Fouin Elise

Fouin Elise

Élise Fouin, born in 1979, is an industrial designer who lives and works in Paris. For the past decade, she has focused her attention on experimental research as she has investigated the building blocks for her products, her penchant for upcycled or repurposed materials a driving passion that fuels her commitment to sustainable designs. She describes her work as being “based on the link between the behavior of materials and processes of manufacturing.” She is highly recognized for the delicacy of the designs she produces, her sensitive and poetic creations testaments of an inquiring and ingenious mind. The Forestier Papillon pendants in the Global Lighting Stratos Collection illustrate this point of view beautifully. The graduate of École Boule admits her work often arouses surprise in her as she envisions industrial products, furniture, lighting, and interiors. What’s surprising to everyone else is that she thinks about the materials before the objects she intends to design. Given her drive toward object-as-poetry, it is natural that she would love to play with the feel of materials, manipulating them with subtlety as she rolls, piles, adjusts, wraps, polishes, and varnishes until she sees the object is born. Her involvement in the process of transformation—making sure that each piece is unique and its form never bears the same details—means she is always pushing to the next level of experimentation within the caveat that form and function must be equally at home in her designs. She was named “Talent à la carte” at the Maison & Objet show in 2010, and she has exhibited at the ToolsGalerie and at the Granville Gallery. She is solidly in the game as a young designer, producing products and projects for a list of noted luxury brands.

Photo ©Gregory Brandel