Pertinence and Impertinence
Working as an inseparable design team for more than fifteen years, Sismo has enjoyed profound and increasing success in its field. Architects of dozens of product designs, curators of numerous exhibitions for the public, design consultants for multinationals and small businesses alike, their refreshingly diverse and original work has reinvigorated the relevance of both commercial and public design.
Antoine Fenoglio and Frédéric Lecourt, the founding partners of Sismo and accomplished industrial designers, focus on the reintegration of design into our quotidian experience. Not content with the superficiality of mere style, they endeavour to foster design through genuine, intelligent collaboration between consumers and companies. The Sismo team are the only creative industrial designers in France to have developed a unique, innovative methodology of design now widely recognized by businesses and institutions for over ten years. Perhaps most notably, this methodology was used as the foundation of the exhibition “L’Objet du design” during the inauguration of Saint-Étienne as a UNESCO Creative City.
Sismo functions neither as an advertising agency nor a product developer; rather, it takes a creatively committed approach to resolving a core problem of design: the product itself. By remaining fixed on so-called “360° design”, by endlessly obsessing over the daily issues of packaging, sales, and marketing, one risks jeopardizing the most complex, yet the most essential part of the puzzle: what will become of our products and services tomorrow?
Working simultaneously as designers and exhibition curators, deftly juggling methodology and form (as evidenced in “Mise en Oeuvre”, Sèvres), Sismo transforms design into a platform of expression which not only yields practical product solutions and tools for business strategy but also allows for creative new conceptual campaigns, such as “tailor-made existentialism” for the High Tech Vanitas project, or the exhilarating combination of disparate spheres visualized for Design & Foot.
The Sismo Team: A Group of Qualified Industrial Designers
At least ten trained professionals are involved in every step of every project. Carefully chosen for their background in industrial design and their ability to keep the product at the heart of the design process, the members of this core team have worked in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan, and Hong Kong, bringing to Sismo a collective global perspective. Specialists in eco-design, engineering, CAD (computer-aided design), marketing, materials and colours, service design and many other design aspects, these experienced industrial designers understand that in order to be successfully creative it is essential to remain realistic.
A Genuine Think Tank
As some projects require specialized expertise, over the past fifteen years Sismo has created an extensive and varied network of professional consultants including, among others, artists and artisans, scientists, engineers, academics, and marketing specialists. This wide range of professional competence allows you (and us!) to consider, cultivate and enrich your project while emphasizing the importance of progress.
Key Dates:
2011 – Runners-up in the Design for Social Impact and Speculative Objects/Concept categories at Core77 Design Awards
2011 – Partnered with Protéines, a French association promoting health awareness
2011 - Curated the exhibition “Tapis Tapis” at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
2011 – Curated “Le Design qui vous fait du bien!” in partnership with the Protéines agency
2011 – Curated the exhibition “Mise en oeuvre” at the Sèvres City of Ceramics
2011 – Conception and development of the first housing research “Innovation Centre” for Saint Gobain Recherche, a multidisciplinary industrial research centre that designs “tomorrow’s products and processes dealing with housing, energy, and environment”
2010 – Collaborated with the French national mail service La Poste on a new mailbox design
2010 - Curated “Design & Foot” at the Cité du design, Saint-Étienne
2010 - Promoted by Who’s Who, a French website showcasing individual excellence in various professional fields
2010 - Produced the “High Tech Vanitas – A Technological and Existential Experience” project. This highly conceptual piece gives a special meaning to new manufacturing processes and their ability to deliver completely new experiences. The magic and wonder of an x-ray of one’s own bones is brought to a completely different level if one can contemplate a highly precise model of one’s own skull. In a world becoming increasingly digital, this project raises many questions about the new types of technology-mediated connections we make with ourselves.
2010 - Curated the inaugural exhibition of the Cité du Design, Saint-Étienne
2010 – Organized and provided creative and strategic support for the Mousquetaires Group Innovation Forum. Provided artistic support for the Mousquetaires Group creative department
2009 – Founded a partnership with the engineering firm Amétra, who offers creative solutions to companies seeking solutions to technical problems in design innovation
2009 - Provided partnership, expertise and consultation to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Labour for a design awareness campaign by conceiving a website addressing industrial and intellectual copyright (www.entreprise-et-design.fr)
2008 – Partnered with Handicap International to develop communicative and creative products
2008 - Monographic exhibition and retrospective at the Espace Modem, Paris
2008 - Exhibition “Décoration Haute Performance” for Saint Gobain Recherche at the Espace Modem, Paris
2008 -Fifth time participating in the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial
2007 – Co-wrote with Carré Noir, a corporate design agency with the Publicis Group, a manifesto “for a new design practise” which was quickly adopted by the design industry and facilitated new international design and innovation projects
2006 – Granted the Design and Accessibility Award at the 2006 Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial, a project realized in collaboration with the Legrand Group
2005 - First collaborative project with the Legrand Group design team
2005 - Second exhibition during Designer’s Days for Créations Baumann
2004 – Authored “Le manifeste des 100 artistes pour l’art à l’école”, published by Beaux Arts Magazine. Played an active role in supporting young designers in elementary and middle schools.
2003 – Exhibition “Satellite” for salone del mobile, Milan
2002 – Exhibition on “designer’s block” in Tokyo
2002 - Exhibition in La Pelota, for salone del mobile, Milan
2001 – Monographic exhibition at the Felissimo Gallery, New York
2001 - Selection of the notebook “Pense pas bête” by the Carrefour de la Création, a quarterly publication issued by the Centre Pompidou.
2000 – After Lyon, opened first offices in Paris
1998 – First exhibition at the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial
1997 – 25 pieces of art objects and furniture created, produced and presented at the Salon du Meuble, Paris
1996 – Sismo is created in Milan
1996 - Special edition salt and pepper shakers selected for sale by the Centre Pompidou giftshop
