Daniel Ogassian

I get really excited when materials come along that break the conventional thinking of what their shape should be. These tiles by Daniel Ogassian do just that. It seems funny that up until recently tiles were pretty much all rectilinear. You could have squares, rectangles or maybe hexagons, that’s it.

My hope is that these sorts of materials that break rank will lead to more creativity in our environments and call into question why things are shaped the way they are. Perhaps these shapes may work better than what we currently use. Maybe his hexagonal grouped ones would actually be easier to install?

The other interesting part of his work is that the tiles call into question what a tile is supposed to feel like. Tactile design is an under-utilized portion of design, but one that can have an amazing impact. Even the perception of touch can illicit emotional response as well as convey information. Further pursuing more tactile treatments will lead to interesting questions about interactions with our environments and perhaps making the world a little bit better- or maybe just different.

Inspirational? To me, yes!