Design against homogenization

We spoke with Jonathan Olivares about how he builds his own practice around the cultural responsibility of design, as well as about Knoll’s design vision

Interview: Merve Akar Akgün & Liana Kuyumcuyan

Jonathan Olivares. Photo: Tanya and Zhenya Posternak

By 2024, sustainable design is taking on an increasingly central role between aesthetics and functionality. How do you integrate this understanding of sustainability in Knoll’s design vision from your perspective? And which innovative material options do you prefer?

I only believe in heirloom quality furniture. I don’t believe that companies should make or sell anything that is not intended to be placed in someone’s will. Now, of course it is a luxury to hold this opinion, as many customers and brands can’t afford to live this way, but in my practice and in Knoll’s output, this is the way. Then, I’m only in favor of natural and quality materials. At Knoll I am purging plastics from the portfolio, in favor of wood, steel, aluminum, textiles, leathers, and plastic free leather alternatives.

Jonathan Olivares, Olivares Aluminum Chair, 2012

How do you balance staying true to your creative process as a designer with guiding and managing a brand at the same time? How do you see these roles evolving in today's design world?”

For me, this is one in the same process. I can only do what my instincts tell me to do, and I do not believe that it is the role of design to make any compromise in this regard. In today’s landscape, with so many brands having been acquired by other brands or by private equity, I believe design is now the only thing standing between acquisition and a homogeneous landscape. Guiding Knoll, it is there for my role to champion designers whose work I believe in, and create a total vision that is unique in the industry and true to the cultural proposition of the brand.

The simple and functional forms frequently used in your designs bring together aesthetics and functionality. What are your sources of inspiration in this process? How do you bring together elements such as minimalism and versatility?

I don't really think in these terms. Any simplicity that is visible in my work is the result of not enjoying competing or complicated ideas, overly complex design tools, or fussing to much about an objects form. I think more in terms of proportions than I do in shapes. Proportions can be very helpful, shapes are absolutely not helpful.

Left: Willo Perron, Perron Pillo Sofa, 2024. Origin: Italy

Right: Willo Perron, Perron Bun Single Armchair & Ottoman, Fabric, 2025. Origin: Italy

You add Willo Perron within the designers of Knoll, what was the initiator of this choice?

There are prerequisites for choosing designers that are one with Knoll's ethos. Most are architects or interior designers, whose work in furniture relates back to their work interiors. They understand and are creating tendencies in how interiors are composed and how we live. Others are from other disciplines that bring altogether new points of view to the furniture discipline. Willo is both things: his work designing concerts places him at the center of music culture, and his work designing residential interiors (often for the same musicians he does concerts for) demands that his work responds to how our cultural leaders are living.

You emphasize the importance of research, often embedding it deeply into his work, such as his two-year study of office chairs for Knoll. He views research as essential not only for innovation but also for fostering meaningful client relationships and enriching the design experience. What role does research play in your design process?

I see it more as curiosity than a formal kind of research. I am, for better or worse, obsessive on subjects. If I'm working on something, I can't help but want to know everything about it. So I'll speak to people who know about it, read things about it, build it with bibliography on it, and try to understand the nuances, and the deep cuts. I like to nerd out on things.

Left: Eero Saarinen, Womb Armchair, Fabric and metal, 1948. Origin: Italy

Right: Eero Saarinen, Saarinen Side Table, Marble, 1957. Origin: Italy

In October 2024, you came to Istanbul for the Saarinen exhibition on the invitation of Mozaik. In your talk here, you particularly mentioned the influence of Eliel Saarinen's views on design on Eero Saarinen, just like Saarinen, how do you interpret the fact that the design classics in the Knoll collection are considered ahead of their time today? What do you think is the secret of this? “

The gift that Eliel imparted on Eero is the notion of relational, contextual design. As a result Eero is really the first of the modernists who employed widely varied materials (stone, concrete, steel and glass) depending on the context and client of his work. This practice of relational design, passed on from the Saarinen’s to Florence Knoll, creates a versatile approach for Knoll that roots Knoll in the evolving culture of architecture and interiors.

As defined by media “designer’s designer”, how do you make decisions, and do you see it as essential to good design?

Ghostface Killah is my favorite rapper, and he is definitely a rapper’s rapper, so naturally, I like this description. While my favorite aspect of our design is the way it interacts with its intended audience, I do see one role of avant-garde design as being to progress the way design is practiced.

You use digital tools (like CNC technology), and place great value on tactile experiences, such as working with raw minerals to develop the Kvadrat Twill Weave collection. You prefer staying grounded in physical processes despite leveraging digital advancements where appropriate. How do you balance traditional craftsmanship with modern technology?

Industry without craftsmanship lacks humanity. Craftsmanship without industry is not the sandbox I play in. I seek the chemistry of both, which is rare. 

What motivates you when you design—beyond the outcome of the object?

Design is a way of interacting with the world, creating relationships were none existed before, and caring for existing relationships. In this way, design participates in social fabric. I am motivated by the process of making things with other people,and then by the unpredictable ways in which design interacts with people.

Jonathan Olivares, Useless, an exploded view, Exhibition view, MUDE, Lisbon, 2011

Is humor a fundamental way to connect with people? In your exhibition, Useless, an exploded view, explored the absurdity and humor in objects and packaging, showing how seemingly trivial elements still serve a purpose. How do personal and professional experiences influence your design philosophy?

Humor is one of the keys of skateboard culture, which is part of my upbringing. Embracing the absurdity of adults riding around on wooden toys is a prerequisite for good skateboarding. This quality is something that I'm drawn to in all things, and in design as well. There is a level of absurdity in modern design, imagining new ways that people will live and work—not accepting reality as it is and proposing alternatives. Works and designers that take themselves too seriously are not my thing.