They met while working for Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s agency. For nearly five years, they honed their skills together while forging a lasting friendship. Both wanted to be independent and rejoiced at designing objects for themselves. They founded Pool, did a couple of exhibitions and after that, they couldn’t stop their creative flow and went on from creating a chair, to graphic design.

You design various objects, except pools. Why the name?

LÉA: We were like young teenagers starting a rock band, looking for a cool name. We don’t like using our names, because what happens when you work with another designer? So that’s when we came up with the name Pool.

SÉBASTIEN: It is simple. Not too many letters. Pool is cool.

LÉA: Pool also means team in English.

SÉBASTIEN: It’s modular.

LÉA:  And it’s funny. Sometimes we receive emails in English from French customers because they assume we are English. I used to have this blog about swimming pools.

SÉBASTIEN: A swimming pool is the most useless piece of architecture you can imagine. You put water in it and then you swim in it. Completely useless, but then again essential to those who want it.

LÉA: [Laughing] No, I always wanted to design a couch, which we recently did for Petite Friture. Grid is a single object for everyday use with a modular seat that can be composed differently and adapted to small or vast rooms. We played around with shapes and colors, and the result is very graphic.

SÉBASTIEN: For us Grid is the perfect way to the escape the constraints of creating a real sofa, which is very complicated. In France we don’t say canapé, we say banquette, which in size is smaller than a regular sofa. Big sofas simply don’t fit into our Parisian lifestyle.

You both share a love for black and white and graphics. Where does the inspiration for your furniture pieces come from? 

SÉBASTIEN: I remember having the discussion about what our style was going to be. We agreed on applying a 21st century way of doing arts and crafts, creating things and being inspired by everyday life.

LÉA: We also like to build stories around our products, and we use ourselves as an inspiration source. What do we want? What is it that we really need? In Paris, people live in tiny spaces. So we came up with an extendable table for La Redoute.

SÉBASTIEN: It is super graphic, and you can play around with it. The idea is super simple, and it works.

For a small studio, you have worked with big multinational brands. How did the collaborations with Habitat come about?

LÉA: Habitat asked us to draw a stool, but because we weren’t feeling it, we made a lamp. They wanted something fresh and nice, so they agreed after seeing our sketches. It took a long time to finalize the design of Parasol. But the result is rewarding because it came out exactly how we designed it. It turned out as a simple product for the masses, which is wonderful. I mean, at Habitat customers don’t over-intellectualize the products. It’s a good example of how an object designed by a designer, can remain a designer object that appeals to a big crowd.

And it’s democratic.

LÉA: My point exactly.

SÉBASTIEN: We also love working and producing with smaller brands, such as Petite Friture and La Chance, both working with a technical director, who takes care of the production process. It always takes a long time to finish off one single object. The Vulcain lamp, for example, took two years. Work is never over. We always think about improving each item.

Young creators are working with big brands and celebrity designers with small companies. Collaboration is a recurring trend. Is it a sign of the times?

SÉBASTIEN: It is understandable. Furniture design is quite a niche. It’s not like fashion, for example, that works with big budgets. People do not buy a new table or a new lamp every season.

LÉA: It’s important for us to be able to design a lot of different things, such as creating an interior and a brand identity. It’s all aligned. Even the way how objects are presented. An excellent presentation is everything while a bad one is like someone who is poorly dressed.

We’re kids of the 80’s and the 90’s, which shows in our work.

The vivid color palette, the blocky shapes and the playfulness. your work reminds me of the Memphis style, the cheerful Italian design and architecture group from the 80’s.

LÉA: Of course we do love Memphis. We’re kids of the 80’s and the 90’s, which shows in our work. I love the patterns and the colors, but I do not like all objects. The idea of a collaboration and all of these talented individuals creating together and having a collective identity is what intrigues me the most.

SÉBASTIEN: The idea of total design and working with others, is what triggers me. Look at the original high-speed train, the TGV Atlantique, which was designed by French industrial designer Roger Tallon. He designed everything, from seats, door handles, to graphical identity. I believe in people working together creatively. If you don’t open up to others, you become isolated. Through collaborating with other companies and designers, crazy ideas can become reality.

Regarding working as a creative duo, who does what exactly?

LÉA: There’s no clear distinction, and this works well when designing an object. We talk it through and then start drawing separately. Sometimes we end up drawing exactly the same thing. It’s crazy. We’ve been working together for ten years now. We’re like an old couple.

SÉBASTIEN: Super grumpy couple. [laughing]

Are you able to live from the products you make?

SÉBASTIEN: To live from furniture and light design? No.

LÉA: We’re doing a lot of interiors now, including custom-made furniture. We also do editions; we ’re doing the Contrepoids table in marble, and we’re preparing some pieces for a gallery in New York. We also do graphic design. Everything is connected, and that’s how we pay the bills.

SÉBASTIEN: All you need is time.

LÉA: And sell a lot of products.

SÉBASTIEN: You can get lucky and find a company that can sell a lot of items, but that doesn’t happen every day.

LÉA: We were so lucky with La Redoute, for the table turned out to be a bestseller.

SÉBASTIEN: We didn’t expect it. It was supposed to be a limited edition, but since it is selling well, it’s part of their permanent collection.