Tom Dixon as a designer, a brand, and a personality, has been a fixture of many a design show. His collections have been shown all over the world, and Utility, his latest series of work, was just launched in Milan. While it is not unusual for designers to sideline into other directions, we were curious as how Dixon would approach Veuve Clicquot's brief of working with the new DesignBox. The cardboard box is all folds; how would Dixon reinterpret it? And why? Well, we overheard the answer to this as he explained in French, "Parce que je voulais boire de champagne." Fair enough, an honest answer. "Le 'challenge,' c'est de trouver la chose qui s'inspire." Looking for that inspiration, Dixon did some research and found it in VC's past. "J'ai recherché l'histoire de Veuve Clicquot et trouvé la comète. Ca m'amusais beaucoup de penser qu'il y avait cette image romantique. La comète est incorporée dans le logo VC. J'ai pris l'idée de l'étoile et je faisais des experiences là-dessus." And thus, the Comet came about. More in English after the jump.

Utility, A Bit of Rough, now this ... Your recent collections have had such physical heft, so the Comet may come as a surprise.

Very confusing, isn't it? What's it like working with it? Well, they're investing in design, so to be part of this carnival allows me to be more experimental.

It's an excuse as an Englishman to stop drinking beer and start drinking champagne.

In the big picture of things, the conversation started with the environment. I've been interested in interior design lately because it makes me a better product designer. It's very complementary to my work. That's how I got hooked.





What does Milan 2009 mean to you? What are your feelings about the week?

It's a bit early in the fair to say. I'll be able to answer better at the end, but ...
there's been a transition from furniture fair to corporate junket. It is very easy to be cynical, but design has been too long overlooked by bigger business. This involvement has been possibly been improving things, so I'm all for anything that gives design more legitimacy and makes creating more important things possible. You just have to keep an open eye.

Milan itself is transitive; it's changing, evolving. People say it's for the bad, but maybe the more publishers there are and the more corporate presence there is will actually be good. Last year it was all about art furniture, let's see what happens this year ....