Newcomer Finalist 2019, Essi Johanna Glomb

Essi Johanna Glomb (*1989) studied Textile and Surface Design at weißensee academy of art berlin and gained her master's degree in 2017. Her work covers various disciplines and combines the fields of research, design and application.
Since 2017, she has been working on a research project focusing on design research and the development of innovative textiles funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Essi Johanna Glomb also co-founded the design studio Blond & Bieber in 2014, which focuses on conceptual design and sustainable material developments. The studio's projects have been exhibited internationally and won multiple awards.

A few questions to Essi Johanna Glomb:

You are a Newcomer Finalist at the German Design Awards 2019. What does this award mean for you and your work?

This award naturally means a great deal to me. For me it is recognition of a new design concept, which favours processuality, conceptuality and design research rather than mere product development. 

You refer to your design work using the brief term »Future Crafts«. In your own words, can you explain what is meant by this?

In my design work, I focus on the development of textile and non-textile materials and surfaces. I use classic craft processes for this, but I combine these with findings from science and design and work with very new technologies. New discoveries from design and material research are combined with craft through the use of traditional textile processes, lending the finished items warmth and familiarity.

What are good sources of inspiration for you?

Inspiration can arise from very different things – for example, from our daily rituals, sociocultural structures, but also special surroundings and people. I always take great inspiration from nature and all its potential, which is far from being exhausted. I also frequently come into professional contact with new and old technologies and find it exciting to combine unusual themes, materials and technologies in my pieces.

Your portfolio features very different products. Which is particularly important to you and why?

For the piece Smell Memory Tools, I was looking for a new form of sensuousness and an answer to the question of how intimacy, closeness and recollection can be generated and preserved in our ever more frequent living apart together relationships. The result was an analogue ritual based on smells in the shape of a Smell Memory Toolbox as well as textile artefacts that embody a relationship symbolically and olfactorily. I worked with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research and Knitwearlab Amsterdam for the piece. The artistic and design research within the work is focussed on the olfactory, tactile and emotional possibilities for experiencing fields of action between people.