design
Extraordinary talent. Innovative design. Exquisite
creations. These local designers prove our city offers
up world-class talent across the artistic spectrum
Omer Arbel
Industrial Designer
Omer Arbel Office and Bocci
"I
knew I was meant to be a creator all my life," says Omer
Arbel in the rooftop garden of Bocci's headquarters in
the design-centric Armoury District of Vancouver. Born
in Jerusalem, the Vancouver-raised industrial designer
originally thought his calling was architecture.
It was only toward the end of a six-year program
at the University of Waterloo that a growing obsession with
architectural scale models pointed him in a different direction.
He began to create increasingly fanciful models for buildings that
didn't exist and felt drawn to creating new forms of expression.
Arbel has celebrated a banner 2013 with Bocci's European debut
this spring at Euroluce, Milan's biannual furniture salon, and the
installation of a 35-metre-tall light sculpture at the Victoria and
Albert Museum during the London Design Festival. But success has
not come without risks. His first artistic and commercial success,
the 2.4 Chair, was nearly his last. The resin lounger was, he readily
admits, almost impossible to make and used extremely volatile
materials. "Then again," says the soft-spoken aesthete, "design is
an inherently risky thing. That's what makes it so exciting."
omerarbel.com / bocci.ca
by Steven Schelling
bcliving.ca
p72-81_VanDesigners.indd 73
photography Amanda Skuse
november 201 3 |
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13-10-23 12:11 PM
