![Alex Lotersztain's Homework sofa in the Les Basics range is equipped with wooden surfaces that allow it to be used as a ...](/content/dam/images/g/v/k/p/m/h/image.related.afrWideArticleLead.940x529.gvkmw5.png/1492571031520.jpg)
You might not expect one of Australia's most successful furniture designers to be a strapping Argentinian lad based in Brisbane.
But that's precisely where you'll find Alexander Lotersztain, founder and director of Derlot Editions and head of an empire that includes an active catalogue of 160 products, a factory in Guangzhou and an international network of commercial clients including one of the world's largest architecture and design firms, Gensler, which is based in San Francisco with offices scattered across the globe.
At last December's Design Miami, a concrete iteration of a Lotersztain QTZ chair was dotted across the design district as public amenity. His Prisma modular office system garnered him a German Design Award in 2015. He has collaborated with Corian, glass mosaic producer Bisazza and lighting provider Euroluce, and addressed TEDx Sydney on the power of design to affect culture.
That's a lot of style and substance from a city southerners tend to diss as Brisvegas.
![Lotersztain's QTZ chairs have featured in public spaces worldwide.](/content/dam/images/g/v/k/q/c/0/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1492077782579.jpg)
"I came to Australia at the age of 18 looking for adventure, and I found it," he says with a laugh. "But I also wanted to finish my university degree." Which he did, at the Queensland College of Art, Griffiths University, graduating in 2000.
Then he travelled and worked in Tokyo, Milan and Barcelona for six years before returning to put down roots in Brisbane. "I came back to Brisbane because it felt familiar to me. I had good friends here and I felt there were a lot of design opportunities here. I still think that."
Elusive market
The latest design opportunity Lotersztain is exploring is the elusive Millennial lifestyle, the holy grail of marketing boffins the world over.
To net them, he's just launched a second furniture and homewares line he has christened Les Basic, pronouncing it "less basic" to imply a sophisticated simplicity zjooshed up with a certain je ne sais quoi.
![Alex Lotersztain says his home of Brisbane has a lot of design opportunities.](/content/dam/images/g/v/k/p/m/m/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1492077486086.jpg)
Light and airy, with a big touch of whimsy, Les Basic comprises almost everything Gen Y could ever need in their tiny inner-city pads. Often modular, sometimes serving double functions, the pieces are always pared back with just the right dose of quirkiness.
There's the Homework sofa equipped with wooden surfaces, which allow it to be used as a table or desk, and built-in power outlets. The Valet unit happily multi-tasks as bedside table, drinks trolley, mobile office or individual table setting. The Whitsunday outdoor furniture series incorporates leg detailing that mutates into side table or bag hooks.
"It has a distinctly Australian feel to it, but I've not laboured the point," says Lotersztain. "Ultimately, its addressed to Millennials everywhere – with a cross-generational vibe as well. The key values of the collection are authenticity, simplicity, responsibility. I've strived to strike the right balance between high-tech capability and craft authenticity."
The Les Basic range, he reckons, is "anti-loud", somewhat "hackable".
![Homework designs in the Les Basic range, with many serving double functions.](/content/dam/images/g/v/k/q/b/t/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1492077809391.jpg)
In a nod to the trend blending home and work environments, many of the pieces suggest endeavour as much as leisure. "The range is designed with small urban apartments in mind but can easily be scaled up to larger office contexts. From a business perspective, it needed to be able to move around the boundaries of residential and contract environments."
Authentic design
Les Basic introduces authentic design to a much younger market, says Aidan Mawhinney, chief executive of Living Edge – importer of European luxury brands such as Vitra and Walter Knoll and, as of this month, Australian distributor of Les Basic.
"The simplicity and pared back nature of most of the pieces is perfect. They're fun, simple products that come at price points that are super competitive."
![The Whitsunday outdoor furniture series incorporates leg detailing that mutates into a side table or bag hooks.](/content/dam/images/g/v/k/q/j/1/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1492077766171.jpg)
Les Basic will be launched internationally next month at New York's International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
It's not uncommon for industrial designers to launch second, more mass-distribution brands targeting a wider market, much like fashion designers create a name brand then the spin-off (think Prada with Miu Miu and Armani with Armani Exchange). But whereas Derlot (from AlexanDER LOTersztain) Editions works a hard-edged, graphic, pleasantly aggressive vibe, the Les Basic collection is somehow softer, more pastel, cuddly. The range even includes a mascot in the form of a stuffed wombat made from textile offcuts from the upholstered products – a percentage of every sale going to the RSPCA.
There's nothing quite so cuddly about Lotersztain himself. The adventurer who first came to our shores in the late 1990s is more of a rugged sportsman. When he's not home in Brisbane with his Australian wife and their two small children, he is likely to be found mountain biking in Germany, hiking in the Andes or deep powder skiing, most often in Japan.
When we spoke last week, he was about to fly to the Rusutsu resort, one of the largest in Hokkaido. He was going not to ski (the season is winding down) but to check progress on his conversion of an existing 1800-square-metre gymnasium into a multi-level food and beverage hub sourcing produce from within a 100-kilometre radius.
Lotersztain is working on the interior design but also the overall art direction, graphic identity and branding – right down to the packaging of Rusutsu's own microbrewery produced local beer. You can't get much more Millennial than that.
AFR Contributor