[Un]Discovers: Markus Diebel

Remember the Manymals necklaces that we featured the other day? We found his collection very interesting and meaningful so we contacted him for an interview, to know more about the product and the designer himself.

What is your background/history? Is there anything related to design? 
After I ran and designed some night clubs in Germany, I studied Industrial Design at Art Center, moved to the US and worked at the design consultancy IDEO for 12 years. I left 2 years ago as their design director to join Incase as their VP of design. I also did an apprenticeship as a furniture maker, studied Fine Arts for 2 years, did international exhibitions with my art-design group "designraw", held workshops about the "3 principles" and taught at CCA in San Francisco.

What inspired you to be a designer? 

I was drawing all my live, I guess my father (an architect) inspired me as a child. I always wanted a life between art and business because it's the only way I can express myself.

What is the passion behind Manymals and the WildAid? 

I always liked forming things out of clay. One day I started to think about a line of jewelry pieces that would naturally hang from your body and that's when manymals were born. Wildaid is a San Francisco based organization that held a lecture with Bo Derek (every young man's fantasy in the 80's) one day. I talked to her after and she encouraged me to collaborate with them for a good cause.

(From the interview, Markus also kindly introduced Manymals in further detail. "...They were hand sculpted and molded in 100% sterling silver. The are all creatures that like to hang naturally, except the pug (more or less "involuntarily"). The packaging, also designed by me, contains a manymal and a silver chain and features a story about each manymal.  Manymals are green products, 100% silver, designed and produced in the US, packaging is made from recycled news paper and 5% goes to Wildaid.")

Knowing that you are the Design Director of Incase, what is the challenge of that position? Is there any advice or experience you wish to share with those to those who want to be a Design Director? 

Since we are manufacturing most of our designs, our ideas will be tested through all filters of production, sales, marketing and most importantly the consumer. Being in charge of design at a company like Incase means to to not only to create a positive experience and profit through your products but also to enable a creative environment that produces great designs.

After the Manymals project, do you have any project in mind in the near future? 

I'm going to write a book about design.

Once again, thanks Markus for doing this interview with us. It's been a good experience and we look forward to see more of your design, and of course your upcoming book on design.