Despoke: What has enabled Vitsœ to survive over the past decades?
Mark Adams: One of its greatest strengths is that Vitsœ has not changed in terms of ethos at all over the last 50 years. It has enabled the company to not only survive but also thrive as a business to the present day.
A testament to Dieter Rams’ mantra “less but better”, the company set out in 1959 to produce long-lasting, timeless furniture and continues to do so with pride. It is still producing the 606 Universal Shelving System of 1960 (which greatly satisfies the 50% of our customers who are returning to Vitsœ at any one time to add to an existing system) and the 620 Chair Programme of 1962 as the notion of living better with less that lasts longer becomes increasingly relevant to an uneasy consumer society.
In terms of business process and production however, Vitsœ is a company in constant change. The ability of both the business and production systems to adapt to a rapidly changing world is very important and thus we change ruthlessly in order to improve.
Design, Manufacturing or Service. What’s the most important for Vitsœ?
All three are equally important to Vitsœ.
One cannot let design stand still, you must be brave enough to evolve and the 606 Universal Shelving System offers a very fine design that evolves within an ever-changing world. Good design is nothing without sound manufacturing and excellent service. Vitsœ has developed enormously in terms of introducing efficient, non-wasteful production techniques whilst offering world-class service both in person and online to an international market (we are currently operating in more than 30 countries around the world).
With a Dieter Rams show at The Design Museum how do you keep the image of Vitsœ contemporary?
Vitsœ’s ethos of allowing more people to live better, with less that lasts longer has never been more relevant. In line with the recent renewed interest in the concept of sustainability Vitsœ’s common sense approach that products should be built to last only becomes more meaningful as we begin to further appreciate the value of producing good quality, beautifully designed products that last.
You recently opened a shop in New York. Has the USA become an important market for you?
Yes. The USA is an important market for Vitsœ and we are delighted to have opened a new shop in Bond Street, New York allowing us to develop long-lasting relationships with our American customers.
Do you feel the principles of good design can be used in other disciplines?
Of course, the fundamental principle of less but better can be applied to all walks of life. The commentary that we would need three planets to support the world’s current population in a western lifestyle brings this sharply into focus. We must produce fewer products and services of a higher quality rather than more of an inferior quality.
Is and has sustainability been important to Vitsœ?
Vitsœ was founded on the common sense notion that anything produced should be useful for as long as possible. Hindsight has proved this to be a sustainable notion. Vitsœ never set out to be green, Vitsœ simply always sought to apply common sense.
What is your cheapest product?
Cheapest or best value? There are customers of ours that maintain that Vitsœ produces the cheapest shelving system in the world because they have taken it from home to home, added to it, had it repaired, made modifications and it still functions. If you are not rich enough to buy cheaply our furniture costs less over its lifetime than cheaper alternatives.
With the new shop in New York and the relaunch of your shop in London Vitsœ seems to be benefiting from the global recession. Can this be true?
In what has been very challenging times for many, Vitsœ has worked hard to create opportunities with the launch of a new website, exploration of the Japanese market, the opening of two new shops in New York and London as well as numerous exhibitions in Osaka, Tokyo and London.
Finally what are your 3 favourite design objects?
Any object made by man has been designed. Therefore a re-useable glass milk bottle with a recyclable aluminium lid is an outstanding piece of design. As is the Routemaster bus that was conceived as a system in the post-war austerity years and has survived in use up to the present day. But the object that has given me most freedom in the last fifteen years is my Brompton bicycle which makes one completely reappraise priorities when getting from A to B.
pool entries
