Anastasia Nysten: a good design can only originate in a good debate

Anastasia Nysten is a 30-year-old design talent with an international background, much curiosity, and a love of discovery and continuous change. Born in Ottawa, Canada to a Lebanese mother and Finnish father, Nysten grew up travelling and living in Finland, France, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. She has a master's degree in industrial design from the Académie libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Beirut. Continuous moves allowed her to familiarise with different cultures and outlooks, something that influenced her to a great degree. Her nomadic life and repeated adaptation to cultural, linguistic, professional and gastronomic variations resulted in an inquisitive and open nature that facilitated her marked predisposition to listening. In fact, Nysten maintains that a good design can only originate in a good debate. Many great designers inspire her, so multiple references are found in her work. Some are brutalist (see the Troll Chair, 2017); others are more light-hearted (see the Biraz stool, 2011). Her approach begins with her hands, which she loves using to create in an almost obsessive manner, possibly focusing on more than one thing at a time. Fond of drawing on and making things with paper, she is convinced that if it works on paper, it's worth continuing to work on.

How do you start a project?
It always starts with observation. Looking at something, combining stories, superimposing them and when finally it comes together in my mind, I put it down on paper or make a small mock up out of it. And that is the beginning of a long journey. Is there a material you want to use more than others? Why?
I like natural materials, they have their flaws and beauty and age beautifully. Wood, leather, stone, fabrics, clay, copper.

I know you like paper so I guess you draw with pencil. What about computer and technology?
I spend so much time choosing my pens, pencils and notebooks. Thickness, grip, sounds, and to be honest, it can either inspire me or can block me from putting down my ideas on paper. Technology can definitely facilitate the final process of coming up with production drawings and explaining dimensions but the computer will not come up with the idea. Every stage is important. How do you view the current relationship between art and design?
Very intertwined. A lot of my inspiration comes from the art world. I like the mind space art can bring, the several ways you can interpret it based on your own story. It is after all an expression of the artist’s imagination.

Can a piece of furniture be a work of art?
The main purpose of designing is to produce a good product, a functionally long-lasting one, that ages well. When functionality is not the priority, that, I would say is art. I have the impression that considering furniture as a work of art has pejorative connotations, but I don’t completely agree. When encountering a piece, the visual pleasure and initial emotions it triggers are indeed the first impressions you get that will guide what you will do next, whether it’s art or not. Am I content only looking at it or can I also use it? With furniture, the next question would be, ‘how can I be part of its story?’. I know you collect different kind of things…
I do collect, I collect things that interest me visually or functionally, I’m an inspiration collector. I have a collection of wooden tools, things from the forest like twigs and pine cones, others from the sea like shells and stone, artistic books and paintings. Sometimes I feel I have too much of them but I can never get rid of any. But the word collector is mostly associated to financial values rather than inspirational values of what you collect; I don’t think of it that way.

Among the international historical designers and architects, looking to the past, is there one you consider as your mentor or that you particularly look up to? Or people who have inspired you.
I admire many: Eileen Gray and Charlotte Perriand for surfacing at the time they did and the poetry in their work. Poul Kjaerholm for the lightness of his pieces. Sergio Rodriguez for the characters he creates, Carlo Scarpa and Tadao Ando for their focus – turning a simple sometimes hostile material into a magical experience of light and shadow – Charles & Ray Eames for their endless inspiring experimentation. Is there an object you could not live without?
I would consider that as an obsession. I don’t like to think I’m obsessed with a particular object. An impossible dream as designer?
Nothing is impossible, I think some things require more time and effort than others. One thing I’ve been always fascinated with is how to enhance interactions between strangers in an urban environment. How the environment you are in affects your actions.