Growth Rings

Friso Kramer may be advancing in years, but when he talks about his work you quickly forget it. He speaks with great enthusiasm about the importance of good design, and brings in brochures and chairs to illustrate his points. And he’s devoted plenty of thought to his latest design, a chair he made by hand from a tree trunk.

The idea for the chair was born one stormy day, when two elm trees in front of Kramer's house blew down. As city workers sawed them up, it occurred to Kramer, 83, that he'd like to hollow one out. He arranged for one of the massive chunks of wood to be delivered to his house and went to work with a chainsaw – "from Aldi" – a king-sized gouge, a plane, and last but not least, a rasp. "I wanted to finish the chair before my birthday," Kramer says. "I slaved away on that thing for twelve days, two of which I spent in bed from exhaustion. I wanted to end up with an ergonomically sound piece."

Solid craftsmanship

And he has. The chair is comfortable as well as beautiful. The hand of the craftsman is clearly visible. The rasps were crucial for getting the rounded bits smooth. "And I tried to keep the growth rings clearly visible," Kramer says. "The tree is almost as old as I am." He treated the chair with a French varnish, "a concoction of Chinese wood oil and resin, an ancient, tried-and-true method." Finally, he put four wheels underneath the chunk so that it can be moved.

Kramer is a master of his profession. Point to any piece of furniture in his living room and he can tell you exactly which materials and techniques were used to make it. What else would one expect from one of the Netherlands' foremost exponents of modernism, the guiding principle of which was functional design?

To indicate what he's trying to do as a designer, Kramer likes to refer to the catalog of his overview exhibition in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum. There, we read: "Industrial design is in fact the adjustment of products to the physical and spiritual needs of man. In this way industrial design can contribute to the improvement of the relation between products and users and can – in the long run – play a major role in harmonizing production and consumption" (Stedelijk Museum, city printing office, 1978). "I really can't put it any better than that," Kramer says. "In those days we believed strongly in the adage that good design is socially conscious design. I'm still convinced of that."

Illustrative of this is the two-person sofa he designed for Wilkhahn, which still has unsurpassed qualities. "Adriaan Geuze, one of the designers working on the refurbishment of Schiphol Airport, said recently the sofa was the only element that didn't need replacing. I made the sofa so that it can be used multifunctionally. You can sit up nice and straight on it, but also sit sideways and talk to someone, or sit on the armrest. Children can crawl under it and the sofas can be endlessly extended, without becoming something big and cumbersome. And banana-shaped openings ensure no water will get trapped in it."

Fighting the urge

Now in particular, with the latest methods and materials offering so many possibilities, designers have an important duty to make genuine quality products , Kramer says. But they can't do it alone. "Everyone, from the ad boys to the sales guys, has to be convinced of that realisation. If one link in the chain doesn't understand what he or she is doing – for instance, if the accompanying literature does not summarise the essence of the product – then the product will suffer. Management has a crucial duty to monitor the whole process effectively and make sure the team knows what it's doing."

In 1963, with Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing, and Paul and Dick Schwartz, Kramer founded the agency Total Design, to bring products, services and client identity into line and to further professionalise the discipline. "It is of the utmost importance to answer the essential question," Kramer says. "A designer makes something because the time or the object demands it. You've got to curb the designing urge as much as possible."