Our
collaboration with Erik Magnussen began late in the summer
of 1994 when Erik and his four-legged friend Kaktus stopped
over at Brakel for the first time. Kaktus, a splendid
wiry-haired terrier, was part of the design team from
the start.
Erik
inspected our production, discussed the concept of the
product family with us, and promised to mull over our
scheme in sunny France and to turn up again at some point
once the long Danish winter was over. We got together
half a dozen times, either at ours or in greater Copenhagen,
over the next twelve months.
Naturally
enough, our remit was largely about taking Kaktus for
long walks through the Weser valley woodlands and around
the Royal Hunting Lodge, though we did also touch on the
subject of design. After such a long and intensive period
of incubation, it is hardly surprising that Erik Magnussen
won the hearts of Brakel’s door handle makers with
his very first sketches.
He
set his initial ideas to paper with broad pencil strokes.
We thought we could discern the wing-beat of Scandinavian
gulls in these first drafts. Which is how the entire product
family acquired its semiotic identity.
The
materials we were required to use by Erik Magnussen were
stainless steel and black plastic, his favourites. He
also had clear ideas concerning the production process.
We
were not to engage in any bending, welding or widening,
we were simply to fold. Once again, we were being
led into virgin engineering territory by a designer.
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