I met Claudia during one of the summer workshops at the Domaine de Boisbuchet. A Master's student at the IED in Madrid, Claudia was taking part in a photo workshop run by Gala Fernandez and her team – the workshop title was 'Back to Basics', and it evolved around building pinhole cameras and taking pictures in this simplest of photographic techniques, however varying the scale of the camera up to a box of 2 by 2 meters.

Chatting over coffee one day, I discovered Claudia's background and decided to feature her here on Faces of Design. Claudia's background involves an unusual job profile in combination with a lot of aspects that we value highly here at Faces of Design: she's got an international, interdisciplinary mindset, as well as great curiosity and drive.

Claudia finished school after having spent a year at a Californian high school, and went on to study textile design at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. During her studies, Claudia joined Li Edelkoort's studio for a three-month internship at the magazine IN VIEW, and she finished the course creating a new technique using textile tapes to create seamless and reversible fashion.

She then went on to work as a freelancer for a year, taking part in a number of design competitions, doing some graphic design work, a little set design, and designing the first collection of maternity bras for a Swiss manufacturer. During this year, she also spent three months living as an artist-in-residence in New York, using this time mostly for research and collecting a variety of different materials.

„Designing that bra collection was interesting for me because it meant a cross-over between fashion and product design, asking for a high degree of functionality.“

Then came a turn in Claudia's career: she joined the company Jakob Schlaepfer, a small but well-established Swiss textile manufacturer. The official title of her position being 'Product Designer for Textile Design' she spent the next five years creating the dessins that in many cases end up on the runways at London or Paris fashion week.

Amongst others, Claudia created fabrics that were used by Vivienne Westwood, Louis Vuitton, and Marc Jacobs.

The techniques that are used to create these fabrics, which are mostly used by the Haute Couture industry, include inkjet printing, laser, embroidery, and a combination of different techniques. Claudia loved her work at Jakob Schlaepfer „because it involved a tremedous amount of freedom. I was travelling to Paris, I was helping out in the production, finding out a great deal about the involved techniques and crafts, and developing a great understanding of the technology behind the manufacturing as well.“

Working in a team of between 8 and 10 people, Claudia was responsible for looking after the interns as well as doing her design work.

„Everyone had their special area of expertise, so we were able to do a lot of different things at the same time, always experimenting, always learning.“

In the meantime, she also – together with an industrial designer - developed a couple of collections for an outdoor sports fashion company.

However, after five years at Jakob Schlaepfer, Claudia decided it was time for a change, wishing to „go beyond the textile borders“, as she calls it. Her desire for interdisciplinarity and exchange led her to the European Design Lab at the IED in Madrid.

Wishing to add a completely new branch to her work, she enjoys the international spirit, the travelling, and meeting people from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds and cultures.

„I'm trying to take it all in, all the insipration, all the input we get – especially the travelling is great. Over the course of the last year, we've been to Istanbul, Milano, Basel, Frankfurt, London and Paris; we've just finished a special project workshop with Missoni, and the time at the IED is intense and exciting. I'm having a great time.“

European Design Labs (EDL) is an interdisciplinary masters program with a clear vocation of creative research that connects and relates diverse areas through design projects. Students share a space and program geared towards the design practice in a European context, offering the opportunity to integrate course experiences into their thesis, based on the close following of a specific, selected theme. The course relies on a team of two program coordinators, one academic assistant, three tutors, two research assistants and 17 students; in addition to the many “ex profeso” professors invited to teach courses, classes and workshops. The academic structure is articulated in a sequence of diverse academic formats, which are combined throughout the course: work and personal/team research, thesis/research project tutorials, cultural seminars, technical seminars, cultural observatories (masters classes), creative workshops and study trips.   These are some pieces Claudia created as part of a workshop in cooperation with Missoni.

Claudia's personal stlye of designing is strongly focused on sketch book and scrap book work. She collects lots and lots of ideas and inspirations that then come together in her work.

So what's going to happen next? The course will last another 3 months, and then Claudia would really like to work on a project basis, but still within a team.

„To me, working with people is really important – it's much more fun, and so many ideas are generated through dialogue.“

She is currently strongly interested in the blurring of boundaries between Architecture and Product Design. Claudia plans to look at travelling and transportation in her final project – the world in transit, suitcases and space, relaxation in the course of travelling.

After the course, she plans to move in with Laurin Merz, a documentary film maker specialised in artist's portraits. Together, they plan to move out to the Swiss countryside, into a studio house designed by Armin Meili, to live, work, and have enough space to follow up on joint projects.

„The logistics are great – we will be really well connected with the rest of the world, not only via the internet, but also in terms of transportation. I want to create my own studio, working freelance, creating my own projects but also cooperating with companies or other individual designers. Languages are not an issue for me after all (Claudia is fluent in German, English, Spanish and French), so I can work pretty much anywhere... I'm just so curious, I want to connect lots of different design fields. Trend research, textiles, fashion, but also interior and product design, film-making, architecture... I just love to learn new stuff, and I can't wait to see what the future will bring.“

Links:

Check out Claudia's profile here and her website here!