AM: I feel like if anyone would know, it's you: What's the difference between taste and preference?
EW: Taste is arguably more of a subjective metric that's built over time and based on one's experiences and aspirations, etc., while I think preference is more binary and really depends on context.
AM: How does that extend into the difference between a brand with taste and a brand that hires for taste?
EW: The latter is disingenuous and is sadly probably the majority. You can't strap on taste or culture. People can sense when it's not authentic and bought into, but the average person can have a hard time seeing those angles.
AM: With that framework in mind, what would you say is the cultural job of a well-made object right now?
EW: Honesty in materials, form, and process, and staying true to a core idea will always surpass trends and the oftentimes negative sway contemporary culture can have on design.
AM: At a more conceptual level, do you ever think about where industrial design ends and sculpture begins?
EW: My dad was a sculptor, a very sensitive and emotional person, and the utility of his sculpture was pure emotion as much of art is. Industrial design has core utility behind it, an attempt at solving a physical problem through form. Emotion is of course infused into this, and the beauty of proportion, form, process, and material all drive emotional response. However, when an object is solely about emotion, nothing to do about physical utility…in my mind that's no longer industrial design. There are objects that play between this line quite well though, such as chairs and some furniture. Those objects as a medium for this kind of exploration will long continue on. The utility requirements are approachable, pure, and unchanging.
AM: Got it, and do you ever think about the line between an artist who makes objects and a designer who makes art?
EW: I don't see a line really. It's an interesting exercise for the artist or designer to be able to bend the rules a bit of their regular practice, to change the construct of their creative framework to allow for new ideas to be experimented with. I've gotten close a few times in exploring that zone, but nothing's pushed me fully into it yet.
AM: Zooming out, is there a piece of design criticism that has created a lasting impression on how you work and think?
EW: I think having worked with Jony Ive for so long, and learning so, so much from him, and his nature of constantly pushing further, even when you think you're done. Stepping back and really reassessing if you've found the absolute purity and balance of an idea. It's not so much design criticism, maybe self-criticism, but it's a way of working that's been instilled in me from early on, and something that I still find very hard to consistently do. The whittling away, the patience of crafting an idea to the purest essence, while balancing it with the right amount of detail and precision, going through all that whilst being mentally prepared to throw it all away and start all over again if it's not good enough…striving for that balance of focus and flexibility is a constant goal.
AM: This might seem like an existentialist question, but if "everything" can be generated, what becomes or remains valuable?
EW: IRL experiences, people-to-people, person-to-person. Anything off the screen is becoming more and more valuable for obvious reasons. The ceremony and ritual of gathering with others, to share a common experience, whether it be through music or a meal, will always be what I live for. The democracy around those shared experiences and how people try to monetize and brand those experiences is a whole other topic.
AM: One hundred percent—it's also interesting to think about the tension around how generative tools are fast while good objects and meaningful cultural production are slow. How do you reconcile that?
EW: I don't use AI in my design workflow. Perhaps I'm archaic. I enjoy the pleasure and the pain of the whole design process. There's a great deal of slow learning that happens in the explorations that went wrong, or the mundane exercises. All those micro-learnings inform your next opinions and decisions. Without them I couldn't move forward comfortably or with confidence. I don't like doing things on a whim; I like there to be logic behind the steps and the decisions. You have to know the rules to know when and how to break them. It's like typography and grids, etc: some very competent designers use the grid as a crutch and never venture beyond it. It's all clean and predictable and equals out nicely to a whole round number in the end…but will you ever get to anything unexpected and truly new? Probably not.
AM: You've thrown some amazing dance parties, music shows, etc., over the years, including some epic ones we've thrown together. Is a party a designed object?
EW: A party is a designed experience, and the mental object that lives on is this container of memories. Sure there are supporting objects from a party that can sometimes act as a totem or souvenir of the night, perhaps making the memory stronger, and sometimes we do these objects. Souvenir tees, only available on the night of, etc. The relationship between experience and object is always an interesting one.
AM: You recently released some new music on Public Release: an EP from Lauer with a number of contributors like Khotin. Can you talk about that new EP but also what inspires you to keep making and putting out music?
EW: It's just working with friends and friends of friends, really. That loose mantra connects a few dots behind and ahead of us, and you start forming a loose constellation of producers, DJs, designers, creators, and artists involved. This continues, and the constellation organically and dynamically changes shape depending on the project really, whilst keeping connected to all the past collaborators. It's a slowly growing galaxy.
AM: You've been doing a number of independent projects recently, including for Humanrace, the vase with Bunney. What else do you have coming up?
EW: There's a bunch coming out; could be months from now, some of it many years from now, some actual product, some more ideas instilled into other avenues…thus is the nature of my freelance chapter right now. Working with some hardware startups and long-term brand consulting, etc., creative direction for a major Korean band, and work with Japanese fashion houses. Some more capsule-size collaborations with Public Release, etc., etc. Like the label, my design work is now mainly about working with friends…after all these years in design you get to know the good ones, and if we didn't get a chance to work together before, we're actively trying to do that now. I've never chased money, and never will. I came from very little, and have always just followed my passion and interest. Speaking with DJ Harvey recently, and how content and happy he was being able to travel the world, surf, and have some motorcycles, sound systems, and leather jackets to his name as "being more than enough" was really refreshing. At the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to the people and the memories, sometimes more than the end product. I just want to be around really kind and inspiring people who I can learn from and share some common values and interests with.