Ep. 02 — Benjamin Edgar Gott

AC

Please introduce yourself.

BE

I’m Benjamin Edgar, I’m an industrial designer. It’s really actually quite difficult to describe what I do sometimes. Design is the focus of it. Industrial design is what people know me for, and the Object Company.

AC

Take us back a bit: how did your relationship with AIR COMPANY begin?

BE

I met Greg via a cold email—I don’t even know if he went into the details of AIR COMPANY. We caught a call and just started throwing ideas around. He was extremely open to me doing really abstract things and focusing on the details, which my whole company is known for. That must have been four years ago.

One of the first things Greg and I worked on—he asked me to make some merch. We did some staff uniforms that didn’t get used, but they were really beautiful, flowing, almost clear lab coats. The one we really landed at…was a limited cap for the initial launch of the vodka bottles. It’s milled from a solid piece of aluminum, which is a huge part of my style of working. Then the idea was that after you’d used it, you’d be able to use it as a key chain.

When I think about a key chain, usually it’s a souvenir shop thing or something like that. For my company, I started making them [and] I saw them as small sculptures. The idea that you can buy it and use it as a key chain show your affectation towards a brand or concept—all of sudden what was once a souvenir turns into this small ownable piece of art that gets better over time.

AC

You are someone who seems to be quite selective about who they work with. What drew you to AIR COMPANY following that initial email or phone exchange?

BE

I don’t do a lot of client work, really, not a lot at all. I think I maybe had three or four clients. I don’t think I’m very good at it. Greg gave me just an immense amount of freedom. There was also a friendship that started to form and a way of thinking that was really fun, but I have to be honest, it’s the scientific element of AIR COMPANY [that’s] probably the coolest thing ever. It’s an incredibly ambitious project [and] to be the guy that does the little design elements—that’s what makes this a dream client.

Fast forward two years, and we now have a fragrance in market. Greg reached out and said, “We’re starting to work on fragrance,” and he asked if we would take a stab at designing it. I work with another friend of mine on a project that we call Index—he’s a really talented designer, and we decided to do it together. It was probably a two-year project, maybe a little bit longer.

This is my first time holding the final product. It’s insane how similar it is to what we dreamed it would be. Like how close it is to what the renders were. The bottle and the cap are flush, which is difficult to achieve. The flat bottom is one of my favorite parts—you don’t see a lot of flat glass. It almost has a mirror effect on the bottom.

Max and I are obsessed with details, all the way from how something’s finished. This is printed glass rather than etched. Even the inside of the cap has a logo in it. Those are the things you dream of doing. AIR COMPANY supported making that happen, and the final product is beyond what I expected from a quality standpoint. Then the magnetic finish. How enjoyable is that? Sit and play with it all day.

Maybe I collect more than other people do, but if you make a compelling product, it never gets thrown away. It’s like a Rimowa suitcase; the more trashed it is, the better.

AC

What does innovation mean to you?

BE

Innovation to me is iterative. Most people think of it—or we assume that it’s one big leap at a time. I’m used to iteration. Even my relationship with AIR COMPANY was iterative. Innovation, to me, is constantly exploring and innovation is just curiosity.

AC

We’ve talked before about how objects and materials can be vessels for education.

BE

Well, if you’re really lucky when you create something, it prompts curiosity in someone else. I would say the majority of things I design are inspired by something else or some material I saw, or another designer doing something.

In terms of the AIR COMPANY fragrance, it’s not yelling at you saying, “Learn about this element of our company, learn about this process of our company,” but the hope is that it’s just off-kilter enough, it’s just unfamiliar enough from a design perspective that it doesn’t put you off, but prompts you to say, “I wonder why this looks the way that it does? I wonder why this company even made this?” Then from there, you’re up to the races.

AC

Where is your favorite place to sit and design or create?

BE

I travel a lot. I don’t have a studio. I use the factories that manufacture my things as my studio. I prefer to design in that environment. I prefer to design in these interstitial spaces. I started bringing a cup from home with me, as this tiny little thing to have in your room…that works for coffee, or maybe it’s a drink, or it’s just even some water in the morning. It’s a little bit of home with you, I think.

AC

Who do you look to for inspiration?

BE

I’ll give you a few answers because I can’t pick just one person. From an industrial design perspective, it’s hard not to mention people like Jony Ive. Jony’s exceptionally talented at making things that a lot of people can use that are still insanely well-designed. That’s very difficult to do.

Then I think about people like Charlotte Perriand. Long ago, she was so far ahead of her time—didn’t really get maybe her due until recently. That way of thinking around things, around your home, ways of living—she had such a broad scope beyond just furniture, but ways of thinking about design. It’s hard not to be inspired by that.

I have to say Virgil Abloh. Yes, he was a friend, but his approach to design was about iteration to a degree that I don’t think we’ll realize until later. About how intense it is to be okay with that lack of perfection and constantly iterating so that you get to these great products towards the end.

AC

What is your ideal possible future?

BE

I’m an optimist, even when it’s hard to be an optimist. I do believe that design, in a weird way, is overtaking luxury. I don’t know; I’m very optimistic about it. I think we can design our way out of a  lot of the problems that we’ve designed yourself into.

AC

Can you describe your hope for the future in one word?

BE

I would say my hope for the future in one word is “progress.” Not in the political way that we’ve come to know that, but progress goes a little bit back to our innovation thing. I think it sometimes appears that innovation’s done in one big leap when we know it’s a bunch of tiny steps.