Do You Know Ashley?
When you manage to get half of Zagreb talking about your project, without even knowing what it’s about, you know you’ve got the best marketing there is. Who’s the mysterious Ashley presented by the younger designer Filip Gordon Frank at Modus?
It’s neither a girl nor a pet, but a rather large piece of ashtray – and not just any ashtray – proving that concept is just as important as form. Although we oppose smoking, ashtray (some would probably say that it’s a commonplace and simply shaped object), actually looks pretty well. The industrial roughness of the concrete, whose mixtures differ, also result in small differences in each ashtray. Also, the entire area of the shop has been successfully transformed into a spatial installation referring to the sloping of the edges.
This is already the third time that Modus Design Shop collaborates with young domestic designers (they have previously worked with Ivan Levak and Grupa Studio), and this time the collaboration has resulted in “exclusive and sole” distribution of Filip’s new work in their shop. We have first noticed Ashley – that weighs half a kilo – at this year’s D-Day; but the Modus owner, Nina Fiolić, had noticed Filip’s work at the ReAktor Exhibition outside the MSU and it was then that they had started contemplating collaboration. “If my goal had been profit, I would probably have entered negotiations with various distributors; however, Modus has a recognizable character and a good quality image.”
“Ashley was initially my idea. I wanted to make an ashtray and offer it to one tobacco brand for the worldwide distribution, but the production costs were extremely high.” Filip explains.
Then, the project entered a two-year “hibernation” period before being reactivated ahead of the ReAktor. To our comment that the ashtray doesn’t seem to fit his usual aesthetics, Filip responds: “With respect to my work, it has been commented on various occasions that what I do can’t always be put under a common denominator, that the objects differ a great deal among them; but I believe that exploring new media is an advantage, and that the material itself can originate an idea that’s both likable and high-quality.
More on Filip Gordon Frank’s work can be found here
