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Primitive Modernism with Frédérick Gautier

“Sobriety, simplicity, and serenity”— that’s the concise answer Frédérick Gautier offers when asked what feeling he aims to evoke through his designs. The Paris-based French designer creates objects that echo both brutalism and ancient primitivism without losing touch with the contemporary world. Using earthenware that imitates the aesthetics of concrete, Gautier crafts minimalist, micro-architectural pieces for everyday life.

Although Gautier is now renowned for his distinctive design style, he actually began his career outside the design world. After years of working as Head of Marketing Culture at the department store LE PRINTEMPS, he transitioned into the film industry, spending about twenty years as an art director, creating visual identities for movies.

Gautier gradually gravitated toward design through his love for nature. “I love earth—its texture, color, and materiality,” he says. This passion led him to attend the National School of Landscape Architecture in Versailles. “While completing my assignments as a student, I constantly created ceramic objects. Yet, I’m also deeply attracted to concrete for similar qualities.” Through Gautier’s work, one discovers that concrete and ceramics share common ground—they are both earth, hardened through fire.

Aesthetically, Gautier draws inspiration from the gods of modernism, such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, but even more so from the brutalism of South America. “I greatly admire Lina Bo Bardi, Luis Barragán, and Oscar Niemeyer, whom I had the privilege of meeting 25 years ago in Mexico City—a memory I cherish deeply. I also lived in a Le Corbusier building, and despite criticisms of his work being too strict or harsh, those spaces are truly designed for living. They had a significant influence on me.”

What Gautier appreciates most about brutalism is the purity of form. However, this quality is not exclusive to brutalism—it is also found in ancient and prehistoric cultures. When closely examining Gautier’s water can, for instance, one can see an aesthetic reminiscent of ancient American and African cultures. “I’m drawn to the simplicity and ultra-functional nature of objects from prehistoric eras,” he states. “They were created with almost nothing and remain profoundly minimal.”

His work sometimes feels like archaeology—objects that appear to have been unearthed and restored. “That’s what fascinates me about ceramics. Once baked, the objects already feel like archaeological findings. From the moment they come out of the kiln, they appear eternal—unlike today’s disposable consumer products, which are designed with built-in obsolescence. This timeless quality is unique to ceramics.”

Under the name FCK, Gautier has been creating bespoke everyday objects for Serax for quite some time. Everything appears to be made of concrete, yet it is earthenware—the exact materials and production processes remain a well-kept secret. With its particular shape, every object rethinks the experience of daily rituals, such as drinking a cup of tea. “Objects must have a strong personality,” Gautier adds. “Without that, design lacks purpose.”

Discover the FCK collections