SEEM SOAP STUDIO - Product Design Duo, Paris
Alex Rückheim
Mathilde Lehmann and Valentine Sée are the founders of Paris-based Seem Soap Studio. After completing individual studies in Strasbourg and Geneva, the two young women decided to open their own studio in 2015 after crossing paths in Paris. We met the trained plastician and product designer in Paris to talk about their work, their approach to product design and the importance of everyday objects.
Mathilde and Valentine are fascinated by working with functional everyday objects that seem often forgotten. Experimenting with natural colour pigments, various moulds and 3D printed shapes, the duo approaches the everyday mundane in completely new ways – often bridging the gap between design, art, sculpturing and functionality.
What had started as an experiment, ended up in their first collection, which the studio launched at Paris Design Week in 2015. Taking a new approach to soap, the duo questions and explores the function of this, often unnoticed, object, reimagining it as a sculpture that adopts new states as time passes. Seem Soap’s four collections – Songe, Patience, Vertige and Paradoxe – apply this careful consideration of product design. Made with a vegetable soap base and formulated with natural ingredients and pigments, the artisan soaps are not only fragrance and allergen-free, but also ergonomically shaped to fit your hand with ease. Mathilde and Valentine make up to twenty soaps per day by hand in their Paris based studio.
Today, soaps are everyday objects; and their shapes have developed into something quite standardised. We wanted to push the boundaries of new approaches in conception and production.
Seem Soap have recently been added to the selections of WallpaperStore*, Papier Tigre and the London Design Museum and have launched an exclusive collaboration with Emily Marant.
The composition of images below is a personal selection of Mathilde and Valentine's Favourite Works of Art and the things that inspire them.
Thevoz Choquet for Bloc Studios - Marmo Domestico Collection N°1 (2015)
Ladies & Gentlemen - Scales & Folds (2015)
Delpozo SS15 Backstage (2014)
Studio Swine, Hair Highway (2014)
Henri Matisse - Formes, PL. IX (from Jazz, 1947)
Hella Jongerius - Gemstone Tables (2013)
Aude Pariset and Juliette Bonneviot - Last Spring/Summer IV (2015)
Éléonore Delisse - Day & Night, Lights (2015)
Gustaf Nordenskiöld - Beardrops, Ceramics (2011)
Louise Zhang - Slosh Samples (2014)
Dephine Coindet - Modes et usages de l'art (2015)
Delpozo, Resort 2017 Collection (2016)
The Getty Museum - Los Angeles
Celia Hannes - Emissaire, Glass Objects (2013)
Botanical Gardens, Geneva
Camille Henrot - Sculptures Massées (2011)
Tomas Alonso - Lines & Waves, Marble (2014)
Epiforma - Meanwhile Curiosities: A Conceptual Representation of Time (2015)
Pierre Charpin - Oggetti Lenti, Vases (2005)
Anny Wang - Treasures (2016)
Button - "Déboutonner la Mode" (2015)
Philippe Jarrigeon - Baccarat, Harcount Bday (2011)
Bruno Peinado - Sans titre, Looking for a certain ratio (2014)
Hermès - Les facéties de Pégase
George Byrne - Hotel Pool (2015)
Karina Bisch - Arlequine (2015)