Designblog

SI Module is the portable platform for Applied Arts and Autonomous Design, initiated by Sandberg Institute Applied Arts department.
On a special table a system of modules will be build. The sizes of these modules are variable, depending on the size of works exhibited.
SI Module, was part of Object Rotterdam

three more links inspired by the design fair: Object Rotterdam
1•Odd Designs on Film, 2•Richard Hutten "playing with tradition", 3•Total Table design
The Object Rotterdam excursion was part of the Basic Year "form-lab" workshop

For the first time in fifteen years an overview exhibition on the work of the French artist Sophie Calle is organize in The Netherlands. Central work in this exhibit is “Prenez soin de vous” (Take care of yourself), in which Calle invites 107 women from a ballerina to a lawyer to use their professional skills to interpret an email in which her partner breaks up with her.

Sophie Calle is part of the April 1st BasicYear Design Trip
look for more on Sophie Calle
newspaper article NRC  9/5/2008 (dutch) pdf

The screen sees me the whole time while I am looking at it, I am not embarrassed by it, it is neutral, invisible even, I don’t register its existence,
it is just a glowing surface.
The screen is inextricably connected to my life. It is a door that I pull shut behind me, which gives me access to a space where I can disappear. It is my gateway to information, it is my space for communication, it is a space where
I carry out my work and enjoy myself.
I entered into this connection and I am addicted to it.

For 9 months, starting in April 2009, our laptops took a portrait photo through the built in webcam and a screenshot of our desktops every 5 minutes while we were using it. We have arranged and displayed this enormous amount of imagery in the hope that both patterns and details will become visible.

INFODECODATA is part of the April 1st BasicYear Design Trip
more on Conditional Design

HUDSON MUSEUM is part of the April 1st BasicYear Design Trip
more on the Hudson Museum

There is a period in everybody’s life where one is still unable to speak. It’s the time, your very early childhood, before you ‘re taught a language. In that period, you look at every object as what it is, not at the function or the meaning it might have. That is a way of looking at things I really like. Later when you’re encouraged to speak, you loose your ability to look at things ‘as they are’, because you start giving names to things. You start naming things and thus start categorising things.

There is a certain kind of break in your existence, from now on you look at things and try to lable it, you don’t see it as an original and unique whatever-it-is any more. The French psycho analist Lacan (who made a very complicated theory about all this) calls this phase the symbolic order as apposed to the other phase that he calls the imaginary order . Very revealing stuff, if you ask me.

Our workshop was about shape, not meaning. The thing as it is, not the concept behind it. An attemt to try and let you look at an object in the way described above.

Judging from the results that can been seen under the category “form-lab“, presenting most of the processes I witnessed, I think it worked at least for some of you.

legs are…

Process of transformation one thing to another is long and full of difficulties…

What if object we chose is so beautiful and well done that we don’t want to change even a single detail?

I think that nature is the best designer*

Object design seems to be separate being. It is living its own life.

In my project, I would like to add simple everyday objects invented by the human imagination – bedside table made part of infinite perfection of nature – human legs.

* ( ok, some small dogs are sometimes a little bit odd ).

The aim of the project was to be capable of using the shape and quality of one object for developing another, completely different object. I decided to use my favorite chair as starting point for the assignment. While working I realized that I couldn’t solely rely on the factuality of forms. Rather I had to work on a more intuitional level; I had to interpret and translate shapes and texture into certain qualities.  I ended up making a bookshelf out of a chair.

Some general remarks on the chair:

• 50ties
• The chair can be divided into two parts, namely the seating and the legs. The parts differ in style and function, yet they seem to contrast each other in style -hard and soft, different movements-.
• The chair is top heavy.

Qualities of the seating:

• The round shape of the seating gives a sense of intimacy and protection.
• The round shape has an inward movement that is inviting and suggests openness. It makes you want to sit down and crawl up into it.

Qualities of the legs:

• Straight, elegant legs.
• The legs have a vertical movement. The legs are scuffed all around and they seem to narrow down towards the end which also gives them a slight horizontal movement.
• Breaks with the softness and inviting feeling of the seating.

Left: photo of the chair and seating.
Right: different sketches of the bookshelf.

Idea behind the bookshelf:

• The round shape and inward movement of the bookshelf corresponds with the seating of the chair.
• The shape of the bookshelf gives a sense of intimacy and protection, which is also similar to a book cover.

The idea behind the books:

• The books are placed with their covers towards the bookshelf, which gives one a peak into the books by just looking at them. The placement of the books is a literal expression of openness.
• The pages of the books are meant to contrast the round shape of the bookshelf, similar to the way the legs and the seating of the chair relate to each other.

As can be seen in the sketches above I experimented with the general form and feeling of the object by placing the books in different ways into the bookshelf. Ultimately I had to conclude that the last sketch (the books placed in a crown shape) is corresponding best to the heavy, warm feeling of the chair. Furthermore the crown shape of the books helps to enhance the qualities and the shape of the bookshelf as they are reversed in form.

Several sights of the bookshelf -the actual result.

how can a line be straight from one angle, and curvy from another?

I turn the watch over and look and turn again.

what is happening?

it is all angles and shapes,

it’s all curves and lines,

its all male and female,

unexpected angles, unusual proportions.

I can keep discovering.

This watch is the property of science fiction classics and uniformed airline officers in the future we will all have microwaves and flying cars

Simplistic form, makes me think of suitcases, briefcases, boxes.

4 angles from the front side and back side. 8 in total.

Design of simplistic form. Based on angles.

Obvious similarity with the zippo. Detail from the side put on the top.

Very minimalistic outcome. For me it’s about aesthetics.

Transparent

 Deformed letters and symbols when you look through the glass

Reflections

Another object that fascinates me is a lamp.

Today I came to realize that they actually are brother and sister.

Two elements:  Shiny transparent fragile glass - vs - Strong non transparent cap/top

Symmetry    -    yrtemmyS

As less as possible. Form follows function. No extra’s.

A Sketch

Product Follows Form

No extra's: Lamp and switch are now one
Reflections are now replaced by light

Balance


Logical symmetrical system

(Eventually) two elements: Plastic and Glass

Or four? Lamp and Switch included

For me sound is something mysterious, because I’m deaf. during my childhood I was fascinated by music cassettes (casette-bandjes). People love these things. For me it was hard to imagine.
Something coming out of the cassette that I couldn’t see.
some more interesting elements:
– gold/black – variety volume of lines – symmetrical holes – two hole with teeth – rectangle with round corners – easy to put in pocket – parallel lines–

scale drawing “make invisible visible”

final presentation

Exploring the possibilities for translating the idea into a product brought me to a new space for viewing the designwork. I fell in love with the PET-foamboard material and thin woods. I could change the shape and lines (movement).
During the translating I solved the technical problems/errors that I couldn’t see in my scale drawing. I had to wear the showmodel glasses in order to solve these problems and find the right shape (nose-holding, hinge and degree angles).
I’m happy with my first design product translation from the (inaudible) cassette-band and I don’t mind wearing it.

What I found interesting about the original object and wanted to use for my own design was the temptation to spin the handle and the hypnosis from looking through the transparent plastic.
It’s a simple and appealing 80’s kitchenware; sharp, round, white plastic meets metal, functional and no I-pod edges.

Sara‘s initial object was her cool black leather shoes (click here to see details), and we decided to work as a team, creating a  cargo-bike by the interesting combination of spinning space and rock’n’roll coolness.

The cylinder shape of the kitchen tool is used for the cargo box, which is made of a metal frame covered with strong white plastic band, braided in and out between the vertical bars of the box, which give the box a mix of curves and straight lines, just like the black leather shoes.

The intriguing contrast of white plastic and silver metal that we find in my original object is transmitted to the bike, through the white handles, cylinder and saddle versus the silver metal frame.

The shoes have a special pattern that we transformed into the triangular part of the frame, which gives the bike a distinctive and cool look, and by biking on it you immediately get into the ongoing rhythm of elevation and falling of the pedals, that makes you continue.

What’s more tempting than to make the wheels spin, by taking a ride on the Spinning Space Bike?

My black leather boots have a kind of cool “Bob Dylan look”, but for me personally in an ironic way. They look feminine and wrinkly, and feel hard and soft. There lines are both straight and curvy. Everyday they elevate and fall following an ongoing rhythm.

This description of some of the characteristics of the shape resulted in a new

shape, but with some of the same features – a cargo-bike. Especially parts of the pattern in the center of the boots were inspirational for the structure of the metal bars connecting the bicycle. There strict straightnes, but with round tops resemble the ones on the bike. Besides that, the potential of movement in the leather boots generates an even bigger  potential in the bicycle.

The bicycle is in contrast to the boots not cool in an ironic way, but in a more sincere way, being funtional, having an original and simple design and being environmentally friendly.

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Bad Dog !

you’re so cliché.
i dislike poodles.
it’s not important.

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the shape fits my hands  /  i can feel the cuts  /  a butchers cut  /  i take it apart  /  thirteen pieces   /  interesting objects  /  organic shapes meeting straight cuts  /  male- and female-forms appear  /  mingle them  /  one piece  /  the function dissapears

form is all I have left

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the product is based on one specific piece.

it’s an organic shape beautifully cut off.
the form suggests something is missing.
it belongs somewhere.

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it reminds me of a japanese wooden shoe.

a shoe that can be altered to personal specifications.
able to constantly change the pieces.
creating variation in heights, materials and systems.

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A task to dissect the aesthetics of my object.
A little machine with rumbling boilers and brass fittings.
A clumsy black rubber knob and sharp metallic lines.
A repetition of lines that make a symmetry of circles, hexagons and octagons.
A simplistic and minimal ripped off design for the shape.
A mass-produced iconic object within the field of industrial design.
A constant repetition of form.

Waking up, brushing our teeth, our morning cup of coffee.
It’s all part of a daily routine.
The constant repetition of the same shape in every element of this espresso machine fascinated me.
I took that concept and applied it to another object.
The design of the toothbrush is simplistic yet intriguing because of its peculiar hexagonal form.
A form that came into being by a constant repetition of a similar shape.