The Dynamo

February 28, 2008

Like the city he lives in, Roman Vrtiska is as young and raw as he is mature and experienced. It’s no wonder this quirky designer finds his home town of Prague - a place where you’ll see a funky fresh juice bar next to a Gothic cathedral - as a constant playground for inspiration.

Understanding the dynamic between old and new allows Roman to play with that tension. For Teroforma, Roman redesigned a vintage carafe produced by Kvetna Glassworks called the Cartouche. He took the original 1873 design and focused on finding new solutions for the traditional shape, taking into consideration the role of an object when it’s not in use.

It’s hard to pin down exactly where Roman finds his inspiration given the breadth of his interests – from street art to music to architecture. “If you are looking at the street with an open mind, you can find inspiration in everything,” he says over the phone, after explaining his definition of functional simplicity. You begin to see what he means when he tells you his favorite place is 45°56′14.825″N, 10°48′56.692″E.

For Roman Vrtiska, the world is not places, it’s a deep and open mind.