Sirkel
Designing Sirkel
In designing Sirkel, the designers were playing around with two of the main properties of glass: transparency and color.
390 NOK
4 years to find the right glassworks
The first sketches on this concept were made already in the spring of 2013. It took a good 4 years to find the right glassworks to realize this seemingly simple object. We designed Sirkel to be a tea light holder, however we think it is just as nice as purely a glass object – especially if it’s in a window post/sill catching sunlight.
The idea was to create dramatic contrast between the delicately dimensioned, close to clear bottom cup holding a massive ring of more opake color, seemingly hovering over the table top.
We designed Sirkel to be a tea light holder, however we think it is just as nice as purely a glass object – especially if it’s in a window frame catching sunlight.
– Anderssen & Voll
Shape and optics
It’s difficult to work on a model level with glass objects, as you don’t really have any good mock-up materials to mimic the properties of the material. Sirkel is also an object which is impossible to make in blown glass. The interactions between the shape and the optics: how the light and color shifts play through the changing thickness of the object were all on a purely imaginary level even as the project was entering the process of making industrial grade molds.
Listen to designers Anderssen & Voll discuss the design principles of Sirkel
Anderssen & Voll
Anderssen & Voll is an Oslo-based design studio led by Torbjørn Anderssen (b. 1976, Norway) and Espen Voll (b. 1965, Norway).
After graduating from the «Bergen Academy of Art and Design» and the «Oslo National Academy of Art», Torbjørn and Espen went on to cofounding the design group Norway Says in 2000, eventually setting up the studio Anderssen & Voll in 2009. Since then they have been collaborated with leading brands in Europe to realize their designs.
”…. wearing an old pair of shoes with a pebble in one of them. After working with him for half of my life, it feels familiar but not very comfortable, as we rarely agree on anything initially.”
Espen once described working with Torbjørn as:
”….being challenged on my own perceptions and views on what signifies a good design. Working together for almost 20 years is not a result of always agreeing on everything, but rather recognizing our differences as a way of bringing life into products.”
