FashionClick  Design

The Titan Minimal Art frame

Fuchs admits using technology even when he is traveling around the world in order to share the different lifestyles of many of his extreme, and not so extreme, sports loving eyewear users. These trips, he says, keep him in touch with their needs and make his designs more wearable in different situations.

A Born Designer

Sometimes people arrive at their vocation in the strangest ways. This is the case with Fuchs. He didn’t study design, but ended up being a top of the notch designer by pure chance. "I started in (eyewear company) Silhouette as a toolmaker at a very young age. One day, five years after entering the company, I was invited to a birthday party for a girlfriend of mine. I didn’t have a present and the shops were already closed, so I decided to paint a picture for her. I hadn’t painted before, but she liked it so much that the week after I was buying watercolors and trying to make more pictures. It was then when I fell in love with painting".

That same year, Silhouette was preparing a calendar that would feature illustrations of their eyewear. "I painted some images and brought them along to the company. The technical engineer thought they were really nice and showed them to the head designer. Two weeks later Mr. Schmied, the owner of the company, asked me if I was interested in studying design. I, of course, said yes, and he sent me to a school of jewelry and design in Pfortsheim (Germany), a traditional goldsmith area." There, Gerhard managed to finish a four-year course in just one after being authorized by the center’s director to study only the subjects that were of true importance for his fledging career.

Since then, he has been designing many of Silhouette frames. This has led him to work together with some very interesting designers such as Matteo Thum and excellent furniture designer, Massimo Iosa Ghini. Since 1994 he has also been designing Adidas frames of

which he has been the sole designer for the last three years. As he, himself, states, "I’m currently the sole person in charge of the whole Adidas collection. All the Adidas designs of the last three years are mine. There are other older models in the market that are not. Some of the Adidas frames that are still being sold were designed some five years ago. Due to this, some of them are really considered classic frames 

"Frame design is not like fashion where something is in style one year and out the next. If people like it they will  buy it year after year."

now. For example, the Chili model, which was designed in 1994 and is still one of the best sellers.

And goes on to add, "Frame design is not like fashion where something is in style one year and out the next. In eyewear if people like it they will continue to buy it year after year. This is also the philosophy behind Silhouette: we don’t want to make a style that lasts six months and then another one for the next six; we want to design eyewear that has the potential of lasting for a long time."

It depends if I’m designing Adidas or Silhouette eyewear. Adidas is focused on sports. In that case, it’s important that I understand the people who are doing the sports. I have to keep a flexible mind. If we are making something for snowboarders I join their group, talk and live with them in order to understand their way of life. If I design glasses for running I learn about the necessities of the runners. And if I do them for cycling I go to the cycling shows and races. 

I, myself, practice a lot of sports, and that helps when designing sports eyewear. I’ve been into snowboarding for a long time and I mountain bike, do in-line skating, surfing... If you don’t do any sports it is not easy to capture the mentality of these people.

I also speak with Adidas's footwear designers. We make a prototype and try it. So it’s really a complete process aimed at building the perfect product.

Apart from the activity, the face is always important because