Meet Mr Frag
Meet Mr Frag
Stylecraft is proud to welcome Frag Woodall to our family of local design talent. His design studio Mr.Fräg focuses on interiors and products including furniture, lighting and homewares.
The central elements within Frag’s design philosophy are to allow the products to have functional honesty, material integrity and a sense of poetry, wit or humour which communicates and connects to people on a human level.
Frag’s inaugural launch with Stylecraft includes the Paperbird and Papertube collections, utilising the traditional craft and material of paper cord in a contemporary form. The Kaufmann lounge and side table pay homage and reference the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
We spoke to Frag about his design process & inspiration behind his latest collections.
What inspired you to create the paper-cord series of chairs?
I was drawn to the challenge of designing a chair that offered comfort without the need for traditional upholstery. Early in the creative process I orientated my focus toward paper-cord as both a tactile and visual solution. There’s an inherent purity and honesty that Danish cord conveys, which resonates with my design approach.
Were there any specific influences or design movements that played a role in your creative process?
In a somewhat contrarian way the classic Danish-paper-corded chairs of mid-century Scandinavia were an influence. I was using them as a point of departure, actively rebelling against these traditional typologies and pursuing a wholly new and distinct design language.
Is there a story behind the names ‘PaperBird’ and ‘PaperTube’?
The names emerged quite organically out of their resulting aesthetic. I always saw the cantilevered chair as having a little bird like character and I did consider names like ‘Wren’ before settling on ‘PaperBird.’ Both ‘PaperBird’ and ‘PaperTube’ reference the central defining feature of paper-cord and simultaneously reference the paper maquette technique that shaped their development.
Can you walk us through the design process of the PaperTube and PaperBird chairs from concept to final product?
The journey matured in an effort to move beyond the intricately woven cord that define many mid-century Scandinavian chairs. While these designs are beautiful in their own right, this was a hindrance for me in the design process as I didn’t want to replicate the past. Instead, I aimed to honour the material’s qualities in a contemporary way. Through a process of simplification, I found that a linear binding approach offered the clarity and direction I was seeking.
What challenges did you face during the design process, and how did you decide on the materials and finishes?
The design process was one of persistent trial and error. As ‘writers block’ set in the repeated need to step away and return to the project was, in hindsight, a blessing. The challenge was trying to fit complex joinery in a very small space whilst retaining an air of elegance and effortlessness. In my head I was always designing a timber chair which led to numerous roadblocks. The breakthrough came when I abandoned timber and shifted my perspective to metal, allowing the design for PaperTube to materialise after a lengthy process filled with dead ends.