M3 Chair

Beautifully designed by Vienna-based designer Thomas Feichtner. Enjoy :)

Description from the designer :

For Vienna Design Week 2011, Neue Wiener Werkstätte will be showing the M3 Chair developed specifically for this exhibition. This unique object will be juxtaposed with the mass-produced FX10 Lounge Chair, an earlier work by Feichtner which has since become a classic of Austrian design. While these two pieces share a geometric theme, the M3 Chair exhibits an open, wooden cantilever construction that contrasts with the closed body of the Lounge Chair. The installation highlights not only the tension between closed and open, heavy and light, surface and line, and mass-production and the single copy, but also the symbiosis between traditional workmanship and contemporary design. These pieces thus embody Neue Wiener Werkstätte’s ideal of hand-producing technically perfect individual products built to last generations, furniture designed to guarantee historical recognizability—the perfect union of hand-craftsmanship, tradition and design.

Liberated from the demands normally made on a mass-produced item, this design experiments with functionality, structural engineering and material. Both its back and its armrests are mere tangents of the construction, the functions of which are only discovered via actual use. With a seating surface floating within the construction and legs extending far to the sides, the M3 is most assuredly not a chair that saves space—it is much rather one which creates a space. The dimensions of the M3 measure one cubic meter, standing for a conscious way of appropriating one’s own space. Hence the “m3” reference in the name M3 Chair. It is only via the chair that the open space is defined.

The chair is made of one and only one material: oak. This is a conscious choice of materials, harkening back to the woodworking tradition upheld by furniture workshops of yore. The wood renders the chair’s light construction a static experiment which could only succeed in a handmade, unique item. Like many works by Feichtner, the M3 is to be understood as an artistic and experimental examination of design removed from industry and mass-production, as art and design placed in interdisciplinary dialog with one another. The M3 experiment is particularly well-suited to showing that design can free itself from the doctrine of the purely objective and is not automatically obligated to serve industrial utility. It represents a catalyst for the discussion of various positions. The M3 is a contribution to the design festival of the City of Vienna.

ciao!

Bill Moggridge - What is Design?

As the title, Bill Moggridge in his lecture addresses the question of ‘what is design?' and he also mentioned many examples of good design and bad design as well as process and changes that happened around design. One of the main point that he presented is that design is not just about making a beautiful or fancy products but almost everything is designed, almost everything that is used and man made is design. Therefore, it can be said that other professions that we previously think are far different from a designer; like chefs, business people, etc; they are also designers. 

He then points out some examples of good designs in various areas ranging from design for disability, fashion design to architecture. Contrarily, he also points out some bad design as he stated that someone couldn’t recognize good design unless he take a look at the bad one as well. The remote control he used as the bad example simply expresses the fact that sometime simple is better than adding complicated details that might bring confusion to the user and thus become an unpleasurable product.

Human-centered design is again highlighted but this time it is not only interpreted as a design that focuses on the user experience but it is also about the sustainability of it. These days people has become more and more care about environment and thus, we as designers are reminded to think carefully what is the effect of our design on earth.

The issue of sustainability also aroused in this lecture but he didn’t talk only about the disassembly or the process of choosing material but he also highlighted the expanded concept of sustainability as a global aspect. He introduced the profile of Professor Shinichi Takemura who has been learning how the world is connected in an very intimate way, either the connections between people or the connections with the surroundings. The tangible earth demonstration by Professor Shinichi Takemura really caught my attention, not only it is the first interactive globe but it also strongly captures the interconnectedness of our world, how one aspect could affect many other aspects as they connect with each other in so many different ways.

Project 1 - Peer comments

Here is the blogs where I have commented on:
1. Jackson Walker's blog
http://studio3289813.blogspot.com/2011/09/experience-enrichment.html?showComment=1315993097637
2. Clement Yoong's blog
http://clementyoongides1031.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-experience-enrichment.html?showComment=1315994161858#c6450951944061786469
3. Rainbow Tam's blog
http://rainbow-tam.blogspot.com/2011/09/product-poster-usage-storyboard-and.html?showComment=1315996586791#c6981646300370024083
4. Oun Vimolpatranon's blog
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6561537982608082039&postID=2757288373634078349&isPopup=true
5. Camille Kordek's blog
http://camillekordek.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-one-hero-shot.html?showComment=1315998125582

Project 1 Studio 2011 - Mortar & Pestle

Rationale
Besides its unusual shape and the way this mortar and pestle assembled, the main thing that distinguishes this product from the one in the market is the expanding shape of the pestle towards the lid. Not only it has a fitting diameter handle for our handgrip, this shape also prevent our hand slipping over the pestle and at the same time it reduces the power needed to hold the pestle tightly while using it. Furthermore, the concave interior of the mortar aims to avoid the objects being spilled out during pounding and grinding.

I actually put a lot of time sketching and making mock ups to get the best size and shape of these tools. The main difficulty is to make the size of the mortar and the pestle in balance but not to put aside the overall look as they are also stand as one piece. The size and shape of the mortar will affect the size and the shape of the pestle and vice versa. Finally I arrive at this size where the mortar is not as small as the one used in medical place and not as big as the one in the market (those big stone and granite mortar) but big enough to make sauce or paste.

Another main feature of this tool is its material, which is stainless steel. The reason why I choose stainless steel over other material is because it has some technical properties that offer some benefits such as;

• Strong and long lasting 
• Better than stone because it is cohesive and corrosion resistance; small bits of the mortar and pestle won’t get mixed with the objects 
• Better than wood because it is not absorbent and non-porous; won’t absorb/ trap the ingredients being ground and prevent the growth of microorganisms from the food particles that are left in the mortar and pestle surface
• Non-reactive with alkaline or acidic foods so it is safe either for food preparation or medical use
• Easy to clean; dishwasher safe

Technical Drawings in A1 (Click the image to get better resolution)

Feedbacks are more than welcomed :)

Annie Leonard - Storyofstuff Project

After watching the video I realized that I usually do not give much attention to the product I use. I never really check the material or ingredients of a product and I believe most of us never really think about it either. I found this whole series of videos very interesting because Annie Leonard presented some facts that never been out there before and pointed some ideas that probably never come across our mind.

These videos are good reminder for us both as a customer and a designer. As a customer we have to pay much more attention to the product we use, whether it’s a good or bad, honest or dishonest product. What’s the point of buying a cosmetic product when at the same time it harms our body or buying a more expensive bottled water when actually there’s no difference with the cheap one. We have to be smart in choosing what we would to wear or use because at the first place, we spend our money to buy products that will bring us a better life, not to endanger us.

It is really hard indeed to find a honest, good product because for the purpose of marketing, any producer or manufacturer certainly will try to ‘hide’ the ugly sides of their product or even deceive us customers by stating false facts like material, etc. Therefore we have to put more effort to find out the truth ourselves if we want to guarantee that the product we are using is totally safe. But then, in this era when technology is much more advance, we can get the facts online easier or we can share our knowledge to others as well, just like what Annie Leonard did.

As a designer we are also reminded to not design something that could harm people and the environment. It’s really good that nowadays more and more designers start to put environment to consideration when designing something. 3R; reduce, reuse, and recycle is now often practiced by designers and it doesn’t mean that they sacrifice their design because in fact, so many eco-friendly products out there are pretty amazing. In short, less material and eco-friendly doesn’t mean ugly.

Glasses

More works from Tomas Kral,
enjoy :)

Twist

Molecule

ciao!

Sydney Design 2011 Festival

Some sketches of my favourite product design from 5 exhibitions in Sydney Design 2011.
Feedback is welcome, enjoy :)

ciao!

My Design Career

I want to be a designer because I want to make things that will improve people’s lives. As a designer, I think our job is not just to make something that is aesthetically pleasing. Designers find solutions to address problems, designers innovate, designers inspire and vice versa, got inspired. From my learning experience, I know that our tasks as a designer is not just to meet diverse customer needs but we also have to consider human emotions as well as the experience resulted from using the design objects. Therefore, the challenge of being a designer is to create something that get its function, beauty, and at the same time gives users a fun filled experience.

I have learned design officially for only several months. Before I got myself enrolled to Industrial Design at UNSW, I graduated from Uniprep UNSW Foundation in my home country, Indonesia. I went there for 6 months to learn the basic foundation of design. That’s actually the first time I got the chance to get the idea of what design is like because unlike most high schools in foreign countries that have Design class in their school, most high schools in my country do not offer design as one of the subjects. In the short 6 months of foundation I learned mostly about the elements and principles of design. Some of the projects were about topography, space, wearable design and light design. I found design really interesting and love it ever since.

While deciding which design I’ll take in uni, I managed to get to know to industrial design. It is not a ‘favourite’ major in my country even most people I talked to didn’t know what industrial design is. They are much more familiar with product design which is actually pretty much the same thing. When I browsed through Internet and found out what industrial design is, I was quite impressed that actually industrial design is everywhere around us. After getting a better understanding of what industrial design is about, I decided to choose industrial design as my bachelor degree.

To be honest I’m not that confident for what lies in the future but certainly I hope my design career will goes well and have a positive progress.

Clown Nose

'Clown Nose' container designed by Tomas Kral.

Credits : TOMAS KRAL, photos by Federico Berardi.

Materials : ceramics and cork

The cork covers connected with coloured elastic

Inspired by the red clown nose

ciao!

Fragile

'Fragile' salt and pepper shaker set designed by mey kahn + boaz kahn.

When was the last time you emphatically broke something? The ceramic salt & pepper shaker offers you the opportunity to do it! The product comes in one piece and by breaking it, you make it useful. Breaking is an experience of impulsive outburst but this time is an act that builds rather than destroys. In a world of products whose shape is completely dictated by the designer, we enable the user to complete the design himself. The event of the breaking leaves its mark on the shaker and gives it its final, unique, one of a kind appearance.

- Studio Khan

The moulding process

Check out the whole 'fragile' series here (there's fragile necklace and candlehanger as well!)

ciao!

Design Confusion

Fuksas Mocha Cups

Set of two cups with saucers in bone china

"Folding gives strength to matter," says Massimiliano Fuksas of his designs for Alessi, composed as patterns in an endless interplay of material, dimension and color. Featured here are his designs that imbibe this simple yet sensual formal approach to product design.

- Massimiliano Fuksas architetto

ciao!

Human-Centered Design

David Kelley on human-centered design | Video on TED.com

In this video David Kelley mainly talks about how product design has become much less about the hardware and more about the user experience. In the last 18 years people started to focus more and more on human approach to design. Back then designer used to make 3d models or 3d renderings to communicate their ideas but nowadays they got those objects that they're designing and get them emotion showing how it will be used by making interactive prototypes that show man-machine relationship.

To demonstrate the idea of human centred design David give some examples and i think the most interesting one is the interactive system and data infrastructure designed by him for Prada New York store. So how it works is that every products displayed has a RF tags and if we see something we interested in , the staff can scan their tags and they can be displayed altogether at any screen at the store. In the dressing room there are also scanner and touch screen where we can get access to detailed information about the merchandise we are trying on. Another feature is the liquid crystal glass in the changing room that becomes opaque if we step on the button and it switches easily to transparent glass on another button so other people outside able to review the products while we try them on without we leaving the dressing room. Lastly there are also magic mirror which operates in 3 seconds delay so when we are trying cloths we can turn around and see how it looks like on the back when we turn around on the magic mirror. The design includes data infrastructure that allows all staff to develop better understanding of future costumer needs. This whole design use technological advances in order to make an interactive atmosphere between buyer and the store so the customers are having an enjoyable shopping experience.

This video reminds me that we often put too much focus on the product and pay less attention to the user itself. The idea of design is to make human life become more enjoyable and better. When we focus too much on the products, certainly technological objects, it can be say that we forget the idea of designing. It's really good nowadays human behaviour and personality has been considered more in the process of designing products. It's important for designers being reminded not to carried away with technology and make products so high tech just to make it more fancy instead of really consider human behaviour and personality as the users.

Design Excellence - Wilkhahn Chassis

Click the image to get better resolution

I think what makes this product so different is that because it's made with automotive progress, which has never been done before. It 's so light weight due to the minimal use of material. This design is really smart, it can be seen that all the design process had been thought really carefully and really into detail. They considered everything from the manufacturing process to the principle and elements of the product itself.

Invisible

Matteo Thun has designed the new 'invisible' bathroom - che non 'è - for Rapsel with a washing basin, shower and water closet which 'hide away', which disappear and become geometric modules. the bathroom is made from larch wood which creates a warm holistic feel within the space. all technical and sanitary facilities are hidden with necessary functions turned into shelves and storage that are convertible. 

-Designboom (All images courtesy of Matteo Thun)

All of the technical and sanitary facilities are hidden by convertible larch wood constructions - shelves and storage

The camouflaged sink

ciao!