How French Artist Osman Mercan, Artistic Director for Rapper Laylow, Merged Design With Hip-hop Culture
MILAN — French-born visual artist and a key character on the trap world, Osman Mercan has crossed the Rubicon from the world of music to the world of design. This month Osman debuted his own design studio, Age of Digital, unveiling its first chair.
In 2015, the self-taught visual artist established a video production company, which set out to create its own disruptive aesthetic. For 13 years the 33-year-old has been the artistic director for Laylow, a French trap artist. He’s now leveraging his directorial eye to create otherworldly pieces inspired by digital art. His first aluminum furniture piece was created with a 3D tool that is normally used in film.
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In an interview, Osman explained why he has made a foray into the world of design.
WWD: You entered the world of visual arts without any formal training — who were your mentors and how did you teach yourself the trade?
Osman Mercan: I have always been passionate about cinema, fascinated by how movies are made. Over the years I have spent days at the Film Library Fran?ois Truffaut in Les Halles [France]. Every time I discovered a film, I would analyze it in-depth, try to deconstruct it, through articles, decoding videos on YouTube, as well as by reading essays and reviews. What interested me most was how to create and tell stories through the moving image.
WWD: Is this your first furniture piece ever? Do you have other designs that were more experimental?
O.M.: This is my first real piece of furniture. Before I started on this project, while working as the artistic director for Laylow, I was already creating original environments for his videos and onstage at concerts. Then when I started to develop the chair, the idea was to conceive a decor for larger scenes — starting with the chair and then adding other elements, which are in progress.
WWD: What is the next step? Design shows? Galleries?
O.M.: This coming year will be punctuated by different drops, each time including an object along with ready-to-wear. This first chapter of AOD will definitely involve an event where people can discover the complete decor. More broadly, I am building a bridge between design and hip-hop culture in order to attract a greater number of people in these disciplines and to encourage the engagement of an already curious community.
WWD: How do the worlds of music, rap, intertwine with the world of design?
O.M.: There’s a bridge across the creation of props and objects that create a visual universe within these musical worlds (videos, concerts), since aesthetic codes are an integral part of hip-hop. Personally, I think it’s important to establish who you are and what your visual world looks like in order to really dive into the world of design.
WWD: Do you actively do both visual art for the trap music industry and design, or has one sacrificed for the other and how?
O.M.: It’s entirely possible to do both as one inspires the other — they speak to each other, challenge each other and feed each other. Rather than sacrificing each other, they complement each other, allowing for the development of a more harmonious and stimulating artistic universe.
WWD: Kanye West’s circle gave birth to a fashion meets design zeitgeist, which included Virgil Abloh and would later include Samuel Ross, who crossed over to the design world from fashion. How are your endeavors different or similar?
O.M.: Kanye and Virgil have been very inspiring — they confirmed to our generation that it is possible to be yourself and that you can stay true to your values. Getting outside of my comfort zone was my starting point and how I began to reflect on this project. I always loved the concept of the director Marcio Kogan, who became an architect and created each house thinking about the decor as though it were a set. The scale, the planning — everything was conceived to appear perfect in the image. I love the idea of merging skills to arrive at something hybrid that overturns the rules while injecting a sense of spontaneity.
WWD: I saw the AOD video — likening the production and molding of the chair to the relationship between fire and ice and rebirth. What does this all signify for you?
O.M.: The video is a fictional representation of the fantastical process of creation. Since I come from the world of video, I wanted to use this medium to communicate about the chair. The idea was that I would be a sculptor who almost tears away at this material with a lot of spontaneity — and without even knowing the outcome. This video is the first expression of AOD and for which everything is possible. That fact that the video about the making of a design object could generate 600,000 views in just 24 hours confirms the idea that these kids understand the subject — that design arouses their interest. So we are defeating the elitist side of design.
WWD: When did you have the epiphany to jump from music to design?
O.M.: In 2021, I ended a big chapter of my career with the project “The Strange Story of Mr. Anderson,” a short film of the album, the video clips and the concert set design for Laylow, the artist and friend with whom I work as artistic director. During this project I realized objects and décor. When it was all over, I really wanted to immerse myself completely in the design world — to understand the different techniques and master the processes from A to Z. I wanted to understand the subtlety and efficiency to tell even better those stories that people could discover.
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