Interview with Designbüro Vogt + Weizenegger

The inclined castor by Jungwerk was designed by the Vogt + Weizenegger design studio, which was founded in 1993 by Oliver Vogt and Hermann Weizenegger. The two designers met while studying industrial design in Berlin. Today they teach design themselves: Weizenegger has been a professor of product and system design at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences since 2004; Vogt was appointed as professor of industrial design at Kassel University of Arts in 2006. Oliver Vogt also works as a photographer, filmmaker and director.

With the design of the inclined castor you have given an otherwise rather unspectacular product an entirely new aesthetic. What was the inspiration for you to set out in search of a new form for a furniture castor?
Vogt + Weizenegger: The furniture castor aimed to provide the Jungwerk business with a unique selling point in the market. The German market for furniture castors is rather dominated by technical castors, so we saw a niche for castors of high build quality in the upper price segment. Over the years, we have developed quite a bit of mobile office equipment and when it came to the furniture castor we noticed that there were hardly any castors available that appealed to us – yet another reason to design one ourselves.

What aspects were particularly important to you when designing the inclined castor?
Vogt + Weizenegger: The inclined castor was to be formally unobtrusive with an overall neutral look so that it would fit under any kind of furniture.

How important is mobility in today’s home environment?
Vogt + Weizenegger: Furniture on castors follows people’s demand to be able to easily change the arrangement of their home environment.

In your opinion, what constitutes a good designer?
Vogt + Weizenegger: A good designer is someone who follows a rather holistic approach when creating a design for something, someone who spends time thinking about social, technical and technological, as well as cultural issues, and someone who knows how to tell a story.

Is there a project that you would love to realise some time in the future?
Vogt + Weizenegger: An automobile concept or the design of an apartment house, the concept for which is developed from the living performance and then reflected in the entire architecture.

About Vogt + Weizenegger
The Vogt + Weizenegger (V+W) design studio combines design with the mission to provide a new perspective on things already existent, to illuminate all factors of a design project so that the impossible becomes possible, and to create products and systems that convince through their holistic approach. V+W offer creative expertise in classic design fields such as industrial, graphic and interior design. The combination of these three fields is essential for V+W because it focuses on a spatial, tactile as well as content-related analysis of the core of a business where inner and outer perceptions converge: the company culture, the products, the communications, and the multidimensional profile in the public.