10 years of creation
PRESS KIT 2016 BEAU&BIEN, lignting sculptor
Since 2005, BEAU&BIEN sculpts light and uses the best of the innovative technology of LEDs, combining them with materials and know-how such as traditional French porcelain or blown glass. So sublimated, the LED light becomes an ornament for custom-made creations in hotels, restaurants or for special orders.
1 Collections that are entirely made in France
All BEAU&BIEN collections are 100% made in France. From the company’s inception, Sylvie Maréchal, designer and founder of BEAU&BIEN, has resolved to work closely with the best French manufacturers and artisans.
Smoon, the collection that launched Beau & Bien
First patented, nomad, wireless and rechargeable lamp, the ‘Nomad Smoon’ presented by Sylvie Maréchal in 2004 at the Maison & Objet Fair, as a prototype has an immediate success. Moon-shaped, this mobile lamp charges as a cell-phone and provides 10 hours of light. In 2006, the ‘Nomad Smoon’ was awarded with the 1st prize for Innovation and the first European Design Prize in 2007. Other models rapidly completed the Smoon collection: indoor table lamps (Sensitive Smoon, 2smoon, Star Smoon ...) the ‘Smoon Ombrella’ floor lamp (with its parasol in elliptical Plexiglas).
2 The inspiration of the « Age of Enlightenment »
Since 2014, BEAU&BIEN gets its inspiration from the spirit of the 18th Century, called ‘The Age of Enlightenment’ for its literary, philosophical and artistic zenith. During this period, France strongly influences the decorative arts. By revisiting and reinventing its codes, Sylvie Maréchal combines in her recent creations, the biscuit porcelain with the LED, the gildings and the carbon, the French tradition with the 21st Century technology. She imagines new and lighter structures for chandeliers, where classic and contemporary forms combine together in a brilliant lightness. See pages 10, 12 and 13 the 2016 collections : « Wersailles », « Louis 15 », « Or » and « Carbone ».
Creations that are constantly diversified
For many years, BEAU&BIEN has been diversifying its creations, with the principle of suspension and lightness giving to collections a dynamic continuity. The suspended vase ‘Chantilly’ created by Sylvie Maréchal for the Royal Monceau in 2015 illustrates this new direction. Like a giant drop, its name is inspired as much by the castle as by the cream.
Worldwide prestigious projects, spectacular installations and sceneries
Today, BEAU&BIEN’s collections and unique pieces are settling everywhere, in the most luxurious hotels as well as in private properties, in Paris, on the French Riviera, in India, in the United States,... Thus, in 2015, BEAU&BIEN designs beach lighting of the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, and in 2016 installs the lights of the hotel lobby. Some spectacular achievements are also set up in individual houses: in Ibiza, a 11m high structure; in Italy, suspensions of more than 4.50m high; more recently, in Paris, rue de Grenelle, 40 porcelain birds are placed facing a garden, over a luminous table.
3 When luminaires become jewelry
BEAU&BIEN is also a jewelry designer. With the ‘Night Bijoux’
backlit pendants, all the delicacy and the light sculpting skill of Beau&Bien take form as an individual ornament.
Amazing lights, ready to be used or custom-made, spectacular creations, amazing jewelry: Sylvie Maréchal has not finished enlightening Design!
4 BEAU&BIEN, Technology for Design and Ecology
Since its creation in 2005, Beau&Bien realized the potential of the LED technology in its luminaires to offer increasingly innovative solutions. The LEDs, which have become essential, offer a greater freedom for design and creativity, thanks to their small size. Through its research and its technology mastery, BEAU&BIEN can continuously renew its light jewelry and original lighting collections always with an incomparable quality both for their technical and environmental approach as well as for their style.
An expert use of LED
The LEDs selected by BEAU&BIEN combine warm color temperatures with strong light power to obtain the same light effect as incandescent bulbs.
A technical prowess and a unique expertise
Research gave Beau&Bien the opportunity to develop a patented switch with a shock sensor. Moreover, BEAU&BIEN uses the latest innovative technologies from aerospace and automotive for its creations: for instance, the application of a “soft touch” polish on polyethylene, permitted to have a surface appearance very similar to a frosted glass effect.
Ecology as a common thread
BEAU&BIEN has always adopted an environmental approach in each step of its lightings production. The chosen LEDs help to reduce up to 50 times the power consumption of luminaires designed by BEAU&BIEN. And they are all repairable in France.
5 « I see no contradiction between running my business and carrying out my creative activities. (...) I try to keep intact my sensitivity to poetic images because these bright images affect me much more than words. The light refers to the human being, to his spirituality. It is fragile, let’s not lose it. »
- Sylvie Maréchal
6 BEAU&BIEN, the collections
The inspiration of the « Age of Enlightenment »
Since 2014, BEAU&BIEN gets its inspiration from the spirit of the 18th Century, called ‘The Age of Enlightenment’ for its literary, philosophical and artistic zenith. During this period, France strongly influences the decorative arts. By revisiting and reinventing its codes, Sylvie Maréchal combines in her recent creations, the biscuit porcelain with the LED, the gildings and the carbon, the French tradition with the 21st Century technology.
She imagines new and lighter structures for chandeliers, where classic and contemporary forms combine together in a brilliant lightness.
7 8 9 WERSAILLES classic collection
A wink to one of the most emblematic French monuments, echo of a unique craftsmanship, this collection I s 21st Century version of the classic aesthetic.
Wersailles, the suspension
This airy suspension reinvents with poetry and elegance the classic ‘Chandelier’ of French Chateaux. Suspended in the air, yet connected to an electrical outlet, the porcelain candleholders spread a soft and diffused LED light with low power consumption. They can be custom- made by combining the modules.
10 Wersailles, the candlestick
This candleholder made of Limoges porcelain can be put everywhere: on the table for dinner, on a console in the hall, on a nightstand in the bedroom. Powered by a battery, a powerful LED illuminates its flame. The candlestick Wersailles brings a touch of tradition of the French Chateaux, with the most contemporary technology.
11 LOUIS 15 Collection
The majestic chandeliers of the 18th century were the starting point of the Louis 15 Collection. The classic dangling chandelier drops have been replaced by porcelain objects with smooth, opaque contours, but letting the light to pass through. Suspended by barely perceptible wires, they create through their disposal a feeling of timeless lightness.
12 New collections 2016 : CARBONE and OR
Sylvie Maréchal presented for the first time two brand new creations “CARBONE” and “OR” at the “Salone del Mobile” in Milan (11 to 17 April 2016), at the SuperStudioPiu.
CARBONE Because the world and the society are changing, everything ends up carbonized by the advent of a new era and the birth of a new civilization. Everything consumes itself; everything turns into ashes to form the carbon, the original material. Only gold resists to flames, liquefies and re-solidifies to create new forms.
Thus, the CARBONE collection arises, representing what remains of the splendor of the 18th century exposed to the burns of the 21st century: classic shapes dressed in black, rough and cracked appearance, black ... and carbon.
The delicate whiteness of the traditional porcelain leaves room for carbon drawing graphic and graphite chandeliers, real sculptures subjected to disorder and deconstruction of the 21st century, in perfect contrast with the gold.
OR The story continues, is reinterpreted... this is when the gildings of the 18th century, sign of a sumptuous luxury, turn out resistant to burns and create a powerful contrast with CARBONE. And to better reveal it, the gold of OR brings sophistication to CARBONE, giving it a chic and elegant appearance.
13 14 15 Des collections entièrement fabriquées en France
All collections of Beau&Bien are 100% made in France. From the company’s inception, Sylvie Maréchal, designer and founder of Beau&Bien, has resolved to work closely with the best French manufacturers and artisans. Each piece is made and painted by hand, in a porcelain family factory in Limoges, and the assembly is then done in Paris. The attention to quality is thus pushed to its highest level.
16 Interview with Sylvie Maréchal, creator of Beau&Bien, designer and entrepreneur
Impressario : You have a scientific background, which is rare in the world of design...
Sylvie Maréchal : My mother was a math teacher, my father was an engineer. Very early, I was fascinated by biology, by the human body and the brain, and I still am. I started medical school and stopped after three years, before the internship, because I was too sensitive to live with serenity the relationship to patients. This first experience and this unscheduled discovery about myself pushed me to develop my other passion, cherished since childhood: the drawing and the visual creation. The design allows me to combine these two passions: to formalize my own inner images, while materializing them organically, sometimes scientifically, because I am very attentive to materials chemistry.
17 After these first years of study, I joined the School of Commerce in Paris (ESCP) and in parallel; I took drawing classes at the Industrial Design National School (ENSCI). It was not easy to do both, but the rigor of medical school had given me a strong structure and a great capacity for work. I’ve always wanted to do more!
My first professional steps were made in an advertising agency where I had an interface role between the creation and the client, and where I learned to find the right language and the right time to find the smartest ideas, to give the best answer to the sponsors’ brief. In order to select the visually strongest idea, you have to wait before making the estimate and starting the creation. It’s the right idea and not the rapidity that will make a difference, to go too fast can cause failure.
Impressario : Afterwards, you worked for the visual identity of two major brands: the Galeries Lafayette and Louis Vuitton. What circumstances made you step into the world of design?
Sylvie Maréchal : A coincidence of events made me take this major turning point in my life! First, there is the discovery of LEDs, used early on by Louis Vuitton stores. I had an immediate feeling about the importance that this lighting mode would gain.
After stopping my collaboration for Louis Vuitton, I made a great trip and took the time to really discover the countries, unlike the way I did in business trips: Australia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, on the way of Zen spirituality. I came back with a new energy and the will to find myself around my own business, in a level of activity closer to the reality of what is happening on the streets and in everyday life.
Then the idea came to me to create a wireless light, rechargeable and easy to use. I worked with a design agency, Adhoc Design. My wish was both simple and at the same time a mad ambition, very poetic: to extend our only source of natural night light, the moonlight... Thus, the Smoon Collection was born with its ‘small moons’.
18 The launching of prototypes at Maison & Objet, on a stand of 6 square meters only, was an immediate success, a crazy success. Even, to the extent that my company was not yet established and this presentation was only a trial balloon and a first test of the market.
After the establishment of the company in 2005, this product has worked very well for 4 years, including in China... This turned out to be a bad idea, because the copies came very quickly and broke the European market with disposable products. However, this trend is now ending: the ecological awareness requires having a long-term vision of the product, to give to it meaning and ethics; this is what makes the difference.
Impressario : How do you see the relationship between creation and production?
Sylvie Maréchal : Very simply: at Beau&Bien, I do the concept and the creation! At least so far, because I increasingly want to edit other designers. The production, however, is based on a collaborative process. My associates are in charge of its development and of the production line, although I’m still very involved in all stages. Indeed, the industrial environment is very masculine and when a woman arrives in a factory, she finds herself almost alone, and is less listened than a man... Of course, everything depends on the industrial context. The relationship changes when one favors an artisanal production line, which is now my choice.
The experience of the Smoon collection and the Chinese copies have been for me a real ‘kick in the ass’, and I wondered which object I could invent without the risk of being copied. This is how I had the idea to rely on the traditional French craftsmanship and its quality materials, adapting them to contemporary style. Thus I not only bounced my business but I have gained an incomparable human benefit. By using material as porcelain or glass blown, we have not the same relationship at all with the actors of production; we share with them a kind of sensitivity close to the art. So I could renew the relationship with the production, like we did with our workshop in Limoges. When someone, man or woman, comes up with good ideas in a workshop like this, he is immediately listened and collaboration becomes magical.
19 Impressario : Where does your inspiration come from?
Sylvie Maréchal : I’m a very intuitive person, the way inspiration comes to me is a mystery. My starting point is often pragmatic, before moving towards a truly poetic result. Regarding luminaires, my approach was to find a material that would allow me to stay innovative with LEDs, whose light has gained considerable power and now passes through the material. Right after that, I got the idea of lightness. I seem to remember that it happened while going to the Museum of Arts and Crafts: by seeing there the first plane of Clement Ader, sumptuously suspended above visitors, I remembered that he had wanted the lightest possible materials to win whatever gram he could. My series of suspensions came from this desire of lightness at all costs. I love this museum; I go back there regularly because it helps me to find the breath of the great inventors, combined with the expertise of arts and crafts. I really would like to take part in this tradition of innovation.
Impressario : Are you inspired by the Haut Marais neighborhood?
Sylvie Maréchal : I lived many years in this neighborhood and stayed there for my office. It has been keeping for long the tradition of courtyard workshops, working onmetal, jewelry, watches... This environment favors particularly the link with the tradition of crafts. On the matter of light, there is the House Delille and its traditional luminaires, or the GIL union (Group for Industrial Lighting) : a very useful resource center to keep an eye over the standards!
20 Impressario : Which direction are you taking with new projects?
Sylvie Maréchal : I want to work on new things, without light, to expand my creative universe. I have already taken this path with my latest projects: for instance, the hanging vase created for the Royal Monceau Hotel. The principle of suspension gives the continuity with my previous creations. The idea was to create a giant drop with three small holes on the side to put flowers. Its name, ‘Chantilly’, is inspired as much as by the castle than by the cream: into this vase, the flowers can draw refinement and energy.
Another of my recent projects, on which I had a lot of fun working in, was to design furniture for a jewelry store, the shop windows. My idea was to revisit the Louis XV style, starting from its dresser model, in which I see the curves and long legs of a beautiful woman - the Marquise de Pompadour was indeed the instigator of this style. Through the use of gray weathered oak, I could integrate in it modernity and graphic design.
I am convinced that we need to revive this tradition in order to reinvent the French design. The specificity of Italian, Danish or German design is clear to the eye, but it is not easy to identify the characteristics of French design. We do not know how to affirm our trademark, namely our relationship with technology and with history. So when Philippe Starck achieves the interior design of the Royal Monceau, his references underline the French hotel tradition and allow him to revisit beautifully the history and the soul of the place, without betraying them.
Sapin de Noël, custom-made creation - Royal Monceau Paris
21 Impressario : Which other designers do you admire?
Sylvie Maréchal : My greatest admiration goes to Ingo Maurer, who manages to innovate in the field of light by inventing something very different every time ; I find myself very much in his universe. I also love the design by Zaha Hadid, with its phenomenal purity, less known than her work as an architect. The lines of her furniture, like those of her buildings, are of a colossal strength combined with an incredible roundness, of a great sensuality. I was very saddened by her disappearance.
Impressario : You are designer and entrepreneur at the same time. How do you manage to conciliate these two facets?
Sylvie Maréchal : I see no contradiction between running my business and carry out my creative activities. I make sure to always compensate for the intense pace of certain periods through breathing moments, without telephone and emails, which allows me to extract myself from surrounding constraints, to unplug and refocus on myself. Through such moments I can create things that are light and fluid, things that can help us to locate ourselves in a protected space-time, made of harmony and tranquility, like a soft light suspended in the air. I try to keep intact my sensitivity to poetic images, even to a banal sunset, because these bright images affect me much more than words. The light refers to the human being, to his spirituality. It is fragile, let’s not lose it.
22 IMPRESSARIO, Press Agency Press Relations - Public Relations Tel/ +33 1 45 23 40 66 M/ [email protected] W/ www.impressario.fr