Interviews with a designer ... Claire Goldsmith

Earlier this year, in a New York loft, we were privileged to meet with Claire Goldsmith, so we are really pleased to be able to post her answers first in this series.  Now, we have tried to stay completely impartial in our reporting, however, Claire supplied us with digestives and haggis flavoured crisps (chips) - how can you not be impressed!

Here's our interview with Claire:




What was your inspiration to become an eyewear designer?

1966 Press Cutting

With three generations of eyewear designers in my family, and the heritage that comes with the Oliver Goldsmith brand, it was a vocation that was hard to ignore! But aside from that, I love design and the beauty in well-designed products, whether it glasses, cars or architecture.  I work alongside a fantastic design partner, Jesse Stevens, who has worked with me on the Goldsmith collections for the past 5 years. We make a good team. We tend to be on the same page with stuff and agree on the majority of things. I guess you could say we are a design team pair! I think that our healthy partnership is visible in the collection itself. I love the collaborative process of designing the way Jesse and I do.

Do you have an all-time favourite frame that you designed?

It’s hard to say – sometimes it’s hard to separate your emotions between popularity and passion, it sounds a little fickle, but if a certain frame is selling well and everyone is gushing about it, it soon becomes your favourite! It like always supporting the winning team! 
That aside, I have always been enamoured with the Carters and Irwin, they seem to encapsulate the ‘future vintage’ aesthetic I wanted to create.

Which city would like to travel to next?

I travel to a lot of cities for work – which is great fun.  But I would love the time to escape from cities and explore remote islands in Asia! I've also never been to South America so that is on the ol’ bucket list too!

Is there a particular material that you like working with or that you would like to work with?

OG was made predominately only from acetate, in fact, they were one of the first (if not THE first) companies to use it for making eyewear.   In acknowledgement to this, we have always worked exclusively with acetate.  This year is the first time that we have introduced metals, and it’s nice to have a contrasting material to add a new dimension to the collection.  There are many wonderful materials out there, and who knows what we may start producing in the future, but whatever the material we work with, I want to be confident that we are always producing the best quality frame, and to do so, I need to trust the material and the factory who produces it and this takes time. 

How long does the process take from initial design to finished eyewear?

The time can vary, but I would say an average of 6 months.  The production side of eyewear is a tough job! The devil is in the detail and that it always the hard bit to get perfect!

What influences do you draw on when creating your ranges?

I always struggle to answer this question in interviews, not because of lack on inspiration, simply because it’s never one thing, or the same thing(s).  The market obviously has an initial input; what has been selling well, what hasn’t etc., but as we all know, trends, style, what’s hot, what’s not changes on such a regular basis that I often go with my gut.  Living in London (and travelling as much as I do) I am surrounded by so many beautiful influences; art, architecture and design.  I find looking back incredibly inspirational – looking at what worked in the past and looking for ways on how I can improve on it!

Thank you Claire for taking the time to answer these questions!

More details about Claire Goldsmith eyewear can be found here:

www.clairegoldsmith.com
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and of course ... by coming in to Ocean Optometry!

Interviews with a designer

One of the great things about being a completely independent office is that we get to pick and choose who we wish to work with and what ranges and products we wish to carry.  Being knowledgeable and excited about a range of frames is incredibly important to us.  It allows us to share our enthusiasm for the range with everyone and while we may be slightly geeky in our thirst for this knowledge, we are sure you will love the energy and passion with which we can discuss any of our products.

Attending the leading global eyewear exhibitions gives us an opportunity to not only find some fabulous eyewear, but also to meet the creative people who are responsible for it.  What we would love to be able to do is also enable all of our followers who are also passionate about eyewear to also meet these people, but that is unfortunately not possible.  Therefore, we are hoping to do the next best thing!

Having come up with a series of six questions, we are going to ask our favourite eyewear companies these questions and let's see how they answer!

Here are the six questions we've asked:

What was your inspiration to become an eyewear designer?

Do you have an all-time favourite frame that you designed?

Which city would like to travel to next?

Is there a particular material that you like working with or that you would like to work with?


How long does the process take from initial design to finished eyewear?

What influences do you draw on when creating your ranges?

Knowing what you are looking for ...

Sometimes people looking for new glasses already have an idea in mind about the type of glasses they would like.  It perhaps has come about through what are the current 'hot styles' in frames being sold, or it could be that they have seen a celebrity in a photograph wearing a particular frame.  There are even websites out there dedicated to telling you what glasses are being worn by which celebrities!
 
Having inspiration in your glasses selection can often be a good thing, but sometimes it can perhaps also be a restriction.

I was recently watching a television documentary and towards the end the producers had used the most wonderful incidental music to help capture the mood of the programme.  It was a simple series of about five chords, played on the piano.  It was melancholic, almost haunting, it was simple, elegant, beautiful ... and it was somehow familiar.  This was annoying - I thought that I knew the piece of music, but I couldn't remember where from, so the hunt was on.

I initially began to look for it having been used on some other television programmes, I searched all through all sorts of online forums relating to TV programmes and their incidental music (who'd have thought such a thing even existed!).  I was getting quite frustrated ... and quite distracted, but in a good way!

As I was searching for the source of the music I was finding many recommendations for other pieces by other composers and performers.  It is amazing how with only a few clicks of a mouse you can stumble on to something completely unknown to you.  To my delight I found a whole discography of albums that five minutes before were completely off of my radar.  I found out more about this music and was amazed at some of the performances on YouTube.  I was definitely going to have to find out more about this new discovery.

So what has this got to do with choosing new glasses?  Well it got me thinking ... and being an eye geek that means thinking about glasses!  While it's great to have an idea in mind as to what  you may like, but it's also good to be adventurous and open minded in your search.  Try on lots of different frames, look for styles around a particular theme, perhaps even try on something daring and different.  Whatever you do when you are choosing glasses, bear in mind that it is a tactile and a emotive decision, let your passion take over and enjoy the process!

Oh ... and that music ... well it was the piano chord progression from the song This Endless Rain, from the album Never Said Goodbye by Cerrys Matthews.

Yes, I did know it, we have that album on our music server at work!

New longer opening hours

It's been a great first four months here at Ocean Optometry, the time has really flown by.  We've had lots of lovely people come in and see us, with so many of them being incredibly flattering and gracious in their feedback about our office and about the frame ranges we carry.  It's all quite humbling to feel that we are doing something rather special and that it is being appreciated.

It is with great excitement, then, that we want to share the news about our new longer opening hours.  This will make it even easier for folks to come in and share in their little bit of Ocean!

Our new hours are:

• Mon  -  9:00  - 5:30
• Tues  -  9:00  - 5:30
• Wed  -  9:00  - 5:30
• Thur  -  9:00  - 8:00
• Fri     -  9:00  - 5:30
• Sat    - 10:00 - 4:00

Hopefully we will see you in Blowers Street real soon!

Great Review of SALT. Optic's Lodin sunglasses

Here at Ocean Optometry we love working with SALT. Optics, their range is designed for people who like simple things well made.

A great example of this is their Lodin sunglasses:

It's great to see that we aren't the only ones to think that SALT. make beautiful and trendy glasses, Men's Journal also agrees.