Why Chimera Design? When we were considering a name for our studio, Chimera emerged as the obvious choice.
The concept first came to Amanda a few years ago. It seemed to appear everywhere she looked, almost as if it were following her. Was it merely the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, or was there something more profound at play? Despite not fully understanding her fascination, she followed it instinctively. One late night in Milan, after they had spent a long day exploring the design fairs, Amanda shared her fascination with this elusive word with Daisy. She spoke of reading about it, seeing it everywhere, and feeling a deep, emotional connection to it. It was as though the word had revealed a truth that made everything fall into place. They spent hours delving into its meaning, and Daisy felt a strikingly similar pull toward it. A few months later, Amanda had the word tattooed on her arm in an elegant, organic script that wrapped around her bicep. Around the same time, their year-long idea of merging their studios into one began to take shape. They experimented with various combinations of studio names, but nothing seemed to capture the essence of what they were trying to achieve. Equally drawn to the word, Daisy delved into her own research. She reflected on her childhood and how many moments were spent in solitude, fascinated by the mystical and unexplained. Reconnecting with those interests felt like a return to her most authentic self. Then, last November they took a trip to Joshua Tree, CA. During a hike together, they revisited the conversation about their studio’s name. At a moment of quiet clarity on the trail, Amanda stopped and said, “I think we are Chimera.” There was no room for doubt. Daisy had been contemplating the same idea but wanted it to emerge naturally from Amanda, who had first introduced the word into their shared vision. It had to come together organically, and it did. In the way that many of their decisions unfold, they found themselves at the same point, guided by their unique processes.
It was clear that Chimera was the name for their studio, as well as the defining concept that would shape their united vision.
What is the definition of Chimera?
Chimera as a term has morphed, mutated, and metamorphosed throughout history.
In Greek Mythology, we first encounter it in Homer’s “Iliad” and then again in Virgil’s “Aeneid,” where it appears at the doors of Hades. “Three were her heads, “one of a lion of flashing eyes, another of a she-goat, and another of a snake.”
In science, a chimera can be an individual whose body is composed of genetically distinct cells, as if they are from different individuals – and sometimes they are from different individuals.
Plants can be chimeras too. Much of the fruit we eat comes from chimeric plants, because of the widely-used practice of grafting fruit-producing branches onto the roots of another variety or species. In the great French wine blight, this process saved the regional European vines and slowly but surely returned the wine industry in France to relative normality.
The term chimera describes anything composed of disparate parts that is perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or a dazzling unrealized dream.
Design is inherently an amalgamation of perspectives, materials, styles, and a spatial chimera of its own. Our unified creative partnership has developed into a chimera. A true symbiosis of us.
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