"Working from Bologna and London, SEBASTIAN BERGNE designs products for companies such as Authentics, Habitat and Vitra which address the changes in our daily lives but in a gentle, unobtrusive way.

Today we are as likely to eat when watching television on a sofa as sitting formally at a dining table, yet most eating utensils are still designed for use in a formal setting rather than to be juggled on a tray or a lap. When Sebastian Bergne started work on the design of the Bop eating utensils for Driade, he was determined to create a versatile eating kit which could be used in any situation. The result is a set of porcelain plates and bowls that slot neatly into place on the ridges of a plastic tray, yet look conventionally elegant when used individually.

Bop is typical of Sebastian Bergne’s work in that it reinvents an everyday object, but does so gently and quietly. Rather than dazzling us at first sight, Bergne’s designs are intended for long term use. “It may only be that after using a product for several years that the quiet functionality, quality or reliability brings a smile of satisfaction,” he says.

Born in Teheran in 1966 into a diplomatic family, Bergne had lived in Cairo, Athens, Beirut, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong by the time he studied industrial design at Central St Martin’s in London in the mid-1980s and then won a place at the Royal College of Art. After graduating from the RCA in 1990, he set up the purposefully entitled Bergne: Design for Manufacture in London. As well as exhibiting his work internationally, he was commissioned to design products and furniture by companies such as Authentics, Driade, Lexon and Vitra. Bergne now divides his time between studios in London and the Italian city of Bologna."

Visit Sebastian Bergne's website at sebastianbergne.com