Q and A with Christakos and Blanks

Q Your lecture for the Leaders of Design Series is called "There's No 'I' in Des gn." Why isn't there?
Christakos: We thought it was appropriate. There are two themes that are central to Blu Dot. First, a collaborative design process. We've always, from the beginning, designed as a group. Our first office had one big roll of butcher paper on one end and we would just pull it out like a scroll and sit on the end.

Blanks: Throughout the life cycle of the product it's a collaboration between all the different segments. So rather than designing it in a vacuum and then presenting it to the world, you try to figure out how do you make it, how do you assemble it, how do you package it. It's considering all those things at the beginning. All those segments ... have a voice at the table.

Christakos: What you ultimately see in one of our products is the residue of that process.

Blanks: We're sort of the antithesis of the "mine-y" iconic designer who comes out with something that's fully formed with ...

Christakos: ... divine inspiration!

Blanks: So that's one theme.

Christakos: The second is ... we don't like the whole celebrity designer thing. You never see an individual's name attached to our work. It's the collective's name. Maybe it's our Minnesota roots, but a humbler approach is better.

Blanks: I think it's kind of outside our furniture niche where that's happening. Apple would be one I would throw out, people recognize good design as part of its product.

Q Blu Dot produced the Dwell Lounge Chair by the late architect Ralph Rapson. What did you learn from collaborating with him?

Blanks: That you can still be really excited about design after you've been doing it for 70 years. He had the energy and the excitement and enthusiasm for the project that was as fresh as any 20-year-old who came into the office. That was impressive.

Christakos: And no cynicism.

Q The College of Visual Arts says your exhibition is a translation of your company's "attitude." Besides making good design stylish and affordable, what is that?

Blanks: There's no I in design-- maybe the third thing that communicates is the smart-ass sense of humor!

Q The squirrel appears to be much revered at Blu Dot: There are ceramic versions throughout the office; someone in a full-sized squirrel suit stars in your You Tube video on assembling the Real Good Chair. Is that you?

Christakos: No it was one of our designers. I did wear it on Halloween.

Blanks: I can't say there was any ethereal intent behind that. It sort of happened and then it became a theme that we sort of fed on.

Christakos: It started with the ceramic blue squirrel, which was a New Year's giveaway. And then we decided to do a video with a full-size squirrel. It's gotten, like, 8,000 views on You Tube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=vflKxF3ROcI).

Both: We design for their guests' aesthetic.

Q Does Charlie (Lazor) still weigh in with ideas, now that [the third cofounder] is running his Flatpak empire? You still pay homage to him on your website.

Christakos: Sure!

Blanks: We're having drinks tonight.

Christakos: We don't always listen to him, but we see him (laughter).

Christakos: In the late '90s when we started, our collection was a little more idiosyncratic, maybe a little more youthful than it is now. We still have that vibe; in the last few years, the collections ... have become a little bit more sophisticated.

Blanks: In our first collection there was frosted glass and casters. Lots of casters.

Q You've produced two ultra avant-garde catalogs with rocker Dan Monick behind the lens. Is there a story line woven through these things? (See a sliver at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHcTVbMMlmM).

Blanks: It's sort of like the squirrel. We put it up for your imagination, and you connect the dots.

Christakos: There's a loose story line, but it develops spontaneously.

Christakos: We pin up pictures of the new designs and we allow everyone in the office to put their suggestions in and then we pick them.

Q What's next on the furniture front?

Christakos: Lighting. Another sectional. We need to add a desk chair.

Blanks: We kind of came slow into seating, but obviously it's an important category for us. We continue to fill in there.

Christakos: We're adding another dining table. We've done our introductions each year around ICFF [International Contemporary Furniture Fair], and we've introduced 20 pieces at a time. It's a difficult thing to do to get that many products off the ground at one time, operationally. So we're probably going to change that to be a more steady stream of introductions over the course of the year.

Christakos: We are. We've exceeded it. I don't want to be more specific, but we've exceeded it.

Blanks: We're between that and Ikea (laughter).

Q Where do you see the company in another 10 years?

Christakos: We're thinking theme parks.

Blanks: Space stations.

Q What would people be surprised to know about you?

Christakos: I acted in several Japanese movies. I taught English to Japanese executives in Kyoto for a year after college. We connected with a woman who was an agent for a movie studio and they needed American faces. I was also a model in the Japanese Ocean Pacific catalog. In my skinnier days. 1987, 1988.

Blanks: Can I just tag on to that?

Christakos: He came to visit. We roped him into a couple of pictures.

Blanks: One that I was in was a made-for-TV movie in Japan that Brian Dennehy was in. It was set right after World War II. My hair was longer than it is now, and they put me in a GI outfit and put a hat on and my hair was sticking out below. It didn't look historically accurate.