Interview with Per Weiss

On the occasion of his 50th Birthday, Per Weiss was interviewed by the German magazine PolsterFashion. Click to read the entire interview.

"Keeping your eyes open"

Per Weiss – inspiration for Innovation

On the 2nd April, Per Weiss celebrated his 50th birthday. The creative talent has already been heading the design department of the internationally successful Danish upholstered furniture manufacturer Innovation for 20 years, and has thus been responsible for the concept, design and marketing of the collection.

Anyone who now believes that the former rock musician and industrial design student at the Aarhus School of Architecture has conformed during this time is mistaken. Weiss' designs are characterised by original shapes, functionality and – in keeping with the company – daring innovation. This is design that makes a difference to everyday life, as he describes the ideology behind his creations.
His career started with the Danish architects Friis & Moltke and Schmidt-Hammer & Lassen. At the end of the 1990s he worked together with Verner Panton. Besides Innovation, he also does creative work for other companies – either on his account or, since 2000, in collaboration with Innovation owner Flemming Højfeldt via their shared company Weiss Design Works.

PolsterFashion: For 20 years now you have been working as designer and art director at Innovation. What do you still consider a challenge concerning this task today?

Per Weiss: It is my job to secure that we have a fresh, innovative and commercial profile at Innovation. It is important to pay a lot of respect to the ever changing spirit of time – and we have this name that obligates. I still feel it is as interesting now as it was 20 years ago.

PolsterFashion: How do you develop the design style of the company further continuously?

Weiss: It is a matter of seeking inspiration, of keeping your eyes open all the time. And of course I keep an eye on everything that is related to furniture, i.e. all the main fairs in the world to see what is happening in the different markets. Until five years ago Innovation had a global profile, so to say we did more or less the same on all markets. Now we have three collections we are solely working with in Europe, we have collections in Asia and in the United States. We are doing a lot of different things
on each market. A big part of my job is to travel and to make sure that I have an idea what the differences are and how each market develops. I spend much time looking at people in the cities to get an idea what is of interest to them. We are trying to figure out who we want to address and how to do this.

PolsterFashion: What influences you in a more personal way when you are looking for inspirations for new designs?

Weiss: Influences and ideas develop from keeping your eyes open. It's not that I go to certain places in search of specific things or that I have a certain designer I keep an eye on. Everything – music, art exhibitions, everyday life – can be inspiring. The combination of "open eyes", my professional background, and 50 years in a western culture give me my creative inspiration.

PolsterFashion: You were a musician before working for Innovation and also mentioned music as a source of inspiration. How does this reflect in your work?

Weiss: When I started up with Innovation, music definitely meant a lot to me. If you want to express yourself through music through design – it is more or less the same process, only a different medium. I had a lot of knowledge about the young target group and also about marketing. When we started out with this young and aggressive „MTV" collection from Innovation, we included a lot of the visuals of the rock 'n' roll industry there. Of course, in some aspects I still can draw from this thinking.

PolsterFashion: What accounts for a successful design in your opinion? When are you satisfied?

Weiss: Most of my time I am a commercial designer. My satisfaction is to create concepts and designs that are appealing and meaningful to the Innovation audience and thereby commercially successful. This means money in the bank and it pays mysalary. Sometimes the product design itself is the reward. I definitely have made designs that I still find very nice even though they did not turn out to be a commercial success. However, I haven't made many uncompromising designs that only intend to please my personal taste. But I have the future in front of me – 50 is no age.

PolsterFashion: What designs are we to expect from you in the near future?

Weiss: We have a lot of activities going on right now at Innovation, many new collections coming up. Despite the difficult economic situation worldwide, the design department is really busy.

PolsterFashion: Mr. Weiss, thank you very much for the interview.
ls➜ www.innovationliving.com