Sander Lucas and Marijke Lucas-Geurts, both graduates from Design Academy Eindhoven. Sander works for his own collection, designs and sets up exhibitions (for i.e. Design Academy Eindhoven and the Technical University of Eindhoven) and coaches design students. A product designer and a graphic designer, a design duo that take on everything: Product Design, Graphic Design & Illustration, Art Direction, Exhibition Design, Interior Design, Project Management & Coordination and more.

Read our interview where they reveal a bit more about themselves.

A · Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?

We are Lucas & Lucas: Graphic designer Marijke and product designer Sander Lucas, a new Dutch design duo – since 2013 – that is inspired by objects from everyday life.
By adjusting, adding and combining, we create new products and finish them with a special eye for detail. We are collectors. Quirky things we find inspire us. We love to combine materials and objects that don’t match at first glance. To create something new, something unusual. Written off products and objets trouvés are often the starting points of our design process. The story that these objects carry with them inspires us to create new products with a character of its own.

We are both graduates from Design Academy Eindhoven. Marijke graduated from the department Man & Communication in 2000, Sander in 2002 from Man & Leisure. After we’ve both lived and worked in Eindhoven for a couple of years, we moved to Amsterdam because Marijke took a job as senior graphic designer at ELLE Decoration NL. After almost 7 years she felt is was time for a change and decided to start a new design studio with her favourite designer Sander Lucas, who also happened to be her husband.
Now we live and work in Tilburg, a small city in the south of the Netherlands.

B · What’s your favourite part of the design process?

First we have an idea, and then by adjusting, adding and combining we slowly see this idea grow into a real product. The next step is to translate this wonderful, utopic dream into a product that we can put on the market. The moment we realize that it has the right measurements, colour and is made from the right material, feels like a new product is born.
To us it is very important that our designs tell exactly the story that we have in mind.
And then, of course, there is the moment that we show our new creation to the world. To find out that people like what me make and understand our message is the moment we feel ‘things come together’.

C · Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?

Sander: When was 11 years old, I made my first scale model of a chaise lounge/chair with soda straws. I had so much fun turning an idea that was in my head in to something tangible. From that moment on I knew I wanted to be a designer of ‘things’.
There was no other school I wanted to go to than Design Academy Eindhoven. Fortunately I was accepted and in 2002 I graduated from the department Man & Leisure.
Studying at Design Academy Eindhoven really shaped my vision and my identity. Of course this is an ongoing process. After I graduated I started to work at the Technical University of Eindhoven, where I coach students from the department Industrial Design. My conceptual approach and the technical approach of my students often result in very interesting projects. Working with these students and in a completely different environment than Design Academy Eindhoven is very inspiring to me, it certainly ads new value to my work.

Marijke: When I was 9 years old my father gave me my first camera. Since then I wanted to become a photographer. When I graduated from high school I was only 16 years old. I decided to choose a creative yet practical study before going to art school. For 4 years I studied Commercial Presentation Techniques and Applied 3D Design. Here I learned how to make commercial photos in a studio and work with technical cameras. We are talking about 1992, so only old fashion analogue camera’s and hard labour in the lab: I was very disappointed and let go of my dream. In stead I found out that I liked letters a lot too. So instead of photo-graphy, I decided to choose typo-graphy.
After graduating from this practical school I applied at Design Academy Eindhoven. Although the academy was not known for having a wonderful graphic design department, I chose the ‘design’ approach of the school above any other art school in the Netherlands.
In 2000 I graduated from the department Man & Communication.
In the period that she was chairwoman of Design Academy Eindhoven, I worked as a production manager for Li Edelkoort. This gave me the opportunity to really get to know the design world and create a solid network in the design field.
Working at ELLE Decoration was also very nice. I loved my job. But at the end of 2012, after being a senior graphic designer for almost 7 years, I felt it was time for a change.

In 2013 we started our new company. Because we both studied at the same school and know the design field inside out, it wasn’t difficult to combine our two visions and get in harmony. Fortunately we like the same quirky things and share the approach of ‘adjusting, adding and combining’. Besides that we both feel the urge to create products and objects that tell a story. Object that make you smile and that you want to cherish and keep for the rest of your live.

D · Where do you get inspiration?

This can be everywhere, but shortly it is just a way to observe daily live. Some ideas we have already had for years, but were not clear yet. Now that we are working together we can start by telling each other the stories that are in our heads all this time. By talking about our fantasies, and showing each other our ideas, they finally come to life. This is really a fantastic outcome of our decision to work together.

E · What was the movie or book that impressed you the most?

Sander: A few weeks ago we saw ‘About Time’. We were both touched by this movie. It shows how life is and that every step in life has his consequences for the future. It shows that it is good to have attention for every moment of your life, to be focussed on the now.
Marijke: I agree! And I was also very impressed by the movie ‘Magnolia’, which is not such a feel good movie, but it made me realise that there are many sorts of people in this world, living there own lives and having there own kind of troubles. After realising that it becomes difficult to judge people. Everyone has his/her own story. I try to remember that as often as I can.

F · Can you describe your style, how has that style developed over the years?

By adjusting, adding and combining, we create new products and finish them with a special eye for detail. We are collectors. Quirky things we find inspire us. We love to combine materials and objects that don’t match at first glance. To create something new, something unusual. Written off products and objets trouvés are often the starting points of our design process. The story that these objects carry with them inspires us to create new products with a character of its own.

In 2002, Sander started designing for his own collection of small interior accessories, inspired by objects from everyday life. We call this collection ‘Lucas & Lucas BASICS’. The products in this collection are familiar to the things that surround us, things we use in everyday life. The products from the BASICS collection are more affordable and produced on a larger scale. But when we say ‘larger’, we don’t mean on a mass scale. All objects are still made by us. In 2013 we introduced a range of new interior accessories, designed by Lucas & Lucas, following the same principles of ‘adjusting, adding and combining’.
During the Milan Design Week in April of this year, we presented the ‘Reflection Collection’.
A series of interior objects that invites you to look at yourself from a different perspective. Functional art pieces designed to handle with care and consciousness.
The Reflection Collection shows another side of Lucas & Lucas, the side that wants to tell stories and raise awareness. That’s why we call this collection part of ‘Lucas & Lucas SPECIALS’. In this segment of our work you will find interior objects that are produced in a limited edition. Objects to cherish and keep for the rest of your life.

G · What are you working on at the moment?

We’re now working on a second part of the Reflection Collection. We are developing objects that are more affordable and easier to produce on a larger scale. These products should be more like products that you use in your daily life.

H · For you what makes a product rare?

A product is valuable and rare to us if it interacts with its user in a remarkable way, if a certain tension is established between the object and the spectator or user. We are always interested in the game between art and design, and the function of art and design in daily life.

 I · What would people be surprised to learn about you?

That we drive in the most unsexy car in the world, a Citroen Berlingo. We drive this car because it’s very practical if you have to transport a lot of stuff. We used to drive a really cool van, but when our son was born we had to trade it for this very bourgeois car. Otherwise we couldn’t drive around with our newborn child.
Although we are very happy with our car, it still feels a bit silly. Especially to Marijke, who likes to drive around listening to loud Techno or Dancehall music.
Besides that, it seems that you become more practical when you become a parent. For sure this happened to us when we had our son. But it is also a big contrast to our work, which is often more beautiful than practical.

We did an article on there Trash closet, see here.

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