Milking it: designers get creative with dairy at Paris’ Milk Factory

Designers have churned out their own creative twists on a humble staple for a new exhibition at Paris’ Milk Factory. In ‘Milk Lab’, curator Claire Fayolle has invited 10 renowned designers and studios to imagine the future of dairy products.

A culinary creative lab and gallery run by the French dairy collective, The Milk Factory is intended as a think-tank to promote a mix of disciplines and visions. The initiative provides platform for chefs, visual artists, photographers, and designers to invent and share in the unique space.

Inspired by eighteenth century traditions, British designer Sebastian Bergne has devised a hot milk service-cum-micro laboratory, which can be used to infuse milk with new flavours. Served up on a beech wood tray, the delicate collection of borosilicate glass designs includes a jug housing a thermometer (to be heated slowly and patiently over a candle), along with glasses and stirring spoons.

Catalan designer Martí Guixé has concocted an experimental object using compound butters. Each geometrically shaped piece represents a type of flavoured butter, milk, production or area of expertise. Meanwhile, a 3D milk-printing machine by Betc Design allows users to create mini-sculptures in different flavours and 5.5 Design Studio’s quirky creation – synthetic udders suspended above a traditional milk pail – aims to connect viewers to agriculture.

The works are complemented by 10 pieces created by fledgling designers during a workshop held at French schools L’École Nationale Supérierure D’Art et Design de Nancy (ÉNSAD) and L’École Supérierure D’Art et Design de Reims (ÉSAD). Léo Tavoni, Paul Louda and Victor Grenez – students of the latter - have created a drawing tool that uses cheese instead of ink. ÉNSAD’s offerings include a bottle made of edible milk and dystopian vision of the dairy industry 300 years from now.

‘Milk Lab’ playfully casts an everyday essential in a different light, beyond the glow of the fridge. In this exhibition, designers both established and new prove why they are the cream of the crop.