TEJ CHAUHAN
We talked to the British industrial designer known for his playful, futuristic aesthetic about his work and recent collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Rado
How would you describe your approach? We call it ‘emotive industrial design’. We try to use form, colour and materials to elicit joy. It’s specifically designed to engage people, and to invite interaction.
Which design best sums up your studio’s work? Difficult question to answer! The ‘Colombo Two’ telephone, designed in 2008 for SGW, is a good example of a design that brings together our core values – emotion, function, connection and accessibility. It really helped to define my path in design; to create objects that make a connection with as many people as possible, and to make them feel good.
What was your starting point for the ‘True Square’ project? R ado’ s combination of high- te chm ate rial innovation with traditional craftsmanship was fascinating and inspiring – I wanted to find a way to express this contrast. Creatively, I was inspired by enduring futurist visions from popular culture – Stanley Kubrick, Syd Mead, Herb Lubalin… many of my references are over 50 years old but still feel fresh to me. The timelessness itself is an inspiration. It has the feel of a traditional watch, but with a contemporary slant.
Tell us about the choice of colour and materials… I wanted to highlight the watch’s high-tech ceramic body, so we chose the matt finish for the case to emphasise its feel, and the colour to draw the eye. The strap is made of small leather pillows, emulating watch links but soft and tactile – it’s designed to make you want to try it on, and also showcases the traditional craft that goes into Ra do time pieces.
What were the main challenges? We are used to working at different scales, including very small – within fractional increments of a millimetre – but here we were working with microns. For example, we had to change our original design of the watch hands because of the thicknesses of different paint pigments, and also had to adapt some of our surfacing techniques. I learnt a lot about luxury watchmaking traditions and processes. £1,640 (rado.com/en_gb).