A face of the future: the award-winning designer Mohammad Ghaderi

We speak to the Iranian designer Mohammad Ghaderi, who was named Emerging Designer of the Year during Downtown Design.

Mohammad Ghaderi's Riser coat rack. Courtesy Mohammad Hossein Ghaderi

“I don’t like to limit myself to any one ‘ism’,” says the Iranian designer Mohammad Ghaderi.

Even a cursory glance at Ghaderi’s furniture creations reveals this to be true. There’s Bermuda, a minimal yet sculptural stool made from a series of steel triangles punctuated by a barely-there leather seat and a wooden footrest; and Carbon, a three-piece sofa inspired by the lines of a cut diamond, where, once again, angular shapes dominate, forming a sweeping, fluid design that tapers inward and then out. For the Nikol stool, pieces of walnut wood are seemingly held together by a single oversized screw; while the Riser coat rack sees Ghaderi take a collection of wooden hangers, turn them upside down and suspend them on a series of thin metal pipes. The end result resembles a flock of birds mid-flight.

“As you know, we have so many troubles and limitations living in Iran, such as sanctions and so on,” Ghaderi says of the piece, which he believes best encapsulates his vision as a designer. “Riser is a symbol for pioneers, representing freedom, flying and being a part of society.”

There is a simplicity and fluidity – an almost industrial, pared-back feel – that extends across Ghaderi’s pieces, but also an obvious desire to experiment with both form and materials. He’s right to not want to be pinned down to a single design style or aesthetic. There is, indeed, no single “ism” here.

Either way, the up-and-coming designer is one to watch. He received an honourable mention at the 2012 Red Dot Design Awards for his Carbon sofa and, more recently, was named the Emerging Designer of the Year during Dubai’s inaugural Design Awards, which were held in conjunction with Downtown Design.

When asked what set him apart, the design pioneer Nada Debs, who was part of the judging panel, commented: “He has an emotional element and a bit of humour in his work.”

Ghaderi was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1983. He was always creatively inclined and embarked on the study of Persian calligraphy at the age of 12. He went on to do a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at the Islamic Azad University of Shiraz, and, after graduating, got a job at Neshiman, one of Iran’s leading furniture producers. The company was established in 1996 with the launch of a modest furniture shop called Lamkade, complemented by a tiny workshop in the basement of a residential building in Shiraz; by 2008, this had been transformed into a semi-industrial workshop featuring over 6,000 square metres of production space, along with a dedicated design unit.

Ghaderi spent two years as a production manager at Neshiman, but quickly realised that he was more passionate about the actual design process, and began creating his own products in 2010. His first piece was the Hegh armchair, which was created for Neshiman and displays the clean, understated lines that have come to characterise much of his work.

He has since gone on to design a range of furniture items, from coffee tables and sofas to stools, sideboards and candleholders. Standout pieces include the Eyes family of consoles, with their quirky detailing and smooth wood finish.

“After three years of working in this way, I understood that this is what I need to do for the rest of my life,” he says. “I have grown and learnt from my experiences and have channelled further research into my ­designs.”

The designers that most inspire Ghaderi include the Bouroullec Brothers, “because of their great ideas”, Achille Castiglioni, “because of his timeless designs”, and Doshi Levien, “because of his folk designs”. But, as he’s well aware, there are plenty of obstacles to overcome before he can join the ranks of these design stalwarts, particularly as a young talent trying to establish himself in this part of the world.

Among the most pressing challenges, he says, are copyright issues and the fact that product design is not yet an established field in this region, and is either unrecognised or under- appreciated by manufacturers and consumers. But he also faces issues that are very specific to Iran, he explains.

“Because of the sanctions, you cannot find all the materials to match your initial designs,” he points out. “You don’t readily have any manufacturers in Iran with the great finishing hand that you want to get the quality you expect. And there are no marketing specialists in the furniture field that you can really rely on. I have to overcome these problems to preserve the originality of my design ideas.”

It’s hardly surprising, then, that there’s a limited amount of original design coming out of the region as a whole, much less Iran – a situation that Ghaderi hopes will soon change.

“We have so many strange ideas and aspects to our culture that can serve as concepts for new designs, and these are not reachable to other designers who grow up outside of the Middle East. That’s why I think it is just the beginning of our journey. I hope for the Middle East to become a reference point for designers such as myself, so we are able to send our ideas all over the world.”

So what advice would Debs, as one of the region’s most successful designers, offer to an emerging talent like Ghaderi? “Keep an eye out for what people’s needs are,” she says. “People look at design to resolve a certain need; if we become aware of those needs, then it will help us to create objects that will satisfy [our clients] and hence people will be drawn to them.”

For now, Ghaderi can take this latest accolade as evidence that he’s on the right track. “It’s definitely a sign that you’re walking in the correct direction.”

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