[Bespoke Exclusive Collection Interviews] ③ HAY’s Mette Hay on the Inspiration Behind HAY’s Colors for the Bespoke

To celebrate the release of Samsung’s latest Bespoke lineup, the company is collaborating with three artists and brands – Thibaud Hérem, Andy Rementer and HAY – to highlight how the Bespoke refrigerator’s wide range of color and panel choices lets users bring creativity and personal flair into their home spaces.

The third artist from this collaboration project to be spotlighted is Danish lifestyle brand HAY. Founded by creative directors Mette and Rolf Hay, HAY is committed to working with top designers from all over the world. Inspired by nature and the natural ingredients commonly found in refrigerators, HAY has created five new colors exclusively for Samsung’s Bespoke panels. Those colors are Cream, Squama, Dusty Blueberry, Artichoke and Cabbage.

In the exclusive video and Q&A below, Mette Hay explains more about what went into the five exclusive colors that HAY designed for the Bespoke refrigerator line.

Q: Can you talk a bit about who you are and what you do?

I’m Mette Hay, the co-founder of HAY, a design company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. I started HAY with my husband Rolf almost 20 years ago.

Q: What is HAY all about? What should the world know about your designs?

Rolf and I had a vision of a company that works with the world’s best designers and manufacturers to create affordable, high-quality products.

Rolf has a passion for furniture. For me, it’s more about the small things; the things you hold in your hands every day. There is no project that is too small or simple for me. It excites me to find a gap in our industry; an item where there has been no other product like it from a design point of view. That’s one of the reasons I was so excited about our collaboration with Samsung.

Color very much informs my work. Most brands will select colors for a year or a season; at HAY we choose colors for each individual product. I feel that the product itself is what dictates the colors, and that they are an essential part of the design.

Q: Why collaborate with Samsung? What does the Samsung brand represent to you?

When I think of Samsung, I think of a global company that makes high-quality, technical products. It’s very different from what we do at HAY, but we still have this overlap when it comes to our sense of quality.

I was excited when Samsung contacted us to create a color scale for their new Bespoke Collection. As I said, I like to work with everyday objects, and this gave me the opportunity to do that.

Samsung was running a beautiful exhibition in Milan when we met them in 2019. After I had seen the exhibition, the decision to work with them became an easy one to make.

Q: What has it been like collaborating with Samsung?

In order for a collaboration to be successful, both parties need to bring something special to the table. HAY brings a fresh eye to this project, and Samsung likes our style and approach to color.

This isn’t the first time we’ve collaborated with another brand on a color scale for an existing product. It’s a fun and interesting way to work.

We always do an individual color scale for each new product; we start from scratch with colors. And that’s because, for me, the colors and the item itself go hand-in-hand.

Q: Can you talk a bit about the color choices for the fridges? Why is color important in a kitchen?

It didn’t take me long to decide that the colors of the HAY Bespoke Collection should connect back to the foods we typically have in our fridges.

We therefore started by looking at different categories of ingredients. This resulted in us establishing blue, green and cream tones. All the colors we settled on work well in all kinds of kitchens; home kitchens, office kitchens and even in HAY House’s own kitchen. They’re colors that will stand out but aren’t overpowering. The various elements can also be combined in different ways depending on what the customer wants, which is very useful.

Q: How do you hope people will react to this collaboration? What would you like them to say about it?

I hope that people will be able to see HAY’s unique touch in the Bespoke Collection. HAY is known for bright colors; but in this case, it was really important to me that the palette we chose was something that I’d be happy with in my own kitchen.

An item like a fridge – a straightforward, everyday item – can be a design object too. Its design shouldn’t be overwhelming, because it’s going to be so central to your kitchen. It should absolutely bring you joy though.