In conversation with furniture designer Leonhard Pfeifer at Portuguese brand WEWOOD's flagship Lisbon store.
The designer Leonhard Pfeifer @pfeifer.design talks about his iconic Carousel sideboard. Watch the full conversation here to find out more about his design journey and the personal and professional motivations behind his move to Portugal with his family.
Video transcript:
I'm Leonhard Pfeifer.
I'm a furniture designer. I'm currently based in Porto. I was originally born in New Zealand and then studied design in Australia before moving to London where I established my studio. We were 20 years in London and then moved to Porto five years ago. So, my father was an antique restorer and I grew up in his woodshop since I was a young boy. I then went on and studied industrial design at university and then I worked in industry for a long time in a lot of different areas not connected to furniture. But furniture had a gravity that pulled me in and when I started working for myself (as a designer) I think I was lucky in that I could combine the skills from the production side with the more digital skills using early systems of CAD. As I'm designing now in my mind I'm working out the processes needed to shape every piece of wood, every component in a design as I'm going. I think that's an important step as a designer - to know that what you are designing can be produced - and even more (know) how it should be produced.
The Carousel
Carousel came out of a development that was initiated by a discussion I had with Gonçalo, who was then the creative director of WEWOOD. He wanted a sideboard with a surprising feature, something that really surprised people. I started developing different ideas of functions that I thought would be useful, but also a surprising element of a sideboard, and settled upon a rotating carousel. It was something I'd never seen in a sideboard before, but at the same time, it seemed like a very functional element to be adding, this rotating storage. For me, I think I always saw it as somewhere to store bottles and glasses, as part of a bar. (However) I think it has broader functionality than that, because when the slats are open you can use it to display (objects), but if it's rotated around, then it's kept safe as well. So designing the carousel was the first time in my design career that I was asked to add extra features. I think as a designer it's very easy to design something amazing but then price or production (considerations) come in (to consideration) so you're always bringing (the specification) down. In this case the original carousel had a wooden top and Gonçalo gave me feedback that he thought that we could make it even more special. We developed the marble top (however) a part of the issue was that behind the carousel the thickness of the marble gets very thin. We needed to develop a wooden collar that circled around the carousel itself, allowing the marble to sit on each side.
Working with WEWOOD
I think in any size business furniture development can take a long time. What can be really great about a smaller family-owned company is that you can talk directly to the decision-maker and have a project get the green light. Development can move forward quickly. Whereas in a bigger company there are more layers of meetings and defending decisions, so it can take a lot longer and working with a larger company.
Moving to Portugal
My father was Austrian, so I feel like I always had a pull to Europe. I think I would have believed (I would be living in) Europe, maybe, but not specifically Porto. We were in London for 20 years but we had a young family. London is a big city. It's an amazing city, but at the same time, it has the pressures that any big city does. We were thinking of maybe moving further out into the suburbs, and then we started looking at other places to move. We actually quite like Barcelona. We went to Barcelona several times for holidays and thought Barcelona could be a good option. I visited the WEWOOD stand at the Milan Fair, and Salvador invited me to come and visit the factory. So I came to Porto, just for two days. I went and saw the factory, met the team and then Salvador took me to a very ‘flash’ restaurant in Gaia that overlooks the Ribeira area of Porto. We sat and had a port tonic (during which time) I just started thinking, actually Porto is a nice city as well.
So I talked with my wife, and we moved about six months later. It was actually quite a quick process. It sped up, unfortunately, at the time because of Brexit. As British passport holders, we needed to move quite quickly and arrived in 2019. Porto for us is getting better. Just after we arrived, there was COVID. Being stuck on the opposite side of the planet to our families and not being able to fly home (created) a lot of anxiety for us. Now we're learning Portuguese and have a lot of friends and our kids are doing well at school. Porto is becoming easier for us. I should say as well, we're not in Porto city, we are in Matosinhos, near the ocean. Last week my son was doing a surf camp and (as a family) we're really making the most of the lifestyle here in Porto.
Main challenges as a designer
I often wish that I was a performance artist because I think bands; they can play a song and get instant feedback; and then if it's not good feedback, the next day they can play the song slightly differently. As for their creative outlet, they get instant feedback. I think being a designer, the iteration process is much longer. It takes a lot longer in time. I think persistence is definitely essential. But it can also be a very long process between (design ideation and) getting products into the market. I think what really helps the designer is a consistent vision and if there's a direction given that direction stays consistent. What's difficult is when the vision changes and then the designer's left behind. Feedback is very important and relationships are really important and I think the closer the relationship - the more you work together - the more the designer and the brand can come together with a consistent vision.
Importance of physical shops
A number of years ago I was speaking with the buying team of a large retail chain and they had figures showing that 70% of their furniture sales happened online, so they were saying “it's pointless having a showroom - we can close the showroom because everything is going online”. But I really don't believe that's the case. I Still believe that customers come in to look at the furniture. They might measure it. They see the quality. It might be that the end purchase is done online, in the evening, while they're relaxing. But I think the initial research is still in physical shops. (some) Where you can go and see the physical piece is really important. I'd like to believe it's going to continue to be (still) important in the years to come. I feel there's a visceral connection that you can have with an actual object that you just don't really appreciate on a computer screen. Maybe in times to come we've all got VR goggles and it's a different thing. But for the moment the best way to experience furniture is to be able to touch it and to feel the quality.
WEWOOD Lisboa
I always love seeing my furniture in any environment. It's a real joy to have something as a thought in your mind that becomes an idea. That (idea) becomes a rendering that becomes a physical thing - so to see the carousel here is wonderful. What I really love though is that it's become more - as the collection from WEWOOD increases and it stays part of that collection it becomes more of a bigger hole. It's really wonderful to see the collection growing. (Plus) presented in such an amazing environment as this WEWOOD store.
So my carousel sideboard is here at the WEWOOD store in Lisbon and please pop in some time and have a look.
Thank you, Leonhard Pfeifer
End