Motivational mottos
Motivational mottos, by Space Popular, Point Supreme, Bureau Spectacular, Colophon and Émaillerie Belge
Émaillerie Belge takes its craft very seriously. The Belgian enamelling company has used the same, time-honed skills and processes since its foundation in 1923 – and this heritage is clearly visible in its bustling workshop in the Forest district of Brussels. Steel-cutting and welding facilities, enamel-mixing counters, furnaces and silkscreen-printing surfaces are surrounded by a colourful array of signage plates and panels that date back decades and cover most of the warehouse’s clean, white-plastered walls.
The company was built on creating household products and later advertising, always working with steel enamelling. Having weathered ups and downs during the 20th century, including a decline in the industry in the 1960s, when a local law limited signage on public roads, Émaillerie Belge is today the only enamel company still in operation within the Benelux countries. After experimenting with materials such as aluminium and neon in the 1990s, it turned its focus back to handcrafted, top-quality pieces in steel.
‘The company is all about passion for the art and craft of enamelling and silkscreen printing,’ says CEO Vincent Vanden Borre. ‘To this day, enamelling is an artisanal process, with many colour possibilities and a very durable product – it has anti-corrosion properties, resistance to scratches and ultra-violet light, and graffiti can be wiped off in no time.’
Vanden Borre and his business partner Tanguy Van Quickenborne, owner of Belgian natural stone company Van Den Weghe, took over Émaillerie Belge three years ago. They heard it was in financial trouble and ‘within two weeks, we decided to go for it’, recalls Vanden Borre, who is now the company’s sole head. ‘The original Molenbeek headquarters were sold, so production moved to the current base in Forest.’
Keen to experiment with the possibilities of contemporary enamelling, Vanden Borre was the perfect Handmade partner. He agreed to collaborate on a series of enamelled plates bearing inspiring, motivational mottos, designed by three emerging architecture firms: Uk-based Space Popular, Greek firm Point Supreme and US practice Bureau Spectacular. Award-winning type foundry Colophon, which has offices in London and Los Angeles, was invited to be the project’s font specialist, putting together the typefaces to complement two of the designs.»
Architectural Association graduates Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg founded Space Popular in Bangkok in 2013. Their work combines spaces, product design, graphics and research, and their multidisciplinary approach is evident in their Handmade piece. Playing with the idea of a sign as an anthropomorphic shelf unit, the duo’s creation is a comment on artificial intelligence in the home and how it heightens the connection between human and objects, furniture and architecture. The three-dimensional piece includes face-shaped patterns hidden within its design, as well as a quote in Colophon’s Value Sans Regular font: ‘Love your home and it will love you back’.
Point Supreme, founded in Rotterdam and now based in Athens, took an entirely different approach for its sign. With output that encompasses private houses, public work and exhibition design, the studio was happy to turn its hand to a smaller-scale project for Handmade. In their piece, co-directors Konstantinos Pantazis and Marianna Rentzou reiterate Charles Eames’ famous advice, ‘Take your pleasure seriously’. The architects drew inspiration from classic American 1950s signage, matching a tastefully retro aesthetic to the traditional enamelling technique used to create the sign. Featuring a selection of Colophon’s specially drawn fonts and a sun-shaped background that nods to the light-filled summers of Greece, the finished sign radiates warmth and optimism.
Bureau Spectacular’s sign, bearing the motto ‘Anyway the wind blows ’, draw son the power of acceptance and relaxation – in keeping with this year’s Handmade theme of wellness – encouraging the viewer to take what life throws at them and go with the flow.
Headed by Jimenez Lai and Joanna Grant, the interdisciplinary studio has a distinctive aesthetic and an experimental approach, combining architecture with art, technology and graphic design. The duo’s sign is ‘a manifestation of the superimposition of positive and negative space’, say the designers.
At Émaillerie Belge, after the steel base for each sign is cut, the team blends the perfect enamel mix, which traditionally consists of three elements: glass frits (crushed glass particles), pigments and thickeners. The base colour is sprayed on before the piece is fired in a
‘The company is all about passion for the art and craft of enamelling and silkscreen printing’
furnace at 800°C. Subsequent layers of colour are applied in the same way. Then the silkscreen printing takes place and the product is ready to be checked for mistakes, before going into the furnace again for the final firing.
‘All three designs were in line with our regular work,’ says Vanden Borre, ‘with some technical tweaks here and there.’ The Space Popular design was the most challenging, he adds, because of its many colours and being three-dimensional. The real challenge, though? ‘The deadline!’ he says. Not that any of this fazed Émaillerie Belge’s experienced team of specialists; after all, the works in progress were a constant reminder of the value of positive thinking.∂