Ranalde Baker
What is your background?
Initially, I studied at Unitec, and after completing a four-year Diploma in
3-Dimensional Design, I was an Exhibition and Furniture Designer for 11 years. I’ve been working at Cite since December 2007.
Most coveted piece from Cite’s collection and why:
The Organic Chair. I think it’s one of the most beautiful chairs ever designed, it's incredibly comfortable and I love the fact it was created in collaboration by two of my favourite designers of all time: Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen. It’s a piece that possesses a unique kind of charm and warmth, which I think comes about not just from its wonderful aesthetic, but from the idea that its purpose was to be a chair for reading in.
Favourite piece that you own and why:
Ball Clock. I’m quite fond of the story behind how it was conceived. Apparently George Nelson, Irving Harper, Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi had a bit too much to drink at a dinner party one night and started sketching. When they awoke in the morning, Nelson saw the sketch that would eventually be the design for the ball clock. Due to the group’s inebriated state the night before, no one could remember who had drawn what. The interesting thing is, both Nelson and Harper suspected that Noguchi had made the sketch. But it was Nelson who took the drawing back to his studio, and the rest is history.
What I do at Cite:
Key Account Manager
ranalde@citeltd.co.nz
