This week I will like to introduce you to <a href=”http://www.annaleymergie.com/”>Anna Leymergie, a French interior designer, very young but with a lot of energy that you could see through her lamps.

Do you fabricate by your own your two designs, the lamp L and OE?
Yes I do fabricate my creations on my own.

If you do, where did you learn it? Do you have an studio where you have space to do it?
During my studies of interior design, I have always preferred making models than doing 3D rendering on computer. I must feel more comfortable with something concrete than virtual. From then, I started purchasing tools and engines and little by little I was able to create objects and furniture on my own. I don’t have a studio yet; I keep installing an ephemeral atelier in my parent’s garden… But I fully intend to built one soon.

How do you define your work?
For the moment, it is hand-crafted. I think it arouses curiosity – at least I try to surprise.
My intention is to make what surrounds us alive, with poetry and lightness.

How did you begin? Was it hard?
It is a slowly beginning. I am not completely launched yet. I still have a full time job that I love at Patrick Jouin studio in Paris.
With friends we founded a design collective named Les Cadets, with which we participate to major design events in Paris such as the D’ days or the Design Week.
The hardest is find time to do all of this, making my objects, working on new projects on my own or with the collective.

Have you ever discouraged?
No. There is so much to do. So many challenges for the Design industry. Design means so many things today, even the border between design and art is blurred.
In France, a lot of design furnishing companies appears. As I am not afraid for the future of the Design, I shouldn’t discourage.

Which would be your ideal project?
Michel Gondry or Tim Burton giving me carte blanche for the design production of one of their movie.

How your ideas come up? Which ones are your sources of inspiration? Are you influenced by anyone?
I have the “Tumblr syndrome”. I keep collecting pictures that I check regularly.
I guess ideas come naturally. Unconsciously we classify information that we think interesting then we set it down on paper.
I look for inspirations in every field. Let’s say I am passionate for former times tools like kitchen utensil or instruments.
I am inspired by living artists/designers such as Tokujin Yoshioka and Olafur Eliasson.

Which materials are you interested on? Does ir have anything to do with it, the effect of the light over them?
I am pretty attached to the past so I am naturally interested by dated techniques or old fashioned materials such as rattan.

Which ones have been the best and the worst moments of your professional life?
I think I will need more experience to answer that question.

Have you ever had a mentor that has supported and guided you?
I would say my master of diploma, Jean Lelay, who led me to give a meaning to what I do, who pushed me to avoid gratuitousness.
He is a remarkable engineer and a great instructor.

Which is the best advice that you have received? And the advice that you will give to?
Practice make perfect. And I will stick to it.

What is beauty for you?
Anything that feels right, true.

Which is what you like more from your work?
The fact that each day is different. Right now I pass most of the time on a computer but I know that one day I will finally get free of that terrible screen.
It gives you the opportunity to travel, discover new techniques from abroad.
We are always exposed to difficulties and constrains that give new challenges.
We get to meet people/artisans with amazing talents. We are surrounded by people who work with true passion, and each passion has its own language.
It’s a job that keeps you learning and discovering.