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Q1 Please tell us your brief profile and working career. Why did you become designer?
Born and raised in The Netherlands by a French mother and American Father, I went to the Design Academy Eindhoven (after briefly studying Human Geography and Art History at the University). After graduating and interning for Jurgen Bey, I started by own design studio, designing self initiated products and freelancing. In 2002 I started the Master in Industrial Design program at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI, USA. After graduating IDEO in Palo Alto, CA, USA offered me a residency. After 8 months IDEO it was time to start on my own in New York. At first I mostly worked on freelance projects. But 1 months after the move to NYC I started manufacturing and distributing my Diamond Rings Series. Since then these are being sold all over the world in acrylic, Silver and gold. In August 2006 I worked at PUMA international for a couple of months as a colour and materials designer. Since then I have and will be releasing more products through my own collection now known as BY:AMT, Charles & Marie (USA/Germany), Kikkerland (USA) and Kwantum (The Netherlands).
Q2 What is the concept of your products?
I would like my products to have a simplicity, but simplicity is a complex thing to achieve. The story behind a product is a key factor. The concept behind my products is to tell a story with a simple object. This object has to embody many things without it cluttering the viewer's thought. |
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Q3 Could you tell us about your latest trade shows or projects that you are working on right now?
I am preparing for the Gift Fair in New York and the Woonbeurs in Amsterdam. We have also been invited to present Japan during DesignTide. But this is a work in project.
Q4 What is your greatest inspiration?
Daily life, the things around me, that trigger my thoughts and my Instincts.
Q5 Currently which stores carry your pieces in the world? Price range?
MoMa (NYC), MoMa Japan, MoMa Korea, Victoria & Albert Museum Store (London), The Conran Shop (NYC), 107 Rivoli (Paris), DeDeCe (Australia), SOHO Design Center (Tel Aviv), MOCA (Los Angeles), SF MoMa (San Francisco), Magma (London) and many more. In Japan a large part of my collection is available via our Distributor Public Design. |
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Q11 What do you think about design industry in your country?
I've been in the USA for 5 years now and it has been very different to be a designer here than in The Netherlands or Europe in general. In a nutshell: the US is much more commercial so many opportunities, less quality. My more complex thoughts are: I think at this tine there is a lot going on in the Design field in the USA, there are probably more opportunities here then there are in Europe, but the level is also much lower in my opinion. |
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| The European level of work is very sophisticated and the quantity of a piece has nothing to do with it being more or less of a designed piece. Meaning that a design object that has been manufactured 100 times is just as much seen as design as a piece that is made 1,000,000 times. Here in the US i found that if something is not mass produced, it is considered Art. This view is slowly changing, but I think this is creating opportunities for designers, there is more room to be creative there is more room to fight for what you believe in and have in manufactured, since more and more companies are understanding that there are opportunities for all these new/ different thoughts. It creates room for change and thus new designs and new views. I do think the level of design could be better and that people do not challenge each other enough. This is a culture where people are afraid to offend someone's work, because they think they will offend the person or studio that designed it. |
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BY:AMT Inc (formerly known as ALISSIAmt Design)
| Address : |
123 Noble Street,
#2- Broolyn,
NY 11222 USA |
http://www.byamt.com |
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Q14 What do you want to achieve in your career? What is your goal?
The last couple of years we've been distributing our own products and this has taken away a lot of time to actually design new products. We are working hard on getting all manufacturing and distribution taken care of by another company. This way we will have more time to devote to actually designing. In the near future I would like BY:AMT to also become more of a consultant for other design firms and next to this create our own pieces. I would like BY:AMT to go back to working and experimenting more with different materials. My goal is that the products i design have a successful maybe even famous life and make people that see them or own them happy and make them think. |
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Alissia Melka-Teichroew, founder and creative directer of Alissia MT Design, which will soon be known as BY:AMT, is a New World-Old World mash-up.
ALISSIA Design came into being soon after Alissia's 2000 graduation fron The design Academy. The US version of ALISSIA Design, Alissia MT Design was launched in 2005. While developing her own original projects, she also served a seven-month design residency at the renowned to concentrate on AMT full time.
This uncanny ability to tweak expectations has delighted design cognoscenti and consumers alike. ID Magazines, Nylon Magazines, New York Times and InView among many other publications, have featured Alossia MT products. Hip boutiques around the world carry them, including the MoMA store and Conran Shop. Melka-Thichoew has also exhibited her work at the Salone del Mobile Milano, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, 100% Design Tokyo, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
One of her most recent projects, a modular series of branching clothes hooks, Tree Hooked, is collaboration with Jan Habraken of WAT design. This partnership is a personal one as well, since Alissia and Jan wed in October 2006. |
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Q6 What would you be if you weren't a designer?
A cook.
Q7 Who is your dream collaborator?
Hussein Chalayan, Konstantin Grcic, Chanel. iittala/ Arabia, Comme des Garcons
Q8 Are there any places or countries you would like to visit?
Japan, Australia, South America Continent, South Africa
Q9 When is the most important time of your day?
morning or evening. Not a morning person, but getting up early and getting things done make me very happy for the rest of the day. If I cannot get up early it is sometimes because i got a second surge of energy in the evening to do things, go places etc. Am a night person, but try to ignore this. |
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Q10 Are there any people who inspired you? Who do you respect?
Jacques Tati, Picasso (especially my picture book that i had when i was little), Hussein Chalayan, Jaime Hayon, Bruce Naumann, Comme des Garcons, Dan Flavin, On Kawara, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. This piece by Jean Dubuffet: http://www.kmm.nl/research-publication/2?lang=en |
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But the most important part in my opinion to be able to design a strong design is to be able to take criticism and work with the critique you get and not take it personally, but use it to your advantage. It is a good thing to have people talk rather than walk by your work, it's a compliment,it means it evokes an emotion. In the US however there is a completely different way of working, negative critique is not seen as something good even if explained well. By always saying all is great you do not challenge anything and this will not make the quality of design better. This is something i struggle with here in the design industry and which sometimes makes it hard to work here. Because you do not really know what people think, you cannot gauge the quality of your work as well.
Q12 Could you tell us anything what you think it's cool at the moment?
white with a fluo edge, asymmetric clothing, rubber shoes, objects with big seems, beige, mirrored glass. |
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Q13 Do you have any advice for the young people?
Learn to work with critisism, even if you do not agree, listen to what people have to say. If you don't agree, then try to explain to yourself why not. Learn how to speak about design and express your thoughts. Follow your gut instinct but try to understand why you make the choices you make. the choices you make are the things that make you unique. |
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