We were visited by Michel Aroutcheff, who took us through his plans and models he developed over his long and successful career.
Michel made his career, after training as an architect, in the designing and making of high-quality toys. He started making anonymous toys for sale in Parisian toy shops, but later made a name in the production of extremely well finished, high accuracy replica memorabilia toys which were tied into cartoons such as tin tin.
His visit was interesting in a number of ways. Firstly his rather off-piste career in an impressive but niche market, which shows us that there is ambitions and ways to utilise our skills beyond joining a large multinational or joining in with the design festival circuit. He said something similar to Leon Krier's 'I don't build because I am an architect.' reflecting the isolation from the world that many designers and architects may experience once going through such rigorous and sometimes ideological training systems.
I was also amazed at the material finished that Michel had managed to achieve. Fine detail and surface finish I have found to be the hardest part of any final design. This is always made harder the less decoration and detail on the final part, as flat surfaces have to stand for themselves. By utilising craft processes and hand-production, but ambitiously aiming for a very pared-back cartoonish aesthetic, Aroutcheff has made the job very hard for himself. Machines and injection moulding can all, clearly, do this in a heartbeat, But Michel's products still command prestige and a much higher price over his Chinese intimidators.
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