreciate when I can detect the global meaning of a product, its « raison d’etre ». These products are the testimony of a civilization. A kind of snapshot of the human genius. It’s become a concentrate of innovation and it’s rare.

Credits: Cedric Ragot

5 . Where do you get inspiration?

I have an everyday inspiration and no favorite theme even if the material and its physical properties alone could become the subject of research of a lifetime. Everything is a pretext for inspiration when you are in a good mood, in a deliberately astonished spirit. The brain is a kind of filter or a distortion pedal of reality. The brain can mix and link ideas, images, feelings completely different and create something new. But it’s like a muscle, it must be trained.

6. If you had a day off tomorrow, what would you like to do?

You’re right, I should take a day off tomorrow or even more to do something simple but pleasant. Have a walk with my wife and my daughter, visit an exhibition, have lunch in our favorite Japanese restaurant…just take time. But honestly, whatever my activities could be, I’m still linked with my work.