Written by Damiano Fossati, and published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE No. 3, 2011
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If it feels like work, you are doing it wrong
Johannes Torpe interviewed by Damiano Fossati

Danish by birth and world citizen by adoption, Johannes Torpe is a volcano of ideas. Creative and cheerful, he leaves much to improvisation and good taste. His nightclubs and restaurants are an immediate success and thanks to a fruitful series of collaborations with food and furniture industry business patrons he has recently opened a new Beijing studio in the heart of the Chinese dragon.

His work ranges from interior to furniture design, with many of his most recent projects in China. Now one of the most popular contemporary Scandinavian designers, he began his career with the brilliant design in 1997 of NASA, and also launched a fruitful collaboration in the music business with his half-brother Rune, aka Rune RK with hits such as Calabria. A mix of music and design that is going to leave its mark.

Damiano Fossati: How did you start your own business?

Johannes Torpe: First of all, my half-brother and I, we founded this company together. My mother was an artist, painter and sculptor and my father was a musician. It’s really the kind of background that led our businesses to music and design. We grew up in a very artistic environment.

My mother comes from an intellectual family. Following a rebellious path she met an Irish guitar player; she was 33 and he was 22. She got pregnant and she decided to raise me on her own. I grew up with my mum in Christiania in Copenhagen, and to make things even worse we moved away to a rural part of Denmark. If it was snowing I was sculpting in snow, and in the summer I was sculpting with sand or clay: all my life has been about creating things with what you have or from nothing, and there has always been something fascinating about that.

When I was 13 years old I started to work in a drum shop in Copenhagen. I began to play drums with a lot of bands around Denmark and work as lighting designer, at festivals and theatres. When I was 20 I sold the business which was then considered as one of the top 3 light-design companies.

DF: And how did you shift to furniture and interior design business?

JT: After selling, I bought 25 % of a nightclub empire. I took over the concept design management and I created NASA, while I was actually the owner. That was a huge success. So today we are located with an office in Padua but our mother company is in Hong Kong and Copenhagen. For the music business we are in New York and Copenhagen, but my main interest is a joint venture based in Beijing together with Wang Xiaofei from South Beauty Group. The opportunities there are unlimited! So our values are: Do something from nothing, and if it feels like work you are doing it wrong. Use your intuition.

DF: New Scandinavian generations... is there a mainstream, a production fil rouge or a common master?

JT: For me the last Scandinavian master was Verner Panton, really experimental with music, drugs and playing with light to make his brain more colourful. The Danish mentality is ‘Less is more’, but to my mind it doesn’t work that way. I do believe it’s a question of balance in design. So the more power of imagination you give to the people that work with you, the more power and freedom you get as well.

DF: What is your ‘motto’ and why do you define yourself as ‘the bastard child’ of the company?

JT: The design environment is very much dominated by academics and there is a lot of snobbish behaviour toward design. A good example of this: we work with a manufacturer called HAY and we did a very successful project together but in the beginning they were really sceptical and expected that every meeting would start late and every piece of work would be on a serviette because we seemed really happy, relaxed and playful. After a while we distinguished ourselves with perfect timing and a highly professional approach. So this ‘bastard child’ means people expect we are really messed-up, but in reality we are very controlled and always deliver.

DF: You work with both design and music, especially with your brother.

JT: My brother has a leading role in our work and is a continuous source of inspiration. He is the Creative Director and I’m the Design Director. We have 3 labels in the music business but it all started with something called Artificial Funk where we did out first productions together as a team. I believe we are still moving in the right direction with the Asian tour this year. They really complement each other, music and design: this kind of creative stuff is what makes our company really vibrant – I couldn’t live without it.

DF: How did you take your first step in China and how do you suppose the great rise of China will support your practice?

JT: We are doing 4 restaurants at this moment: the smallest one is 2 000 m2 and the biggest is 5 000 m2. We design all furniture, graphics and communication. We have also a huge resort project in Sanya covering 100 acres. With a big client in China we are doing a new series of bathtubs and sinks made from a single piece of Onyx and we are also signing a contract with them to be the art director so we are going to be their communication face to the rest of the world. This year they are going to open 10 showrooms in the big cities around China. We also work with a big fashion house that plans to open 10 stores this year and 20 the year after with an exciting new brand. Shanghai RedStar Macalline Group has 67 warehouses now and in one year they are going to have 90. The exciting thing is that we are discussing to be the face for a nation-wide competition with a first prize of one million RMB for the best furniture piece, and if that goes through it will enable us to reach out to young designers and to influence them to free their minds. And with increased globalisation, we are getting commissions in Singapore, Taipei and London too. These and many other new projects are really exciting, and keep me sharp. I like a challenge!

DF: How do you feel about the different background between Asian culture and Nordic countries?

JT: When I meet a new person I always base it on chemistry. The Chinese are very warm, and they are very good at reading people. You will find very quickly what their intentions are. If I feel that the person I have to work with is somehow flaky, then I’d rather do without.

DF: Is there any project you would like to work on that you haven’t yet had the opportunity to do?

JT: When I was younger I remember my friend Patrizia Moroso told me that being 25 was no age in the world of design, that most great designers started their career at age 40. I thought bullshit, but honestly today I understand what she means. The only way you can learn that, is by maturing and shifting between different environments. It is difficult to be in one place and force something to happen: even if you force it through at first, it will lead to nothing if you are not ready for it. You should always have work relationships based on friendship, this is the only way I can see for real success.

DF: Do you consider yourself an innovator?

JT: I actually dislike the term innovation because it’s such a misleading word. Every company has this ‘innovation is in our values’, and I do sit in meetings with people stressing it as the answer to all issues they have. It’s pretty easy; if you stop being curious and taking chances, then you stop innovating. No risk of that happening anytime soon here!

This article was published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE No. 3, 2011. It was written by Damiano Fossati.