A Coffee with Gaspard Tiné-Berès, Designer at Charlie Crane

For this first interview, we sat down with Gaspard Tine-Beres, a French designer who has been working with the brand for almost ten years. He talked to us about his creative process, the future of Charlie Crane, and above all his ambition to create responsible products, far removed from planned obsolescence. If you love design (or are simply curious), settle in comfortably for a coffee with Gaspard…

1 – Hello Gaspard! Could you briefly tell us about your background and how your path crossed that of Charlie Crane?

I've wanted to work in design, and more specifically in furniture, since childhood. I then went to an art school in Reims and completed a master's degree at the Royal College of Arts in London. I met Thomas Lepine by chance, just as I had finished my Master's. He had already launched Charlie Crane with the LEVO (bouncer) and the NOGA (changing table). He was looking for a new designer to bring him new models. We wanted to work together on a high chair project: the TIBU.

2 – How does your duo with Thomas work? What brings you together?

We work well together (laughs). It has to be said, we've been working together for nearly 10 years! And when I say together, I mean really together! We share an ambitious vision for the Charlie Crane brand and are constantly thinking about what might be missing from the range. What's great is that he gives me a lot of freedom to draw and to create. We do have disagreements from time to time, but they're always honest ones. The key is keeping the conversation open… In the end, we always arrive at products that we're both very proud of and have genuinely co-designed, from A to Z. But what brings us together above all is our deep desire to bring something new to the children's furniture market.

3 – What is your creative process (from the moment you imagine a product to when it comes to life)?

Often, I start from an idea that's been "floating around" in my head. I let it emerge gradually, sharpening my eye until I arrive at a proposal that I present to Thomas. If he likes it too, we move on to step two: the design process! It's a long back-and-forth process with the factories and the prototypers that requires great tenacity. Then we have to pass the standards, which can sometimes be veeery complicated! In short, we work like ants to bring our ideas to life.

4 – Are you more of a pencil person or a fan of new technologies?

I love drawing and sketching. For me, that's how ideas emerge. That said, it's only a small part of the iceberg because on a day-to-day basis, we mainly work with design and digital manufacturing software. Our partner factories have state-of-the-art equipment and new technologies allow us to achieve great precision. When designing a new product, I always keep in mind the people and machines that will make them, and I think about the best way to communicate with them. On top of that, I find that new technologies enable human-scale factories to produce highly complex pieces of consistent quality. It's a fascinating new paradigm — for them and for us, a young design house!

5 – Charlie Crane furniture is very much inspired by the Fifties. Are there any designers or iconic pieces from that era that inspire your work on a daily basis?

Absolutely! Thomas and I share a genuine passion for design and we're both fascinated by the early days of industrial design. By that I mean the era of Eames, Perriand and Prouvé — whom I consider a genius! Our favourite is Jacques Hitier — a great and sadly overlooked designer.

For me, the Fifties were something of a golden age for design: designers had fewer constraints than today and a genuine curiosity to discover new manufacturing methods.

6 – What, in your opinion, defines a design as "contemporary"?

More than aesthetics, it's the production methods and constraints that make a design contemporary. It's a piece that is not only beautiful but also affordable and, above all, manufactured with an ecological logic in mind. A contemporary design must make savings in terms of materials used, packaging and transport.

Bringing a new product to market today means taking on a responsibility: that of thinking about its ecological footprint.

7 – Could you tell us what the next pieces you're working on are?

We're working on lots of things at once! New beds, storage systems and even accessories. But what really drives us today is collaborating more closely with other design studios. We'd like to adopt a genuine design-house approach by working with young talents whose work we admire, to extend the Charlie Crane range even further.

8 – As a young father, which Charlie Crane product do you consider essential — the one that absolutely must be on a new baby wishlist?

My children obviously have all the products in the range and I've loved watching them grow up with them! But I have a soft spot for the TIBU chair, the first product I designed for Charlie Crane. It's a chair that allows the child to be truly at the table. They're safe and at the right height for a convivial family moment. On top of that, it's a convertible product that can be used for a long time — my 5-year-old daughter still uses it… and that's not about to change!

9 – If you had a superpower, what would it be?

I would make trees grow faster than they are cut down.

10 – The object of the future you would love to imagine?

In my wildest dreams, I would love to invent a truly effective packaging material that is completely carbon neutral.