Internationally renowned New Zealand product designer Jamie McLellan most recently worked with Allbirds in San Francisco. He’s since returned to Aotearoa and, not long after, got in touch with the team at Città about collaborating. The first result of that is the Pinch Vase, which features a cylindrical base that tapers into a “pinched” top, forming two distinct openings. “The idea is quite simple and something I have been fascinated with for a while,” says McLellan, “a cylinder that is squashed or ‘pinched’ at one end.”
Here: How did the collaboration with Città come about?
Jamie McLellan: I had a growing folder of object ideas so I reached out to Città product designer David Moreland and asked if he and the team might be interested in seeing them. There were a bunch of ideas they felt were worthy of further exploration, including the Pinch Vases. It was special to engage with a team that was deeply collaborative, producing beautiful work, and with such collective humility.
Here: What makes the form special?
JM: I love that such a simple gesture can produce interesting forms, which can offer functional and ergonomic opportunities. In the case of the Pinch Vase, the top is squished into a figure of eight. This makes floral arrangements fan out in a kind of wide-screen way. The shape also allows for quite lovely asymmetric floral arrangements when just one side of the vase is occupied. It’s also really lovely to hold.
Here: It’s a tricky design – how did you get it to work?
JM: Drawing a nice shape is easy, but translating it into a real, repeatable, functional and beautiful object is by far the biggest challenge. The Pinch Vases really are a testament to Nikolai Sorensen, Città’s head of accessories design, and his relentless pursuit of perfection. I am so impressed that the fluid shaping where the vase goes from convex at the base to concave at the top remains fair and wobble free.
Here: Tell us a bit about the colours.
JM: The colours started as a wide exploration of colour in nature. Many of the colours I felt drawn to were very close to my daily surroundings. Looking out the window at the time, the pōhutukawa were about to explode into flower and their buds were a beautiful soft green. With the help of Imogen Tunnicliffe, Città’s head of textile and colour, we selected three colours for launch – a bright citrus yellow, a light pōhutukawa bud green, and a deep charcoal green.
Pinch Vase
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