Born in Paris in 1957, Jacques Guillemet is a perceptive entrepreneur popularly known for being the Co-founder and Director of PYLONES, an international manufacturing and retail business that thrives by selling an eclectic range of design gift paraphernalia. Since PYLONES’ establishment in 1985, he and partner Lena Hirzel have taken the creative lead by working as “object editors” to develop hundreds of colourful items towards a staggering array of forms and functions.
The story behind PYLONES first began in the early 70s, when Guillemet, who was disillusioned by the limited market for design gift items, dreamed of a shop fitted with hundreds of intriguing products. The first piece of the dreamed 100 products range, an innovative and colourful rubber jewellery collection, became an instant success, and has since encouraged the business to build on its imaginative spirit by maximizing consumer choice, affordability and accessibility. Rather uniquely, PYLONES maintains a unique role that bridges design with the masses.
Today, more than 50 PYLONES retail spaces sell the inventive products, ranging from odd shaped crockery and daring jewellery to colourful office gift products and home furnishings. PYLONES also maintains partnerships that operate PYLONES stores or booths in Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Turkey, USA and others. An eagerness to experiment has permitted PYLONES product collection to diversify successfully. Over the years, the business has practiced creative collaboration with talented Parisian designers such as Braguette Magique, Crea Crea, Ionel Panait, Laurent Lucas et Eugenie Pereira, Laurent Mouveau, Pied à Coulisse, San Froid, Vanina Crescioni and numerous others.
The company has been a recipient of many awards, PYLONES also designs and manufactures exclusive products for brands such as Dior, Renault, France Telecom, Starbucks.
