#onecupofcoffee Tan ORAL
In every minute of his interview, every sentence Mr. Tan made us think and question. Cats are his indispensable source of inspiration…
What would Tan Oral like to share first with designers and design lovers?
In my eyes, jewelry and ornaments are indispensable tools of emphasis for people, beyond having a value. I know that such things are very useful for perceiving something, life, people, and objects. They attract attention. Therefore, there are endless elements for designers. Cats are probably one of the indispensable ones. In my eyes, they have a very special place in human life. The reason why the designer turned to cats is this cleverness of cats. As it is known, cats were originally one of the wild animals of nature, but one day they used their minds and decided that they would be useful to humans and approached humans. They are animals that have managed to become friends with humans by using cities and entering their homes.
People, whether they are designers or buyers of designer products; cannot remain indifferent to cats. The sound cats make resembles the sound of their own kittens, which humans cannot remain indifferent to. Cats have achieved this in evolution. Since cats understand this, they make all their requests in this way. People almost never reject these requests. In addition, when they wander around in nature, they walk around with camouflage colors, just like today's large felines. Colors that make it easy to hide in accordance with nature. However, since they started using people's homes, they quickly change their disguise; they start making friends in a colorful, eye-pleasing variety that people will not get bored with. This last thing I said is an invaluable blessing for designers. It is both a friend they surrender to and it offers you such things... They change shape and color; they are creatures that can diversify without losing their own character and formal elegance. I can say these.
We are curious about your journey with coffee…
When coffee existed in Turkey, I was a child. Children had no interest in coffee, nor were they asked. When I was old enough to drink coffee, there was no coffee left in Turkey. Coffee ran out. We used to roast chickpeas and make something like coffee and drink it. It was not available in the market or bazaar. But on the other hand, every house was full of coffee. Because all the friends who came from outside, knowing the situation, would bring coffee as a gift. It would be put in the cupboard, and then someone else would bring it, and it would be in the cupboard again. During the time of Prime Minister Özal, various coffees came to Turkey due to the free market. We would see Nescafe and mugs in the movies and be enthusiastic. The display cases were filled with cheese and coffee varieties. We started drinking coffee out of curiosity.
What coffees were you drinking?
I started with Turkish coffee. Nescafes were too much in a cup, I really liked espressos for a while. Just like I overdid everything, when I overdid the espressos, my heart palpitations started. I had to stay away. I have a tea addiction that has never diminished since my childhood. When I don’t feel well towards noon, I suddenly realize that I don’t drink tea. Since my tea addiction continues, I drink coffee once every forty years. Tea is usually my first choice. However, I know that coffee has a very special place. It is neck and neck with tea in Turkey. Tea was my preferred choice in a busy business life. In my old busy working days, tea would come as soon as I said hello wherever I went. I didn’t know how many cups of tea I drank. Coffee was mostly at home… When guests came, the first thing to make was coffee. Today, all of these are more natural and appropriate. There are no excesses and contradictions that I mentioned. You can drink tea or coffee wherever you want.
Is there a side product that you think should definitely be served with coffee? Like Turkish delight, liqueur… That you remember from the old days…
Water is definitely given. The reason for giving water is to take a sip of water before starting to drink the coffee, to eliminate the taste left from the previous meals. In this way, it is possible to sip the coffee in the most sensitive way. I can say a few things about coffee. In the houses where I visited as a guest in my childhood, it was cooked on a barbecue. There would be a basket with a lid or a cloth on top. The lady of the house would take that basket on her lap, open the lid or cover, and take out a brass mill. She would grind coffee in the grinding mill along with her conversation, and collect the grounds in a bowl. Then she would put water and coffee in the cezve and put it on the barbecue. The conversation would continue at the same time. As the barbecue started to boil, she would pull the cezve back, wait for the foam to subside and put it back on the barbecue. The same thing can be done on the stove, those who know do it. If it is boiled for a long time, the aroma of the coffee is transferred to the water better. After that, the coffee is sipped while sitting and chinning. Now, if you asked for coffee from Kuru Kahveci Mehmet Efendi in Eminönü, they would not give you more than 75 grams because it would get stale. Now there are electric grinders for fresh coffee. The aroma of coffee ground in a grinder fades away over time, freshly ground coffee has a different flavor. In old houses, there were raw beans, they were roasted at home. Now you can smell that in Kadıköy. They can roast fresh beans, grind them immediately and give them to you.
It's a pleasure to chat with you. Can we get information about your work that will bring us together with Tan Oral?
Until recently, I wanted to turn my own work into a book. The book was challenging, I had something on my mind but I couldn't just say go ahead and start working. I was chosen as the Honorary Illustrator at the Book Fair this year. then, suddenly, requests for talks, panels, books started to pour in. Some of them included suggestions that I would not accept. Up until now, the book fair had chosen an author and then had a book written. They had asked the author to share this through a conversation. This was the tradition of the fair. I expressed myself as follows: ''I may write, but I express myself through drawing.'' They convinced me to make a comic book, but they said let's make a comic book anyway. I couldn't say anything. The process started, there was a time when I was so bored that I almost went to the hospital. Now I've started the comic book. Elif (my wife) also helped. We took comics from the archive, scanned them, eliminated them, reduced them to 300, and divided them into groups. After planning the flow within each group, we completed their connections and delivered them to our graphic designer friend . It will be published this month
Can we say that your creativity is restricted when you receive a request that does not suit you?
It is not about creativity. I cannot do a job that I do not believe in. Our job does not happen with orders. It is such a job that it happens or does not happen. In other words, when it does not happen, its absence is not felt. Nobody will grab you. It is a job that is arbitrary. Therefore, it should be done freely. It is not possible with pressure or orders. If we consider that human life is made up of pebbles, art fills the gaps in life a little. It should be left free. It is both needed and tried to be silenced. I have prepared many exhibitions and books up until now, I thought a lot about what I could do in response to this book demand. I thought about the nature of the fair. I thought about the problems in Turkey. When I looked at what I was most interested in, I saw that my file on intellectuals was the thickest. A thick file full of criticism of intellectuals and injustices done to intellectuals. We set out from them and the main character of the drawings, unlike other works, is one or two people, they talk and say something. Therefore, I interpreted the name of the book as Aydın Okumaları (Readings of Intellectuals). You can easily finish cartoon albums, you will want to read this book one by one or you can open a random page…
We know that you have a project with the Construction Industry Center…
A book called 'I Just Need a Place to Roof My Head'. A house, a residence, a city... These subjects, drawn things... There are drawings under titles like urban transformation, earthquake. It's a drawing, but I also use text as a graphic element. In other words, if you remove the text, both the meaning and the graphic can collapse.
How did you follow this path after your architecture education?
Before starting my architectural education, I was drawing and I was trying to draw well. When I went to the decorative arts department of the school for an interview, I went with these drawings in my hand. It attracted a lot of attention. I entered the department and then transferred to Architecture. It was a discipline with boundaries beyond what I was used to. I couldn't accept it at first, but that didn't last long. I loved it. I accepted it.
Drawing cartoons and humor create a somewhat tangled mind. Architecture is a much more rational way of working. Suddenly my tangled mind was combed and relaxed with architecture. On the other hand, you can draw whatever you want, you should draw as much as possible without revealing yourself and without thinking. In architecture, you make calculations. Would this be possible, would it fit here... etc. At first, this seemed to destroy the originality in my drawing. It helped me balance. In addition, the disciplined work requirement of journalism came into play... Since that day, it brought a relaxed line and a goal-oriented approach. It continues like that to this day...