Despite creating highly collectable artworks and numerous best-selling products, designer Ron Arad says he has never pursued commercial success in the latest talk in our ongoing partnership with Friedman Benda for VDF.
“People always say I’m a good entrepreneur, that I’m very good at PR,” Arad told curator and historian Glenn Adamson in New York gallery Friedman Benda’s Design in Dialogue interview. “On the contrary, I’m not interested in it.”
Dezeen has partnered with Friedman Benda to broadcast a selection of the best conversations with leading artists, architects and designers in its Design in Dialogue series as part of Virtual Design Festival, publishing one a week throughout May and June.
The latest interview features Israeli designer Arad, who rose to prominence in the 1980s by turning found objects into highly valuable collectors’ pieces, such as his iconic Rover Chair.
He went on to design a number of extremely successful mass-produced products for major brands, such as the Tom Vac chair for Vitra and the Bookworm bookshelf for Kartell.
However, the Israeli designer rejected Adamson’s suggestion that he was a shrewd businessman.
“I’m not entrepreneurial,” Arad said. “For me, business was always a necessary evil. We don’t design for the business, the business is there to support our designs.”
“Ettore Sottsass has a really nice quote,” Arad continued. “He said: ‘Money is very jealous, if you ignore it, it will run up to you.”
Read more on Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/?p=1508029
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