The Y Desk is a good example for the « flashes » Maxime Old had.
They were raw drawings coming into mind that he found especially interesting and that he knew would become his most favoured creations once minutely worked out. When such a flash occurred he needed a real case to put his idea into concrete form. It was a difficult work as Maxime only wanted to get the quintessence from it in full consistency with its expected use.
In this case the « flash » is the Y shaped base from which the Desk body is hanging. The real case, the prototype, will become his huge drawing table. In order to see his many research works all together he will make it in an open version, the top completely made of plate glasses simply sliding in the slot around the inside. The drawing board it self is reclining and hide a special compartment.
Here is its initial sketchup (1970).
To be compared with this other drawing tables Maxime designed in 1947.
Maxime’s focus related to its drawing table is key, as a parallel, his own desk is one of the smallest he has designed and very simple. The reason is obvious, he was spending his time designing, never at his desk.
The Y Desk prototyped in the drawing table open version, kind of showcase table exists also in closed ones, wholly leather sheathed, with drawers and console table. Our present releases of this Y Desk are here!
Back to Maxime Old Biography.