This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Giulio Cappellini.
Name: Albert Chu
Occupation: Designer
Location: Los Angeles
Current projects: Expanding and refining Otaat‘s collection of leather accessories and developing objects for the home and office.
Mission: Paring down complexity to the fundamental beauty, utility and fun of simplicity.
Above: the Drums Clutch from Otaat, the minimalist accessories brand Chu started in 2010. Top right image: the Colla Card Holder
When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? Throughout my childhood, I was always interested in thinking and making things, thanks to my sister who made nearly everything a fun creative process. So I was lucky to grow up in an environment where creativity and generative possibilities were the norm. When I was in high school, I applied to Cooper Union (architecture) on a whim and was unexpectedly accepted. That was probably the first time I thought seriously about design as a career, as I decided whether to attend Cooper or not. And I thought, “Wow, maybe I can actually do this for real!"
Education: I ended up going to UC Berkeley, where I got a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering, and then to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design for a Master’s in Architecture.
First design job: First unpaid: atrium landscape design for my childhood home; my parents were nice and trusting enough to let me do it, especially since I was about six years old. I think it turned into a small field of kalanchoe with liriope as liners. Perhaps this was a precursor to my fascination with monochrome and textures (at least when the plants weren’t flowering).
First paid job: In high school, I helped out at an architecture office doing some basic model-making work. The first project I worked on had so many arches that I learned really quickly how to cut curves in foam core—and learned that patience is key!
Who is your design hero? Martin Margiela—for his anonymity, his genre-bending mash-ups, his conceptual rebellion, his detail-oriented follow-through and his wit.
Above and below: Otaat prototypes in Chu’s Los Angeles studio
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