Bold Design, towards large-scale 3D

Under the name Bold Design hide two designers: William Boujon and Julien Benayoun, who founded in 2008 this multidisciplinary design agency between creation workshop and experimental laboratory. They embody a new generation of designers who work in 3D and, using digital files, produce “cuttings” of objects.

They met at L’Ecole supérieure d’art et de design de Reims in 2003, became friends and decided to do their Erasmus together in the Netherlands at AKI ArtEZ, Academy of Art and Design in Dutch Academie Beeldende Kunst & Vormgevung of Enschede, in the region of Twente, 80 km northeast of Amsterdam, in the Hanseatic League. Accepted in an “architecture” section that was about to close, clever, they made an agreement with their teachers to work and experiment for six months alone, on all of their projects which touched on all materials: wood, ceramics, screen printing , earth, recyclable materials, foams, cork… They will make a book, lost or misplaced, which retraces all this work of Erasmus, experimental projects, carried out together, in pairs, in a work of ping-pong .

Bold Design is soon celebrating its 15th anniversary, and their way of working has evolved. For 8 years, they shared the same office in Paris, until Julien moved to Orléans. They then produce a book of ideas and forms to use this yarn deposit technology to manufacture objects on demand. In the book by Jean-Louis Fréchin Designer(s) du Design , it is described: “ It has a patented steel frame, its heated sole can print all types of materials and itself decrypts the 3D files submitted to it. » They thus offer a power of action to the user and share the power of digital tools. Their collections offer spectacular shapes. The “Poilu” collection of vases brings chaos to the organic. It is a mathematical expression of disorder. The machine interprets a code composed of coordinates halfway between computer logic and natural law and whose rendering can only be assessed once the object has been created. Posted on Instagram, like hair in the wind, disheveled, she will be seen by the AYBAR gallery of Miami which orders a collection of three vases from them, printed from a material loaded with vegetable fibers which gives them their brown, red color or blond. They exhibit alongside more phantasmagorical pieces such as those of Formafantasma, the Mario Trimarchi and Simone Farresin duo, attentive to the ecological, historical, political and social forces that shape the discipline of design today.

“Our concern is above all to make a functional and utilitarian object produced by the machine. » They then approach Batch.Works, based in London and Amsterdam, an industry 4.0 design and manufacturing studio that is building a network of factories for concrete products such as small office accessories. They are experimenting with the filament. PLA (Polylactic acid) or polylactic acid, a biodegradable polymer in industrial composting (at a temperature above 60°) has a double interest in green chemistry. Resulting from the fermentation of sugars or starch under the effect of bacteria synthesizing lactic acid, this recycled plastic can be produced from sugar beets. La Quincaillerie moderne produces one of their light fixture models, a large thick glass ball on a technical foot that allows the electricity to be routed safely. Three patterns, four colors, this collection is entirely made of thermoplastic.

At the 3DPrint Show, in October at the Palais des Congrès, Porte Maillot, they were able to exhibit exceptional pieces, such as the Bayonne start-up Lynxter. At Lynxter, they bring an outside view of their machines, large 3D printing machines, ten times heavier than the small DOOD, and stored in a 3000 m ² building, still looking for an extension. A technological nugget from the Bayonne technocity, Lynxter produces new generation 3D printers and has established itself as a world pioneer in silicone printing. S600D machines are currently being exported to Europe with an à la carte consultancy service. The team of 25 people is open to all proposals.

Thanks to VIA/The French Design speed-dating, they were put in touch with Camif for whom they imagined a sofa (in collaboration with the manufacturer Mousse du Nord) which adapts to different morphologies for more suitable comfort. . From experimental pieces to an accumulation of prototypes, research with local craftsmen, they have become experts in tools and clay printing, which opens up prospects for them with future architects. The earth has not only a decorative quality but can be used as a material for insulation or for conserving heat or coolness. Fans will testify to this. With France Relance, they are working on the possibility and feasibility of printing micro-architectures with XtreeE, a Rungis producer, and outside the studio, specializing in the development of materials from waste recovery, founded by Rébecca Fézard and Élodie Michaud. In the summer of 2021, they were invited by Christopher Dessus, winner of the Agora de la Curation grant, to exhibit at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal a printed sandstone vase in which a bouquet of tulips was enthroned.

This small studio (2 people) which brings people together and creates synergies, is overwhelmed with requests for collaborations with start-ups or craftsmen always looking for golden fingers to take over. The CNAP, Center National des Arts Plastiques, has purchased four of their collections – Poilu, Tuile, the collection of H, E and I boxes, initiated for their collaboration with Habitat Design Lab and Fabrik, objects printed in black and white sandstone within from 8Fablab in Drôme.

Currently a designer in the rural world, in Crest 30 km from Valence, Julien met the actors of ceramics there and works with the designer and ceramist Emmanuelle Roule on the use of water. From project to project, they have even approached the University of Paris-Saclay to support research laboratories in their innovative projects and have designed an armchair to allow people with reduced mobility to dance, tools to check the condition aircraft wings and Innled led lights produced in Castelnau-le-Lez.

Bold , which means “daring” in English, has nothing to fear except rising too quickly to the firmament of design. A first retrospective was already organized at the end of 2021 at the Chapelle des Calvairiennes in Mayenne at the invitation of Mathias Courtet and the Contemporary Art Center Le Kiosque, an exhibition that was too short for only one month. The group exhibition “As long as there are flowers…” is being prepared at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design d’Orléans. But the surest way to test their products is to have a coffee at Mignon Café, in the 18^e arrondissement in Paris or Saint-Malo, a veritable showroom of the Kataba publishing house with which they have collaborated since its creation for the quality of its environmental and social approach. Far from being Ayatollahs of the carbon footprint, ecology and 100% organic, they have a concern for less impact, a real awareness of design and an ambition: to get 3D out of the gadget.

Bénédicte Duhalde