A creative legend of 75+ years – Part 3 of 3

Aesthetic fascism

For more than 25 years, Flemming has lived by the lake Mossø, where he enjoys following the changing of the seasons right outside his windows.

– I often find inspiration in nature. Our Lord is the most amazing designer who gets away with the most incredible designs. There is functionality everywhere in everything he has made.

Functionality is everything to Flemming. He has no respect for a lamp that doesn’t provide sufficient reading light, a chair you don’t sit comfortably in, or a handle you can’t grip.

– When I need a component for a product, I check if I can buy it somewhere. If I don’t find just the right one, I’ll make it myself. On that point, I am uncompromising. I always go with the mantra: “Form follows function”, unfortunately many present-day designers don’t consider both properties. To them, design is more important than function. I call it “aesthetic fascism”. That is not good, Flemming states.

The idea for a new product always begins with a visual image in Flemming’s head. Here it lives and develops for some time – it might even appear in his dreams at night, until he knows that it is ready. Then he draws it by hand. – When I finally draw the product, it is almost finished. I’m not the type who makes 50 drawings, nor have I ever made different prototypes. I make a product, and then it’s done. And that skill is a gift.

40-year long coffee break

In 2018, an increasing deafness forced Flemming to hand over his lifework Gryphon Audio Designs with the intent of enjoying retirement. He looked forward to fishing- and motorcycling trips. He was eager to hit the roads in his Jaguar Type E and or red Austin Healey. And were definitively going to spend more time at the easel.

But then the phone rang.

– Are you bored? Why don’t you come to Aalborg and play with us?

 The questions came from an old friend, Lars Kristensen, founder of Audio Group Denmark. An interesting proposition, so today he divides his retirement life between the lakeshore at Mossø, the apartment in the center of Aarhus and the creative sandpit with his playmates in Aalborg.
And he enjoys it!

When he doesn’t have play dates in Aalborg, Flemming is happy that he has started painting again.

– I’ve taken a 40-year coffee break from painting – ever since I started doing all the electronics and Hi-Fi stuff, I thought I’d start again when I had more time. I haven’t missed it all these years, because in my world, the creative process is the most important – not the result.

The creative process has always been there in one form or another. But there is a difference between being creatively productive at home in front of the easel and when a new hi-fi product is to find its form.

– When I stand in front of an easel to paint, I am not controlled by the brain. When I go into Zen-mode, I reach a point where I observe that my hand is doing the painting. I am not subject to any kind of restrictions. I can do whatever I want. But when it comes to the creative process in the Hi-Fi industry, it’s about my heritage. Here, I have certain expectations to the final result, I myself must like the product, and my mark on the product must be recognizable and clear, Flemming explains.