A little while ago, after meeting Dror Benshetrit at a dinner given by Murray Moss, I asked Dror if I could visit his studio to see where he cooks up all his wonderful design ideas. Since starting his own company in 2002, Dror has been working in a space behind this door in the garment district. He is one of the latest graduates of the Eindhoven Design Academy in the Netherlands to become a major star in the world of industrial design, having done work for such clients as Target, Puma, Levi’s, Cappellini, Swarovski, and Alessi. Photo: Wendy Goodman
These are some trial pieces of ceramics that I thought were lovely. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Dror showed me the mechanics of his +/- Cabinet that he designed for Boffi. When closed, it looks like a horizontal mirror. Photo: Wendy Goodman
And when open, having been rotated into a vertical position, it looks like a cross. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The Peacock Chair for Cappellini is probably Dror’s most famous design at this point. It is made from three pieces of felt woven tightly onto a metal frame. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The handsome, high-gloss Shield trestle table fronts another QuaDror wall. Photo: Wendy Goodman
What looks like a pile of wood planks is actually a stack of folding chairs. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Dror demonstrates ” Photo: Wendy Goodman
” How the wooden plank, which can be hung on a wall when not in use, becomes the Pick Chair. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Here, his Floor Chandelier for Swarovski, with 6,400 crystals strung together in grid patterns on an interlocking frame. Photo: Wendy Goodman
It was interesting to see that with all his geometric and mathematical ideas for systems of furniture, his own office contained a simple plywood work desk and old-fashioned bentwood chairs found, he says, “a long time ago at a flea market.” Photo: Wendy Goodman
Opposite the work table is a bulletin board with some of Dror’s conceptual projects, illustrating how the same mechanics enlisted in the Shield Table and QuaDror interlocking system can be applied to architectural projects. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Dror then took out a sample of one of his “Volume.MGX” pieces that transforms from a flat structure to a self-supporting 3-D design. Photo: Wendy Goodman
All 1,200 L-shaped pieces of this lamp are made of polyamide plastic printed on a Selective Laser Sintering machine. Dror uses a similar interlocking technique on one of the conceptual building designs on his bulletin board. Photo: Wendy Goodman
As I left the office, I noticed Dror’s collection of toys with simple movable parts. “I am fascinated by toys that have movement and geometry,” Dror says. “These have an ingenuity and playfulness.” Photo: Wendy Goodman
