The story behind
His past, a career in Research and Development and many worldly travels, is what led Frank Genser to design today.
Destined for a career in engineering after his scientific studies, Franck Genser created his first company upon graduating. NAG, ‘not suffering from gravity’, took him to the four corners of the world, working in eighteen different countries. In 1995 he received the
Grand Prix of the National Agency for the Valorization of Research, for his work in soil, which is still used today in many european soccer stadiums, including Barcelona and Arsenal stadiums. He will later bring his research to the USA creating a new company, NARRS.
In 2005, tired of running all over the world for business, he returned to France struck by inspiration, and created Protagoras. Quickly establishing itself on the market, the company has been constantly growing and innovating for the past 15 years.
However, for his pleasure he continued to travel and nurture his passion for the roaring twenties. Including sailing to China, Japan, and Burma, where he met with the masters of plant based lacquer to better understand the process behind the beautiful material.
In 2016, he opened a workshop bringing together designers, engineers, and craftsmen. A breeding ground for ideas and projects, the creative space focuses on finding innovative new solutions.
To create new things, you have to think in new ways.
Classically, in industrial design, form follows function.
For Franck Genser form comes first. An emergence; inspiration and illumination hit. He then explores and probes the project, questioning and speaking with the environment until a clear and perfectly adjusted form appears : A Gestalt. His creative method is a result from his studies and practice of Gestalt. “Psychoanalytical work has by far, always been the most profitable”, Franck Genser.
Working from an emergence, there are many adjustments to be made to birth creation. Marked with perceptiveness, Franck Genser molds the desired energy. The aesthetic power of his creations is expressed above all in the field. “It seems to me that when one creates, he transmits a part of his energy to the person using his creation”, Franck Genser. These objects transmit power, sweetness, a sense of security, support. One feels comfortable, free and serene.
The sensitive unconscious
« Inanimate objects do you have a soul? » Alphonse de Lamartine, had already felt an aesthetic emotion which went beyond the raw material.
We provide you with an experience of existential simplicity, a silent harmony where humanity, aesthetics and the energy of a given space make one.
This more or less conscious reality which we experience every moment is called « the field ».
The field influences our behavior and the outcome of the events we go through. Working with a field perspective is about targeting at the same time the conscious and the unconscious. It is about inventing new forms to bring to life new ways of life.
Designing power, designing relationships, designing businesses, designing movements and creating desirability: the ever-changing world invites us to constantly adapt. It is all about influencing the field, about building a congruence of action within action. It is about building the concrete and reflecting the abstract.
Gathering a team of talented craftsmen in our workshop in Paris, we chose to be at the same time designer, maker and editor of our work in order to maintain the full integrity of our vision from the sketch to the final product. The pencil linked to the soul, moves in search of an honest simplicity.
The emergence of ideas brings concepts to life, processes, economic objects as well as physical objects. Our uncompromising manufacturing positions our work in a patrimonial perspective. Throughout creations, we re-invent French elegance.
the field
At all times, it’s necessary to consider that a person is inseparable of his environment and that his environment influences his behavior and his state of being. To design from a field perspective is to ask the question of the creation’s influence on the experience of the user. The designer is therefore responsible for the experience of those who interact with his work. He is responsible for the comfort and interpretation of use, the object’s reach derives from the work put into its design. Art / architecture / design, from a field perspective are united in the moment experienced by the user.
The field of an object is expressed when we feel touched
“Inanimate objects, do you have a soul?,” wondered Alphonse de Lamartine. When I speak of the object radiating in the field, I am not referring to a physical phenomenon coming from the object. I am referring to what passes on the observer, the body’s response or “feeling” to the field.
The question of an object’s impact in the field is similar to that of a work of art. Art works by radiating into the field. ” Something is happening “.
The field studied in neuroscience
A neuroscience study was conducted which helps to understand the nature of the field’s presence. In which, people were equipped with brain imaging helmets and were observed interacting with cut canvases, pieces of abstract art, by artist Lucio Fontana.
The brain imaging of the subjects showed activity in their “feelers,” identical to what the brain activity would show if the subjects had cut the canvas themselves in that moment. Through his creation, the artist has the ability to share an experience, the observer is able to relive a moment. Art can transmit a mental state to the observer.
Consciousness and unconsciousness of the field
Most of our perceptions remain unconscious. Whether we like it or not, whether we realize it or not, our behavior is constantly being influenced. The design of our environment is part of our experience and our life.
function and design
Franck Genser questions the role of furniture in interrelations. His design approach comes from a field perspective, designing the object and its desired impact on its environment. For in this approach the object and its environment are inseparable entities. Today Franck thinks of furniture as an indispensable parameter in the field.The shape, the surface, as well as the material of an object, all participate in the conscious and unconscious experience of the user in the moment. The designer applies this notion to interior design. The room, the layout, and the light, exist and create the experience felt by the occupant.
With this in mind, Franck and his team contemplated solutions for the work environment of a 21st century leader. Similar to the way people influence different relationships, furniture has the power to influence different environments. Furniture embodies values and it contributes to the overall experience of the room. Here, the furniture embodies the values of the organization. Relationships, performance, and results are all functions of the environment.
