Maja Ganszyniec is one of the most respectable Polish designers. What you may not realize at first sight is that her delicate beauty hides the strength and sensitivity nurtured by Silesian roots, an inborn sense of proportion and order, as well as a cosmopolitan education (Maja studied and explored the nature of the furniture industry in Milan).
As Studio Ganszyniec, Maja and her team design furniture and furnishings for the world’s top brands – IKEA, Comforty, Noti, Dupont, Camper – with their inquisitive and scientific perspective informing their thinking about products. We hold Maja dear to our heart primarily because of the characteristically pre-War ceramic tiles, known as “little corsets”, she has successfully brought back to life, but also because of Nurt – a brand that makes artisanal and detailed objects that are a joy to the eye and the senses. As a designer, Maja believes in natural and sustainable materials. To her, design means ordering and changing the world while valuing the often neglected labor of human hands.
NURT Collection
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NURT Collection
NURT Collection
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NURT Collection
Vindum rug, photo IKEA
IKEA PS 2017 Plate and bowl
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Vindum rug, photo IKEA
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IKEA PS 2017 Plate and bowl
Design to me…
Design to me is a way of thinking and seeing the world. This is what guides me in my professional endeavors – the idealistic pursuit of ordering the disorderly reality and the utopian attempt at creating the new order. We design products, they become real, and we start again.
How do you understand material?
I see it as tissue used to create solutions. Now, with limited resources and the shortcomings of recycling, the selection of material is arguably the most important aspect of the design process that impacts not only the form of the end-product, but also the environment.
Product or process?
One needs the other to exist, but I put process first. Every product should be the result of a certain process because it is in the process of creation that you may realize the product you are making is, in fact, redundant, or needs to be completely redesigned.
"Modernism" collection for Ceramika Paradyż, must have Łódź Design 2020, fot. Michał Mazur (left)
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"Modernism" collection for Ceramika Paradyż, must have Łódź Design 2020, fot. Michał Mazur (left)
HJARTELIG IKEA
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HJARTELIG IKEA
MENO NOTI fot. Weronika Trojanowska
Ikea ANVÄNDBAR BENCH
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MENO NOTI fot. Weronika Trojanowska
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Ikea ANVÄNDBAR BENCH
Form or function?
I think it is no longer a timely question. Both form and function are fundamental to everything that is being made. We should not be questioning that.
Question or answer?
The chicken or the egg?
If you could do any other profession, you would…
Technically, I could do any profession imaginable. The question is whether I want to and if I have the skills to do that – I do not.
Design un-related hobbies:
All my hobbies are design related. My job is my diversion.
Your main sources of energy:
Relations with people – the closest ones in both private and professional spheres. Also nature, the sun, and movement.
text: Agata Kiedrowicz
photo: Studio Ganszyniec
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