​​Among the first works of Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec is a single-flower vase that leans slightly. When I was a student, I happened upon a photograph of this vase in a book that I was browsing through in a store. Certainly, the appeal of this product is the sculpture-like form and the idea of linking multiple forms together, but the unique aspect that captured my heart was the fact that it was "leaning". It made me smile to think of the flowers arranged in the vase as if they were relaxing in comfort. Traditional single-flower vases, which almost universally force flowers to stand straight, appeared to have a human-centric almost arrogance about them.

I focused on the angle, adding my own ideas to design this single-flower vase. I decided to make a small cut where the shadow from the vertical pipe contacts the ring, and this created a simple, original lyricism. It was at this time that I learned that the purpose of design may not always be to satisfy the humans. Among drawings, I happened upon Man Ray's 'Shadow study', a kind of trompe l'oeil that inspired the form.