Swiss Design from New York
What makes Swiss design? This question is asked involuntarily when one deals with the products of Studio Seitz. Under this brand, two young designers bring traditional Swiss craft techniques and familiar pieces of furniture gently into the present day. And they probably succeed so well because they are not 100% Swiss—and work from New York.
“I'm from Berneck near Sankt Margrethen.” This is how Kevin Seitz introduces himself in the interview—and there he is, the confusion with which Kevin Seitz also consciously plays in his creative work: The designer lives and works in New York and if you met him in his hometown on the street, one would probably suspect that he is not from there at all, but from Southeast Asia. In fact, the origin and childhood of Kevin Seitz already spans several continents: As the son of a Swissair technician from Berneck and a flight attendant from Malaysia, he has his roots in the canton of St. Gallen, in a family of ceramicists. “My father was only named in the village as the one who married the foreigner,” says Seitz and laughs heartily. Kevin grew up in the village, but because of his father’s frequent assignments at various airports, he often moved for a few months as a child, for example to Great Britain or Spain. At the age of nine, he came to New York with his family and stayed, later studied at the Parsons School of Design. Then he worked for well-known US furnishing brands such as Kate Spade and Martha Stewart. During this time, he met the New York graphic designer Rob van Wyen. He remembers: “At that time, I dealt a lot with storytelling for different brands. And then I noticed: With Kevin, you wouldn't even have to come up with something. He really has a story to tell.”
This was the beginning of Studio Seitz in 2018. Because as far away he studied and lived, over all these years Kevin Seitz kept close contact with his family in Berneck, traveled regularly for longer stays in the canton of St. Gallen. And took in the cultural heritage of the region again and again: For example, the rich ceramic tradition of Berneck, also the great-grandfather of Kevin Seitz owned a manufactory. His uncle is a master carpenter, works in the workshop of Urs Mätzler, a school friend of his father. Another uncle runs a workshop for precision mechanics, several other relatives work for him. These close relationships—as they rarely exist in the USA—and the rooting of artisanal traditions fascinated the American Rob van Wyen. “Hey, the big companies in the USA are inventing such stories—and you just have them. You can make something out of it.” Thanks to the look from the outside, Kevin Seitz suddenly saw clearly what he had perhaps suspected before at best: that there is a treasure in these traditional crafts. And that he could help with his skills to preserve him and lead him into the future. Use the traditions of Sennensattlerei, Weissküfererei and carving for furniture, in a contemporary design language—but the view from the outside helped immensely.
But the fresh look at things alone was not enough to get exactly where they are now. “We had tried to have our first piece made in the USA. It was a very bitter disappointment,” admits Rob van Wyen. The two noticed that the design tradition necessarily belongs to the craftsmanship quality of Switzerland. So they began to cooperate with Kevin’s family and other craftsmen from Eastern Switzerland: “That totally fascinated me: These people took their time, the end result was just as important to them as it was to us,” says van Wyen. With their modern but solid furniture, which honors various Swiss craft traditions, they first celebrated success in the USA. But they have also been more noticeable in Switzerland and Europe for a few months. Of course, the award with the German Design Award 2023 for the best home accessory also played a part in this.