DESIGNERS


Alan Van Havre

Alain van Havre works fulltime for Ethnicraft as in-house designer. The complexity of things has always intrigued him, which led him to study product development at the Design Academy of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. 

To him, all design embodies the same duality: the aim is to create a timeless product, yet with a hint to the specific moment in which it is made. We are always influenced by the past; however, it is up to us to find the right balance between past and present. Alan considers wood as a continuously evolving material, where boundaries are pushed further every day, creating endlessly new challenges.

Dan Ihleborn

Born in 1952 in Sweden, Dan Ihleborn has worked as a freelance designer since 1991, mostly with contemporary furniture design but also as an interior designer specialising in office environments.

Dan has designed sofas and easy-chairs for Sits and he believes above all, that the design must last longer than trends. He strives for more personality and care of details in every product that he creates and hopes that his timeless design combined with the high quality produced by SITS will bring joy to its owners for many years to come.

Joan Gaspar

Born in Barcelona in 1966, Joan Gasper studied industrial design in the school of Artes y Oficios in Barcelona. In 1988 he started work for VAPOR S.A manufacturing minimalist lamps. From 1992 he collaborated with a variety of firms to create new product lines:  Roca, Resol, Marset, Mobles 114, Perobell, Santa&Cole, DAE, Vilagrasa, Made Design. From 1996, he collaborated closely with the company Marset Iluminación, developing new products, and product direction for the company. His work has been selected on a variety of occasions for the awards at FAD. In 1995, he received first prize in the Furniture Competition of the Comunidad Castilla la mancha, and in 2000 he won the first prize at the Valencia International Furniture Fair. In 2001 he was awarded with the Delta de Plata for the Atlas range of lamps, and in 2005 for the Neón de Luz, both designed for Marset Iluminación.Since 1998 Joan has given classes in Materials and technology applied to industrial design, at Elisava School of design in Barcelona. In 2002 he opened a professional design Studio in Barcelona working with various companies on new product concepts.

Inma Bermúdez

Inma Bermúdez was born in Murcia, Spain,  in 1977.  She studied at the School of Industrial Design of the University Cardenal Herrera CEU in Valencia as well as one year of practical studies at the School of Applied Sciences and Design of Pforzheim, Germany. She began her professional career in industrial design working for German design studios Idea, Busse Design and Prodesign.  Every summer since 2002 Inma has also collaborated at the Vitra Design Museum and Centre of Georges Pompidou workshops in SouthWest France.  Since 2007, she is part of the internal design department at the Valencian porcelain company Lladró where she develops, along with the rest of the design team, pieces for the more classic artistic porcelain product line as well as for the innovative design of Lladró Atelier successful collections like The Parrots Party and Metropolis.  In 2001 she was awarded with the First Prize of Furniture Design of Andreu World. She has received special mentions in the furniture exposition C’DIM in Valencia, in the contest of “50 caramelos con palo” and Imagineering by Dupont. In 2008 the product Acero door station by Ritto, designed by Inma at the studio Prodesign, received the German design prize of DesignPlus and was nominated for the prize DesignPreis 2009.

Nathan Yong

Nathan Yong graduated from Temasek Polytechnic in 1991 as an industrial designer, but his career started out in buying and product development. In this role, he had the opportunity to travel to Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, where he developed relationships with manufacturers and craftsmen. It was through these experiences that he learned many of the techniques and skills he now employs as one of Singapore’s leading designers.

Yong won the Red Dot Concept Design Award two years in a row, and the year after received the prestigious Singapore President’s Design Award: Designer of the Year. Along with leading his eponymous multidisciplinary design studio, he is also a lecturer at Singapore’s LASALLE College of the Arts.

Yong’s roster of clients includes international brands from Italy, France, Denmark, the USA and Malaysia. In 2009 Yong completed his first design for Belgian wooden furniture brand Ethnicraft, marking the start of a long-term collaboration that continues up until today. Yong’s designs are all  grounded in functionality, with subtle detailing from a structural perspective, like in the N collection, or detailing that challenges the perception of what wood can do, like the pieces in the Spindle collection. 


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