Dror Benshetrit

Dror, first tell me a bit about this one-off Peacock Chair. What was the idea there?

This was simply fun. At first I was planning on printing on the folded felt of the Peacock Chair, but as we got into the process, which is more like staining the fabric instead of really printing as such, it became clear that it would take too long. Maybe we’ll do the print edition for Salone in Milan this year, but for Design Miami we didn’t have time. So what ended up happening was that Cappelini sent me the first pre-production prototype of my in-house model for the Peacock Chair. What I wanted to do was to highlight the imperfection of that model, so I painted it white, then added in red, all the changes that we made. So you can see on this chair where we wanted to make it bigger in one spot, smaller in another.

Is it for sale?

Yes. There is only one of them, and I think it goes for $30,000. It’s like an art piece, really. It’s no longer industrial design, which is about making lots of something.

You went to art school in Israel. Do you get act like an artist much these days?

For me that’s not really a question. I work as a designer, but I think like an artist. Sometimes the work I do is one of a kind, like an artist, and sometimes I’m a designer where I try to improve the quality of people’s well being. One of the most interesting moments in my career was when we introduced the Peacock Chair for Cappelini and my Back to School collection for Target at nearly the same time. Here you have this $10,000 chair, and then a line for Target where you can maybe buy the entire line of products 120 times for the price of the chair. That line for Target was really the first time I practiced what I preach about designers improving people’s lives through design.

Any plans for that more democratic brand of design in the future?

Yes, and I’m very excited about it. That line with Target set up a start for me with that company and I plan to do more with them soon. The Back to School line was only in stores for three months, and I want to do more evergreen products with them. I have a couple other things going that I can’t talk about right now, though. I’m also working on a couple projects that won’t even have my name on them. They are really just about better design. Yet at the same time I’m thinking about some conceptual art pieces as well. That’s one of the reasons I like Art Basel. It’s one of the best commercial fairs that blend both art and design.

What do you think of Miami as a city? Do you like it?

I don’t love it. The vibe is Mediterranean so that reminds me of home, of Tel Aviv. I love Tel Aviv, though. To me it’s a combination of Barcelona, New York and Tokyo.

I really have no idea what that means.

Barcelona for being a city on the beach, a city that feels disconnected in time. Those two cities really want to be ahead of the trends, but in some ways they are just utterly off. For me the music in Tel Aviv is amazing, but the fashion is awful. Tel Aviv has New York-style diversity. I mean, you cross the street and you’re in a totally different ethnic zone or neighborhood. I love that. And then geographically, Israel is the connecting point between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, so you really get an influence from all sides.

When I last saw you at Dwell on Design this summer you were talking about an architectural project in the United Arab Emirates. Are you keen on doing architecture?

Right now I’m working on a prefab project that is very interesting. I haven’t signed the papers yet, so I can’t say too much, but the whole thing started out of the connection system I developed for my MGX lamp which is showing over at Design Miami in the Moss show. Interconnecting squares create a geometric truss which makes construction really easy. Putting it together will be more like an Ikea do-it-yourself-kit. Think of it as like a high-end closet. The idea is that this system is used to create the exoskeleton of the house. I’m working on this more like I would a product than a house, so I’m thinking about a full dwelling that is completely manufactured, arrives on site completely collapsed and then is assembled. I remember at Dwell on Design the main vocabulary vendors used around their prefab homes were things like “smart home” or “logical home.” I thought to myself, “Why would ‘logical’ be the first selling point of a home? Who would buy a “logical home?” So for this home, I want to give you lots of freedom, not logic. Because the exterior functions as the bones and the skin, you can do whatever you want on the interior. You can have no walls, or some walls in any spot you like. I want to get away from the rigid definitions of the interior of a house.

Tell me Dror, with the holiday just around the corner, what do you want for Chanukah?

You know, I’m actually working on a menorah project right now, though it won’t be ready in time for this year. I’ll tell you what I secretly want. I want a fresh start for the next year. As great as 2009 has been, with the product launches and the completion of things I’ve been working on for so long, really great times can also be really crazy and unstable. For me, when things are great, they are also often very difficult. So though I’m blessing 2009, I want 2010 to be different. I want to care less about all these crazy global movements, to disconnect myself from politics more. You know, I never really thought of myself as part of the greater world economy because I’m just a small studio, but it has really affected my work and me so much this year. It made me realize that even though I’m this tiny, tiny part of the whole thing, we really are all in the same boat.

So you want global prosperity for Chanukah?

Yes, that would be great.

How many are in your studio now?

We are fewer now. We’re seven. But actually this year I have seen that it’s better for us to have a good core group and then to use more freelancers than in-house people. I think it’s a better approach for a multi-disciplinary design house.

And you guys are called Dror, or Dror Studio, I was confused?

It’s just Dror now. We dropped the “studio.” But the website is studiodror. I know it’s confusing.

You couldn’t get Dror.com? How many Drors can there be?

I know a couple in Israel who are friends of mine. But no, I can’t get Dror.com from this Dutch guy who is also named Dror. I make him offers every so often but he won’t sell. Actually, that’s what I really want for Chanukah! I want that URL.

So forget global prosperity, you want Dror.com?

Both would be OK.