The Troika partnership, run by Conny Freyer, Sebastien Noel and Eva Rucki, is one of the RCA’s most successful recent graduate collaborations. They have broken new ground in their multidisciplinary approach to projects and, since their establishment in 2003, have collected an impressive client list including British Airways, the BBC, the Science Museum, Warner Music, MTV and Thames & Hudson.
The three designers met in their first week at the College. “We followed each others’ developments throughout the two years at the RCA closely,” Rucki said. “We have the same attitude to work and what we want out of work. We also have a curiosity that there is more than one way to do things. There is not a right answer to a problem but different dimensions.”
Rucki, like Freyer, earned her MA in Communication Art and Design at the RCA. Before joining Troika she had worked as a designer for Ständige Vertretung, Berlin, and as an editor at Bermudashorts, London, following a first degree at Arnhem in the Netherlands.
Fellow-German Freyer, 32, is a graphic designer and illustrator. She studied Communication Design and Photography in Montreal and worked both in Canada and Germany before joining the RCA.
Frenchman Noel, 31, is a product designer and engineer who worked for Antonio Citterio and Mario Bellini in Milan before joining the RCA. He studied engineering in Paris and graduated from the Design Products Department at the College. Noel joined Freyer and Rucki after a stint working with Design Products professor Ron Arad on an installation for the 2004 Venice Biennale. The two women had started working immediately following graduation on Troika’s first commission for Booth-Clibborn editions, designing and producing Moscow Style.
“Apart from the possibilities to concentrate on the development of your work entirely free of commercial constraints, the time at the RCA also offers you unlimited inspiration,” Freyer said. “Whereas in a commercial environment you are mainly pushed for maximum output, the time at the RCA can be used for maximum input, which lays the basis for your work for years to come.”
The partnership say one of the main assets of the RCA, next to its excellent teaching staff and workshop facilities, is its varied, talented international student body. “It is a good place to find future collaborators, as a lot of the people who come to the RCA are motivated to start their own practice,” Noel added.
The studio’s work spans disciplines from graphics to product design and art installations, but the creative use of technology and cross-fertilisation between art and design are recurring themes.
Their projects for the Science Museum, where they have produced exhibition graphics for the galleries and concept products for the Spymaker exhibition, as well as their forthcoming book Digital by Design, which is an overview of the fusion of digital technology and art and design production, illustrate their multi-faceted approach. The art installation Cloud for Terminal 5, a digital sculpture, is another example. The trio discovered that clients were excited rather than confused by the different areas they covered, and it has become a trademark of the studio. “Now, we just enjoy the fact that we have created an environment for ourselves in which we can engage with a variety of different subjects. The different expertise each team member brings to the table is one of our most valuable assets and inspirations and we believe that a multi-disciplinary team is fruitful ground for innovation,” Rucki said.