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GT
What do you mean by “going for it”?
OH I’m not the conceptual type, but I have a great passion for art and architec-
ture. This I contributed right from the start. It’s not for nothing that we
have this multi-award-winning company building, and it’s not for nothing
that we organise exhibitions and publish books. From the very beginning,
ClassiCon was more than just a furniture brand, just as Eileen Gray, whose
designs make up the majority of our classics, never just designed furniture,
but was also an architect and artist. You only have to look at the gouaches
respective to her carpets to realise how fluid the transitions were. In this
environment I instantly felt at home.
GT
ClassiCon has not only the classics of today in its name, but also those of
tomorrow. But how do you recognise a future classic?
OH
You don’t. At best, you can see the potential. But in our case, I find it
helpful to have Eileen Gray’s furniture in the back of my head in terms of
the high quality and special nature of the design. It’s about sensing the
innovative spirit, the courage behind it. As a young designer in the 1990s,
Konstantin Grcic, for example, designed various pieces of cabinet furniture
for ClassiCon, including the Orkus Home Desk from 1993, which is still
in the collection today. In 2001, he designed the slim, provocatively bent
Chaos Chair and I remember exactly how he came to us with the design:
he had the chair with him as a 1:1 model. There was this cardboard box
standing in front of me, folded and glued several times, and at first, I had
no idea how to imagine it with upholstery. But I said to myself: let’s
make a prototype. I found it fascinating.
GT
You rarely commission designers, you rather tend to find designs.
Why is that?
OH
Design commissions do not correspond to my nature, nor to the idea I
have of my job. I don’t build up our portfolio strategically, but rather like
a flâneur who makes discoveries. You can’t always sit in the office to do
that. You have to talk to people, leaf through magazines and auction cata-
logues, travel. You have to be constantly on the move, both mentally and
literally – and sometimes you have to be very persistent. Take the Corker
stool by Herzog & de Meuron, for example, which I saw at the Serpentine
Gallery pavilion in London in 2012 and knew immediately that I wanted it
for ClassiCon! We were in discussions with Herzog & de Meuron for eight
years before we started on the product development in 2020 and event-
ually presented the stool in Milan in 2022.
GT
Do you travel a lot?
OH I do. A lot. It’s business and inspiration at the same time. ClassiCon is
now represented in eighty countries and I have the ambition to visit all the
dealers. This is important for business and for me personally. Last year,
I was once again in New Zealand and Australia, stopping off in Singapore
on the way. I always try to add another day or two to my trip …
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