Design by FRANZ

Design by FRANZ is the brand of the pipe workshop Swiss architect Franz von Matt founded in 1998. Over roughly a decade of production, the brand was known for treating the shape of the pipe as a design question rather than repeating established molds; von Matt's name is mentioned together with the period when pipe making briefly gained visibility in Switzerland.

An Architect's Second Career

Raised in Zurich, von Matt worked as a freelance architect holding a technical-college diploma (HTL). This profession, based on measurement and tolerance, later became the foundation for his work at the bench as well; repairing antique clocks with metal and wooden gears in his spare time had also accustomed his hand to fine work. A longtime pipe smoker, von Matt turned his hobby into his main occupation in 1998. He set up his workshop in an old house in the village of Teufenthal in the canton of Aargau, at the foot of the medieval Trostburg Castle; the workshop appears in records under the name Pipe-Factory 22, while products were signed with the label Design by FRANZ. According to records, only four people were making pipes in Switzerland at the time, and von Matt was the only one pursuing it full time.

Briar Selection and Grading

The workshop announced that it used only plateau briar individually selected from Tuscany and Corsica. The tobacco chamber was left without any paint or filler, smoothed only with fine sandpaper. According to the workshop's own account, once cracks, foreign matter, and grain flaws were culled, only about 60% of the blocks processed remained usable. The remaining material was sorted according to a five-tier scale: at the top sat AAA, from straight-grained and blemish-free blocks said to make up at most one percent of the total; AA2 and AA1 allowed for increasingly visible flaws, AAL was reserved for a glossy finish after multiple layers of staining, and AAS for a sandblasted matte surface.

Birds and Shape Experiments

The brand's first product to draw attention was Timeless, with a spherical bowl and unusually colored finishes; it is considered a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Appenzell pipe (Lindauerli) with its metal lid. Most of the later designs converged on a bird theme. Coq de Bruyère, released in 2000, referred to a species of grouse (Tetrao urogallus) declining in numbers in Switzerland; a long mouthpiece giving the impression of a tail completed the curved body. Bluebird, introduced the same year, and the 2002 Pelican continued in this vein. The most talked-about series was Schräge Vögel / Odd Birds, a name that in German can be read both as "strange birds" and as "odd characters"; these short-bodied, sculptural pipes are said to have won the Form Forum Schweiz award in 2001, according to records. In shapes without bird names, such as Willy (2002) and Gina and George (2003), classic molds were developed in a measured way instead. In smoker discussions of the period, it is said that von Matt worked by varying roughly seven basic molds, not differing in method from other makers producing freehand pieces, but distinguished instead by his contrasting stains ranging from orange to anthracite.

The Bench Closes

von Matt regularly attended pipe fairs and craft events, and opened his workshop to visitors on certain days; he is known for regarding his fellow makers not as rivals but as a mutually nourishing community. According to records, from 2000 onward he also gave pipe-making courses at the Ballenberg center in the canton of Bern. In early 2005 he closed the Teufenthal workshop and moved to Zofingen, where he set up a new workshop, and in the same period returned part time to architecture. When he took charge of the planning and building-inspection unit for the municipality of Gränichen in spring 2006, the bench became a secondary concern; he disposed of most of his machinery, finished a few more pipes, and in summer 2007 stopped pipe making entirely. Design by FRANZ thus remains a short but distinct mark in the history of the artisan pipe.