Lea Padovani was born in France in 1981 of Iranian-Italian parentage. Sebastien Kieffer was born in France in 1982. They both live and work in Paris. Both graduated in 2004, Lea specializing in interior and environmental design and Sebastien in interior and object design.
After meeting in 2006 at the design studio helmed by Noe Duchaufour-Lawrance, their first experiments began to take shape and the beginning of their artistic collaboration was born, with Lea working as both interior designer and studio director and Sebastien as a designer. Their collaboration soon inspired discussions and debate as they imagined the creation of their first objects that would question their role as designers, the role of design itself and of objects in the environment.
These reflections led the duo to create Pool in 2010, a collective concept based on "outside the box" thinking, whose goal is to explore associations between objects, architecture and images. Beyond the obvious presence of an object, its beauty and function, the designers search for a multiplicity of meanings and highlight the emotions and reference points that color the way each of us views and interprets a creative work. They design objects that are off-beat, dreamlike, at times melancholy, while always remaining functional. In their world, the individual and all that surrounds him is constantly unsettled.
Pool symbolizes their concept of a collective of individuals who, united by a common goal, are the essential tools of creation. Pool’s logo represents these creative resources, whose natural and complementary association evokes such opposites as black and white or full and empty. Pool is currently working on a collection of furniture, from which their first design, a chair entitled “Souviens toi que tu vas mourir” shows the emblematic monobloc chair reinterpreted as an expression of vanity…This memento mori represented by a skull acts as a leitmotiv for those who seek the comfort of a chair and the ceremonial act of being seated.The duo had also created a collection of lighting designs for Alter, France’s leading indirect lighting systems company. Their first design was displayed in April 2011.
As part of the 2011 International Furniture Fair, the French Cultural Institute showcased a collective exhibition entitled “Nouvelle Vague : the new French domestic landscape”, at which Pool presented its first object designs. They have also been part of the Designer's Days for CASSINA in Paris from the 16th to 20th June 2011 - 236 boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 6. The "Nouvelle Vague" exhibition is currently traveling around the world, with the Holon Design Museum in Israel as first stop, from the 25th june until the 21st August 2011.
