Benjamin Graindorge

Parisian designer Benjamin Graindorge is self-deprecating but completely content in his chosen métier, professing that “learning is freedom.” His enlightened state derives from time spent in Patagonia as a student—a period when he considered dropping out of design school—and a later sabbatical in Japan. Before his travels, Graindorge admits he was more interested in the image of an object than its relationship to its user. Following his worldly design education, as well as a yearlong stint with renowned furniture designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, his work has taken on a new dimension. It’s still ethereal—spy his ceramic vases and lamps for Moustache, which ripple and bubble across an otherwise smooth surface, or his limited-edition art pieces for gallery Ymer & Malta—but it is ultimately grounded in a humanistic expression of scale and tactility. “For me,” Graindorge says, “the perfect assemblage is the human body.”