Object of Desire
In the age of AI and digital everything, Form & Seek retains its soul by marrying past and present
At Form & Seek, being women-owned isn’t a label they simply promote, it is the foundation of everything they build. Founders, Aylin Durmaz and Bilge Nur Saltik began with a clear vision: To create a practice where creative authority is shared rather than centralized, and where intuition, sensitivity, and rigor are seen as complementary strengths. Coming from cultures where women’s creative labor is often undervalued, they consciously design their collaborations to make those contributions visible.
For Form & Seek, the decision between using handmade processes and contemporary tools is never binary. Take the OP-Vase, designed using both contemporary technology and traditional craft, each vase merges digital precision with the nuance of traditional glassblowing. Its intricate pattern of cuts creates a kaleidoscopic optical effect, where a single flower appears multiplied and dissolves into an entire bouquet as the viewer shifts angles. Every vase is blown, formed and cut exactly to precision to achieve these optics, but it’s the glassblower that gives each piece its unique character. The OP-Vase challenges perception, showing how craft, design intention, and visual distortion can transform something simple into something unexpectedly complex.
At Form & Seek, each new design begins with a set of questions they pose throughout the process: what does this object need to say? What emotion should it evoke? And which method, traditional or technological, will express that idea most honestly? Rapid prototypes, material tests, and scale studies open up multiple possibilities, and much of the process is shaped through close collaboration with artisans to determine what can be achieved through handcraft and what might benefit from a more experimental, technical approach.
For them, the use of emerging technologies is not a threat to traditional craft, but is an extension of it. Digital tools allow designers to “craft” through code, layers, and rapid iterations, offering a different kind of precision and experimentation, while a hand-blown glass carries the subtle traces of the maker’s knowledge no machine can truly replicate. “For us, the goal isn’t to choose between digital and traditional methods, but to let each do what it does best. Technology brings precision and experimentation; craft brings human presence."
- Each OP-Vase is created in close collaboration with Turkish glassmakers renowned for their precision.
- Thick glass and intricate facets shift with every angle, changing how you see the arrangement inside.
- Because each vase is individually blown and cut, no two patterns are ever identical.
- Artisans make micro-adjustments in real time, responding to how the glass behaves rather than following a rigid mold.
Object of Desire
In the age of AI and digital everything, Form & Seek retains its soul by marrying past and present
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