Sebastian Bergne was trained as a classic industrial designer, but always leavened by a profound sense of how things are actually used and made in the real world, with a whiff of humour and humanity running through everything he touches.
He moves between mass manufacture and small-scale production with the same recognisable, elegant hand — taking ordinary materials and the plain language of utilitarian objects and making them, quietly, poetic. His work sits in the permanent collections of MoMA and Cooper Hewitt in New York, the Design Museum in London, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris — the kind of pedigree that explains why he's just as sought after as a speaker, educator, and mentor to the next generation of designers.