Stepping Away From The Workdesk - Roderick Vos Design, The Netherlands

Aesthetics

According to Plato every soul desires the good, the true and the beautiful especially artists and artisans! These are absolute and eternal qualities that arise from a single source. So anything that is beautiful is naturally good and true, too.

Is this idealistic? Naive? I admit, we have just stepped into the 21st century.

Nowadays everything seems so relative, and Platonic idealism so distant.

But I feel a greater kinship with his ancient philosophies than with our last century's post-modernistic view of the world. Everyone is not right, and everything is not equal.

Bucketlight by Roderick Vos. Image above: Roderick Vos Showroom by Roderick Vos

I don't want to be constantly entertained, or to entertain others. I want to make you happy with beautifully useful pieces. Objects that exude aesthetic pleasure. Strong shapes that feel beautiful, good and true. Such sensations are nothing to be ashamed of.

Hotel Château de la Resle's kitchen, designed by Roderick Vos

Technology

You won't find me daydreaming at my drawing board. I like to see the factories, the machinery and talk to the people who work there. I am inspired by both old and new production techniques. After all, product innovation begins with an awareness of materials and techniques.

Roderick Vos: Vanity Table

It's not just about form. It is also about material, its use and the finishing touches.

I surround myself with and cherish creative specialists. Artisans making beautiful objects by hand in the Czech Republic, deep in Asia and close-by in the De Betuwe. I am nothing without these people, the men and women who blow glass, weld, cast, construct and upholster my furniture and more.