Bettina Nissen is a designer with a sense of humour.  With her German roots transplanted into Newcastle soil, her work plays on cultural differences and gently challenges social norms.  Her keen observations on human interaction inform her work, which is thoughtful, funny and always surprising.

Tell us a bit about your background
I studied interior design in Germany, then I moved into furniture and product design.  I moved to the UK because my husband got a job here – he’s a glass artist who works at Sunderland University as a research fellow.  So that’s how I ended in up in Newcastle – I’m not sure I could have put it on a map before I moved here!  I worked in an architect’s office, and did a couple of other jobs while I learnt the language.

So how did you set up your own design company?
I was designing my own stuff in the evening and weekends, and it just grew from that.  You can’t fight that desire to make things!  My first product was the EKG coffee table I made for an exhibition in 2007.  There is a mentoring scheme in the region run by Designed and Made, who work with designers in the northeast of England.

They paired me up with a furniture maker which was a really great way for me to get to know how the industry works in the UK – how to get things fabricated and getting to know the design community.  From there I developed my projects – it was a gradual progression to working for myself.

We’re talking via Skype – how do you feel new technologies have helped your practice?
Well I’m a bit of a geek!  I like technology, and I follow the latest developments quite closely.  I’m really interested in new methods of manufacture – like 3D printing – I really love that!  One of my products is 3D printed.  It takes a while to find the right way to use the technology – for that product the quality of the print is really important.  It has to be a very fine, high quality print for it to work.

In the beginning it was very good for me to have an online presence.  Originally I just had an online portolio but now I have a proper website and shop. Its really important to have an online presence, but its equally important to have a physical presence, which is why I go to a lot of trade fairs.  I think the two are still intertwined.  I mostly sell online, although I do have a couple of stockists up here in Newcastle.

Can you tell us how you develop a product?

I usually start with ideas in sketchbooks.  It doesn’t work for me to sit down and say “I need to make a product now”

I like to observe people and their interactions with objects.  I watch people in the street, and I often sketch what I see.  Then I later go back and see how that incident or interaction could inform a product.  I’m fascinated by our daily routines and traditions, and like to think how that could lead to a product.  I also love playing on the cultural differences between the UK and Germany – as a person coming from Germany you can’t help but notice them!  For example, my Victorianiser – which is an elaborate façade which can be fixed to the front of the Billy bookcase by IKEA – is a play on that: British whimsy decorating an efficient structure.  I’m from Flensburg which is almost in Scandinavia, so my influences and my thinking might be more Scandi than German.

What is your favourite of the products you make?
I love the Make-a-Wish ring.  Partly because its 3D printed, but also because the product came together really well.  The packaging and the moment of giving are both really important with that.  I love that several people have contacted me to tell or show me that moment – I think that’s really special.

What part of the design or making process do you enjoy most?
I love designing digitally.  I think many people don’t enjoy sitting in front of a computer tweaking something for hours, but I’m a geek and I love it!  Its an iterative process: I design something on the computer, print it out, model it in real life, make changes, scan it back in, tweak the computer model and so on.  It goes back and forth between digital and physical.

What’s your favourite object in your house?
It has to be our Cabinet of Wonders.

Wow! Of course it does – what is the Cabinet of Wonders?
It’s a corner cabinet with glass doors that I bought in a charity shop.  My husband hated it because its got triangular shelves so you can’t really fit anything in it.  So I started to put the little things that I collect  (he calls it “clutter”!) in there and it became the Cabinet of Wonders.

What’s the first thing you remember making?
After I finished school, I did something really boring – an apprenticeship at a bookkeeper’s.  I moved out of my parents house and was in a city where I didn’t know anyone so I started doing courses.  So the first thing I made was a table that I welded for my answermachine, which was then on the floor.  I did a few other courses at that time – drawing and woodworking and stuff – and that’s when I realised that I wanted to be a designer.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you
I’m a qualified bookkeeper.  Which is very useful for doing my accounts!

www.bettinanissen.com

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All images courtesy of Bettina Nissen or LLUSTRE.COM