The 11-Headed Designhead
Fan Collective is taking teamwork to the next level
By Juliyen Davis with print layout design by Ally Zhu — Originally published in our Spring 2024 print issue
Did MSCHF team up with HGTV and move to Germany? Nope, that’s just the wacky and amazing world of FAN Collective: a group of 11 friends, artists, object-makers, and furniture designers whose projects range from a DIY shelf – very easily put together by hammering a hole into your wall – to a 4 meter tall Megazord stacking stool, to a physical cata-log of logs, including glass blown logs, log candles and swiss-cheese logs.
Granting their verbalized wish to be locked in a house together, but in a twisted-Genie-kinda-way, Designheads threw all 11 members of FAN into a Google Doc with few rules and no supervision. What emerged from the chaos is a wandering conversation about collective imagination, play and humor as an approach to design and true friendship.
KEY:
(ᵟຶ︵ᵟຶ) Phil Zumbruch
(◠﹏◠) Felix Plachtzik
(｡◕‿◕｡) Oliver-Selim Boualam
(⌒▽⌒) Clemens Lauer
(•̀ᴗ•́) Anne-Sophie Oberkrome
(♨_♨) Lisa Ertel
(⊙_◎) Jannis Zell
(^-^) Lino Santo ornge
(° ͜ʖ͡°) Marcel Strauß
( ˇ෴ˇ ) Christoph Hauf
(◔ ౪ ◔) Lukas Marstaller
How would you describe FAN Collective… in 5 words or less?
(｡◕‿◕｡) Fan, Fen, Fon (⊙_◎) Fun (^-^) Fam.
If you had to make a superlative for your collective members, what would it be?
(♨_♨) Best Friends (◔ ౪ ◔) +1 (•̀ᴗ•́) +1
(⊙_◎) Most Likely To Remain Highschool Sweethearts
What’s your favorite FAN Collective project so far? Why?
(•̀ᴗ•́) Romer. (° ͜ʖ͡°) Residence (⊙_◎) +1 (◠﹏◠) +1. Because we had a whole residential building in Karlsruhe as an exhibition space and a wide range of perspectives.
(◔ ౪ ◔) The publication we want to produce in the near future. Playing around with 11 perspectives in a printed format could be interesting and challenging. +1
(ᵟຶ︵ᵟຶ) I liked the DIY-shelf we did a lot. I like that it was one piece in the end, instead of 11 different ones surrounding a theme. As a collective, our work is always in between those two extremes. I like the idea of individual voices becoming a choir.
(⌒▽⌒) The project is also a little bit of a middle finger to common DIY projects. We thought it might be too heavy for the publisher, but we still did it as we believed it’s a very honest way to design your surroundings. The fact that it ended up on the front page in the end shows that grit is key.
What’s your version of FAN Collective’s origin story?
(•̀ᴗ•́) 11 friends who got to know each other during their studies and started working together in different constellations. (⌒▽⌒) …One afternoon in a backyard in Karlsruhe.
(° ͜ʖ͡°) The idea of FAN is to maintain and further develop a way of working and collaborating that originated in a particular place and time, but now after its members are no longer together in that place. Being able to improvise together, pass along ideas and sketches, knowing that we share a roughly common view on things and yet have very different approaches to produce them in the end.
What do you hope Fan Collective’s impact on design is?
( ˇ෴ˇ ) FAN shows the potential of working together with different mindsets. In a way, it’s anti singular style and signature designer and it exemplifies what a conversation in a design group – more or less without constraint – can lead to.
(｡◕‿◕｡) We play with the idea that you can recognize the style of an individual or that it becomes blurred in a collective work. We are always looking for new ways to work together or to react to each other. For example in our Stooooooooool exhibition in Zentrale, Karlsruhe, where we all designed a stool that can be stacked on another stool. 11 individual stools were created that together form a 4 meter high collective tower (° ͜ʖ͡°) +1
(⌒▽⌒) One point about our collective work together is to do it out of a strong group mentality without any pressure, so if it will have an impact on design or not, it doesn't really matter. (⊙_◎) We’re reflecting on the design discipline itself while taking things with humor and in a playful manner.
(◠﹏◠) I want to add something, but it already sounds pretty professional. I like it.
What are some of your biggest sources of inspiration or points of reference?
(◠﹏◠) Inspiration often comes from within the group. When we are together and someone brings in a thought, we play around with it. But sometimes it’s also the place itself. For example, at the Residence exhibition, some objects just emerged in reference to the old villa where we exhibited. (⊙_◎) Within this setting everyone brings their own interests and references to the table.
(° ͜ʖ͡°) Even if it may sound a bit clichéd, they are often everyday observations. For example, in a publication accompanying the Residence exhibition, we collected mobile phone images taken in Karlsruhe by all the FAN members, capturing odd situations, material combinations, accidental designs etc., which many times were the source or the starting point for work in the exhibition.
(⌒▽⌒) Collective work is really something that can inspire itself, by choosing or working on a topic, talking about it, collaborating, which is something you don’t have working individually.
What’s your weirdest or hottest take on design?
(⊙_◎) Destruction as design. We once hammered a hole in a wall for it to serve as a wall shelf.
What’s your dream collaboration for FAN Collective?
(◠﹏◠) All together locked in a house on a hill for a week, (⊙_◎) or a month, (° ͜ʖ͡°) with a reasonable budget (^-^) +1
(◠﹏◠) I’d love to design something for a football club.
(⊙_◎) FAN x [fill in the blank] (◠﹏◠) …Berlin metro
(◠﹏◠) FAN x [fill in the blank] (⊙_◎) …Bauhaus (the hardware store, not the school).
(◠﹏◠) Yeah, that would be nice!!
Who is FAN Collective’s work for?
(｡◕‿◕｡) First and foremost for ourselves, as we try to maintain a creative exchange through joint projects as a group. (◔ ౪ ◔) FAN feels like a loose extension of everyone’s own practice.
Can you share a playlist or album that epitomizes FAN Collective?
(◠﹏◠) No.
(｡◕‿◕｡) Yes, Walls and Birds by Atlantic Bar. (◠﹏◠) Yeah, true! Great album!
(•̀ᴗ•́) Die Nachos (mostly fan members).
How did the last FAN Collective project come together? …How do they usually?
(⊙_◎) We were asked by 019, Ghent to contribute to a fire show. But we initiate projects ourselves most of the time. (° ͜ʖ͡°) It is nice to be challenged by a certain external task or request that forces us to react to something though. (◠﹏◠) +1