Designer Elise Luttik | My signature: playing with illusion

Feminine

In the first years of her design career, she - the industrial design graduate from TU Delft, Elise - mainly searched for her own design signature. 'By experimenting and just starting to design, I got answers to the questions: What do I make? What do I want this to look like? Gradually you learn and develop on various fronts. That's wonderful playfulness.' Meanwhile, her own signature can be clearly characterised: feminine and organic, with flowing shapes. 'I play with materials and composition. Love lightness, frivolity and puzzling with 3d patterns. By creating vistas, triggering colour changes as in the Prismania collection and by interacting with light, I like to amaze and make people discover something new all the time. I play with illusion.'

Passion

In her designs, Elise strives to merge technique, aesthetics and poetry. 'If a product is not yet 'finished' I feel that something is missing, that I would still like to capture something. That could be a beautiful detail or some kind of connection. Playing with depth and shaping gives a design the perfect cadence at some point. Like the wavy, dancing 'tutu' that gives the Ballerina lamp its character. When the three elements finally come together, it gives a euphoric feeling. That challenge is my reason for wanting to design. That enthusiasm is what fuels the passion.'

Spark

Working with vistas, shadow sides and surprising perspectives combine to form a design palette that Elise enjoys working with and that distinguishes her. 'Meanwhile, I have additionally formed a new palette to draw inspiration from. Natural influences, patterns and colours from the wild are ingredients I now enjoy designing with. With this palette, I have once again come up with a world, an atmosphere. When previous and new palettes come together with materials and shape tension, special designs, concepts and collaborations emerge. Now I see that different aspects coincide. I have always relied on that: first believe, then see. Through a conceptual approach captured with the design I give to it, I arrive at a product that meets frameworks of a label or client. What I will not compromise on, however, is the spark in a design. A different material than I originally envisaged? Change in height or depth? Fine, if it adds to the overall look. But that one thing in a design that makes me happy, the spark in the concept, that is the core of my design and it remains true.

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