Charles Kapalkian

Charles Kalpakian was born in 1982 in Beirut (Lebanon). Holder of a BTS Design Produit in 2004, he did a product design apprenticeship within the Ora-ïto agency before joining architects Leberre and Guillois as design assistant in 2005 and 2006. He collaborated with Frédéric Ruyant, ChafikDesign and VeniseWorkshop as a desi¬gner and interior designer. He then worked for the Christophe Pillet agency as a designer, then head of the design team, from April 2007 to July 2011. Charles Kalpakian is currently a freelance designer working on projects ranging from furniture, product design, decorative arts and scenography. In April 2011, he participated in the ‘Making of ’ exhibition in Milan organised by Meet My Project. The same year he collaborated with Darenart on a light and vase collection and on the design of the logo for the ‘Colette’ restaurant by Pierre Gagnaire for the Sezz Hotel in Saint-Tropez. In September 2011, as part of Paris Design Week at ‘Docks en Seine,’ he presented the prototype for a wall cabinet inspired by bistable perception, currently presented in a larger, more vertical version known as ‘Kinetism I’ by Galerie BSL (edition of 12 pieces). Charles Kalpakian’s design has three roots: France, Lebanon and the culture of Street Art. These influences are evi¬dent in the reinterpretation of certain motifs from the history of decorative arts (such as French marquetry), and iconic motifs from Lebanese history and geography (such as Lebanese cedar wood), filtered by urban and contem¬porary culture. The stroke is still clean, even if the gesture sometimes resembles writing or calligraphy.