------TIM PARSONS ------Tim Parsons is a product designer, writer and Product designers have gone from being the Other AVA Academia titles of interest: lecturer. He has worked with manufacturers in packagers of engineering to developing a holistic

Britain and Europe and has exhibited widely. He understanding of objects. They have acquired - Thinking: Objects Tim Parsons - Visible Signs: An introduction has contributed articles to publications including human-centred perspectives, embraced semiotics Thinking: Objects to semiotics Blueprint and Phaidon’s Design Classics. and cognitive science, and warned us of the - potential applications for technologies beyond our Good: An introduction to ethics - - control. Design has stepped into the envisioning Contemporary in graphic design of new business directions and ways in which - consumers can become more involved in shaping Visual Research: An introduction their surroundings. Through all this it has not lost to research methodologies in touch with the physical substance of the object approaches to graphic design itself and the refinement and exploration of - new forms. Visual Communication: From theory to practice This book is liberal in its definition of product product design - design, embracing many categories of object and Verbalising the Visual: Translating including both critical and commercial work. It aims art and design into words to help readers grasp the breadth of design activity - happening today by identifying approaches that are Design Management: Managing design applied across different object types. It explains and strategy, process and implementation questions prescribed design methodologies and - discusses the dual values of logic and intuition that Left to Right: the cultural shift intermingle in the design process. By setting design from words to pictures in the context of a personal journey in which every decision helps determine a unique expression of - - values, Thinking Objects challenges the reader to define how they will affect the world by design.

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an an an AVA Academia advanced title AVA Academia advanced title AVA Academia advanced title Tim Parsons

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Tim Parsons

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an AVA Academia advanced title Tim Parsons

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How to get the most out of this book 06 - Introduction 08

- - Chapter 1. Perception - 14

1.1 Design and politics 16 - 1.2 Value and the object 24 - 1.3 Reading form 32

- - Chapter 2. Motivation - 46

2.1 Conforming, reforming or contesting 48 - 2.2 Defi ning approaches 50 - 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 52 - 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour 62 - 2.5 Social inclusion 82 - 2.6 Materials and processes 92 - 2.7 Technological innovation 106 - 2.8 Ethics 116 - 2.9 Sustainability 126 - 2.10 Participation 130 - 2.11 Strategies and services 138 - 2.12 Design for debate 142

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3.1 The elusive design process 150 - 3.2 Design methodology 158 - 3.3 Thinking tools 162 - 3.4 Observation 164 - 3.5 Ideas generation 172 - 3.6 Drawing 178 - 3.7 Maquette and model-making 182

- - Chapter 4. Context - 186

4.1 Employment 188 - 4.2 Commission 192 - 4.3 Speculation 198

- - Chapter 5. Sources - 202

5.1 Bibliography 204 - 5.2 Picture credits 206 - 5.3 Acknowledgements 208

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- How to get the most out of this book - - - Introduction HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS BOOK PROCESS The book has four chapters, each based upon an Perhaps the most diffi cult part of design to adequately essential theme within product design: perception, quantify, this chapter attempts to grapple with the motivation, process and context. elusive nature of the design process. By calling upon PERCEPTION philosophical viewpoints, a picture of the cognitive This chapter discusses the way product design is process is built up. The nature of creativity and insight perceived in relation to societal constructs, such is discussed and a range of working tools introduced, as politics and value. which designers can use to enrich their own process.

MOTIVATION CONTEXT This chapter attempts to answer the question: This fi nal chapter examines the working contexts of Beyond the need to earn a living for themselves and designers. It also looks at the rules of engagement with their clients, what drives designers to do what they clients and illustrates how speculative work presents do? It focuses upon the creative rationale behind the opportunity for radical independent voices. projects and suggests that a recognisable (although not exclusive) series of approaches are being taken to product design today.

Fig. 1 Chapter openers Each chapter starts 02 Motivation with a chapter opener. Each of the chapters are given a

- - specifi c colour, which runs 2.1 Conforming, reforming or contesting 48 - throughout. 2.2 Defi ning approaches 50 - 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 52 - 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour 62 - 2.5 Social inclusion 82 - 2.6 Materials and processes 92 - 2.7 Technological innovation 106 - 2.8 Ethics 116 - 2.9 Sustainability 126 - 2.10 Participation 130 - 2.11 Strategies and services 138 - 2.12 Design for debate 142

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- - Fig. 2 Section 2.3 2. Motivation - - as the profession has grown and stratifi ed, designers While designers who work beyond as well as on the “the closer one gets to the public or home, the greater 2.2 Defi ning approaches 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement AESTHETIC REFINEMENT have become able to choose to work in areas (such surface of products are understandably upset when the need for the stylist to intercede with a repertoire 2.4 Collective memory as tableware, furniture and home accessories) where a stylist’s apparently less rigorous work eclipses their of visual good manners.” (4) Dormer’s eloquent breaks and navigation Each With the exterior design of products carrying and behaviour aesthetic refi nement can legitimately be seen as the own, the skill with which the stylist talks is often description of exterior form as an object’s “manners” so much weight in conferring status upon them, central aspect of their projects. When functionality and grudgingly admired. The legitimate stylist works in is useful. Manners are culture-specifi c and constantly infl uencing sales and eliciting emotional responses complex components are reduced to a minimum in the [1.] - the realm of intuitive decisions, infl ecting forms with evolving. What is considered polite in one situation from people, it follows that a great deal of energy Loewy, R. In: Offi cial Website chapter is broken down into design of, say, a fruit bowl as opposed to a camera, the subtle nuances that may not be consciously noticed may be embarrassingly out of place in another. As with is chanelled into exploring and refi ning product of Raymond Loewy. 2003 intuitive, formal aspects of design (“styling”) naturally [online]. [Accessed 26th by the consumer but are nonetheless felt. Such manners, so with objects. We may choose to surround aesthetics. This section examines the nature become the focus of the designer’s activity. In the January 2009]. Available intangible work is diffi cult to pin down with words. ourselves with objects of pedigree, displaying the latest of product styling, identifying the infl uence of on World Wide Web: is the reason designers have a reputation for “bullshit”: pedantic in relation to function. The same applies when contemporary theories used by designers to defi ne be considered alongside, and in sympathy with, its form. -“In discussing design with their clients, designers are designers choose their approach to the practice of languages and nuances of form. [2.] - of each of these sections is A surface-based approach would be an abdication of Bierut, M. 2007. 79 direct about the functional parts of their solutions and design. Some cultivate a personal style that they bring responsibility. It is this that Loewy’s critics sensed. ‘Short Essays on Design’. New obfuscate like mad about the intuitive parts, having to all projects. Others fi nd such a prospect stifl ing, - - York: Princeton Architectural learned early on that telling the simple truth – ‘I don’t instead looking to discover an appropriate aesthetic THE RISE OF THE STYLIST Designers, who primarily deal in the aesthetic Press know, I just like it that way’ – simply won’t do.” (2) direction within the journey of the project; while some refi nement of simple, low-tech products, are unlikely to - Although emerging from theatre design and window [3.] - still fi nd the prospect of engaging in highly detailed marked by a coloured box at fi nd the label of stylist particularly hurtful. It becomes Perhaps talking about the fi ner points of product styling dressing, the fi rst industrial designers to practice in The quotation “Talking about consideration of the correctness or otherwise of a derogative when applied to those who have designed music is like dancing is, to paraphrase a famous quotation (3), like dancing America in the late 1920s set up as consultants, taking a curve or a radius obsessive, even self-indulgent, products with a degree of functional or technical about architecture” has no about architecture – there are things we can only their lead from the previously established role of the clear source and has been sidetracking them from the bigger problems their complexity, where the exterior form appears to have experience through sight and touch and that cannot be the top of the left-hand page. advertising agent. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, attributed to a number of well- skills might address. taken undue precedence. By concentrating upon the known fi gures including artist adequately expressed in words. However, while words that the fi gure to attract most attention to this new aspect of the object that is fi rst seen, and not those Laurie Anderson and musician may be lacking – and when used, invite the accusation Yet today, as in the last century, there are a number of profession became known more for his salesmanship Elvis Costello. that are discovered through use, the designer attracts of “bullshit” – the eloquent stylist, rather than leading practitioners known for their refi ned treatment Every left-hand page also than his integrity. Frenchman Raymond Loewy – once - accusations of putting style before substance. As this [4.] - deceiving their client, can at least attempt to capture of product aesthetics who are more than willing to quoted as saying: “The most beautiful curve is a fi rst viewing often takes place at the point of sale, the Dormer, P. 1990. ‘Meanings their intentions. defend their approach. Many of these designers will rising sales graph” (1) – beautifi ed everything from of Modern Design.’ London: stylist has become compared to the pushy salesman, also be acting beyond the surface, looking to improve a duplicating machine to a spaceship interior via the Thames & Hudson contains a navigation bar, hoping customers will be seduced enough not to ask -- - any number of other factors, often with the help Coke bottle and the Greyhound bus. In spite of this, any awkward practical questions. Loewy, like his VISUAL GOOD MANNERS of product engineers. However, primarily they are the followers of modernism in Europe, considered present-day heirs Ross Lovegrove and Karim Rashid lauded for an apparent ability to elevate the value of themselves to be developing a more cerebral approach Not everything requires styling to be successful – (who have most appropriately attracted the stylist objects through the studied and sensitive handling of displaying previous, present to design, and so did not hold Loewy and his American the tools used in various industries, for example, will label) did little to avoid this comparison, displaying the concept, proportion and detail of product form. contemporaries in high regard, dismissing them as mere largely be bought on the results they achieve, not the considerable charisma but an alarming lack of humility. “Styling”, with its pejorative air, is no longer a useful “stylists”. These European designers, many of who were impressions they evoke – but as Peter Dormer tells us, catch-all. The best of today’s aestheticians are anything trained architects, believed product design should be and future sections, and the but shallow in their thinking. Many have very different more than skin-deep and were not impressed by what present chapter. they saw as a surface-oriented approach. However,

Fig. 1 Kodak Baby Fig. 2 Kodak Fig. 3 Smoothie Brownie camera, 1928 Bantam Special camera travel iron by C. Kerr, N. The forms of Teague’s (1936–1948) The art deco Lucas, E. Lucas, and H. Holder, Baby Brownie are distinctly detailing of the Bantam manufactured by Lucas architectural. Special, like the Brownie, can Holder & Co (1946) be seen in buildings of the As a metaphor for progress, period, especially cinemas. streamlining entered the home and was applied to products where effectiveness in the wind tunnel was redundant, such as in this travel iron with its locomotive-like styling.

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The idea that the form of an Algerian desert. The objects, exhibited in a London shop Thomas to produce 100 “Spring Shrouds”, (fi g. 12, A designer can predict the primary purpose to object should follow its function required a product’s window, act as metaphors for their lost land and the page 23) – fabric covers tailored to fi t over pavement which an object is likely to be put and can choose information displayed in grey function to signal a “correct” form. In making an hope of its future re-inhabitation. (fi gs 8, 9, 10, advertising hoardings. The shrouds, bearing an appropriate forms to fulfi l that purpose, but these object fi t for its purpose, the designer embodied page 21). illustration of a tree and the slogan “trees breathe – are not predetermined and nor do they intrinsically adverts suck”, were slipped over the hoardings around those signals as purely as possible to create an Another new breed of designer is projecting current “belong” to the functions they aim to fulfi l. boxes. These explain a concept Manchester early one morning. “It was a gift that we “honest” product. Widely adopted, at fi rst by socialist scientifi c practices through the lens of product could give to Manchester’s commuters. To give them designers in Germany promoting a progressive An analysis of Dutch Designer Joris Laarman’s design, presenting speculative products and scenarios a temporary respite from the barrage of advertising language of form and later more broadly as a means Heatwave radiator, a recent hit with the design press, specifi cally to elicit debate. Unlike the political work that everybody who comes into the city suffers from” of making objects “user friendly”, the notion was can illustrate this (fi g. 13, page 23). Laarman argues or theory further. above, many of these projects are presented from a undermined in the mid 1960s by David Pye in his that its baroque form makes it more functional than (9), said Thomas. The project demonstrates that just neutral standpoint so that any adverse reaction to as governments wield the designed products of war in book ‘The Nature of Design’ (later reprinted as ‘The “sober conventional radiators” due to its greater them is our own. The 2008 exhibition at the Museum confl icts, designers can create objects with which to Nature and Aesthetics of Design’). (i) surface area. He wishes to present the paradox that of Modern Art in New York, Design and the Elastic “functionalists are also sinners of styling, and that fi ght their own battles closer to home. Pye contends that although the form of an object will Mind showcased many such projects including some soberness is not always more functional than highly have an effect on its ability to function (measurable by British designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. decorative form”. (iii) However, radiators with equal or [9.] - - - in results), there is signifi cantly more freedom in Thomas, M. In: ‘UHC Press One of Auger–Loizeau’s projects describes the fi ctitious greater surface area to Laarman’s – those with lines what this shape could be than is often presumed. Archive’. 2007 [online]. development of an Audio Tooth Implant (fi g. 11, of geometric fi ns – already exist. The ability of the [Accessed 26th January 2009]. If function is the primary purpose we assign to page 22) – essentially a mobile phone implanted in a radiator to function well comes not from the choice Available from the World an object, then Pye reminded us that “purpose Wide Web: through the jawbone to the inner ear. The notion that but from the extent to which the chosen form - things”. (ii) The purpose we assign to objects is individuals could be receiving information invisibly is designed to achieve the necessary physical results. raises considerable ethical dilemmas. The proposal variable and highly personal and not as singular or straightforward as the word “function” implies. An sparked widespread media coverage, fuelled by the - - object may have tertiary roles that will differ from designers’ caginess about the reality of them releasing [i.] - such a product – necessary, Auger and Loizeau claim, Pye, D. 2000. ‘The Nature and in order to create genuine debate. What better way to Aesthetics of Design’. London: A & C Black Ltd shock us into concerned discussion than by tricking us - into thinking that some immoral designers have already [ii.] - created our worst nightmares and are presenting them Dormer, P. Paraphrasing Pye, D. 1990. ‘Meanings of Modern for our approval? The work encourages us to think Design: Towards the Twenty- about the moral and ethical problems the new First Century’. London: Thames sciences are throwing up (see 2.8 Ethics and 2.12 & Hudson - Design for debate). [iii.] - Laarman, J. 2007. [Website no longer available] -

Fig. 11 Audio Tooth Fig. 12 Spring Fig. 13 Heatwave Implant by James Auger and Shrouds by UHC Tailored radiator by Joris Laarman Jimmy Loizeau Emerging covers for pavement manufactured by Jaga and from a project exploring the advertising hoardings were Droog Design Laarman chose implications of electronics designed by UHC to give city to use baroque forms to create entering the body, Auger– dwellers temporary respite the large surface area required Loizeau’s Audio Tooth Implant from the daily barrage of from a radiator in contrast to made national news when it commercial messages. the traditional lines of fi ns. was presented as a near- future reality in development rather than a piece of critical commentary.

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- - Fig. 4 Margin notes 2.11 2. Motivation - - Hence, the role played by larger design consultancies Yet going upstream does not always mean losing touch a designer has often found mysterious. It was useful 2.10 Participation 2.11 Strategies and services STRATEGIES AND SERVICES shifted from providing product-specifi c knowledge and with the task of designing the object; rather it can fi rstly because it gave people reassurance that there Additional references and notes 2.12 Design for debate skills to directing a company’s image. This required be about framing it in the right way. Its advocates was something behind what we did, that it wasn’t This section is about a shift that has been taking an overview of their activities and future strategy. would claim it is about working through big and messy just serendipitous, and secondly it allowed us to look place in product design from designers dealing Consultancies, as well as selling the physical results problems methodically, with the appropriate people, at those methods and say: ‘well, why wouldn’t you with the physical task of designing products to of design, began to sell knowledge and advice about to arrive at tangible solutions. An example is the work apply them to designing for a social system, a service, are shown in the margins. their involvement in strategy. The notion that how organisations conceived of their offerings and their of the Design Against Crime Research Centre, based or outside the traditional business sphere?’ and all of designers used to stick to designing objects is an brands. This process of designers becoming advisors on at London’s Central Saint Martins School of Art and those things we wanted to work on.” (3) oversimplifi cation. Company directors occasionally the strategic direction of company policies is referred Design. The centre aims to promote awareness of the formed close relationships with designers, who Based on this principle, Stanford University in the Image captions are displayed to in the profession as “going upstream”. ways in which design can reduce crime by undertaking would advise, usually informally, upon directions United States opened its D-School to teach design exemplar projects resulting in new products, services that may be taken. What has changed is that The fi rst step in this process, and one which many skills to students from different departments and environments. The ambition is broad but the results designers are now formalising this process, designers have long been battling for, is to become including business, science and engineering. Head are still object based. below horizontal lines at the offering services to clients that are about shaping part of the process of defi ning the brief rather than of the D-School David Kelley has stated that: “We their future business models and organisational only being involved in implementing it. Beyond this decided that designers are going to be the people [2.] - - - structures. By framing what they do differently lies the notion that no actual product design brief will who integrate the technology and the process and Brown, T. 2006. Speaking in DESIGN THINKING and forging new interdisciplinary collaborations, be answered, but that the focus will be upon broader lecture Innovation Through are the glue that holds these experts together.” (4) bottom of each page. Design Thinking, MIT, USA. 16 designers have discovered clients and projects themes. This, Tim Brown from IDEO admits, is “an Central to this move upstream is the notion that the Similar aspirations can be seen in Design London, a March. Available from World that take them outside of the traditional confi nes insurance policy” (1). In times of recession, companies Wide Web: transferable to a broad range of disciplines. Splitting College of Art, the technological knowledge of Imperial business, discussed below, is the design less on developing new products. However, if designers - up and analysing the processes they use has enabled College’s Faculty of Engineering and the business [3.] - of services. are selling thinking that helps defi ne the appropriate Brown, T. 2007. [Personal designers to identify tools and methods they are able to acumen of Imperial’s Tanaka Business School. direction for companies, this can be sold at any time communication]. 11 December pass on to non-traditional clients. Encapsulated in the Tim Brown is passionate about extending the D-School [1.] - - - and is, if anything, more crucial during recession. It - phrase “design thinking”, these include learning how to [4.] - idea back further so that everyone can have a level of Brown, T. 2007. Speaking at GOING UPSTREAM allows designers to be involved where there may not observe and empathise effectively with people, ideas Intersections conference, Kelley, D. In: Moggridge, B. design knowledge as well as written literacy: “Just be a product to be designed, opening up their client 2007. ‘Designing Interactions’. generation techniques including building prototypes, Gateshead, UK. 25 October From an early stage in their history, product design imagine if everyone who came out of secondary school - base to include service providers, charities, government Cambridge, MA: MIT Press presenting ideas in the form of stories, scenarios and consultancies recognised that once they had gained - had reasonable skills in visual problem solving.” (5) departments and other organisations. experiences and managing interdisciplinary teams the trust of the client then they were in a good position [5.] - Brown, T. 2007. [Personal of experts. (2) While the intuitive form-based and to sell them other kinds of work. This was not entirely This movement “upstream” can also be seen as a - - communication]. 11 December craft-based skills are sometimes still used, they are cynical – by offering corporate identity, packaging, way for designers to confront their usual sense of - SERVICE DESIGN downplayed so that design can be seen as a general point-of-sale design and so on alongside designing impotence – the feeling that they are small cogs in a problem-solving activity, rather than being specifi cally Interaction design (see 2.7 Technological innovation), the product, they could ensure all elements worked machine over which they have no control. By placing object-centric. in stepping outside of the confi nes of the form of harmoniously. themselves within a sphere of greater infl uence, they the object and embracing behaviour and computer have the opportunity to advise clients on the big issues Tim Brown explains that “describing this process of interfaces, was a sign of the fl exibility of design as opposed to only being able to make small changes design thinking was a way of demystifying some of the to products “downstream”. pieces of the design process that anyone who is not

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- - Fig. 5 Sources 5.1 5. Sources - - Gershenfeld, N. 2005. ‘FAB: Ramakers, R. and Bakker, G. 5.1 Bibliography The Coming Revolution on (eds). 1998. ‘Droog Design: 5.2 Picture credits BIBLIOGRAPHY Burkhardt, F., Capella, J., Picchi your desktop-from personal Spirit of the nineties’. The back pages of the book F. 1997. ‘Why Write a Book on computers to personal Rotterdam: 010 Publishers The following list gives Enzo Mari?’ Milan: Frederico fabrication’. New York: a selection only of the Motta Editore Basic Books Redhead, D. 2000. ‘Products works consulted. For more of Our Time’. Basel: Birkhäuser information, see individual Chapman, J. 2005. ‘Emotionally Hecht, S. and Colin, K. 2005. work as a further information margin notes. Durable Design: Objects, ‘Product as Landscape’. London: Smith, C. 2008. ‘Design for Experiences and Empathy’. Industrial Facility the Other 90%’. New York: Ambasz, E. 1972. Italy: the London: Earthscan Cooper Hewitt National Design Hecht, S. and Colin, K. 2003. Museum New Domestic Landscape’. Cummings, N. (ed.) 2003. New York: MOMA ‘Things That Go Unseen’. and reference section. ‘Reading Things’. London: London: Industrial Facility Sudjic, D. 1989. ‘Ron Arad: Antonelli, P., Aldersey- Chance Books Restless Furniture’. New York: Heskett, J. 1980. ‘Industrial Forth Estate/Wordsearch Williams, H., Hall, P., Sargent, Dormer, P. 1990. ‘The Meanings T. 2008. ‘Design and The Elastic Design’. Oxford: Oxford of Modern Design’. London: University Press Thackara, J. 2005. ‘In the Mind’. New York: MOMA Thames & Hudson bubble: designing in a complex Bakker, C. and van Hinte, E. Jencks, S. and Silver, N. 1973. world’. Cambridge, MA: Dunne, A. 1999. ‘Hertzian Tales: ‘Adhocism – The Case for MIT Press 1999. ‘Trespassers’. Rotterdam: Electronic products, aesthetic 010 Publishers Improvisation’. New York: experience and critical design.’ Anchor Books Van Hinte, E. (ed.) 1997. Ball, R. and Naylor, M. 2005. London: RCA Computer Related ‘Eternally Yours – Visions on ’Form Follows Idea: An Design Research Julier, G. 2000. ‘The Culture Product Endurance’. Rotterdam: Introduction to Design Poetics’. of Design’. London: Sage 010 Publishers Dunne, A. and Raby, R. 2001. Publications London: Black Dog ‘Design Noir: The Secret Life von Vegesack, A. 1996. ‘Thonet: Barrow, J.D. 1997. ‘The Artful of Electronic Objects’. Basel: Lidwell, W, Holden, K, Butler, Classic Furniture in Bent Wood Universe: The Artful Universe’. Birkhäuser J. 2003. ‘Universal Principles and Tubular Steel’. London: London: Penguin Books of Design’. Gloucester, MA: Hazar Publishing Ltd Dreyfuss, H. 1955. ‘Designing Rockport Publishers Inc. Barthes, R. 1957. ‘Mythologies’. for People’. New York: Simon Williams, G. 2006. ‘The Paris: Editions du Seuil and Schuster Moggridge, B. 2007. ‘Designing Furniture Machine: Furniture Interactions’. Cambridge, MA: Since 1990’. London: V&A Bayley, S. and Conran, T. 2007. Gaver, W. ‘The Curious Home’. MIT Press Publications ‘Intelligence Made Visible’. 2007. Goldsmiths University of London: Conran Octopus Ltd London Morrison, J. 2002. ‘Everything but the Walls’. Baden: Lars Bayley, S. 2000. ‘General Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. 2001. Muller Publishers Knowledge’. London: Booth ‘Designing the 21st Century’. Clibborn Editions Colgne: Taschen Norman, D. 2002. ‘The Design of Everyday Things’. New York: Bierut, M. 2007. ‘79 Short Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. 2007. Basic Books Essays on Design’. New York: ‘Design Now’. Cologne: Taschen Princeton Architectural Press Papanek, V. 1970. ‘Design for Fletcher, A. 2001. ‘The Art the Real World: Human Ecology Bohm, F. 2005. ‘Konstantin of Looking Sideways’. London: and Social Change’. New York: Grcic Industrial Design’. Phaidon Pantheon Books London: Phaidon Flusser, V. 1999. ‘The Shape of Pipes, A. 2007. ‘Drawing for Bovier L. 2003. ‘ECAL Design Things: A philosophy of design’. Designers’. London: Lawrence Industriel / Industrial Design’. London: Reaktion Books King Lausanne: ECAL Forty, A. 1995. ‘Objects of Polano, S. 2001. ‘Achille Boym, C. 2002. ‘Curious Desire’. London: Thames & Castiglioni’. London: Phaidon Boym’. New York: Princeton Hudson Architectural Press Potter, N. 2002. ‘What is a Fukasawa, N. 2007. ‘Naoto designer?’ London: Hyphen Braungart, M. and McDonough, Fukasawa’. Phaidon Press Press W. 2002. ‘Cradle to Cradle: Gaver, W. 2007. ‘The Curious Remaking the Way We Make Pye, D. 1978. ‘The Nature and Home.’ London: Goldsmiths, Aesthetics of Design’. London: Things’. New York: North University of London Point Press A & C Black Bürdek, B. 2005. ‘Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design’. Basel: Birkhäuser

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- How to get the most out of this book - - notion of a collective concept of “good design” has been - Introduction INTRODUCTION eroded, leaving behind fragmented bodies of opinion. Consequently, designers themselves can be found This book aims to present information, insight and promoting their particular view of what design is: argument concerning the thoughts and theories behind contemporary product design. But what “‘Design’ means how something works, not how it looks does it mean to be a product designer in the early – the design should evolve from the function.” (1) twenty-fi rst century? Is it simply a job or must it be “[Design is] the act of imposing one’s will on materials a consuming passion? Is it to follow a brief or create to perform a function.” (2) your own? Is it to be a household name or a vital but unseen cog in a vast machine? Is it to be an “Design is about creatively exploiting constraint.” (3) inventor or a stylist? Artist or businessman? Hero To James Dyson, designer of the cyclonic vacuum or villain? cleaner, design starts with an engineering innovation Since it developed as a profession in its own right and the form is secondary (fi g. 1, page 08). To Ron around 100 years ago, product design (or industrial Arad, renowned furniture designer, the innovative design – the terms are compatible although imply a manipulation of materials is his focus (fi g. 2, page [1] - different focus) has broadened in scope to encompass 08) and for Nick Crosbie, whose company Infl ate Dyson, J. In: a vast range of specialisms. Co-opting knowledge from has developed a vast range of products with the the fi elds of psychology and the social sciences, product manufacturing process used to make plastic - [2.] - designers can be found exhibiting in art galleries, infl atables, the challenge of limited resources is Arad, R. In: Fairs, M. 2004. working for fashion labels, speculating on the future of what drives the creative process (fi g. 3, page 09). “What is design?” ‘Icon’ biotechnology and programming computers to generate magazine No.18 Not one of the designers quoted is wrong – product products autonomously. Yet away from the glare of - design is all these things and more – but it would be [3.] - the ever-increasing media interest in “extraordinary” futile for any of them to suggest that theirs is the only Crosbie, N. In: Fiell, C. and projects, the mundane objects of everyday life are still P. 2001. ‘Designing the valid approach. Pluralism is here to stay and it is up conceived, drawn up and manufactured on a 21st Century’ to designers, their clients and collaborators, to make -mass scale. their own rules. The search for “good design” therefore Hence the most pressing challenge for those new to becomes the search for defi nitive results identifi ed the profession lies in deciding where to focus their according to the designer’s own intentions and the creative energies. What is product design? What specifi c conditions of each project. If we are to judge can it be? What do we want it to be? In the past, products holistically, we therefore need access to this these questions were largely answered for us if we information, along with some insight into the social aligned ourselves with the thinking of one of the major fabric into which they are introduced. design movements. Manifestos set out the purpose of design and, in some cases, the language of form that was considered “good”. Any type of design could be measured against these rules and results reached that were considered defi nitive. Through questioning the validity of these rules by designers and theorists, the

Fig. 1 Dyson Fig. 2 Ron Arad DC01 Vacuum Cleaner Big Easy Chair Ron Arad’s The aesthetic of James early work contained pieces Dyson’s cyclonic vacuum such as Big Easy, wrought cleaners fetishises industrial from stainless steel sheets by components to reinforce his welding and polishing with view that engineering must hand tools. be considered ahead of form.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 8 3/26/09 10:09:38 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Sadly, little background knowledge is imparted when Achille Castiglioni, the grand master of Italian products are launched. With some designers unwilling post-war industrial design, underlines the fact that to explain their work, and press interest often confi ned design inescapably implies ideology. Yet the capacity to the shopping pages, there is a scarcity of in-depth of designers to express a coherent set of values and education about design reaching the general public. to pursue these to create meaningful change has been It is left to design historians to build a picture of the hampered by the confi nes of their role. As Adrian Forty signifi cance of objects, but this often focuses entirely explains in his book, ‘Objects of Desire’ (6), although upon the designer’s perspective rather than attempting designers tend to present themselves as the prime to look at the object’s wider impact. (4) With this movers behind the existence of objects, in reality it information staying largely within the confi nes of is the entrepreneurs and managers of production specialist publications (this one being no exception), companies who decide what reaches the market. the public can be forgiven for the misapprehension According to Forty, the paradox of designers claiming that “design is for designers”. It is therefore vital that omnipotence and yet experiencing relative impotence consumers, as well as designers, are encouraged has led many to ignore the task of articulating a to hone their skills at reading objects to see if this philosophy and to instead concentrate on building the information can be gleaned directly. myth that they are indeed masters of their own destiny. [4.] - The wealth of avenues of design activity now open, This sense of helplessness among designers, combined Forty, A. 1995. ‘Objects of Desire.’ London: Thames & combined with the increasing awareness of the damage with a reticence from British industry to engage Hudson caused by socially and environmentally irresponsible their services during the 1980s led to the gradual -design means that now, more than ever, designers have increase in so-called “self-production”, designer- [5.] - Castiglioni A. In: Asensio a bewildering array of decisions to make and issues to maker activity and craft-based design work. Many Cerver F. 1997. ‘Home Product face. Many choose to avoid the more diffi cult questions. practitioners have made their names designing, making Design.’ Hove: Rotovision However, those to whom design feels more like a (or outsourcing) and selling their products direct to - [6.] - calling than simply a way to earn a crust revel in the retailers or to commission, as opposed to working Forty, A. 1995. ‘Objects of challenges it presents: “Design is not a discipline but a directly for the manufacturing industry. Some have Desire’. London: Thames & stance born as a result of a personal formation based used this as a springboard to enable them and their Hudson -on humanistic, technological, economic and political work to achieve public recognition, while to others it criticism.” (5) has been a necessary step to entice industrial clients. The parallel explosion of media interest in design has largely bypassed the “traditional” design consultancies and in-house design teams (who continue to design the majority of consumer products that come on to the market) in favour of publishing the work of this new band of independent designers. While this has brought a glut of gimmicky products into the public eye, the increase in self-production has also led to a greater awareness of singular visions and of the poetic possibilities of the design object.

Fig. 3 Egg cup Fig. 4 Van den by Infl ate Nick Crosbie and Puup IKEA’s fi ctitious “star his partners set up Infl ate to designer” was an attempt market a range of products to distance the company made by a process called from any association with high frequency welding, designers who were seen normally used to make seaside as prima donnas. infl atables such as rubber rings and dinghies.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 9 3/9/09 8:09:32 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - How to get the most out of this book With our increasing knowledge of the environmental The time designers and manufacturers spend bringing a - Introduction crisis that we currently face and the constant new product to market (the “lead time”) has shortened reminders of how the manufacturing industry is adding as competition has increased. This has resulted in less to this, designers are under growing pressure to apply time being available for research that may bring to light their skills ethically as well as aesthetically. Some of new and valuable discoveries. While these factors do the most vehement criticism of product designers over not excuse designers from their part in fi lling the planet the years has been aimed at their apparently uncritical with the “tawdry idiocies” Papanek talked of, they at stance, particularly when asked to work on products least illustrate that designers work within a system of of dubious merit. “There are professions more harmful constraints. At worst, designers are simply the pencil- than industrial design”, wrote Victor Papanek in 1972, wielders of business, neither exercising conscience nor “but only a few of them. And possibly only one is creative input. At best, they encourage their employers phonier. Advertising design, in persuading people to buy into meaningful dialogue, challenging them to ensure things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in what is brought to the market is of genuine worth. order to impress others who don’t care, is probably the Feelings as to whether a product deserves to exist [7.] - phoniest fi eld in existence today. Industrial design, by or not can only be based on our personal reaction to Papanek V. 1972. ‘Design concocting the tawdry idiocies hawked by advertisers, for the Real World’. London: the values it offers. Consequently, we should have no comes a close second. Never before in history have Thames & Hudson reason to presume others will share our reactions. -grown men sat down and seriously designed electric Product concepts contain the latent possibility of hairbrushes, rhinestone-covered fi le boxes, and mink offering several different kinds of value. Beyond carpeting for bathrooms, and then drawn up elaborate the use-value of the product itself lies its value as plans to make and sell these gadgets to millions of a signifi er of identity and status. We are all fearful people”. (7) of appearing to lack style, wealth, hygiene, virility Although a lack of moral backbone can be blamed or fertility and products appearing to grant us these for accepting such jobs without challenging their “riches” boost our self-esteem. By selling design underlying motives, it is important to recognise why changes as part of a story based in the fantasy world such requests have arisen. As products evolve through of advertising rather than the practical reality of the the attentions of numerous designers, many reach a everyday, designers contribute to the individual’s settled form that is accepted as being appropriate. “cultural capital”. Over time, changes in behaviour and the application of new materials, technologies or other such advances may cause a shift in this settled form, but until then radical redesigns are generally considered unnecessary and even damaging to a company’s market-share. Hence, designers are encouraged to fi nd other methods of differentiating products within these received limitations, in order to generate appeal.

Fig. 5 Sponsored Fig. 6 Air Chair by Food by Martí Guixé Spanish Jasper Morrison Morrison’s self-styled “ex-designer” Martí approach owes a debt to Guixé conceived Sponsored modernist pioneers such as Food as a way of allowing Jean Prouvé (for honest use his artist friends to eat for of materials) and Dieter Rams free. Paid for by corporate (for aesthetic cleanliness), but sponsorship, the free food compared to these forebears would mean that they would some of his work exhibits a no longer need to sell work more playful, warmer touch. or undertake paid labour.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 10 3/9/09 8:09:34 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - PLURALISM, MODERNISM AND 4) the utopian vision of generating POSTMODERNISM complete social harmony through architecture and design simply didn’t While having several broader meanings when materialise; and applied to design, the term ‘pluralism’ refers to the 5) its elitist attitude failed to acknowledge diverse nature of objects produced by designers the preferences of the mass audience. today, their thinking characterised, as it is, by its adherence to not one but many different approaches, ‘A dining table of the period,’ wrote design educator theories, standards and aesthetic preferences (hence Victor Papanek ‘might have a top, well proportioned ‘plural’ as in more than one). in glistening white marble, the legs carefully nurtured for maximum strength with minimum materials in The last and most determined attempt to establish gleaming stainless steel. And the fi rst reaction on a universal ideology for designers to work within encountering such a table is to lie down on it and emerged around the turn of the twentieth century. have your appendix extracted’. (i) Throughout the Rising to prominence in Europe as a theoretical previous century various self-appointed arbiters of framework affecting the arts and architecture as taste (Augustus Pugin, William Morris, Henry Cole to well as design, modernism pursued human progress name but three (ii)) had harangued ‘the masses’ with through social, cultural and technological innovations their opinions on what was correct and appropriate and is still hugely infl uential today. The harnessing and modernism continued in this tradition albeit with of the machine and manufacture to democratic some differing and opposing views. ends was a central theme, as was the assertion that pure geometric forms and undecorated materials As postmodern theory became accepted in the 1980s embodied superior moral as well as aesthetic values. many designers warmed to the notion that different Such principles were considered absolute and not forms could be considered appropriate in different determined by the preferences of one culture or contexts. However, it also unleashed the unfettered society, let alone the designer. (Yet modernism’s curiosity of some designers, resulting in an ‘anything preferences, although spreading over time, had goes’ approach that many found unpalatable and emerged from the opinions of one group and this which stuck in the consciousness of some critics [i.] - hypocrisy was not lost on its detractors.) Hence, as postmodernism’s main legacy. Papanek, V. 1970. ‘Design for according to modernist principles, objects could be the real world; human ecology Postmodern thinking, as design historian Andrew and social change’. New York: designed to be ‘timeless’ and continuously desirable. Pantheon Books Jackson points out, considers that “an object is not - Postmodernism, the most direct rebuttal of modernist able to speak for itself, but is in fact ‘spoken for’ by [ii.] - values, drew its strength from modernism’s failures its social and political context. The values associated Bayley, S. In: Bayley, S. and Conran, T. 2007. ‘Intelligence and contradictions. These rebuttals included: with the object are determined by the position from Made Visible’. London: Conran which the object is viewed and aesthetic appeal is 1) the belief that the famous Octopus regarded not as a universal value, outside of history, - modernist axiom “form follows but rather as an ever-changing quality relative to [iii.] - function” was fl awed in a number of Jackson, A. Designing Britain, the circumstance within which the object is respects. It implied designers were 1945–1975 [online]. Accessed consumed”. (iii) 4th March 2009. Available giving form to products independently from World Wide Web: always follow function as opposed to, - as was later espoused, ease of use, poetic metaphor or other equally valid criteria. 2) the fact that the pure geometric forms modernism’s followers praised were not always easily and effi ciently reproducible using the manufacturing technology it wished to employ; 3) the insistence on a link between purity of form and morality could not be proven;

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 11 3/26/09 10:10:21 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - How to get the most out of this book Coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, cultural world” has emerged in which “in-the-know” consumers - Introduction capital is one of a number of forms of capital (wealth) drop the names of star designers, some of whom have that an individual may acquire and use within a system become valuable brands in their own right. Glitz, gloss of exchange. It consists of, among other things, and glamour accompany the launch of a new chair, knowledge and understanding of culture, cultural kitchen or bathroom suite. Yet it can sometimes be hard groups and the fi gures of authority and authenticity to see what all the fuss is about – are we looking at a within those groups. In design terms, it is the work of genius or the emperor’s new clothes? In an knowledge behind the goods bought: what they signify attempt to lampoon the scene and distance themselves and to whom, and the status conferred by them. from the negative connotations of the designer as prima donna, the furniture manufacturer IKEA created its One particular strain of cultural capital that designers own fi ctitious star designer, Van Den Puup (fi g. 4, page and their clients have been criticised for fostering 09) who appeared in their commercials, lambasting the is that of the “design signature”. In contrast with company’s products for their cheapness and lack of the majority of design work that is undertaken “soul”– a strangely double-edged campaign considering anonymously, some designers are asserting their right their own designers are named and photographed in to be recognised. In doing so, many are tempted into their catalogue. However, what it revealed was that adopting the fi ne artist’s myth-making around the value IKEA felt that the popular view of designers was one of associated with the hand of the maker. A “design suspicion at their elitism and style over substance. (8) While the cult of the personality has invaded the psyche of certain product designers, plenty are nevertheless involved in advancing the profession into new

Fig. 7 Banana juice Fig. 8 Packaging carton by Naoto Fukasawa for Waitrose by Goodwin for Takeo Paper Show Hartshorn These ring-pull “HAPTIC”, 2004 One of a cans were designed to make series of fruit carton designs the process of opening that took colour and texture cans easier for everyone, from the skin of the fruit from but particularly those with which the juice was made, reduced fi nger dexterity. The Fukasawa’s banana juice large ring pulls are easier carton is particularly effective to grasp – and are a good – the waxy carton paper and example of “inclusive design”. octagonal shape prompting a sensory double-take.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 12 3/9/09 8:09:35 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black territory. Those featured in this book have developed An examination of these different approaches can be contemporary approaches that are widely considered found in Chapter 2, but the book is structured around to deliver signifi cant results. Some have found ways the proposition that there are three other elements of to reconcile anti-consumerist, pro-ethical views with product design that require theoretical scrutiny: our their role as conceivers of objects by challenging perception of the profession, the design process itself, conventional behaviour (fi g. 5, page 10). Some update and the contexts within which it occurs. The book takes past movements such as modernism, adopting its each element as a chapter. Chapter 1, “Perception”, utopian optimism and aesthetic cleanliness, while examines design in relation to political stances, sidestepping its tendency towards social engineering types of value and the meanings of form. Chapter 2, (fi g. 6, page 11). Others look for poetic and appropriate “Motivation”, discusses “design as personal ideology”, connections between a product’s form and its function uncovering what the designer is trying to achieve, that inject rational thinking with new life (fi g. 7, page and illustrates the wide range of approaches taken 12). Also covered are those who focus on genuine to product design today. Chapter 3, “Process” asks, advancements in usability and functionality, improving “What does the design process look like?” in terms of a the experience of using a product for all, regardless methodology and a mental model. It attempts to clarify of age or physical ability (fi g. 8, page 12). Another the confusion as to what constitutes a design process cohort takes the opposing view that increasing user and observes how practical tools such as drawing and friendliness contributes to a banal interaction with model-making aid decision-making. Finally, Chapter 4, products, promoting the “on-demand” culture. They “Context”, examines typical circumstances in which feel that by building in ambiguities, our experience with designers fi nd themselves working and charts the key certain objects can be enriched (fi g. 9, page 13). As differences between them. Western economies continue to shift from providing Although this is a “theory book” on product design, it is discrete products to providing services, some design to be remembered that theory must go hand-in-hand fi rms have moved their input “upstream” to help shape with practice. Our ability to discuss the ideas behind the the business models and organisational structures of work presented here is due to them being translated their clients. Design fi rms wishing to engage with these into models, prototypes and fi nished products through companies have defi ned a fi eld – “service design” – that commitment, skill and, often a good deal of hard work. focuses on the “touch-points” where people interact The adaptation of these theories, and their application with the employees and fabric of the service provider. to new and worthwhile products, is up to you. Finally, the book recognises the increasing level of [8.] - collaboration between designers and the public and - - Sudjic, D. 2004. ‘The Strange the changing nature of this relationship. Facilitated by Case of Van Den Puup: Design in the Age of Celebrity, the the networking power of the Internet, consumers are Death of the Object and the becoming “prosumers” (9), taking a pro-active role in China Crisis.’ RSA Bicentenary commissioning and specifying their own products. Medallist’s Address, at the RSA, London, November 2004. - [9.] - Derived by merging the word “producer” (and later the word “professional”) with the word “consumer”, the term “prosumer” was coined by Alvin Tofl er in his book, ‘The Third Wave’ (1980, New York: Bantham Books). -

Fig. 9 Technological Dream Series No. 1 Robots by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby Dunne and Raby prompt us to question the received wisdom that robots, and indeed any electronic object, should be a servant, offering on-demand functionality. Their robots have skills and traits, some of the purposes of which are unclear.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 15 3/9/09 8:09:40 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 1.1 1. Perception - - “Everything we do is politics. The difference is whether 1.1 Design and politics (2) 1.2 Value and the object DESIGN AND POLITICS we are aware of this or not.” Since the 1900s, product design has come of Design that involves production is intrinsically age, gone to seek its fortune, found fame and politicised whether, as Enzo Mari (fi g. 1, page 16), one developed a conscience. Throughout this time, the of Italy’s most cerebral industrial designers points more worldly designers have wrestled with how out, we recognise the fact or not. Designers, while to reconcile their political views with their design not directly in control, are nonetheless in the business output. Should we choose to do so, we can try to of negotiating with industry about the ways in which predict their political stances from who their clients production is applied, and the choices possible within are, what they design, how they design it, how it is this role can be made with particular goals in mind. sold and to whom. However, the design world is not Those goals may be political with a large or small “p”, a hotbed of political debate. Most designers neither that is, they may or may not be part of a “big picture” of wear their political agendas on their sleeves, nor how a country or a society should operate. Mari’s point make them explicit in their portfolios. Yet design is that many designers act out their role without ever and politics are, as I hope to demonstrate, considering these political ramifi cations. undeniably linked. To unearth the roots of the link between product design and the politics of the state, we have only to look as far [1.] - - - as the dictionary defi nitions of communism, socialism Gordon, G. 2002. ‘Advocacy DESIGN AND THE POLITICS OF STATE Toolkit: Understanding and capitalism; they are differentiated by who controls Advocacy.’ Teddington: “The broad defi nition of politics (with a small “p”) the means of production and how it is operated. Tearfund. Available from World Wide Web: considers the interaction of all forms of power, which happens wherever there is a relationship. Everyone is - - -therefore political and has the potential to infl uence THE POLITICS OF THE DESIGNER [2.] - what happens in their lives, their communities and their Mari, E. In: Burkhardt, F. 1997. Through their work, designers serve, comment on or ‘Why Write a Book on Enzo countries.” (1) Mari?’ Milan: Federico Motta attempt to change the political systems within which Editore As Graham Gordon explains, the word “politics” does they are born and from this we can infer (rightly -not relate only to matters of government (Politics with or wrongly) compliance with, or criticism of, that a large “P”) but to the use of power on any scale. If system. Translating the politics of the state to the design is used to infl uence or change anything, or even individual, our society has generated stereotypes of to maintain things as they are, it is exerting power and political beliefs that imply different behaviour. As a is therefore a political tool. simplistic illustration, socialists believe in the sharing of personal wealth, whereas capitalists believe in the right to keep what they have earned (hence the constant political battles over paying more or less tax

Fig. 1 Enzo Mari at work Enzo Mari, one of Italy’s “grand masters” of product and furniture design, has wrestled more than most with the contradictions of trying to design defi nitive forms in a consumer environment, driven in part by novelty. Here, he is seen working on a project about the nature of value, the vehicle being detergent bottles re-modelled as vases.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 16 3/26/09 10:11:39 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black to fund public services). In terms of possessions, this “If the dominant style of the old, non-socialist suggests that “true” socialists will never own items establishment had been plain and functional, then I of conspicuous consumption (anything purchased am sure that the aesthetic riposte of the socialist or to elevate social status through an overt display of democratically inclined designers would have been wealth) as to do so would show they had chosen to towards elaboration, fi guration and decoration. The keep rather than share their income. Conversely, to point is that you can argue either style both ways: those believing in capitalism, conspicuous consumption both can be seen as oppressive, both can be seen as is a useful mark of their right to ownership. In reality, democratic. You can say you are being honest about the consumer behaviour is murkier. We may accept the object’s role, or that you are bringing decoration and adverse connotations of an object if it serves our metaphor to the people. You can almost toss a coin.” (3) needs. However, as designers, it follows that to keep While there used to be a practical explanation as to our political ideals we ought not to design objects that why decorative objects were the preserve of the rich represent an opposing model of thought to our own. – decoration takes workmanship, which takes time, which means the craftsman will need to be paid more - - than for an undecorated item – with the arrival of mass POLITICS AND STYLE manufacturing processes such as printing, casting and The political connotations of a piece of product design press-forming, complex decorative surfaces could be can be considered on three levels; as well as the signals reproduced quickly and inexpensively using machine the object itself sends us, we can take into account its tools. Once mechanised production emerged the wider impact (the way it is discussed, marketed, sold, designer could choose his aesthetic and, as Dormer used or misused and disposed of or recycled) and the points out, could argue the reason for his choice from way the design process was seen to be carried out. So his own political standpoint, regardless of whether his what political signals might an object send and how do object was plain or decorative. we correctly interpret them? Whether or not the designer’s choice of style has a Particular styles of design do not intrinsically belong political motive, an object may imply a political leaning to particular political belief systems. They have by the effect it has upon us. Objects can liberate or been linked by choice for the political ends of those channel behaviour and this is a key political weapon concerned. As the late Peter Dormer points out in his (this phenomenon is discussed in more depth on page book ‘Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty- 120). It is therefore important to be aware when an First Century’, modernism and its aesthetic rules such object appears to be applying political pressure upon us, as “form follows function” (see page 23) were adopted whether that comes from the experience we have with by those with socialist political leanings because it it directly, or via learned association with its style. suited them: - - [3.] - Dormer, P. 1990. ‘Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty-First Century.’ London: Thames & Hudson -

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 17 4/8/09 12:16:43 PM CD409-34/4028 2ND PROOF Black 1. Perception - - become historical relics. Where, for example, should 1.1 Design and politics FROM THE MACHINE AESTHETIC TO THE 1.2 Value and the object we politically locate Apple’s iPod (fi g. 4, page 19)? Its AESTHETICS OF USE clean lines, uniform radii and undecorated surfaces, For the reasons so far discussed, it is dangerous to not to mention its harnessing of new technology, attempt a reading of the political persuasions of place it in a historical line that leads us back through a designer purely from the aesthetics of an object Dieter Rams (fi g. 5, page 19 – Braun’s infl uential chief they have designed because the reasons for applying designer from 1965–1995) to the socialist modernism that style can come from either side of the political of Germany’s Bauhaus School. Yet, with its bright white spectrum. Alternatively, they may have been arrived earphone wire, shiny case and high price tag (US$400 at naively. or around £280 when fi rst released) it is a potent sign of capitalist conspicuous consumption. However, we cannot avoid the associations of history and Dormer rightly reminds us that the pared-down, Observing the products of consumer culture provides undecorated, geometric purity characteristic of us with the opportunity to make subjective judgements modernism came to be associated with socialist on many levels. The connotations of their use may be views. This followed a period where the dominant towards selfl ess or indulgent ends. They may express taste aspired to the decadence of the wealthy the desire for practicality or frivolity, modesty or establishment, hence goods for “the common man” ostentation, engagement or aloofness, with advertising tended to have pretensions of ostentation even when and branding helping to shape our verdicts. This inexpensively made (fi g. 2, page 18). Modernism “aesthetic of use” extends to the product’s effect on its and the “machine aesthetic” – the appearance of users and those around them, on its environment and an undecorated, machine-made object (fi g. 3, page the environment in the wider sense. The most vilifi ed 18) – aimed to change this and had the potential consumers are therefore those who excite criticism on to differentiate inexpensive goods suffi ciently to all of these levels – owners of sports utility vehicles represent a stance against the bourgeoisie. Yet these who use them for short school runs being an example, intentions were hindered because many of the early with detractors attacking not only the aesthetics objects of modernism, although entering the design of the vehicles but the indulgence of the unused lexicon as classics, were either (ironically) expensive to off-road specifi cation, the anti-social elevation and manufacture (purity of form and ease of production do disconnection from other road users and the high fuel not automatically go hand in hand) or were unappealing consumption and emissions. This illustrates how views to the wider public, many of whom still favoured on products are often infl uenced by political views decoration. Although many modernist principles have on the limits of personal freedom and technological been extensively adopted since, they were slow to progress. It also raises such questions as, “to what “trickle down”. extent should our freedom to design, manufacture and consume be restricted for the good of society? Is it the The political location of a product is therefore defi ned role of governments to constrain damaging behaviour, not just by its image (or indeed its purpose) but by a or should the people (including designers) be given variety of factors, including to whom it is fi nancially autonomy?” (4) available and by whom it is actually consumed. With the gradual dismantling of class barriers, the converging of - - left and right in mainstream politics, and emergence of postmodern views, these old aesthetic signposts have

Fig. 2 Portland Fig. 3 MT8 table Vase by Josiah Wedgwood lamp designed at the Wedgwood’s vase was a copy Bauhaus by Wilhelm of a famous Roman artefact Wagenfeld and K.J.Jucker owned by the Duke of Portland An example of what became and showed that despite known as “the machine pioneering new manufacturing aesthetic”, Wagenfeld and techniques, design of the time Jucker’s lamp is entirely devoid still aspired to the tastes of the of any decorative fl ourishes. aristocracy.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 18 3/26/09 10:12:39 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - Recently, designers have gone far beyond simple FASCIST AND DEMOCRATIC DESIGN market research. New design methodologies are The never-ending debate between the “top down” apparently making design more democratic by engaging imposition of decisions and the “bottom up” the public in the design process. Charles Leadbeater, consultation of the audience is one held on macro journalist and author of ‘The Pro-Am Revolution’ (see and micro levels – in the design of the state and the 2.10 Participation) and a leading authority on creativity, design of products – and ought to be a fundamental has written: “Design used to be done by specialists consideration of any project. A state is “designed” by for users. From now on, in a growing number of fi elds, policy makers although the execution of this design, in design will be done with users and by them. In this democratic countries, relies on consensus with other context the designer is becoming the facilitator, the politicians and, to a certain extent, the public at large. enabler, rather than the dictator of what people In dictatorships, these barriers are quashed. themselves want to do” (5). When The National Socialist (Nazi) Party in 1930s However, just as in the political sphere, over-emphasis Germany “designed” The Third Reich, it put in place on shaping design decisions by focus groups can be architecture, products and systems to help fulfi l its interpreted as a tangible lack of leadership, while view of the ideal society. The atrocities it generated design by committee can often lack potency. Compare were planned, the tools sketched, drawn up and automobiles designed by visionary Italian coach manufactured. Fascist design – forcing one view of builders Pininfarina, Bertone and Guigiaro with the how the visual and built environment should look upon lacklustre output of British companies in the late 1980s others, regardless of their opinion of it – exists but is and early 1990s when focus groups became popular made impotent under democratic regimes. The free (fi gs 6 and 7, page 20). Criticism of Blairite politics market acts like a democratic government in that struck upon the apparent preoccupation with the the objects of design, like politicians, rely on a certain focus-grouping of style to the detriment of meaningful [4.] - discussion of issues. It may well be that, in matters Ambasz, E. 1972. ‘Italy: The level of support (consumption) for their survival. New Domestic Landscape’, Design that is not in tune with the general public’s of style a singular vision is benefi cial, but in matters New York: MOMA. Page 21: “To desires and expectations may continue to exist but will of use an inclusive survey may indeed be constructive, the traditional preoccupation especially when the scope of the project falls outside with aesthetic objects, these remain niche (unless those desires change). Designers, contemporary designers have realising this, have been taking note of what consumers of the designer’s experience. “Spin” and “styling”– the therefore added a concern for think and building this into their products for many packaging of ideas and objects – are correlated, and an aesthetic of the uses made in some quarters regarded as pejoratives implying of these objects.” years (see 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement). - shallowness and lack of substance. Both need to be [5.] - backed up with results in order for either a policy or Leadbeater, C. “Design Your product to be accepted as successful. Own Revolution”. 2005. ‘The Observer’, 19 June - - -

Fig. 4 Apple iPod Fig. 5 T3 Pocket Beautiful, pure minimalism or Radio by Dieter Rams a vulgar sign of conspicuous and Ulm Hochschule fur consumption? The Apple Gestaltung Rams radio looks iPod follows many modernist familiar. Its cleanliness of form principles. and balance of proportion appear to have given rise to the i-Pod some four decades later.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 19 3/9/09 8:09:45 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 1. Perception - - divided into houses, each equipped with online learning 1.1 Design and politics DESIGN AS POLITICAL ACTIVISM 1.2 Value and the object facilities. Similarly, designers and design students “For many designers it is no longer enough to fulfi l the are currently involved in the Building Schools for the demands of commercial clients. They wish their art to Future programme that aims “to rebuild or renew be something more than “useful”. Through critical and nearly every secondary school in England”. (7) While it polemical projects, they signal the readiness to play a may be relatively straightforward to agree upon what more transformative role in society”. (6) constitutes a humane prison and an effective schooling environment, when government policy comes closer As “matter” that we must negotiate, products can to home it can become more contentious. The Design literally shape our daily experience in ways that spark Council’s Design of the Times (DOTT) project looked particular thoughts, and designers can therefore at sustainability in the north east of England and infl uence what these thoughts are. In addition, objects included community projects such as Low Carb Lane, have the ability to be the locus of discussion about in which residents were encouraged to monitor their our potential futures; to explore through objects, the own energy usage. A television-based Home Energy logical conclusions to certain models of thought, be Dashboard showed energy and emission levels and they politically partisan, positive (utopian) or negative included targets that, if kept within, would earn users (dystopian). For these two reasons, design is a powerful fi nancial rebates. However, critics of the project have tool for the band of designer-activists Hugh Aldersey- suggested such systems would generate anxiety among Williams pinpoints. homeowners and that they would shift the focus away Graphic design has a long history of turning the from the government’s responsibility to tackle climate persuasive skills of advertising to political ends. change at the level of power generation. “Why should However, it is less common to see product designers designers join a fi nger-wagging campaign to tell the making objects specifi cally to raise political points. working classes that their lives are contaminating?” (8) As we have discussed, political ideologies can be read asks James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and into everyday objects but the communication of these Innovation at Leicester’s De Montfort University. The political views is rarely the central rationale behind debate highlights the need for designers to consider their design. Yet, as its boundaries expand, product their political positions on such issues before diving in [6.] - design is emerging as an overtly political tool, both with product-based solutions. Aldersey-Williams, H. 2008. ‘Design and the Elastic Mind’, to actively effect change and to raise awareness of Products have long been a means of expressing New York: MOMA where it is needed. support for various causes. They appear to be essential - [7.] - With product designers broadening their remit to trappings of political campaigning (t-shirts, badges, ‘teachernet’. 2009 [online]. include services and offering advice at boardroom fl ags, mugs) and no charity worth its salt is without Accessed 26th January 2009. its talisman of support (paper poppies, ribbons, Available from World Wide level, they are increasingly being called upon to Web: 2002, the UK Home Offi ce commissioned architects have begun to look beyond the artless translation - of slogans and images and are investigating ways in [8.] - and theorists to develop a model for a twenty-fi rst- Woudhuysen, J. 2007. ‘The century prison. The design refl ected the government’s which products can express views in a more cerebral Limits of Design’, a keynote agenda of “rehabilitation as citizenship training”. The way. Students from London Metropolitan University address to the intersections highlighted the plight of the Saharawi people of 2007 conference, the Baltic proposed prison, like a neighbourhood, was literally Centre, Gateshead, UK -

Fig. 6 Volkswagen Fig. 7 Austin-Rover Golf Cars like the Golf by Montego The Montego was Italian stylist Giorgetto produced at a time when Guigiaro are examples of Austin Rover and other the vision of an individual British car companies were providing aesthetic integrity known for using “customer to the form of a vehicle. clinics” – focus groups that would critique the design of a vehicle, the results of which could seriously affect the fi nal design.

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Fig. 8 Sahara Fig. 9 / 10 Sahara Water by Amos Field Reid Part Jigsaw by Jess Corteen / of a series of objects designed Sahara Sand Globe by by students of London Rhian Jones Metropolitan University to raise awareness of Morocco’s 30-year occupation of Western Sahara, the project is a rare example of product design being used to communicate an overtly political message.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 21 3/9/09 8:09:48 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 1. Perception Western Sahara through an exhibition of “guerrilla- Finally, product design touches upon activism through 1.1 Design and politics 1.2 Value and the object style awareness objects”. Displaced by Morocco’s illegal direct action. Manchester-based, socially conscious occupation of Western Sahara over 30 years ago, nearly design studio, The Ultimate Holding Company (UHC) 200,000 of the Saharawi have become refugees in the were commissioned by activist and comedian Mark Algerian desert. The objects, exhibited in a London shop Thomas to produce 100 “Spring Shrouds”, (fi g. 12, window, act as metaphors for their lost land and the page 23) – fabric covers tailored to fi t over pavement hope of its future re-inhabitation. (fi gs 8, 9, 10, advertising hoardings. The shrouds, bearing an page 21). illustration of a tree and the slogan “trees breathe – adverts suck”, were slipped over the hoardings around Another new breed of designer is projecting current Manchester early one morning. “It was a gift that we scientifi c practices through the lens of product could give to Manchester’s commuters. To give them design, presenting speculative products and scenarios a temporary respite from the barrage of advertising specifi cally to elicit debate. Unlike the political work that everybody who comes into the city suffers from” above, many of these projects are presented from a (9), said Thomas. The project demonstrates that just neutral standpoint so that any adverse reaction to as governments wield the designed products of war in them is our own. The 2008 exhibition at the Museum confl icts, designers can create objects with which to of Modern Art in New York, Design and the Elastic fi ght their own battles closer to home. Mind showcased many such projects including some by British designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. [9.] - - - Thomas, M. In: ‘UHC Press One of Auger–Loizeau’s projects describes the fi ctitious Archive’. 2007 [online]. development of an Audio Tooth Implant (fi g. 11, [Accessed 26th January 2009]. page 22) – essentially a mobile phone implanted in a Available from the World Wide Web: through the jawbone to the inner ear. The notion that - individuals could be receiving information invisibly raises considerable ethical dilemmas. The proposal sparked widespread media coverage, fuelled by the designers’ caginess about the reality of them releasing such a product – necessary, Auger and Loizeau claim, in order to create genuine debate. What better way to shock us into concerned discussion than by tricking us into thinking that some immoral designers have already created our worst nightmares and are presenting them for our approval? The work encourages us to think about the moral and ethical problems the new sciences are throwing up (see 2.8 Ethics and 2.12 Design for debate).

Fig. 11 Audio Tooth Implant by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau Emerging from a project exploring the implications of electronics entering the body, Auger– Loizeau’s Audio Tooth Implant made national news when it was presented as a near- future reality in development rather than a piece of critical commentary.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 22 3/26/09 10:13:13 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION person to person. It may have dual or multi-functions or may be misused creatively. Pye argues the notion Attributed to American architect Louis Sullivan, that a product’s function can signal or determine “form follows function” is one of a number of famous a singular, “correct” form is therefore nonsense. modernist axioms. The idea that the form of an A designer can predict the primary purpose to object should follow its function required a product’s which an object is likely to be put and can choose function to signal a “correct” form. In making an appropriate forms to fulfi l that purpose, but these object fi t for its purpose, the designer embodied are not predetermined and nor do they intrinsically those signals as purely as possible to create an “belong” to the functions they aim to fulfi l. “honest” product. Widely adopted, at fi rst by socialist designers in Germany promoting a progressive An analysis of Dutch Designer Joris Laarman’s language of form and later more broadly as a means Heatwave radiator, a recent hit with the design press, of making objects “user friendly”, the notion was can illustrate this (fi g. 13, page 23). Laarman argues undermined in the mid 1960s by David Pye in his that its baroque form makes it more functional than book ‘The Nature of Design’ (later reprinted as ‘The “sober conventional radiators” due to its greater Nature and Aesthetics of Design’). (i) surface area. He wishes to present the paradox that “functionalists are also sinners of styling, and that Pye contends that although the form of an object will soberness is not always more functional than highly have an effect on its ability to function (measurable decorative form”. (iii) However, radiators with equal or in results), there is signifi cantly more freedom in greater surface area to Laarman’s – those with lines what this shape could be than is often presumed. of geometric fi ns – already exist. The ability of the If function is the primary purpose we assign to radiator to function well comes not from the choice an object, then Pye reminded us that “purpose of baroque or geometric form – either is suitable – exists in men’s minds, [whereas] ‘results’ exist in but from the extent to which the chosen form things”. (ii) The purpose we assign to objects is is designed to achieve the necessary physical results. variable and highly personal and not as singular or straightforward as the word “function” implies. An - - object may have tertiary roles that will differ from [i.] - Pye, D. 2000. ‘The Nature and Aesthetics of Design’. London: A & C Black Ltd - [ii.] - Dormer, P. Paraphrasing Pye, D. 1990. ‘Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty- First Century’. London: Thames & Hudson - [iii.] - Laarman, J. 2007. [Website no longer available] -

Fig. 12 Spring Fig. 13 Heatwave Shrouds by UHC Tailored radiator by Joris Laarman covers for pavement manufactured by Jaga and advertising hoardings were Droog Design Laarman chose designed by UHC to give city to use baroque forms to create dwellers temporary respite the large surface area required from the daily barrage of from a radiator in contrast to commercial messages. the traditional lines of fi ns.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 23 3/26/09 10:13:56 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - 1.2 1. Perception - - human, knowledge or intellectual 1.1 Design and politics 1.2 Value and the object VALUE AND THE OBJECT capital, which indicates the skills or 1.3 Reading form knowledge held by people, in particular Design is sometimes described as “adding value”. within a company’s workforce; This is unfortunate because, although this is precisely what design does, it encourages the view cultural capital (described in the that design is an optional extra – the icing on the Introduction), which encompasses cake rather than, as it should be, an ingredient aspects of human capital but, as well that permeates the whole cake. Before considering as denoting knowledge used in work, individual approaches to product design that, includes knowledge of culture, including in their own way, imbue objects with value, it is artefacts and products; perhaps worth considering the ways in which value social capital, which is the value of as a concept has been explained and how these social networks such as friends or relate to objects. business contacts; - - symbolic capital, which is the value DESCRIBING VALUE of status bestowed upon objects or people by those in recognised positions Value held and exchanged by individuals or groups is of authority – for example, an object also known as “capital”, particularly in the fi elds of bought by a respected collector gains economics and sociology. The traditional usage of the symbolic capital. term in economics held that fi nancial capital – money – was exchanged for assets. As an illustration of how these forms of capital may be used, one can imagine that the ability to access Besides fi nancial, many other forms of capital have certain clubs or societies may come from any of four been identifi ed. These include: types of capital: physical, manufactured or you may buy membership (using your infrastructural capital, which denotes economic capital); man-made assets such as the tools used in production; you may be asked to join by a friend (using your social capital); natural capital, which is the natural resources of the planet and basic you may have suffi cient knowledge of necessities of life including raw a subject as to be accepted (using your materials, energy sources, clean cultural capital); air and water; you may have been honoured similarly to other members (using your symbolic capital).

Fig. 1 Mods Icons of Italian post-war reconstruction such as Vespa and Lambretta motor scooters became staples of British mod culture.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 24 3/9/09 8:10:04 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - a form of “one-upmanship”: “With the spread of FIELDS OF VALUE materialism, consumerism and commodity fetishism A design object recognised as being “classic” has had (see page 26), minute aesthetic criteria are being status bestowed upon it by those “in the know” (the established as the basis for general social competition “cognoscenti”). Consequently, it has gained symbolic for the fi rst time in civilisation.” (2) capital in the same way that its designer will have [1.] - done for the recognition of having designed it. Symbolic - - Bourdieu, P. 1993. ‘The Field PERFORMANCE of Cultural Production – capital requires people to have suffi cient knowledge Essays on Art and Literature’. (cultural capital) to be able to identify it. They may also Critics of consumerism pick up on the way that Cambridge: Polity Press make a conscious decision not to recognise it, deciding it - we are increasingly being trained by advertising to [2.] - has no value to them. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu notice, and consider important, the minute variations Bayley, S. 2000. ‘General (who coined the terms cultural and symbolic capital) between products. With so many similar products Knowledge’. London: Booth describes “fi elds” of capital, each “having its own laws Clibborn Editions on our shelves, performance claims have become -of functioning independent of those of politics and the a key factor in providing this differentiation. High [3.] - economy”. (1) The boundaries of these fi elds therefore performance has become a sign of prestige even Schwartz, B. 2004. ‘The denote where appreciation of their value ends. Hence Paradox of Choice – Why More among the most mundane of products. However, the Is Less’. New York: Harper an object may be recognised as having value in one fi eld performance of many products has reached a point Collins but not in another. where their incremental improvement is indiscernible - This is particularly apparent when considering products to us. Yet these “improvements” continue to form the associated with subcultures. The visual integrity of a rationale behind new designs and their subsequent subculture relies on its members consuming products advertising campaigns. For example, of what value to with limited and defi ned aesthetics and meanings. the gentleman shaver are the microns of difference These preferences work to generate the fi elds Bourdieu between the cut of the three-bladed razor and the refers to. Mod and rocker subcultures in 1960s Britain four-bladed razor? displayed affi nity towards products, fashion and music New products, we are told, have been made more in direct contrast with those of the other, thereby comfortable, convenient, time-saving, longer-lasting, making their members easily recognisable (fi g. 1, page effi cient, effective, safer, stronger…but beyond the 24 and fi g. 2, page 25). Mods rode motor scooters and marketing bluster we must ask to what extent are wore suits – aspiring to an image of smartness and these forms of “better” an illusion? New products sophistication – whereas rockers rode motorcycles, expand our choice, yet it has been shown that more wore leather jackets and denim – highlighting their choice often makes us less satisfi ed, as we become gritty working class credentials. anxious that we may not have made the best choice This differentiation has become so highly nuanced that from the many similar options on offer (3). Substantial it has gone from defi ning distinct societal groups to and genuine improvements in usability are of course allowing individuals to feel they are defi ning specifi c to be welcomed, but we must be aware that there is a aspects of their own personality through the objects considerable amount of “smoke and mirrors” being used with which they choose to surround themselves. Our to sell spurious innovations on the grounds of increased products simultaneously allow us to “belong” to groups performance. Designers can either become implicated of our choosing and to differentiate ourselves from in this game or can steer clear and investigate others within those groups. These small differences alternative ways of connecting with the consumer. are, according to design historian Stephen Bayley, - -

Fig. 2 Rockers Emerging from the Teddy Boy scene, the rockers favoured the image of the macho leather and denim clad biker.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 25 3/26/09 10:17:09 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 1. Perception - - 1.1 Design and politics COMMODITY FETISHISM an apparently new and utilitarian invention is 1.2 Value and the object brought to the market – such as Trevor Baylis’s Karl Marx, political economist and primary author of 1.3 Reading form clockwork radio (fi g. 3, page 26) – once product the ‘The Communist Manifesto’, described goods as designers are involved, the resulting object is ripe to having a use-value – the value to their owner of using be embellished in such a way as to meet perceived or consuming them – as well as an exchange-value expectations of a particular target audience (fi g. (price). For example, the use-value of a bicycle is 4, page 26). This fetishising of the object by its that of providing travel, with little or no maintenance designers, while attracting customers can also violate costs, for as long as it remains serviceable. Hence an apparent honesty in the original. This is clear two different bicycles can be said to have the same when comparing anonymously designed archetypal use-value (barring differences in performance). products with their “designer” cousins (fi gs 5 This use-value will be roughly quantifi able (through and 6, page 27). comparison to alternative methods of achieving the same outcome) and may differ considerably from the Conversely, the designer’s “fetishising” can transform actual price of the bicycle. objects from being crude, unsafe, overly complex, and otherwise alienating to being seamlessly Commodity fetishism is the situation that exists in effi cient and pleasurable. Clearly many prudent capitalist societies whereby the value of goods, design improvements that Marx would have branded including designed products, is made abstract by the as “fetishes” bring quality to our lives beyond separation of their use-value from their exchange- vainly displaying our status. His choice of the term value. Therefore, products with no practical use (such “fetishism” – negatively loaded with the implication as jewellery) may gain greater value (as symbols of of an irrational obsession – was, of course, calculated taste and status, for example) than items designed to to enhance his communist arguments. In capitalist perform a utilitarian function. In addition, products society, it is more usefully applied to products where designed for use can become more valuable than this irrationality is in evidence – where moderation others for the same use when their design goes has been overturned by the pursuit of the extreme. beyond the utilitarian and appeals on other levels (as they become “fetishised”). - - What Marx termed the “fetishism of the object” is what many product designers today are in the business of providing – that which, beyond the practical functioning of it, gives us the reason to desire, purchase, keep and cherish it. Even when

Fig. 3 Freeplay Fig. 4 Freeplay radio by Trevor Baylis FRP2 radio by Syzygy manufactured by Baygen manufactured by Baygen Baylis’s original clockwork Designed by South African radio, designed for use fi rm Syzygy, the second in Africa, communicates version of the Freeplay robustness through its thick radio was aimed at Western sections and chunky dials. audiences. In an attempt at refi nement, the chunky black case has been replaced with an asymmetrical, translucent polycarbonate creation, thereby losing any connection with the radio’s original utilitarian context.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 26 3/26/09 10:18:06 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - SIGN-VALUE Though Baudrillard was critical of consumerism, his theory revealed how an individual’s possessions In his 1968 book, ‘The System of Objects’ (i), French could be used to paint complex pictures of their social theorist Jean Baudrillard proposed that the tastes and desires. Baudrillard coined the term “sign- ways that consumer products are differentiated from value” to describe this attribute of communicating one another forms a system of signs with which all an object’s prestige. He also used the term “symbolic objects are encoded. To Baudrillard, our knowledge exchange” to explain the role of objects, such as the of the use and exchange-values of objects proved wedding ring, in symbolising a particular event or insuffi cient to explain our ongoing fascination with connection with its owner. (ii) consuming the new. Applying the study of signs – [i.] - - - Baudrillard, J. 1996. ‘The semiotics, (which had developed from linguistics, the System of Objects’. London: study of language) – to objects, Baudrillard proposed Verso Books that our culture had become driven by the analysis - [ii.] - of these signs that denoted the relative status and Baudrillard, J. 1981. ‘For meaning of objects. By casting objects as participants a Critique of the Political in this ever-changing and evolving system, many Economy’. St Louis: Telos Press -new reasons to consume (and hence for designers to create) were revealed.

Fig. 5 Archetypal Fig. 6 Anna G corkscrew The archetypal corkscrew by Alessandro two-armed corkscrew has Mendini manufactured by character by the nature of Alessi Alessandro Mendini the layout of its components. highlighted the corkscrew’s character, yet in doing so created an object that feels more self-conscious than the original.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 27 3/26/09 10:19:55 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 1. Perception - - personal, such education is increasingly becoming an 1.1 Design and politics PRODUCT STORIES 1.2 Value and the object indulgence of the well-to-do. This lack of input from 1.3 Reading form In 1997, a group of designers and theorists in The the retailer denies many customers the opportunity Netherlands called The Eternally Yours Foundation of confi rming via an experienced, if biased, source that convened a conference to examine methods of they have bought the right product for their needs. It effectively extending the life of products. The published is also a way of products of dubious heritage being sold proceedings revealed a number of ways in which we without attracting scrutiny. Some Internet shopping become emotionally attached to products. Furthermore, sites have attempted to fi ll this knowledge gap by they proposed that by being aware of how these providing previous customers with the opportunity emotional bonds are formed, designers may be able to to leave feedback on their experiences of purchasing build in the possibility of products becoming cherished and using products. However, by relying on the layman, and therefore kept for longer. One of the main tools such information lacks the authority associated with for engagement is the power of product stories or expert opinion. “narratives”: “Products need to express through design Eternally Yours believes that by extending contact with a story that one can identify with and explain to others. customers beyond the point of sale to a series of events That is what makes them personal.” (4) throughout the life of the product, experiences could Allowing potential consumers to know about the be designed to bolster its perceived value. Although creation of a product could be the fi rst chapter in diffi cult in markets driven by new technology, such such a narrative, but one that is often overlooked interventions could counteract a product’s otherwise by manufacturers in favour of an often-fi ctional inevitable decline in value as we become aware of advertising scenario. Those companies (and designers) newer and “better” versions coming on to the market. who are willing to be open about their methods increase We should, they say, not be “product designers” but the possibility of consumers becoming attached to their “product career designers”. (5) So what can we learn products. Learning about a company’s ideology, people, from existing product narratives that might be co- heritage, skills, materials, processes, service etc. opted? According to Eternally Yours, there are three gives us the chance to connect with them. The factory ways in which narratives become associated with tour, although not appealing to everyone, provides this products. (6) The fi rst is through advertisements and opportunity and, if done well, brings willing customers endorsements; the second is through users’ collective into the factory shop (similar displays of appreciation appreciation of products, culminating in “cult” status; through consumption can be seen in gallery and and the third is through individual events that turn museum shops and in theme parks, where layouts are products into mementoes or souvenirs. commonly designed so that customers “exit through Advertising is the most obvious and powerful creator retail”). Any retailer used to be expected to know and of narratives around products. By associating their be able to expound the virtues of their merchandise but, products with aspirational lifestyles, scenarios as the shopping experience has become less and glamorous celebrities, companies seek value through association. Perfumes and watches are often

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 28 3/9/09 8:10:08 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black advertised as worn by famous – apparently discerning – - - individuals. Sporting goods are sold on their connection COLLECTIVE APPRECIATION with professionals who have supposedly achieved The most cherished objects bring people together success whilst using them. If we are lucky enough in admiration for them. Vehicle owners’ clubs are to own the product when the display of excellence the most prominent example and the Internet has with it is publicised, the value still transfers on to facilitated the spread of owners’ clubs and fan sites it and consequently, on to us (this appears to work (offi cial and unoffi cial) for everything from vacuum even when the reason for success clearly ought to be cleaners (www.kirby-vacuum-owners-club.co.uk) to attributed to the skill of the professional rather than Jaffa Cakes (www.jafferygoodness.com) allowing the features of the product). Of course, the credibility small groups of afi cionados a repository for their of this value depends upon the often foggy details of devotion. Even if you are not a member, if you own a these relationships. For example, if the endorsement product that has a visible owners club, the collective given by the professional or celebrity resulted from a appreciation it represents has a value that rubs off. sponsorship deal or advertising contract, it is not based In recent years, the Austin/Morris Mini, VW Beetle and on an unbiased choice. The only value that remains is Fiat 500 cars have been celebrated with the release of that which we place in the fact that the professional new “retro” designs referencing their aesthetics (see or celebrity is not ashamed to be associated with fi g. 7, page 29). This would not have been viable had the the product. original vehicles not been taken to consumers’ hearts As we become versed in the strategies of advertising, with passion, thereby generating value for them as we are less liable to be swayed by the narratives brands. In the case of the Beetle, becoming associated they present. Hence the everyday experience of using with a particular subculture – that of surfi ng – added products becomes more important in determining further value to its brand. The fi lm ‘The Italian Job’ their relevance to us. As their newness fades and they along with a well-publicised string of celebrity owners become part of our everyday lives, we discover their did the same for the Mini. true colours. Those that remain tolerable company – [4. 5. 6.] - like people – will be retained, and relationships allowed - - Van Hinte, E. (ed.) 1997. SOUVENIRS ‘Eternally Yours – Visions on to develop. Over time they may come to be regarded Product Endurance’. Rotterdam: as having a special place among our possessions. It The nature of souvenirs differs from these objects of 010 Publishers is these products that are most commonly repaired - collective affection. By contrast, their value emerges rather than disposed of – as we repay their service largely by personal association – based upon the by extending their life. Sadly, the economy of repair is memories of the activities undertaken in the place to often false, with items costing more to repair than to which they refer – and is determined to a lesser extent replace. Worse still, repair in many cases has ceased by the intrinsic qualities of the objects themselves. to be offered at all outside of guarantee periods. Such personally held value may not be recognisable When undertaken, it marks an important moment by others and is akin to that of family heirlooms where in a product’s story, signifying the point at which memories external to the object’s design produce value we nursed it back to health. that transcends the monetary. Along with Eternally - - Yours, designer Constantin Boym has argued that “The

Fig. 7 Original and “retro” Beetles manufactured by Volkswagen A recent phenomenon, retro remakes of popular cars have been appearing, borrowing aesthetic cues from their well- loved namesakes. However, it could be argued that the sense of utility apparent in the originals has been somewhat lost in translation.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 29 3/26/09 10:21:08 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 1. Perception world needs a lot of new souvenirs – for culture’s - - 1.1 Design and politics (7) SALES VALUE 1.2 Value and the object sake” , seeing the harnessing of associative value 1.3 Reading form as a means of increasing the user-product bond. Returning to the economic value of objects, although He explains that, “unlike many ‘serious’ products or many kinds of value are relative and fl uid, price is appliances, the souvenir always contains a built-in fi xed, albeit momentarily, by a sale. Knowledge of a emotional value, such as a memory of a past journey number of sales at a similar price provides a collective or the affection of a far-away friend.” Discovering notion of what something is worth. Different kinds ways of applying this kind of value to “serious” of selling determine price in various ways. The retail products may open a door to us having a far more price displayed in shops is based on what the retailer engaging relationship with objects. bought the product for (the wholesale price), plus their mark-up. The wholesale price is based upon what the - - item cost the manufacturer to make (the cost price), INCONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION plus their mark-up. If the product is sold through a With the growing concern at the world’s over- distributor, another layer of marking-up will occur. production and resource use there is a migration This mechanism, necessary to cover the costs of those beginning towards the inconspicuous, the lightweight involved (to pay staff, to cover overheads and designer’s and the immaterial. Products may mesh with owners’ royalties, etc.) and provide a profi t, produces the concerns by not being seen. Designers at Industrial situation whereby the actual cost of making a product Facility use a strategy they have termed “voluntary (the cost price) is a small fraction of the price at which simplicity”, which they describe as “a conscious revolt it is available in shops (the retail price). Prices are fi xed against conspicuous consumption”, adding that “owning at each stage (or a negotiated price confi rmed). Some and displaying luxury as a status symbol is passé, mark-ups will be disproportionate in relation to others, superseded by an urge to make meaningful, relevant based on what the manufacturer/wholesaler/retailer and sustainable choices as consumers” (8). Objects feels they can charge, but each participant in the supply converge or disappear into software (the mobile chain uses an equation to ensure they do not lose phone has swallowed the music player, diary, watch, money on a sale. The fi nancial value of a new object is calculator, hand-held video-game and, with the arrival largely determined by whether or not the object sells of Internet-enabled mobiles, encyclopaedias, maps at its retail price without that being reduced. However, and a lot more besides). Products become embedded the object generally “depreciates” (loses value) as soon in services where we hire rather than own them. Here as it is bought, unless it is a limited edition or is subject the infrastructure that surrounds the product gives to a waiting list, in which case its rarity value may us value – we no longer have the burden of storing, counteract or reverse this depreciation. maintaining and upgrading them. However, hiring denies Value is more fl uid with auction sales. Whether for us not only the pleasure and convenience of ownership, high-priced artworks and antiques, or for inexpensive but also the opportunity to form a connection with a items sold over the Internet, price is set locally by specifi c object, personalising or customising it to refl ect those taking part in the auction (one phenomenon our taste and show our identity. of online auctioning is the ability to see what a huge [7.] - - - number of second-hand objects might be worth – Boym, C. 2002. ‘Curious Boym’. New York: Princeton Architectural Press - [8.] - Hecht, S. and Colin, K. 2005. ‘Product as Landscape’. London: Industrial Facility -

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 30 3/9/09 8:10:10 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black information that was previously hard to determine). is named on the product and its packaging. With The seller decides the minimum for which they are computers and rapid prototyping interjecting in the willing to sell the item by setting a reserve price. once very physical sculpting of product form, nowadays Bidders will then express how much they feel it is the “hand of the creator” may touch little more than a worth. Publicity of the value of the winning bid affects computer mouse, yet this seems to have done nothing the wider collective notion of the value of that object to diminish the perceived value of their output. The new and those similar to it. Auctions may sell items for breed of design-artists have fully embraced this new many times their previously perceived value or a technology rather than shying away from it, using it to fraction of it, raising or lowering their expected value manufacture spectacular one-offs – a state of affairs at subsequent auctions. Hence, the value of an object that could hardly be further from the social project of may be dramatically affected by the changing desires harnessing production methods to provide quality goods of a small number of collectors. for all. While these circumstances traditionally belong to - - the world of art and antique collectables, designers have become involved in a new crossover phenomenon labelled “Design Art”. One-off or limited batch-produced items, usually furniture or lighting, have begun to be sold at auction for huge sums, granting designers’ work a new fi nancial price tag far higher than when it was set within the retail system (fi g. 8, page 31). The “ceiling-less” nature of this value is no longer related to the material or manufacturing costs of the item and the percentage mark-ups of those involved, but is based instead on the perceived status of the designer and their work among collectors. This in turn is driven largely by the mythical value of the “hand of the creator” – the last vestiges of design’s arts and crafts heritage. As well as being crucial to the design-art market, the notion that the hand of a famous creator has “touched” the work – or that their mind originated it – is central to the marketing of mass produced “design” products, where the designer

Fig. 8 Aqua Table by Zaha Hadid manufactured by Established & Sons Made in production versions, limited editions and in red for the AIDS awareness campaign fronted by Bono, one of the prototypes for Hadid’s table sold at auction for just short of US$300,000.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 31 4/8/09 12:18:21 PM CD409-34/4028 2ND PROOF Black - - 1.3 1. Perception - - will be a kind of speech for us in the same way as a 1.2 Value and the object 1.3 Reading form READING FORM newspaper article; even objects will become speech, if they mean something.” (3) As its name suggests, This section deals with our perception of form and Barthes’ book was concerned with the myths that some of the tools designers use to imbue their society had built and in semiotic analysis he found a products with meaning. Products communicate means of revealing a sense of truth. Since Barthes, to us through visual language. Like spoken and Jean Baudrillard has been the most celebrated written words and sentences, this language can theorist working on the analysis of products as signs. be split into units and studied. On their own these Baudrillard focused on consumer society, arguing signs would be meaningless. They only become that sign-value was central to our purchasing of all comprehensible when compared with other signs products, regardless of the apparent need they fulfi lled. within a system. The study of these signs, and the systems in which they operate, is called “semiotics”. In the 1980s, Reinhardt Butter and Klaus Krippendorf It is a fi eld of which few product designers are fully applied semiotic theories to the fi eld of product aware, yet it is one that all, to some degree, operate design. They coined the term “product semantics” to within. Consciously understanding its theories can describe the study of meaning in man-made objects help pin down exactly from where meaning emerges and its application in new designs, “semantics” being and, as Sara Ilstedt Hjelm (Professor of Product and the branch of semiotics that deals with the study of Service Design at KTH, Stockholm’s Royal Institute meaning in communication. Butter and Krippendorf’s of Technology) points out, be more alert to its studies can be seen as an attempt to give theoretical implications: “Studying semiotics can assist us to structure to the misgivings among product designers become more aware of reality as a construction towards continuing their application of modernist and of the roles played by ourselves constructing rules, in particular, “form follows function”. By focusing or designing it.” (1) primarily on the product as a sign, product semantics suggests that a multitude of meanings can rightfully [1.] - - - be presented for the same object type, a theory that Istedt Hjelm, S. 2002. SEMIOTICS AND PRODUCT SEMANTICS cuts directly across modernism’s search for singular ’Semiotics in Product Design’. defi nitive forms. As one interpretation of modernism led Stockholm: Royal Institute Rather than attempting a full dissection of semiotics of Technology electronic product design up the stylistic cul-de-sac of (2), this section tries to introduce the structures most - the black box (fi g. 1, page 32), an appetite emerged [2.] - useful to product designers. Although emerging from for change. By the time Butter and Krippendorf’s For a more thorough the study of language (linguistics), semiotics has understanding of how visual article on the subject had appeared in the journal of the come to provide the theoretical underpinning for art communication works, see Industrial Designers’ Society of America (4), the Italian Crow, D. 2003. ‘Visible Signs’. and design. In 1957, French critic and theorist Roland radical design group Memphis had already opened Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA Barthes applied semiotic theories to the interrogation - the door to postmodernism in product design, with of popular culture in his writings on products such as [3.] - their startling exhibitions of furniture and accessories Barthes, R. 2000. ‘Mythologies’. soap powder, toys and the Citroën DS. In the volume (fi g. 2, page 33). Led by architect and designer Ettore London: Vintage (Random ‘Mythologies’ in which these essays were collected, House) Sottsass, the work of the Memphis group encouraged Barthes wrote: “We shall therefore take language, - people to question many of modernism’s rules, allowing [4.] - discourse, speech etc., to mean any signifi cant unit Krippendorff, K. and Butter, or synthesis, whether verbal or visual: a photograph R. 1984. “Product Semantics: Exploring the Symbolic Qualities of Form”. ‘The Journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America, 2’(3) -

Fig. 1 Black 201 Television by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper manufactured by Brionvega Sapper and Zanuso’s approach to this television set was to hide the curvature of the screen behind a dark but translucent fl at panel so that when turned off, it resembled a sculpture of pure rectilinear black plastic.

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Fig. 2 Carlton Bookcase by Ettore Sottsass for Memphis An example of postmodernism in design, Sottsass’s bookcase neither conformed to typical notions of layout nor materials. Its totemic stature and riotous coloured laminates still polarise opinion.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 33 3/9/09 8:10:14 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 1. Perception designers the confi dence to break new ground. Sottsass Semiotics describes three ways by which meaning 1.2 Value and the object (5) 1.3 Reading form talked of “opening a window upon a new landscape” , is communicated by signs. These are “denotation”, hinting at the poetic possibilities he wanted designers “connotation” and “myth”. In terms of objects, these to explore. Memphis also reaffi rmed the desperate need can be described as follows: denotation covers the for mainstream product design to have a lively avant- literal reading of it and includes recognition of the garde that is at once in opposition to it and yet provides object and anything it literally reminds us of, how it with a source of inspiration. it should be used, and how it may be misused (see pages 39–41). For example, most of the plastic [5.] - - - products manufactured by Alessi (fi g. 3, page 35) Sottsass E. In: Silva, H. SEMIOTIC STRUCTURES denote characters we might expect to fi nd in cartoons. “Memphis Has Left The Connotation refers to an object’s associative meaning. Building”. 2002. ‘New York The most useful description of the relationship Times’, 14 April This includes what its form, material, construction, between signs, objects and our interpretation of them - colour and texture might remind us of beyond came from the American father of semiotics, Charles the literal. This includes what social and cultural Sanders Pierce. Pierce proposed that there was a associations they suggest. A simple case would be that triangular relationship between “sign”, “object” and a tall, wooden pepper grinder connotes its owner’s “interpretant”. The sign is the actual thing being viewed aptitude for, particularly Italian, cooking. Finally, myth (be that a word, image or product), the object is the concerns the beliefs surrounding the object. These may article referred to by the sign and the interpretant is include stories surrounding its creation, who may have the viewer’s individual concept of the sign. Seeing the owned it or others like it, and what it has been used for. word “cup” (the sign), we think of a cup (the object) Myths are also created or perpetuated by advertising and we think of our interpretation of what a cup means and may or may not contain an element of truth. For to us (the interpretant). Seeing a picture of a cup is a example, the popular Moleskine notebook comes with different experience. The picture (the sign) makes us a small text containing information about the famous think of the specifi c cup depicted (the object) and again writers and artists who previously used them, said to we interpret that through the fi lter of our personal include Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and Hemingway. experience (the interpretant). Yet the company that currently produces them has no How we see signs – the means by which they are direct link (other than producing an identical-looking delivered – has an effect on our interpretation of them. notebook) with a manufacturer who would have When focusing on objects, there are subtle differences produced the books used by these famous individuals. in meaning that come from experiencing the same The notebooks sell at a higher price than their object described in different ways – through words, competitors thanks to this apparent provenance. images, or by seeing the object itself (this is the familiar A product is a sign, but the features of that product difference experienced by reading a story in a book and its individual components (and, in turn, their as opposed to watching it on fi lm). When looking at a features) are also signs. We access the meaning of product, we experience both the sign, and the object signs by comparing them to other signs within the to which the sign refers. However, if we are looking at same system. Consequently, if a sign changes, this has a prototype, it is the sign that we experience, but the a knock-on effect on the meaning of other signs. If we object it refers to is the fi nal product. see the same product for sale in a high-end retailer and subsequently, a budget retailer, the perceived value

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Fig. 3 Lilliput Fig. 4 Syntagmatic salt and pepper shakers and paradigmatic relation- These plastic products ships Using types of products manufactured by Alessi have for sitting as an example, this an overt, cartoon character- diagram shows some different like appearance, which could paradigms on the right-hand be read as a postmodern column (bean bag, bar stool, attempt to bring the brashness dining chair, arm chair) and of toys to the “serious” world the syntagems that defi ne of kitchen and tabletop them (seat, legs, back, arms). accessories. The diagram implies that adding or removing a synta- gem from an existing paradigm can create a new one.

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Fig. 5 Red and Fig. 6 Speed Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld camera sign The icon This chair emerged from used to signify speed limit Rietveld’s involvement with enforcement cameras on the De Stijl movement that Britain’s roads is oddly restricted the palette for anachronistic, referencing works of art and design to a medium-format camera. a minimum, concentrating upon horizontal and vertical arrangements of black, white and primary colours.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 36 3/9/09 8:10:17 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black of it is liable to drop simply through the associations Henry Dreyfuss in 1937, despite both public and private we make with its surroundings. Our senses or prior telephones changing their form substantially since. The knowledge tell us when two signs are the same, icon chosen to represent the roadside speed camera in completely different or different examples of the the UK was out of date as soon as it was introduced. same type. Semiotics identifi es the “same/different” The use of an icon depicting an old-fashioned medium comparator as “syntagmatic” and the “examples of format camera is almost enough to conjure up the type” comparator as “paradigmatic”. With these tools image of a man with a top hat appearing from under designers (often intuitively) assemble the elements a black cloth as offending cars speed by (fi g. 6, page of their creations (fi g. 4, page 35). 36). This mismatch between sign and product is due to the fact that some contemporary products do not The most explicit example of artists and designers have a commonly recognised “archetypal” form and intentionally cutting down their palette of formal the sign designer therefore looked into history for options was the work of the Dutch De Stijl movement. the last example. Meaning “the style” and surfacing in 1917, the movement’s leading lights were painter Piet Mondrian Products incorporating new technology, while often and designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld. Their work fi rst appearing in the form of other objects (radios, is markedly similar, with Rietveld’s famous Red and gramophones and television sets were built into pieces Blue chair (fi g. 5, page 36) being a Mondrian painting in of fi ne wooden furniture, mimicking drinks cabinets and three dimensions. Only its angled seat and back deviate the like) are particularly susceptible to reconfi guration from the grid of horizontal and vertical black or primary (fi g. 7, page 37). However, such is the tight hold of coloured elements – a small concession towards use. marketing upon the design of many products that boldness is often downplayed and blandness prevails. - - “Showing originality so as to win the marketing race is ARCHETYPES, ICONS AND DIFFERENTIATION a favourite refrain,” says designer Naoto Fukasawa, “but the fi xation with keeping a close eye on other products An “archetype” – a standard or classic example lined up on the store shelves results in the same kind conjured in the mind when an object type is mentioned of things being generated”. The approach of designing – is rarely, if ever, based on one specifi c object but is “different but not too different” products is justifi ed by formed through amalgamating experiences of seeing the alibi of recognition. On the one hand designers can many of the same kind. These are distilled into a underestimate the public’s intelligence and curiosity, collective “architecture of the typical”. We are also producing banal, patronising objects. On the other, aware of a set of icons that denote object types. The in their desire to reinvent and innovate, they are in most common ones that appear on public signage can danger of overestimating consumer understanding bear little or no resemblance to the actual devices to and changing the fundamental signs that allow us which they refer. This is because although these icons to recognise products. evolve, they often do so more slowly than the products they signify. For example, the icon used to denote the telephone is still modelled on the layout designed by

Fig. 7 Spot the odd one out Insuffi cient differentiation can cause frustration as we reach for the wrong remote or discover we’ve picked up our mobile instead.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 37 3/26/09 10:23:05 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 1. Perception Designer Robin Levien describes this balance as one of achieved this in their design for a DVD projector 1.2 Value and the object 1.3 Reading form fi nding “the extraordinary within the framework of the for Epson. By using the icon of an old reel-to-reel ordinary.” What a designer thinks is patently obvious cine-projector rather than contemporary projector may not be so in the eyes of the consumer. Levien cites layouts, IF were able to communicate the product’s some pebble-shaped dining plates he designed that purpose instantly while still styling the product to feel were not immediately recognised as such (fi g. 8, page contemporary. The design avoids being “retro” because 38): “You have to remember we’ve had 12,000 years it is not a literal replica of a cine-projector. Instead of of round plates – there’s quite a precedent for them. its form following function, it follows understanding When you make one that’s a funny shape people don’t through the collective memory of the archetype. really understand it’s a plate. We depend upon the [9.] - consumer to understand what it is that we’re doing… - - Levien, R. 2008. [Personal We can get it wrong sometimes by pushing things ‘too AFFORDANCE communication]. 26 March extraordinary’ within the framework of the ordinary. - In negotiating spaces and using objects, physicality [10.] - I suppose we’d rather be there than at the ordinary channels behaviour. While references to archetypal Norman, D. 2002. ‘The Design end. But if you push the extraordinary at the expense of Everyday Things’. New York: form help us to identify products, our ability to navigate of marketability you would have to close up shop. Basic Books unaided how objects are used is driven by “affordances”. -You’ve got to get this balance going on.” (9) In the sale The term “affordance” was coined by psychologist of tabletop homewares, Levien points out that there’s James Gibson and refers to the clues with which an rarely someone explaining the products, so they must object reveals its use: “Plates are for pushing. Knobs speak for themselves. A product has to appear close are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. enough to what the buyer is expecting for them to feel Balls are for throwing or bouncing,” as Donald Norman comfortable that they are looking at the right object. explains in ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, “When If the product sits outside of this framework of affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows the ordinary, recognition is under threat. Once the what to do just by looking: no picture or instruction is boundaries of that framework are understood, the required…When simple things need pictures, labels, or designers can work on ideas that will be appealing instructions, the design has failed.” (10) without breaking out from it. Affordances are provided both by what the product Sadly, much product design fails to deliver anything allows us to do, and what it reminds us of having done. of value, even within the framework of the ordinary. That is, they are derived from what Norman calls Far from defi ning archetypes, bland products shift “knowledge in the world” and “knowledge in the head”. form gradually, each borrowing and differentiating The designer Jasper Morrison explains thus: “The within tight bounds. The iconic nature of archetypal instinctive knowledge of how to use something can forms and the clarity and directness with which they be suggested in a design, through shape most often, communicate can cut through this reciprocal pastiche but also through memory of other things that looked (fi g. 9, page 39). Designers at Industrial Facility or behaved similarly, even if the end result is

Fig. 8 Isola tableware range by Studio Levien for Costa Verde Designer Robin Levien describes a fi ne balance between what, to the designer, may appear to be small changes (going from a round to a pebble-shaped dining plate) and something that is enough to plant doubt in the mind of the customer.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 38 3/9/09 8:10:29 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black different.” (11) As the form of an object affords us more purposeful than simply discovering and misusing the understanding of its use, by borrowing form from what was already there, requiring the appropriation recognisable places, the way to use new products can of another object. The fi nal image of a CD used as a be made clear and a resonance set up. refl ector raises the question, “from which direction was the problem tackled?” Rather than seeing the problem Affordance is one of a number of concepts useful to and looking for an object to solve it, it is perhaps more designers that emerge from understanding how the likely that upon discovering a scuffed CD, the person brain makes decisions, the study of which is part of considered to what use it could best be put. This “cognitive science”. Another is the provision of feedback highlights the potential of objects themselves to inspire – notifi cation that once an action has been taken, it has designers. All the examples display the observation had an effect. In simple mechanical devices, feedback of objects, consideration of their properties, and a is often clear (we turn a handle, a door opens), but projection of their possible uses – the three most electronic products (the area of design upon which essential tools of a design education. cognitive science has focused most attention) actions can produce invisible results, and feedback must be The fact that much design activity comprises of specifi cally built in. For example, the pressing of a choosing from catalogues of existing components, button that sends an electronic pulse around a circuit rather than shaping them anew, is often overlooked. board requires visible or audible feedback to register There is, after all, no point in reinventing the wheel. The that our command has been actioned. same rigour that goes into considering form, structure, use, meaning etc. of newly designed components must [11.] - - - go into the choice of those selected “off-the-shelf.” Morrison, J. In: Fukasawa, IMPROVISATION AND APPROPRIATION While not implying a make-do-and-mend approach, this N. 2007. ‘Naoto Fukasawa’. activity is nonetheless improvisation of a sort. London: Phaidon As well as allowing us to understand how objects are - [12.] - used, affordances can enable their intentional misuse. Both at home and in the factory, when resources are Jencks, S. and Silver, N. 1973. When we are looking for a solution to a problem tight, improvisation increases. Wartime rationing ‘Adhocism – The Case for presented by our daily activities, we look at the forms brought a wealth of creative solutions to the resulting Improvisation’. New York: Anchor Books around us and see if they afford us an answer. These shortages supporting the axiom, “necessity is the -images by James Bartlett (fi g. 10, page 40), inspired mother of invention”. The “ad-hoc” – meaning “for by the photography of artist Richard Wentworth this” (specifi c need or purpose) – could even be the (fi g. 11, page 41), show the ways in which people central tool in a philosophy of life according to writer have improvised to solve bicycle-related problems. Charles Jencks and architect Nathan Silver. Their The carrier – by luck rather than intention – provides book ‘Adhocism – The Case for Improvisation’ charts the perfect fi t for a cup of coffee. The cables offer the history and potential of tackling problems using themselves as a newspaper holder. A shopping basket whatever is to hand, and in the most direct way, in art, is appropriated to become a bicycle basket, a torch is design and architecture. It presents improvisation as taped on for lighting and a plastic bottle is fashioned into a mudguard. These latter three examples are

Fig. 9 DVD projector by Industrial Facility for Epson IF’s projector avoids associations with typical offi ce projectors by using an upright layout that borrows from the archeytpe of the cine-projector.

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Fig. 10 Bicycle Adhocism photographed by James Bartlett These images show improvisation with the bicycle itself (to hold coffee and a newspaper) and bicycle accessories improvised from other objects.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 40 3/9/09 8:10:30 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black a tool for social liberation. By shunning bureaucratic The project by designer Antonio Cos entitled organisations and the red tape they create, change, they Embouteillage (fi g. 13, page 42) shows both pragmatic say, can be wrought through direct action. “Shaping and poetic improvisations using a standard wine bottle. the local environment towards desired ends is a key Of the project he says: “The wine bottle “bordelaise” is to mental health; the present environment, blank and a common object that everybody knows about… More unresponsive, is a key to idiocy and brainwashing.” (12) than its contents, I’m interested in the container. What is a bottle? Which geometrical characteristics does it Improvisation has its aesthetic qualities and these have? What is it used for? When we don’t have a rolling have been used variously to contrast opulence and pin at home, we generally use a bottle; it’s one of those express dissent. Surrealist art and the youth cultures “clichés” where an object is used in a manner different of hippies and punks are just a few examples. In art to its real purpose. From a container, it becomes a and design, the component knowingly selected to roller to fl atten the dough. I used, on the one hand, contribute signifi cantly to the character of the end the physical characteristics of the bottle to re-propose result becomes elevated to the status of the “ready- different types of rolling pins. On the other hand, I made” (see pages 64–65). It has become most used as explored the expressive and geometrical characteristic a means of prompting connections between the object’s of the “bordelaise” proposing a typical ready-made and original use and its new context, exercising within the conserving the icon of the bottle.” (14) viewer the same creativity with which they themselves improvise. Rather than simply denoting their original [13.] - - - Picasso, P. In: Golding Dr. purpose, ready-mades, like other means of constructing J. and Penrose, Sir R. 1973. form, have the potential for representation, as this ‘Picasso in Retrospect.’ New Picasso anecdote concerning his best known ready- York: Praeger and Picasso, P. In: Ashton, D. 1972. ‘Picasso made piece Tête de Taureau (Bull’s Head) (fi g. 12, page on Art. A Selection of Views.’ 41) illustrates: “One day I found in a pile of jumble an London: Thames & Hudson old bicycle saddle next to some rusted handlebars. I - [14.] - put one on top of the other and I made a bull’s head. Cos, A. 2008. [Personal Well and good. But what I should have done was to communication] 10 February throw away the bull’s head... Then a worker would - have passed by. He’d have picked it up. And he’d have found that, perhaps, he could make a bicycle seat and handlebars with that bull’s head. And he’d have done it. That would have been magnifi cent. That’s the gift of metamorphosis.” (13)

Fig. 11 Islington, Fig. 12 Tête de London, 1976 by Richard Taureau by Pablo Picasso Wentworth Wentworth’s Picasso’s bull’s head ongoing series of photographs shows the representational ‘Making Do and Getting possibilities of the ready- By’ have infl uenced many made – what do you see designers to look more fi rst – bicycle components closely at the way objects or horns and a head? are misused, recognising the freedom this expresses.

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Fig. 13 Embouteillage The project Embouteillage by Antonio Cos explores the popular misuse of a wine bottle as a rolling pin and other ways in which it may be co-opted.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 42 3/9/09 8:10:40 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - Although chiefl y aimed at those dealing with the METAPHOR electronic object, Dunne’s criticism sounds a valid Although common in art and the niche markets of note of caution to all product designers. We must high design, it is rare to fi nd ready-mades in mass ask whether the metaphors we are considering production. However, it is common for components are “appropriate” and remain open enough to allow to be redesigned in their image. More common still individual interpretation. Will products such as is the strategy of designing “otherness” into new Alessi’s Lilliput cruet set (see page 35) in which products – metaphors that reshape them away from the salt and pepper characters “cry” their ingredients, the archetype. While the machine aesthetic was in and the Woofer speakers by Sander Mulder (fi g. 16, effect a metaphor for technological progress, as page 44) in which sound emanates from the severed was “streamlining”, it was not until the postmodern heads of ceramic dogs, offer a sustained sense of era and the exploration of product semantics that connection or will our initial smile wear off? metaphor took centre stage. As the skin of a product Used with care and intelligence, the metaphor has its broke free from its working parts it became acceptable place in product design. When working for Thompson for designers to explore representative possibilities Multimedia in France, designer Matali Crasset set directed by lifestyle as well as usability. Alessi in Italy about redesigning their range of audio and audio- branded themselves “the dream factory” while students visual equipment under the art direction of Philippe of the design department of Cranbrook Academy near Starck. Their approach was radical, steering away Detroit produced the most celebrated examples under from traditional forms, layouts and colours. Most the tutelage of Michael and Katherine McCoy. The of Crasset’s designs avoided literal translation in Book Computer (fi g. 14, page 43) by D.M. Gresham exchange for metaphorical forms such as the cone powerfully symbolised the importance of computing used in the Soundstation radio alarm to represent a to Corporate America with its skyscraper-like façade, blast of sound (fi g. 17, page 44). Their bold approach while Lisa Krohn’s Phonebook telephone answering produced some classic designs still on sale today, but machine (fi g. 15, page 43) merged with its instruction it wasn’t without its problems. Crasset remembers manual to promote ease of use. In spite of this, the the team’s attempts to reference high culture with a approach is not without its critics. “Such literal use of radio infl uenced by a sculpture of a head by Constantin analogy results in metaphors with a single meaning” Brancusi. When the reference was missed by Thompson explains Anthony Dunne, head of Design Interactions [15.] - employees (the prototype was nicknamed “the Dunne, A. 1999. ‘Hertzian Tales: at London’s Royal College of Art. “Products depict mouse”), Crasset realised it was a step too far. “The Electronic products, aesthetic what they do, limiting the viewer’s interpretation of problem was we were pushing a little bit too fast. The experience and critical design.’ the electronic object to the designer’s and although London: RCA Computer Related market was not yet ready for products like this. At the Design Research sometimes the link made between groups of objects time, everything else was black boxes. Sales staff… -is ingenious, the power of these borrowed images were used to speaking about the picture and the sound. [16.] - to sustain interest is weak – they are the material Crasset, M. 2006. ‘Matali They had to start speaking about the design, so they Crasset’ in ‘Icon’ magazine equivalent of one-liners. Once the viewer has grasped were lost.” (16) October p.165 the connection there is little else to engage with.” (15) - - -

Fig. 14 Book Fig. 15 Phonebook Computer by D.M. Gresham telephone answering machine with Hel Rinkleib Gresham’s by Lisa Krohn with Tucker computer literally celebrates Viemeister Krohn’s answering the corporate structures it is machine uses metaphor intended to serve. to explain its use, each page offering instructions. However, it has been noted that such heavily applied analogies discourage our own interpretations.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 43 3/26/09 10:28:54 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 1. Perception - - From wherever it is derived, the importance of 1.2 Value and the object THE IMPORTANCE AND UNIMPORTANCE OF FORM 1.3 Reading form form as the chief communicating element in design Concentration upon meaning must not come at the cannot be denied. Most signifi cantly, it is a research expense of ensuring effectiveness in the multifarious medium in which designers engage in dialogue with roles in which the object must perform. Peter Dormer the public and with other designers. A fervent avant- has written that: “More and more debate about design garde investigating the most appropriate form for has turned into a debate analogous to literary criticism; the products of our time is a vital life force coursing we ask ourselves ‘what does a design mean’ and not through the profession, even if its ideas are slow to ‘what does it do’. And in concentrating on meaning we reach a mass audience (if they ever do). The problem lose ourselves in words; the actual object is left behind is not so much the over-concentration upon form, but and it escapes a proper audit on matters such as how that so much of it is unadventurous. We are yet to well it wears, what it feels like, even how safe it is.” (17) explore fully the ways in which forms and materials can refl ect our fragile reality rather than our fi ctional “The formal appearance of an object need not be the perfection. As new high-tech materials replace the old result of hours of careful analysis of the problem or we are losing enduring qualities of wear and patina. pages of drawings” says Jasper Morrison (18). “It Rapid prototyping technologies – initially used to aid could be the visual consequence of an idea, a process, product development – are being turned towards a material, a function or a feeling. Then again, it could producing fi nished products. Yet some of these arrive in the shape of a borrowed form or a stolen techniques produce a stilted materiality, which offers object. There can be no moral objection to this if the nothing of the dynamism of many industrial production result contains something that wasn’t there before…So methods and some designers are still overcoming their describing the designer as a form-giver is inaccurate; he desire to make previously impossible shapes simply may be this but not only this and the less he concerns because technology now enables them to do so. himself with creating form the better for all of us.” [17.] - In the media frenzy surrounding design, this advice - - Dormer, P. 1990. ‘Meaning of Modern Design’. London: has fallen upon deaf ears and form has become a tool Thames & Hudson some designers are using to generate recognition for -themselves as brands. By feeding the press with images [18.] - Morrison, J. 1991. The of consistently similar-looking products designed for “Unimportance of Form”, different manufacturers, they defi ne a set of forms that ‘Ottagono’ No. 100 become identifi ed as their own. Although far from being - alone, New York-based Karim Rashid is an example – the voluptuous, waisted form of his successful Garbo waste-paper basket (fi g. 18, page 45) reappearing in salt and pepper shakers, vases, sinks and keepsake urns, all for different clients.

Fig. 16 Woofer Fig. 17 Soundstation speakers by Sander Mulder radio alarm by Matali Crasset Although its designer manufactured by Thompson claims to have transformed Multimedia Less literal than a grotesque object into a many of the designs pictured, desirable one through the Soundstation redefi nes the addition of a function, the typology around a three image presented by this dimensional blast of sound. speaker is, nevertheless, a dog with a severed head.

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Fig. 18 Garbo waste-paper basket by Karim Rashid, manufactured by Umbra The shape of Garbo has become something of a signature for Karim Rashid, its “waisted” form appearing in a number of his other products.

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- - 2.1 Conforming, reforming or contesting 48 - 2.2 Defi ning approaches 50 - 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 52 - 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour 62 - 2.5 Social inclusion 82 - 2.6 Materials and processes 92 - 2.7 Technological innovation 106 - 2.8 Ethics 116 - 2.9 Sustainability 126 - 2.10 Participation 130 - 2.11 Strategies and services 138 - 2.12 Design for debate 142

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 47 3/9/09 8:11:02 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.1 2. Motivation - - - - 2.1 Conforming, reforming or contesting CONFORMING, REFORMING OR CONTESTING In his introduction to the catalogue for the 1972 New 2.2 Defi ning approaches York Museum of Modern Art exhibition, ‘Italy: The New “That creativity is the foundation of their work is the Domestic Landscape’, its curator Emilio Ambasz wrote: faith that motivates all designers. To exist at all as a “Italy has become a micro-model in which a wide range designer, a belief in at least a modicum of personally of the possibilities, limitations and critical issues of possessed creative ability is as necessary as it is for contemporary design are brought into sharp focus.” (2) a bricklayer to have confi dence in his capability of Ambasz described this model as revealing three ways laying a straight course of bricks.” (1) in which designers approach their subject. He proposed Beyond this core belief in creative ability, they either conform to, wish to reform, or utterly the motivations of individual designers vary contest the systems that have shaped society thus considerably. A fog of intertwining factors, both far. These descriptors are still useful for discerning selfi sh and selfl ess, contributes to the behaviour. differences between practitioners’ ideologies today. The practical need to earn a living and the altruistic Conformists “do not question the sociocultural context wish to improve society mingle in the mind with the in which they work [or if they do, they choose not to desire for recognition and, in some cases, for fame. challenge it], but instead continue to refi ne already However, specifi c sets of ideas and principles also established forms and functions. Their work…is mainly have a defi ning effect on particular designers’ work concerned with exploring the aesthetic quality of single and this chapter examines how these shape the objects…that answer the traditional needs of domestic objects they bring into the world. life.” (3) Within these acts of product refi nement, designers may well propose innovative solutions in - - function, form or use of materials and technologies, but these remain within the traditional confi nes of the consumer product – that it is recognisable, appealing and hence marketable, and able to be manufactured at the right price. Reformists, Ambasz says, are “motivated by a profound concern for the designer’s role in a society that fosters consumption as one means of inducing individual happiness, thereby ensuring social stability.”

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 48 3/9/09 8:11:02 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black However, they are, he suggests, “unable to reconcile Those in the fi nal category (“in contest” with the the confl icts between their social concerns and their system) share the concerns of the reformists but do professional practices”. Ambasz paints a picture of not wish to participate in making change “from within”. a somewhat disaffected group who use irony and They react not by generating products to be consumed, rhetoric in “recharging known forms with altered but by proposing alternative models of behaviour, meanings”. Rather than being the refuge of the through written or visual communication. (4) Objects defeatist, this category should also include those may form part of an exhibit describing a new way of who design optimistically, while fully aware that their living, acting like props in an unseen performance, but individual actions are unlikely to bring about wholesale are not intended to be purchased. change. Their active and pointed practice is aimed Where the lines are drawn between these categories at fi ghting certain injustices or inequalities through – in particular between conformists and reformists engagement with industry and the marketplace. By – will be a matter of irresolvable debate. The notion tackling emerging issues such as the ageing population that to innovate might be considered “conformist” will, or sustainability, some reformists have picked up the no doubt, upset some designers. However, it can be gauntlet thrown down by critics like Victor Papanek. argued that “the norm” is the continual incremental Others try to engage the public in subtle and charming development of everyday objects (what remains of ways with products that use poetic metaphor and modernism’s pursuit of progress) and that, if innovation celebratory or witty gestures – methods adopted stays within certain limits, it ought to be viewed that from literature for an audience used to “ad-speak”. way. Some conformists naturally try to promote their innovations as being radical because it suits their profi le to do so. To be truly reformist is to innovate in ways not usually attempted by the mainstream, or to take intentionally “off message” approaches in order to explore new territory. The reader may like to consider the design work in this chapter in the light of these descriptors – I will leave it to you to consider which labels best suit the work you fi nd here.

[1.] - - - Black, M. In: Heskett, J. 1980. ‘Industrial Design’. Oxford: Oxford University Press - [2. 3.] - Ambasz, E. 1972. ‘Italy: The New Domestic Landscape’. New York: MOMA - [4.] - Ambasz’s description actually split the “in contest” group into two: those who fl atly refuse to engage with the market and those who undertake what he called “active critical participation”, but here, for the sake of clarity, those whose contesting is played out through the market are considered reformist. -

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 49 3/9/09 8:11:02 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.2 2. Motivation - - - - 2.1 Conforming, reforming or contesting DEFINING APPROACHES Rather than considering design for different types 2.2 Defi ning approaches of products separately, approaches to design are The remainder of this chapter on designers’ 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement recognised and discussed in order to show that they motivation offers an overview of prevalent and are often transferable across genres of products. emerging approaches to product design. It is not a For example, one might take the approach of examining taxonomy of all approaches currently or historically material, process and technological innovation in in use, focusing instead on contemporary ones the design of homewares, but this would be equally considered worthy of note. It does not favour applicable to vehicle design. commercial achievement as it is felt this would exclude new approaches yet to make their mark Any form of categorisation is liable to offend, and or those that do not judge themselves upon their designers – those who so often enjoy thinking success in the market. Instead, the choice of “outside the box” – are particularly loath to be put approaches discussed here aims to level the in one. To do so tends to focus on only one area of playing fi eld of intellectual engagement in the their work, while seemingly ignoring others. Some profession – to give equal weight to ways of designers are specialists, exploring and refi ning one working that do not share equal commercial approach whereas others are generalists, acquainting potential, media coverage or promotion within themselves with many genres of design and product education, yet have much to offer in terms of types, and attacking them from different angles. Even their cultural, ethical and intellectual input. suggesting that their work emerges from an ideology is too fi xed for some, fearing inference of a closed- - - minded approach to new methods or an insidious political undercurrent. By way of a disclaimer, it is therefore important to stress that work featured here under a particular heading by no means implies that the designer works solely in this way. The proposed categories are also not necessarily mutually exclusive and may overlap like a Venn diagram. For example, one may combine material, process and technological innovation with an ethical and sustainable approach, despite the two being discussed separately here.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 50 3/9/09 8:11:02 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black There has been, since industrial design began as a on a new way of living and fewer still pursue this as profession, a gradual maturing of conceptual ideas, a brief. That design is increasingly being shown in art analogous to that which has occurred in the art world. galleries as well as on the high street is met in some As art has developed beyond fi guration, exploring quarters with bemusement or derision. In short, as a deeper and more challenging territory, designers society, we are yet to make the leap of faith that design have gone from being the packagers of engineering does not require a translator – a mouthpiece, be they to developing a holistic understanding of products. journalist, critic or curator – to validate its role. Objects They have acquired human-centred perspectives, themselves communicate their creator’s views on embraced cognitive science and warned us of the society and culture. All we need to do is to meet what potential applications for technologies beyond our they offer with open and questioning minds. control. Design has stepped into the envisioning of new Author’s note: In the following section, along with business directions and ways in which consumers can examples of work from others, I occasionally use become more involved in shaping their surroundings. examples of products I have designed myself. In doing Through all these changes, design has not lost touch so, I make no special claim for their importance as with the physical substance of the object itself and design objects. They are shown because they illustrate the refi nement and exploration of new forms. the approaches being discussed and, as the designer, Again, like art, design has an avant-garde that is ahead they provide a primary source of reference I am most of the public’s understanding, appearing mysterious. (1) equipped to explain. Like the record-head of a tape deck, designers lay down [1.] - new ideas, breaking new ground. From the play-head - - Dormer, P. 1990. ‘Meanings alongside it, the public pick up and assimilate those of Modern Design’. London: Thames & Hudson ideas. But unlike a tape deck, the record and play-heads -of culture can become separated. Ideas can be “ahead of their time”, meaning insuffi cient knowledge exists among the general public to interpret them confi dently. Many people are not used to looking for culture in domestic products – it is as if they are conscious of art, music, theatre etc yet the signals sent by our everyday objects are only absorbed subconsciously. Few fully grasp the notion that a new product can be a mini essay

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 51 3/9/09 8:14:03 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.3 2. Motivation - - as the profession has grown and stratifi ed, designers 2.2 Defi ning approaches 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement AESTHETIC REFINEMENT have become able to choose to work in areas (such 2.4 Collective memory as tableware, furniture and home accessories) where With the exterior design of products carrying and behaviour aesthetic refi nement can legitimately be seen as the so much weight in conferring status upon them, central aspect of their projects. When functionality and infl uencing sales and eliciting emotional responses complex components are reduced to a minimum in the from people, it follows that a great deal of energy design of, say, a fruit bowl as opposed to a camera, the is chanelled into exploring and refi ning product intuitive, formal aspects of design (“styling”) naturally aesthetics. This section examines the nature become the focus of the designer’s activity. In the of product styling, identifying the infl uence of case of the camera, its functional requirements (to be scientifi c and technological progress and revealing comfortable to hold, clear and easy to adjust etc.) must contemporary theories used by designers to defi ne be considered alongside, and in sympathy with, its form. languages and nuances of form. A surface-based approach would be an abdication of responsibility. It is this that Loewy’s critics sensed. - - THE RISE OF THE STYLIST Designers, who primarily deal in the aesthetic refi nement of simple, low-tech products, are unlikely to Although emerging from theatre design and window fi nd the label of stylist particularly hurtful. It becomes dressing, the fi rst industrial designers to practice in a derogative when applied to those who have designed America in the late 1920s set up as consultants, taking products with a degree of functional or technical their lead from the previously established role of the complexity, where the exterior form appears to have advertising agent. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, taken undue precedence. By concentrating upon the that the fi gure to attract most attention to this new aspect of the object that is fi rst seen, and not those profession became known more for his salesmanship that are discovered through use, the designer attracts than his integrity. Frenchman Raymond Loewy – once accusations of putting style before substance. As this quoted as saying: “The most beautiful curve is a fi rst viewing often takes place at the point of sale, the rising sales graph” (1) – beautifi ed everything from stylist has become compared to the pushy salesman, a duplicating machine to a spaceship interior via the hoping customers will be seduced enough not to ask Coke bottle and the Greyhound bus. In spite of this, any awkward practical questions. Loewy, like his the followers of modernism in Europe, considered present-day heirs Ross Lovegrove and Karim Rashid themselves to be developing a more cerebral approach (who have most appropriately attracted the stylist to design, and so did not hold Loewy and his American label) did little to avoid this comparison, displaying contemporaries in high regard, dismissing them as mere considerable charisma but an alarming lack of humility. “stylists”. These European designers, many of who were trained architects, believed product design should be more than skin-deep and were not impressed by what they saw as a surface-oriented approach. However,

Fig. 1 Kodak Baby Fig. 2 Kodak Brownie camera, 1928 Bantam Special camera The forms of Teague’s (1936–1948) The art deco Baby Brownie are distinctly detailing of the Bantam architectural. Special, like the Brownie, can be seen in buildings of the period, especially cinemas.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 52 3/9/09 8:14:04 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black While designers who work beyond as well as on the “the closer one gets to the public or home, the greater surface of products are understandably upset when the need for the stylist to intercede with a repertoire a stylist’s apparently less rigorous work eclipses their of visual good manners.” (4) Dormer’s eloquent own, the skill with which the stylist talks is often description of exterior form as an object’s “manners” grudgingly admired. The legitimate stylist works in is useful. Manners are culture-specifi c and constantly [1.] - the realm of intuitive decisions, infl ecting forms with evolving. What is considered polite in one situation Loewy, R. In: Offi cial Website of Raymond Loewy. 2003 subtle nuances that may not be consciously noticed may be embarrassingly out of place in another. As with [online]. [Accessed 26th by the consumer but are nonetheless felt. Such manners, so with objects. We may choose to surround January 2009]. Available intangible work is diffi cult to pin down with words. ourselves with objects of pedigree, displaying the latest on World Wide Web: is the reason designers have a reputation for “bullshit”: pedantic in relation to function. The same applies when -“In discussing design with their clients, designers are designers choose their approach to the practice of [2.] - Bierut, M. 2007. 79 direct about the functional parts of their solutions and design. Some cultivate a personal style that they bring ‘Short Essays on Design’. New obfuscate like mad about the intuitive parts, having to all projects. Others fi nd such a prospect stifl ing, York: Princeton Architectural learned early on that telling the simple truth – ‘I don’t instead looking to discover an appropriate aesthetic Press (2) -know, I just like it that way’ – simply won’t do.” direction within the journey of the project; while some [3.] - still fi nd the prospect of engaging in highly detailed Perhaps talking about the fi ner points of product styling The quotation “Talking about consideration of the correctness or otherwise of music is like dancing is, to paraphrase a famous quotation (3), like dancing a curve or a radius obsessive, even self-indulgent, about architecture” has no about architecture – there are things we can only clear source and has been sidetracking them from the bigger problems their experience through sight and touch and that cannot be attributed to a number of well- skills might address. known fi gures including artist adequately expressed in words. However, while words Laurie Anderson and musician may be lacking – and when used, invite the accusation Yet today, as in the last century, there are a number of Elvis Costello. -of “bullshit” – the eloquent stylist, rather than leading practitioners known for their refi ned treatment [4.] - deceiving their client, can at least attempt to capture of product aesthetics who are more than willing to Dormer, P. 1990. ‘Meanings their intentions. defend their approach. Many of these designers will of Modern Design.’ London: Thames & Hudson also be acting beyond the surface, looking to improve -- - any number of other factors, often with the help VISUAL GOOD MANNERS of product engineers. However, primarily they are lauded for an apparent ability to elevate the value of Not everything requires styling to be successful – objects through the studied and sensitive handling of the tools used in various industries, for example, will the concept, proportion and detail of product form. largely be bought on the results they achieve, not the “Styling”, with its pejorative air, is no longer a useful impressions they evoke – but as Peter Dormer tells us, catch-all. The best of today’s aestheticians are anything but shallow in their thinking. Many have very different

Fig. 3 Smoothie travel iron by C. Kerr, N. Lucas, E. Lucas, and H. Holder, manufactured by Lucas Holder & Co (1946) As a metaphor for progress, streamlining entered the home and was applied to products where effectiveness in the wind tunnel was redundant, such as in this travel iron with its locomotive-like styling.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 53 3/9/09 8:14:05 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation ideas about how product aesthetics should be defi ned. More recently, the discovery and mapping of DNA 2.2 Defi ning approaches 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement This prompts us to ask, “On what grounds do these and other advances in biological science have proved 2.4 Collective memory designers justify their choice of formal language?” infl uential with designers applying human, animal and behaviour and “How do they defi ne beauty in everyday objects?” or molecular forms to products. This was not a new

source; the art nouveau of the 1920s – characterised by - - the work of Hector Guimard and Louis Comfort Tiffany THE AESTHETICS OF PROGRESS (fi gs 4 and 5, page 54) – drew its inspiration from nature, but tended to be more decorative and heavily It is possible to pinpoint a number of methodologies in detailed than its more recent incarnation. However, just use by those designers adept at aesthetic refi nement. as there was a difference between using streamlining The most common is to construct a design language to improve effi ciency (by reducing drag on vehicles) and from visual cues mined from contemporary symbols using it purely for stylistic effect, a similar distinction of progress. In the 1930s, when the skyscraper was exists here. The discipline of borrowing structures and considered the height of technological advance, its processes from nature to solve man’s problems (of vertical lines began appearing in products. The art which streamlining was an early example) is called deco period also brought horizontal detailing and both biomimicry. (5) However, many product designers styles can be seen in cameras designed for Kodak working with natural form appear to be doing so largely by Loewy’s contemporary, Walter Dorwin Teague for aesthetic reasons. (fi gs 1 and 2, page 52). Loewy himself rode the next wave of infl uence as long-distance train travel and The most visible fi gures in this fi eld are German- intercontinental fl ight became de rigueur and he born Luigi Colani and his acknowledged protégé, helped defi ne what became known as “Stream-form”. Welshman Ross Lovegrove. Both have named their Streamlined forms derived from the science of the approaches (Colani “Biodesign” and Lovegrove “Organic wind tunnel were applied to products, many of which Essentialism”) and express deference to nature’s [5.] - were going nowhere fast, such as the travel iron (fi g. 3, skill at building economical and beautiful forms. The Biomimicry Institute. 2008 [online]. [Accessed 26th page 53). The splitting of the atom and the prospect of Nevertheless, in the way those forms are applied – to January 2009]. Available space travel were among the formal infl uences of the televisions, chaise-longues, tea services, (fi g. 6, page from World Wide Web: -on astronauts’ helmets and lunar landing pad feet to see how they offer more effi cient solutions than appeared on furniture. the geometric. Lovegrove’s Go chair (fi g. 7, page 55), besides its elegance, is sold on its use of magnesium rather than aluminium, thereby cutting its weight by 40 per cent, is in fact a similar weight to the die-cast

Fig. 4 Hector Fig. 5 Jack-in-the- Guimard, ironwork for Paris pulpit vase by Louis Comfort Metro Guimard’s famous Tiffany Son of the founder designs for the Paris Metro, of Tiffany & Company and although heavily stylised, designer of the Tiffany lamp, clearly allude to natural forms. Louis Comfort Tiffany became renowned for his use of stained glass.

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Fig. 6 Drop tea Fig. 7 Go chair service by Luigi Colani by Ross Lovegrove manu- manufactured by Rosenthal factured by Bernhardt The teardrop form of Luigi Like Colani, Ross Lovegrove Colani’s teapot for Rosenthal favours organic forms over the is a typical example of his geometric as an underlying “biodesign” style. approach running throughout his work.

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Fig. 8 Chair One by Konstantin Grcic manufactured by Magis After designing Chair One, its angular aesthetic was interpreted as Grcic’s “style”, although later projects have proved this is not the case, the designer instead allowing the aesthetic of each project to emerge as appropriate to its various requirements.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 56 3/9/09 8:14:15 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black aluminium Chair One by Konstantin Grcic (fi g. 8, page production of organic form is diffi cult and expensive 56). In Lovegrove’s chair, the form itself is not sparing compared to the production of the geometric – unless enough in its use of material for the magnesium to guided otherwise, saws like to cut straight lines, make it signifi cantly lighter than its competitor. Grcic’s milling machines mill straight slots and so on. In effi cient use of material happened to be applied other cases there is little difference and in others still, to geometric form, rather than organic, but this is such as when using glass and ceramics, the organic incidental. Just as in the “baroque versus geometric form is easier to produce. Such realities point to an form” debate explained on page 23, either treatment approach whereby style could be determined, at could be used – to argue that one style is functionally least in part, by the tools to be used. A style in tune better is a red herring. If the aim were weight reduction with its manufacture can emerge, rather than being – as was apparently the case here – the results are predetermined. However, there will always be personal measurable in kilograms. This begs the question, if preferences among designers and Colani and Lovegrove geometric form can be used just as effectively as have faith in the notion that we must remake our organic form in the design of products, can either be surroundings in nature’s image: “The earth is round, argued as being intrinsically “correct”? all the heavenly bodies are round; they all move on round or elliptical orbits. This same image of circular, The key argument for organic style is that we have globe-shaped, mini-worlds orbiting around each other innate empathy with it. Theoretical physicist John D. follows us right down to the microcosmos. We are even Barrow demonstrates that our survival instincts still aroused by round forms in species propagation-related affect our fi rst aesthetic preferences (very young eroticism. Why should I join the straying mass who children, given the choice of images of different want to make everything angular? I am going to pursue landscapes, consistently chose the African savannah, Galileo Galilei’s philosophy: my world is also round.” (8) from where humans are said to have emerged). (6) Yet Barrow also reveals that as we get older and we [6. 7.] - - - experience other environments, this affects our choice: Barrow, J. D. 1997. ‘The Artful IN SEARCH OF AUTHENTICITY Universe’. London: Penguin “Our aesthetic preferences are a fusion of instinct Books and experience…A taste for the avant-garde or the There is a difference in approach between those - (7) [8.] - abstract is a fruit of experience overriding instinct.” designers who fully accept, embrace and explore the Colani, L. In: ‘Colani Trading It appears we are able to override an instinctive desire abstraction of the object from its technical, functional AG.’ 2007 [online]. [Accessed towards the organic should we so choose. and manufacturing roots, and those who search for a 26th January 2009]. Available sense of authenticity. Even if this authenticity can be from World Wide Web: viewed as an artifi cial construct, the illusion of it can decisions, or a specifi c object under discussion, - be valuable. Modernist theories and the rationalising of talking hypothetically about style preferences gets us manufacture provide us with some of the tools of this nowhere. However, it is important to recognise that authenticity, in particular the harnessing of geometric style has a practical relationship to manufacturing. For form. Proportional systems such as the golden section, example, with certain manufacturing processes, the (fi g. 9, page 57) described by Greek mathematician Euclid in 300BC and used in painting for centuries, appeared in modernist architect Le Corbusier’s working

Fig. 9 The Golden Section/Mean/Ratio When splitting a line at the Golden Section, the ratio between the shorter part (X), and the longer part (Y) is the same as the ratio between the longer part (Y), and the complete line (Z). To create a rectangle using the Golden Section the same system is applied where the shorter line is used for width and the longer for height or vice versa. By splitting such a rectangle along its longer axis at the Golden Section, a square and another smaller Golden Section rectangle are created.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 57 3/26/09 10:59:33 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation method as “The Modulor” in the 1940s. The ratio is slid into Rams’s shoes by directing the designs for the 2.2 Defi ning approaches 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement found throughout nature, including the human body, G4 Powerbook, iPod and iPhone (fi g. 11, page 59). Ive 2.4 Collective memory but whether its use creates intrinsically beautiful and his team have applied geometric lines (no “swoop”), and behaviour proportions or we have simply become subconsciously uniform radii and keen attention to the proportional

accustomed to seeing it, is contested. Nevertheless, its grid that holds the product’s features in harmony. legacy was to give designers a justifi able framework Combining this with simple, intuitive interfaces and on to which a product’s boundaries, features, and generous touches (such as paying attention to the components could be fi xed. design of transformers and plugs, providing built-in cable storage) has won Apple a new generation of The most renowned and infl uential product designer fanatical fans. Ive’s detractors, like those of Rams to work with such grid systems is Dieter Rams. With before him, fl ag up the dictatorial nature of such the history of German modernism propelling them, singular visions of “good taste”; the way that one Rams and his team at Braun combined mathematical product can appear to “preach” to those around it a precision with the sculptor’s eye to produce highly sermon of abstinence from frivolity, from historical regarded designs for home electrical equipment (fi g. 10, reference or applied narrative. page 58). Rams established a philosophy that was to be applied to all Braun products that focused on providing There is an ideological schism between designers clarity of function by avoiding superfl uous detail. What whose goal is to elicit our positive refl ex response detail remained was considered with great care. Purity to their object’s beauty and those who see aesthetic of form and a reduced palette of colours (primarily refi nement as a means to a less subjective end. For [9.] - ‘Horizon: Little Boxes.’ TV, black and white) gave the products a severe, clinical Rams and Ive, the sparse look of their objects has a BBC1, 1980 September 9. and occasionally monolithic appearance that placed function – that of providing clarity of use. Sam Hecht -them on a cultural pedestal, above more pandering and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility share this view [10.] - Hecht, S and Colin, K. 2005. competition. Consequently, numerous Braun products stating: “Form is a mechanism for use, rather than an ’Things That Go Unseen.’ can be found in the permanent collections of design aesthetic (or a surface upon which choice is played London: Industrial Facility museums around the world and are on permanent out). It is something that needs to be evolved and not - display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. applied”. (10) To them, aesthetic refi nement as an end in itself is not a valid starting point. With products Various followers of Rams have tried to carry his often discussed in terms of image alone rather than mantle but few have managed to achieve the same with the benefi t of the experience of use, designers exacting aesthetic rigour without compromising are encouraged into a surface-deep design process usability. Many electronic products of the 1980s and that fails to expose the valuable thinking that creates 1990s hid controls behind doors and sliding panels, the “evolved” forms Hecht describes. Paradoxically, literally reducing the object to a sinister black or silver Industrial Facility and others such as Konstantin Grcic, box. (9) Jonathan Ive, after making the computer have become so adept at creating refi ned aesthetics homely with the original Apple iMac, has successfully that the underlying logic of evolution in their products sometimes fails to reveal itself without explanation.

Fig. 10 D5 Slide Projector by Dieter Rams and the Braun Design Team manufactured by Braun Sometimes the product’s interior component layout suggested a geometric approach to the casing. The dividing line between the two parts of the plastic casing (the “split line”) on the D5 projector lines up with the direction of the lens and the entry point of the electrical fl ex.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 58 3/26/09 11:01:33 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - redundant when applied to products that require FORMALISM deeper investigation. Nevertheless, the emergence

of photo-realistic imagery produced by advanced A term used in various fi elds including art, rendering software has enabled designers who “formalism” considers the technique, form and wish to adopt a formalist approach to readily structure of a work as being of greater importance explore a myriad of forms within the virtual world than its content or meaning. A formalist approach of the computer. to design – typical of designers labelled “stylists” – therefore focuses on the external form of an object to a greater extent than on other considerations.

A formalist designer will explore form as an end in itself, and while accepted in products of minimal complexity, this surface-centric approach becomes

- - MINIMALISM As the reductive ethos already existed in modernist thinking, many objects emerging from this tradition The term “minimalism” refers to a tendency within have qualities now associated with minimalism. various creative genres to reduce complexity in the However, while modernism placed emphasis upon work such as to reveal dramatically its essential improving the object in a number of ways, embracing qualities. Minimalism’s infl uence in design has come manufacturing processes and new materials, largely from art and architecture where it is more minimalism is narrower in scope, placing greater clearly recognised as a movement (minimalist artist emphasis upon visual purity. As a result, many Donald Judd has produced numerous furniture designers regard it as a style choice rather than collections while architect John Pawson, known an embodiment of loftier ideals. for his minimalist approach to architecture and interiors, has designed ranges of domestic products including tableware, accessories and door furniture).

Fig. 11 iPod and iPhone by Jonathan Ive and the Apple design team Apple’s recent products designed under the direction of Jonathan Ive have an aesthetic rigor akin to those produced under Rams at Braun.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 59 3/9/09 8:14:20 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation Another outcome of this surface reading of objects Critics describing Industrial Facility and Grcic’s work 2.2 Defi ning approaches 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement is that it encourages designers and their clients into tend to focus upon its clinical exterior, describing it as 2.4 Collective memory attention-grabbing tricks (fi g. 12, page 60). As products minimalist. While this might be a fair observation of and behaviour compete to be noticed, lined up on the shelves of stores general appearance, it implies that look is the foremost

with their features listed beside them, what shouts criteria in the designer’s mind; something both contest. loudest may not be the most pleasant to live with in the As Grcic states: “I am never interested in showing long term. Railing against this, in Industrial Facility’s how good I am at joining two bits of wood together or design for a telephone to supplement the main home in drawing beautiful lines. For me, the most important phone, they stripped away many attributes previously thing in a design project is its conception.” (11) “I have considered sacrosanct (fi g. 13, page 61). As it was an abiding interest in very essential things. But this intended for short calls, an ergonomic, soft form doesn’t only refer to how things look…I am primarily was not needed. Number storage was eliminated and interested in the ways an object is used, and I believe even the conventional base unit was done away with, that aesthetics will naturally develop from that. I don’t allowing the surface the handset rests upon to depress want to deny that design has a lot to do with giving the “end call” button. At fi rst sight, Second Phone looks form to something, creating structures and, let’s be mysterious – like one of Rams’s radios for Braun it has honest, making things beautiful. But the most beautiful been reduced to a carefully radiused block – but once design never comes from a formalistic approach, but picked up, it reveals the familiar layout of buttons. from a process of observing, paring down and focusing Ultimately, it treats the consumer as intelligent and information during the process of development.” (12) able to recognise common-sense thinking as well [11.] - as minimalist beauty; to be sold less when more is - - Grcic, K. In: Picchi, F. 1999. superfl uous. Konstantin Grcic. ‘Domus.’ 820, p.47 - [12.] - Grcic, K. interviewed by Bullivant, L. 2000. ‘Interieur’ -

Fig. 12 IF4000 knife sharpener by Industrial Facility manufactured by Taylor’s Eye Witness Industrial Facility’s knife sharpener was developed through addressing considerations of stability, portability and safety. However, its clinical exterior is its most striking feature.

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Fig. 13 Second Phone by Industrial Facility manufactured by Muji Second Phone bravely does away with many features that had crept into telephone handsets, but were an unnecessary distraction. The phone uses the surface it is put down on to depress the button that ends the call.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 61 3/9/09 8:14:22 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.4 2. Motivation - - Morrison tries to capture an aesthetic to which we 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 2.4 Collective memory COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND BEHAVIOUR can relate and with which we can feel immediately and behaviour comfortable. Precedent can be found in designs One of the most powerful tools for generating 2.5 Social inclusion by Italians of an earlier generation such as Achille emotionally durable products is to look beyond Castiglioni and Vico Magistretti – fellow celebrators attempting to embody “progress” with form and of vernacular objects – but much has changed since instead make connections based upon memory their heyday. In a climate in which design is, more and behaviour (1). The following section describes often than not, expected to provide the different and a number of ways of achieving this that could the unusual, Morrison’s work goes against the grain. be adopted when tackling new work. What links He has described this approach in an exhibition and designers featured here is a belief that the power book compiled with fellow designer Naoto Fukasawa, of observation is the most important tool they entitled ‘Super Normal’ (fi g. 3, page 63). It is, they say, possess. Without it they would be doomed to repeat an attempt to keep hold of something essential that past mistakes but, by refi ning it, their minds can be design is losing – the “normalness” of the anonymously- primed to facilitate countless creative opportunities. designed object: “For me it’s a reaction, a reaction to It is these practitioners who see design almost as a noticing how much better most normal things are branch of anthropology. They study “why things are than most design things. I think design is in danger of the way they are” with archaeological rigour, and becoming something false and out of tune with real investigate the effect that the form of objects has life, when it could be doing something worthwhile. upon our behaviour toward them. It’s degenerating into a marketing tool to promote the identity of companies and to sell magazines. That’s not [1.] - - - the profession I admired as a student. There’s a lot of Popularised by Jonathan SUMMARISING FORM Chapman in his book good design going on, maybe more than when I was ‘Emotionally Durable Design: Although there are many who fi nd beauty in pure a student, but unfortunately it’s heavily outweighed Objects, Experiences and Empathy’ (2005, London: geometry, there are practitioners who are trying by what can only be described as visual pollution, Earthscan) the term refers to to augment this with an additional fl avour. One of atmospheric interference, design with nothing more in Chapman’s vision of a future these is the British designer Jasper Morrison. He mind than getting noticed, and on balance I’d have to fi lled with objects consciously designed to create meaningful has written: “It would be ridiculous if everyone kept say we would be better off without it. ‘Super Normal’ emotional links with people as looking for a beautiful new form. It can be more is a reminder of more genuine motives for designing a means of counteracting the interesting to look at what is already there and apply something.” (3) prevailing throwaway society. (2) -it in a different way” . In his early work, Morrison literally used existing recognisable objects (ready- mades – see page 76) and assembled them to create “new” pieces (fi g. 1, page 62). Since then, his approach has evolved whereby rather than using ready-mades, he tries to “summarise” designs from the past in new products (fi g. 2, page 62). By distilling the essence of anonymous, unselfconsciously designed objects,

Fig. 1 Flower pot Fig. 2 table by Jasper Morrison Knifeforkspoon cutlery set Although aware of artists who for Alessi by Jasper Morrison had used ready-mades, such The approach of summarising as Duchamp and Picasso, form can be seen in Morrison’s Jasper Morrison used them cutlery for Alessi that, rather as a means of emulating than mould the pieces to the the qualities of industrial hand or embellish them with production. His Flower Pot decorative detail, draws their Table, inspired by seeing a users into a subtle sense stack of the upturned pots, of familiarity. was later manufactured by Cappellini.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 62 3/26/09 11:06:05 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Morrison and others who have studied anonymously- “We’ve just done a project for LaCie and when it designed artefacts from the past have discovered that came out there was an enormous amount of criticism “progress” has forced into obscurity some that seem because ‘it was just a box’ and ‘it wasn’t design’, that perfectly suited to today’s market. By making few if ‘you could have designed that in fi ve minutes. Why did any changes, these out-of-production designs have it take two years?’ I fi nd that fascinating…It was a been re-released, celebrating the original product and real shocker for me because it means that a designer giving it a new lease of life. If these objects fulfi l their can’t make the simplest of solutions because ‘that’s not role at least as effectively as their newer counterparts, design’. [It implies that] the simplest, most enduring, then, rather than being anachronistic, this approach most honest of solutions is out of bounds because [2.] - can enrich a typology of objects and raise awareness ‘anyone can do it’. Whereas if something looks quite Morrison, J. In: Ramakers, R. 1998. ‘Droog Design - Spirit of of the notion of the timeless. Morrison’s Socrates complicated or it’s fashioned in a way that looks styled, the Nineties’. Rotterdam: 010 corkscrew for Alessi is a case in point (fi g. 4, page 63). has got fancy materials or interesting sprays and all -Of the design he says: “I have had a corkscrew similar these sorts of things, then that’s seen as something [3.] - Morrison J. In: Fukasawa, N to this one for about 20 years. It’s an old typology that is more worthy – ‘that’s design’…if you negate all and Morrison, J. 2007. ‘Super but a good one, which seems to have more or less of that and if you put that to one side, then ‘you’re not Normal: Sensations of the disappeared. The pantograph lever action makes it dealing with design’.” (6) Ordinary’. Baden: Lars Müller much easier to take corks out and as there are so many Publishers Although on this occasion it was not the client who -bad corkscrews around I decided it was my duty to voiced the criticism – LaCie were happy and the [4.] - re-introduce it to the world!” (4) While some may see Morrison, J. 2002. ‘Everything products have sold well – Hecht admits this approach this as lacking originality, its justifi cation is analogous But The Walls’. Baden: Lars relies upon clients being capable of seeing good design Müller Publishers to the nomination of manufactured objects as art by in terms of providing products people will fi nd enduring -Marcel Duchamp and others in the early twentieth [5.] - in the long term, rather than looking for a quick thrill, century. Just as an artist can select a mass-produced Duchamp, M. In: Bailly, J.C. and this sometimes requires “education”. He encourages 1986. ‘Duchamp’. Basingstoke: object, display it in a gallery and call it art, so a designer companies to think about the life of the product beyond Palgrave Macmillan can select an out-of-production object and, barring - the point of purchase, especially the experience of using intellectual property claims, release it under their [6.] - it day to day. Hecht, S. 2008. [Personal own name. The “design” lies in the nomination of the communication]. 24 January right object, rather than the authorship of its form; as - - - Duchamp put it, the intention being “…to relate notions of aesthetic worth to a decision of the intellect and not to a facility or cleverness of the hand” (5). To those who have been conditioned to expect the element of design in a new product to manifest itself overtly – to show its value through eye-catching difference and to be entertaining – the understatement of the ‘Super Normal’ object will bemuse. Sam Hecht recounts an anecdote that highlights the problem:

Fig. 3 Super Fig. 4 Socrates Normal book cover Although corkscrew for Alessi by stated through reasoned Jasper Morrison In the spirit explanation and a collection of Duchampian nomination, of objects rather than Morrison “re-introduced” this dogmatic demands, Super corkscrew he had owned for Normal is nonetheless that years, which had stood the most unfashionable of things, test of time and use. a manifesto.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 63 3/26/09 11:07:57 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation - - 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement THE AURA OF THE READY-MADE To call something a ready-made as opposed to a 2.4 Collective memory component is to suggest its inherent importance and behaviour French artist Marcel Duchamp shook the art world in as well as to illustrate that its origins lie elsewhere. 2.5 Social inclusion the early part of the twentieth century by displaying Humble nuts and bolts would usually be considered mass-produced products in galleries, challenging mere components, yet when given centre stage in a the previous tautology that to have value, works must product, they are elevated to the status of the ready- show the artist’s manual skill with media. Duchamp made, as in Massimo Varetto’s Microservice dinner argued that an artwork could be entirely about the placecard holder (fi g. 6, page 64). We may therefore intellect and hence nominating an object was as conclude that in art and design, a ready-made is a valid as sculpting one with clay or depicting one on component used out of context, knowingly selected canvas. In doing so he heavily infl uenced the Dadaist to contribute signifi cantly to the aura of work that it and surrealist movements and paved the way for the becomes part of, lending the result a certain charm, recognition of what is now known as conceptual art. character or personality, expressing meaning. He called these nominated objects “ready-mades” (fi g. 5, page 64). When viewing these works, we are struck fi rst by the fact that the ready-made is out of its expected German literary critic and writer, Walter Benjamin, context and we begin, if curious enough, to consider coined the term “aura” to describe a certain elusive why. In an artwork we might ask fi rst of all what the but valuable quality in artworks that we can assume ready-made represents, whereas if we are looking is also present in mass-produced objects. Benjamin at a piece of design, we will also be searching for proposed that this aura “withered” in a reproduction its practical purpose. This thinking, Duchamp compared to an original work (i), yet if we propose it proposed, was the viewer’s contribution to the exists in mass-produced objects, despite withering, it creative act (iv) and by deciphering the piece the is something we ought to take into account. Product viewer also allows it to become complete. Hence, designers have talked of this “otherness” in various the ready-made is a “device” that requires ways. British consultants Seymour Powell have called interpretation in its new context and actively it the X-Factor (ii), while Deyan Sudjic, director of engages the consumer in the creative act. London’s Design Museum, proposes that “consciously [i.] - or unconsciously, we understand that everything - - Benjamin, W. 1973. (iii) ‘Illuminations.’ London: around us has a personality”. So how do ready- Fontana Press mades contribute to this sense of character? - [ii.] - “It’s what we as designers are always striving for. The X-factor in a product is its essential personality, its desirability quotient, if you like - those intangible, emotional features, over and above function and effi ciency, that make one product better and more desirable than another.” Richard Seymour of Seymour Powell in an interview by Carl Gardner (1989) for ‘Car Styling Magazine’, No. 70, p.110 - [iii.] - Sudjic, D. 1999. Student Design Awards Review: Face Values – The Changing Shape of Design. London: RSA - Fig. 5 Bottle rack Fig. 6 Microservice by Marcel Duchamp Although dinner placecard holder by less well-known than the Massimo Varetto Varetto’s urinal entitled ‘Fountain’, the dinner place card holder, bottle rack that Duchamp a modest assemblage of a reputedly bought from a Paris clothes peg and some metal department store around 1914 fastenings, offers us the was the fi rst sculpture he chance to consider these described as a “ready-made”. components in a context where they are on display for their aesthetic as well as functional properties.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 64 3/26/09 11:09:07 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Achille Castiglioni, along with his brother Pier Giacomo, designed some of the most memorable products using ready-mades (fi gs 7 and 8, page 65 and fi g. 12, page 67) describes this engagement thus: “Selecting a form that ‘appears’ to connect certain traditionally recognized meanings, while actually treating those forms as if they possessed a quality unrelated to the original meaning, is for us an act of communication with observers who attempt to read the meaning hidden beyond superfi cial forms. This relationship can perhaps be called ‘reciprocal curiosity’”. (v)

In observing the paraphernalia of material culture and the behaviour it elicits, Castiglioni and others have picked and reapplied particular objects and details so we may, in turn, be curious enough to wonder what they saw in them. Like solving a riddle or getting a joke, when we make the connection, our affection for the creator and their creation is brought forth. The joy of such an approach is that if this connection stands the test of time, it will prompt a smile every time we glance at the object.

[iv.] - - - “The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifi cations and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” Duchamp, M. In: Sanouillet, M. & Peterson, E., 1975. ‘The Essential Writings of Marcel Duchamp’. London: Thames & Hudson - [v.] - Castiglioni, A. In: Taki, I. 2004. The Origin Of Castiglioni Design – Observation and Curiosity. ‘Axis Magazine.’ August, p.131 -

Fig. 7 Toio Fig. 8 Mezzandro standard lamp by Achille stool by Achille and Pier and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni Giacomo Castiglioni manufactured by Flos manufactured by Zanotta The utilitarian character of this Why create the new when lamp expressed in its exposed something that works transformer, bent metal frame, already exists elsewhere? headlamp light source and With this sentiment in mind, fi shing rod rings for holding the Castiglioni brothers saw the fl ex, refl ects its heritage the great economy with as an assemblage of found which a comfortable seat for components. However, each tractors had been pressed has been carefully considered from a single sheet of steel, for its functionality and not as supported by a springy steel a novelty device. bar, and thus built it into a stool for the home.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 65 3/9/09 9:49:33 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation - - their physical properties being uncannily familiar. 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 2.4 Collective memory PROPORTIONAL ANALOGIES When arbitrariness exists in a product’s precise and behaviour dimensions, these links provide a reason to pin them The smallest of the LaCie drives (fi g. 9, page 67) is 2.5 Social inclusion down (although it is worth remembering that the reminiscent of a Zippo lighter and the next size up, a dimensions of the products being referenced were packet of cigarettes but, Hecht says, the designs are at one time also arbitrary). not literal translations of dimensions: Occasionally, we see similarities in product proportions “[The Lacie hard disk] was originally provided to us that suggest they have been consciously borrowed, more the size of a MiniDisc cassette (long, wide and but it may also be true that in deciding upon certain thin). After much experiment with re-orientating the dimensions designers subconsciously choose those components we came up with something similar in size that are most common to them (fi g. 13, page 68). to a packet of cigarettes. People are already familiar with this proportion inside their top pockets – much [7. 8.] - - - more than an MD – as something compact. However, Hecht, S. 2008. [Personal TRANSPOSING FORM communication]. 24 January the dimensions are not governed by the cigarette -packet. It’s more a feeling.” (7) While Hecht and Fukasawa’s proportional analogies are so subtle they can go unnoticed – a fact the designers Using familiar dimensions is a tool Hecht and enjoy – the approach of noticeably transposing Fukasawa have both used in order for their work to characteristics associated with one type of product connect with people’s physical and visual memory of into another has become commonplace, especially in objects. Referring to his work with Industrial Facility, the fi eld of home accessories. Combinations of shape, Hecht continues: “We do a lot of that with Muji, quite material, colour and fi nish are translated to provide subversively. We made a notebook that is exactly the new objects with familiar properties, appearance same size and amount of pages as a passport. We used and meaning. However, without an appropriate link all the passport colours. We don’t express it but people this work can easily descend into kitsch (see page really feel it even though they might not know where it 73). To avoid this, designers conceive of logical and came from. They generally become very big successes poetic connections between the “donor object” and because they are already instilled in memory.” (8) the “receiver” of its attributes. Another of Industrial Facility’s projects references However, these links do not need to be obvious. the proportions of a packet of chewing gum in a series Duchamp and the Dada and surrealist art movements, of USB devices (fi gs 10 and 11, page 67), while Naoto whose members relished making ironic and oblique Fukasawa has created a lamp for Plusminuszero that references by using everyday objects out of context, is a facsimile of a ream of A4 photocopier paper (fi g. inspired much of the work in this territory. The designer 12, page 68). Such links might seem obscure at fi rst Achille Castiglioni, who has acknowledged Duchamp but are explained by the context of use – the lamp is for as a major infl uence, has said: “We should focus on the offi ce while the USB devices will be carried in the pocket. This way of thinking takes the idea of products being in harmony with their surroundings to a new level,

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Fig. 9 Little Fig. 10 Sound Gum, Fig. 11 Data Gum, Disk series of hard drives mp3 player by Industrial USB data storage by by Industrial Facility Facility Industrial Facility manufactured by LaCie Sam Hecht and his colleagues at Industrial Facility reoriented the electronics inside the series of LaCie portable drives so as to create compact forms that have similar (but not exactly the same) dimensions to other objects we might carry: a Zippo lighter and a pack of playing cards.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 67 3/26/09 11:13:47 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation being ironic, like Jacques Tati was, and not being so Although the components of some of these products 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement (9) 2.4 Collective memory strict with design.” Tati, the acclaimed French are remade in the image of others, some are literally and behaviour comedy actor and fi lmmaker, was a master at using made from “ready-mades” (see pages 64–65) – 2.5 Social inclusion (or rather misusing) objects for comedic effect. The components relocated from elsewhere and used out irony Castiglioni recognises is peppered throughout of their original context. This is often out of necessity Tati’s fi lms. Objects are transformed – a car tyre rather than choice. Designer-makers not working inner tube covered in leaves is mistaken for a funeral for a manufacturing client who are developing batch wreath – while others cause havoc at the hands of production products tend to fi nd many production the central character Monsieur Hulot. A naïve but techniques fi nancially out of reach and the ready-made likeable everyman, Hulot is unacquainted with, and offers a solution with the aesthetic of production built therefore bemused by, anything remotely modern. in. However, this has practical drawbacks. Using an Even the simplest of mechanisms can confound him. object for its original purpose but in a different context Hence, as he appears on screen with objects, we predict might be straightforward (for example, a bicycle seat their behaviour long before he does, with, as they say, brought indoors to be used as a stool – fi g. 14, page 69) hilarious consequences. but changing its purpose can be problematic. Objects designed for one task are rarely found to be perfect for However, Tati’s comedy went far beyond mere another. Unlike in the art gallery, ready-mades as design slapstick, and built to form a heartfelt polemic against components cannot rely on their power to provoke what he saw as the inhumanity of contemporary alone. They are likely to have practical functions to “progress”. As Monsieur Hulot discovers in the fi lm perform; yet ready-mades often lack a necessary detail ‘Mon Oncle’ (1958), modernity that rejects common or contain some extraneous material that compromises sense and collective memory is ridiculous. Here, Hulot’s the end product’s ability to function as effectively as it sister and brother-in-law live in a “modern” house would with a specially-designed part. full of the latest gadgets, yet it has a cold and clinical atmosphere. Thanks to Hulot’s unintentionally amusing By creating specially made components, designers yet understandable actions, its dubious “innovations” are able to design-out the elements of ready-mades are shown up as pure folly. By creating Hulot as a that prevent them working in their new guises, while sympathetic character whose behaviour we relate to retaining familiar features that provide interest. If (despite its naïvety), Tati produced the perfect weapon designers stick to using the ready-made, they must for satirising “progressive” design and, by implication, choose it carefully and ensure other components are its designers. The joy he uncovered by showing designed in harmony. objects out of place, being misread or misused, has been emulated by Castiglioni and others in the world of design. Like Tati’s fi lms, these designs become an effective foil to po-faced, dogmatic modernism.

Fig. 12 Fig. 13 Canon Ixus Plusminuszero / A4 lamp by camera and cigarette packet Naoto Fukasawa Like IF’s Coincidence, planning or USB devices and hard drives, subconscious borrowing of Fukasawa’s lamp looks to its a familiar form? It is possible context for proportions to that designers may settle co-opt, in this case, the offi ce upon proportions that and in particular, a ream of they fi nd pleasing without A4 paper. necessarily knowing where these come from.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 68 3/26/09 11:18:57 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Although the meanings of some products rely upon domes, vials of sand and other charity-shop fi llers. their use of genuine ready-mades (for example, the These archetypal blank canvasses of the souvenir re-confi gured chairs of Martino Gamper (fi g. 15, page merchant, once emblazoned with place names, shout 70)), in many other cases, creating the impression of for attention and once bought, continue shouting “look a familiar form is enough. For example, the Mayday where we’ve been” with the subtlety of a megaphone. lamp for Flos by Konstantin Grcic (fi g. 16, page 71) Exceptions are rare but satisfying. Mugs on sale at New clearly references a mechanic’s inspection lamp, yet, York’s Guggenheim Museum, rather than predictably with the obvious exception of the electrics, none of displaying the name and photograph of the institution, the components is literally borrowed. Instead, Grcic subtly reference the building’s shape. A channel gently concentrated on how to get “garage lampness” into winds its way up the mug’s volume, mimicking Frank a product that was also refi ned enough to appear at Lloyd Wright’s famous rotunda (fi g. 17, page 72). To home in the domestic interior. In doing so, he brought those unfamiliar with the building (fi g. 18, page 72), the the fl exibility of the inspection lamp indoors, providing mug, in plain white ceramic, would likely go unnoticed. a domestic light source that can be hung up or stood on And that’s exactly the point. It subverts the “souvenir a surface, its polypropylene skirt expressing the shaft as show-off accessory” and directs its power to evoke of light from its ancestor. Mayday is an example of the memories towards their source. designer recognising that the functionality existing [9.] - in one kind of object could be usefully employed in - - Castiglioni, A. 2007. ‘Design another, and that the aesthetic reference would add Interviews’. Mantova: Edizioni Corraini a playful character. Rather than simply borrowing -the form and functionality of the inspection lamp wholesale, Grcic “civilised” it, editing out its rawness. In doing so, he creates, in effect, a memento of the inspection lamp. This highlights one of the key reasons to transpose form – to elicit past memories. Souvenirs, by associating themselves with the places we go to relax and enjoy ourselves, unsurprisingly become the carriers and transmitters of (hopefully) positive memories. Sadly, the design approach taken to most souvenirs is immature and the results are kitsch. Form is transposed but often in crass and obvious ways – onto dolls or soft toys, into snow-

Fig. 14 Sella Stool by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, manufactured by Zanotta One of a number of products they designed using ready-mades, the Castiglioni brothers’ Sella stool incorporates a Brooks bicycle saddle. It is intended for use while on the telephone.

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Fig. 15 100 chairs in 100 days by Martino Gamper Martino Gamper’s project creatively re-used well-known and anonymous furniture to make 100 new designs. Although they could be seen as three-dimensional sketch models testing ideas, they are also one-off fi nished pieces assembled with directness and ingenuity.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 70 3/9/09 8:14:40 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - Like Fukasawa, French designer Matali Crasset also BEHAVIOURAL ANALOGIES has an interest in how traditional typologies of objects can be examined in order to reveal new possibilities. Much of Naoto Fukasawa’s work focuses on analysing A product can infl uence how we feel about certain human nature to design sympathetic products. He behaviour, making an action more or less desirable. wants us to be able to assimilate these objects into Crasset has demonstrated how designers can give our lives so we may use them “without thought”. permission for a person to behave in ways that might Although we tend to think of ourselves as autonomous otherwise have felt uncomfortable. Her Daily Starting individuals, Fukasawa highlights that our environment, Block legitimises the habit of polishing one’s shoes on and the products in it, directs some of our actions. the backs of one’s trouser legs by smuggling a brush By carefully observing the ways objects and spaces in between (fi g. 21, page 73) while her snoozing stool channel behaviour, and by designing new products to for the offi ce unfurls into a bed with accompanying take advantage of this, Fukasawa has generated an “do not disturb” sign (fi g. 22, page 74). Normally taboo approach where his objects appear to fi t naturally into (yet known to increase effi ciency), taking a short nap certain environments and certain patterns of use – at work would become acceptable if such a bed were what he calls “design dissolving in behaviour”. (10) provided for us. In her designs for the Hi Hotel in Nice, Using recognisable forms and layouts outside of their various elements conspire to reverse the sensation original context, Fukasawa uses the affordances they that, as guests, you must be waited upon, instead carry (see pages 38–39) to help us comprehend the empowering inquisitive individuals with the freedom to objects. Examples include transposing the layout of serve themselves. By removing conventions such as the a kitchen fan into a wall-mounted CD player (fi g. 19, mini-bar but making drinks available 24 hours a day in page 72) – the pull chord replacing the play button – the main bar, Crasset surreptitiously encourages us to or his Sole Bag, a white cotton tote bag that can be put make new acquaintances. down on wet fl oors thanks to its rubber plimsoll base (fi g. 20, page 73). Upon seeing these objects for the Right from her early projects (such as the hospitality fi rst time, their use is clear. Fukasawa’s designs often tower ‘When Jim Comes to Paris’ (fi g. 23, page 74)) have this equation-like elegance from which a sense Crasset’s work has been driven by her exploration of of the authentic emerges. Even when he is unable a set of principles and descriptors through which she to fi nd a behavioural connection and he reverts to frames the intentions of each project. These terms, minimalism, his products seem not to alienate. They which include “generosity”, “autonomy”, “hospitality”, are examples of “designs you can describe over the “empathy”, “typology” and “ritual”, act as a silent telephone” – the best kind according to Italian manifesto guiding her proposals for new ways of living. maestro Vico Magistretti. (11) Working products around behaviours is a way in which designers can refl ect and encourage contemporary and emerging attitudes and, of course, express their own preferences. French design duo Ronan and Erwan [10.] - Bouroullec, in their ‘Joyn’ offi ce system for Vitra (fi g. Title of a workshop run by Naoto Fukasawa at NTT 24, page 75), tried to socialise the open-plan offi ce by InterCommunication Center [ICC], 2002. - [11.] - Magistretti, V. In: Finessi, B. 2003. ‘Vico Magistretti.’ Mantova: Edizioni Corraini -

Fig. 16 Mayday lamp for Flos manufactured by Konstantin Grcic Mayday borrows the functionality of the garage inspection lamp but civilises it for the domestic interior.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 71 3/9/09 8:14:44 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation bringing employees together round long tables, rather two-sided pedestal mirror with its fl ip-able surface 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 2.4 Collective memory than giving them individual desks. By providing mini- provided the “hide” and “reveal” states needed – and behaviour screens that slide onto the table, workers can still denoting whether time was of the essence or to be 2.5 Social inclusion defi ne an area as their own, but the topology clearly forgotten (fi g. 25, page 75). By concealing the clock implies that each table of employees works as a team. mechanism between the mirrors and using mirrored The design punctured a long established pretence that hands, the surfaces remain functional and the object open-plan workstations are self-contained mini-offi ces. sits unobtrusively in its surroundings. Much of our new behaviour is the result of new Designing based upon direct observations of user technology entering our lives. As new formats of audio, behaviour rather than predictions has spawned a fi eld visual and telecommunications equipment emerge and in itself – design ethnography – where information as existing functions such as clocks and radios have on user behaviour is collected, to be fed back into become embedded in new products, where and how the design process. This method is closely linked to we use these products changes. We either learn new the notion of social inclusion in design (see 2.5 Social skills – such as text messaging – or we cut ourselves inclusion) and has its roots in the way we tend to “work off from their benefi ts. As well as bringing new “tech around” problems caused by badly designed products. products” to the market, this creates an opportunity for An example used by international design fi rm IDEO designers to work with the knock-on effects these have shows a receptionist who, on being unable to connect upon existing product types. callers on two separate telephones, simply holds the two handsets together so the earpiece of one touches While tackling a brief to design a wall or mantle the mouthpiece of other. Seeing such behaviour clearly clock I attempted to address this opportunity. With points to a need for clearer systems design. the ubiquity of wristwatches and mobile telephones, wall and mantle clocks have lost their primacy as the - - sources of time we habitually consult. Consequently, PERVERTING MANUFACTURING when we are used to “having the time on us” constantly, we become more acutely aware when we do not. The Rather than working with already domesticated forms bathroom is one such context in which we may be or “civilising” industrial ones, some designers have without a source of time yet be anxious to know it – as tried to transpose unrefi ned industrial forms directly we ready ourselves to go out. Contrarily, when using into the home, relying upon our affection for them. the bathroom as a place for relaxation, we would likely William Warren and Carl Clerkin worked together shun a clock, reminding us, as it would, of things to do, to turn the classic “barn” toolbox into a bathroom of schedules and appointments. Rather than destroying cabinet, celebrating the economy of its folded metal the idea of a bathroom clock, the duality proved to be construction and simultaneously increasing its sales the making of it when considered alongside potential value (as a toolbox it sold for under £10 (US$15) bathroom typologies that the clock may adopt. The but as a bathroom cabinet it could fetch upwards of £60 (US$95)). By attaching its base to the wall with a mirror inside and reconfi guring its innards, the toolbox becomes particularly effective in its new

Fig. 17 / 18 Guggenheim Fig. 19 Muji / CD Museum souvenir mug / player by Naoto Fukasawa Guggenheim Museum Rather The typology of a kitchen than predictably emblazoning fan provided the perfect it with images and text, the analogy for Naoto Fukasawa’s Guggenheim Museum’s wall-mounted CD player, the souvenir mug subtly refl ects pull-chord acting as the “on” the form of Frank Lloyd switch, play button and Wright’s famous rotunda. power lead.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 72 4/8/09 12:24:57 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black - - KITSCH Since the 1980s, designers have mixed the emotional and poetic possibilities that emerged Kitsch, design-historian Stephen Bayley tells us (in from postmodern theory with the common- the catalogue to the 1983 exhibition, ‘Taste’, that he sense aspects of modernism to establish broader curated at the Victoria and Albert Museum) “comes boundaries for “appropriate” aesthetics. While from the German expression ‘verkitschen etwas’ the arbitrary nature of kitsch is still condemned, (to knock something off) and is used to describe designers have learned from its playfulness. The a design where the form and the meaning are black-and-white opposites of kitsch and modernism inappropriate to the purpose; thus Leonardo’s Last have been augmented by a third way where Supper done in pokerwork on a coat hook is Kitsch, appropriate form can be defi ned via poetic as well as is an inkwell shaped like a human breast.” (i) as pragmatic relationships. Andrew Stafford’s Swiss Most kitsch is the result of individuals following door wedge (see pages 78–79), is one such example. their interests, untrammelled by certain design To a dyed-in-the-wool modernist, it will be kitsch principles. The designer mixes populist forms and – surrealism and modernism are unconventional basic functions to create the desired result. The value bedfellows – but one cannot avoid the deliciously judgement that to do so is “inappropriate” is based appropriate way in which its form and material upon modernist doctrine. Such was the infl uence of relate to its function. [i. ii.] - modernism on design education that its intellectual Bayley, S. 1983. ‘Taste – framework became the yardstick against which - - An Exhibition about Values in Design.’ London: Victoria design was judged. “Good design’ on modernists’ & Albert Museum terms became considered “good taste” and hence -kitsch was regarded “bad taste”. When postmodern thinkers began to debunk this, an intellectual rationale for kitsch emerged and it began to gain a measure of respectability, not least as a tool for thumbing one’s nose at a stuffy establishment.

To committed modernists like Bayley this was beyond the pale. In the ‘Taste’ catalogue, he implied that an increase in kitsch was an indication of moral decline, citing Hitler’s liking for it as an example. (ii)

Fig. 20 Fig. 21 Daily Plusminuszero / Sole bag by Starting Block by Matali Naoto Fukasawa Based on Crasset This product enables the white plimsoll shoes worn people to brush their shoes as by Japanese schoolchildren, if rubbing them on the backs Naoto Fukasawa’s bag of their trouser legs. A cartoon combines this nostalgic drawing on the product reference with the practical indicates how to use it. utility of a tote bag with a waterproof rubber base.

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Fig. 22 Teo from 2 Fig. 23 When Jim to 3, snoozing stool by Matali comes to Paris, hospitality Crasset Legitimising the tower by Matali Crasset often-taboo practice of This “hospitality tower” napping at work, this offi ce contains a mattress, a lamp stool unfurls into a mattress and an alarm clock, making with accompanying “do not house guests feel welcomed disturb” sign. and providing them with a sense of autonomy.

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Fig. 24 Joyn Offi ce Fig. 25 Mirror System for Vitra by Ronan Pedestal Clock by Tim and Erwan Bouroullec Parsons This design for a Overturning years of bathroom clock responds to individualism in the open-plan the dual nature of the room offi ce, the Bouroullec’s Joyn as a place for relaxation system proposed that teams and hurried preparation should be grouped together for going out, by fi tting around long tables with slide- hands to a reversible mirror. on partitions demarcating The time can be shown or individual spaces only where hidden depending upon the necessary. circumstances.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 75 3/9/09 8:14:57 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation mirror inside and reconfi guring its innards, the toolbox Yet, on refl ection, it was somewhat naïve to assume 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 2.4 Collective memory becomes particularly effective in its new guise (fi g. 26, that these creations should have been met with open and behaviour page 76). The pair also worked with a woodworking arms. When an object is wrested by the designer into 2.5 Social inclusion tools manufacturer on a range of kitchen products a new context, its expected purpose altered, those in that highlighted associations between the two charge of companies who have been making the objects contexts. Prototypes included a meat tenderiser for many decades are apt to be perplexed. Sticking based on a wooden mallet (fi g. 27, page 76) and a to what they know and not being distracted by the breadboard that references a carpentry mitre, aiding whims of fad and fashion is exactly what has led their parallel slicing and 45-degree sandwich cutting. products to be revered as archetypes. The approach of Warren explains: “The associations between the two “perverting manufacturing”, as William Warren calls it, contexts are important for me. The toolbox is for turns the normal (or “Super Normal”) into the special, maintenance, after all, and the kitchen utensils are providing knowing references for those tuned in tools by another name.” (12) to appreciate them. Even when done sensitively, such shifts tend to remove these objects from their In both cases, Clerkin and Warren approached the workaday roots, into the self-conscious world of the manufacturers of the “donor objects” in the hope that design store – an environment entirely alien to their the fi rms would be happy to diversify into new market anonymous creators and current producers. Unless a areas, especially as the proposed designs used existing particularly enlightened industrialist is at the helm, this tooling and celebrated their core products. Sadly, in elegant “catch 22” situation will most likely preclude both cases neither company sparked. I was equally any interloping designer from playing context-shifting disappointed when attempting to interest a music- games in collaboration with the makers of these stand manufacturer in the results of my graduation vernacular objects. project (fi g. 28, page 77). The archetypal metal stands, with their telescoping tubes and three-legged base, had [12.] - - - Warren, W. 2008. [Personal provided inspiration for a series of lamps, side tables communication]. 15 February and coat stands and a company already making similar -products seemed an obvious choice as a potential collaborator; yet my proposition was met with a guarded, even suspicious, response. Warren had more success with his Sleeping Rough bed – an archetypal wooden park bench, extended to become a bed base (fi g. 29, page 77). This he puts down to the company being prepared to see itself as a service provider rather than a manufacturer of “fi xed” products – they even engraved the back of each bed to order, in place of the conventional dedications.

Fig. 26 High Fig. 27 Meat Maintenance bathroom tenderiser from Domestic cabinet by William Warren Tools collection by Carl and Carl Clerkin By cleverly Clerkin and William Warren redesigning its interior, Warren This meat tenderiser is one of and Clerkin transformed the a number of products where “barn” toolbox into a fully the designers drew parallels functioning bathroom cabinet. between the nature and use of woodworking tools and kitchen utensils.

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Fig. 28 Music stand Fig. 29 Sleeping products by Tim Parsons Rough bed by William Warren The foldability, lightness and Warren’s bed makes use of clinical appearance of metal the design and making skills music stands was transposed of an existing park bench into products for the home, manufacturer while presenting re-engineered for their heavier a poignant new product. duty tasks. The set comprises a coat stand, uplighter and side table.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 77 3/26/09 11:26:51 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation - - to change its function, Hutten proposed that each of 2.3 Aesthetic refi nement 2.4 Collective memory INTRODUCING NARRATIVE the craftspeople involved in its construction apply a and behaviour specially-designed name stamp to the piece of the box As we have seen, in their wish to celebrate existing 2.5 Social inclusion they had produced (fi g. 31, page 78). Once complete, archetypal objects, designers often give them new the object speaks of the people involved in its creation, uses, either as ready-mades, or by co-opting details but without the mannered “hand of the maker” visible and manufacturing methods into new products. Most in some craftwork. of the examples so far have been driven by the designer spotting practical advantages to appropriating these Instead of telling a story, Andrew Stafford’s Swiss elements, although some, like Warren’s ‘Sleeping Door Wedge uses collective memory to introduce an Rough’ bed, hint at something more. As well as being up amusing piece of surrealism into our everyday lives to the job, the borrowed form has a connection with its (fi g. 32, page 37). There is a clear and well-observed new use that sparks thoughts (in this case, surrounding link between the material (plastic), the form (like those to whom a standard park bench is their bed). cheese) and the function (door wedge). Although By carefully choosing where a form is borrowed from, hardly moving poetry, the Swiss Door Wedge is a piece and the use to which it will be put, witty or poetic of product punning that transcends kitsch due to its connections can be made and simple stories told. designer having a knowing reason for applying what would conventionally be seen as “inappropriate” design In another of Warren’s designs he approached a language. Our collective experience of cheese with the Japanese glass-blowing workshop initially hoping to consistency of plastic and the correlation between the buy lopsided “seconds” of their standard wine glasses. shape of a segment of cheese and a door wedge makes On being told “Japanese craftsmen don’t produce sense, as well as giving us a joke-shop double-take on seconds”, he proposed the blowers be plied with wine fi rst sight. It is a concise, if whimsical, illustration of before making his batch. The resulting Drunk wine how meaning can be applied successfully to a mundane glasses are indeed askew, their form being a direct domestic object. result of the story of their creation (fi g. 30, page 78). A delightful (albeit forced) circle of connections is This narrative in the object is not to be confused with drawn between the method of creation, the object narrative that might surround the object – the way and its eventual use that, although benefi ting from in which products are explained in presentations by explanation, is nonetheless hinted at through the designers or subsequently through advertising. Objects object’s form. Refl ecting this storytelling through for consumption (as opposed to those to be viewed in objects, Warren’s Japanese client Trico named an art galleries) that aspire to express a narrative must exhibition of his work Alternative Folk Design. do so on their own, without the need for additional explanation. A “back story” might complement the Another example of a designer wishing to reveal narrative embedded within the object, but if it is to something of the story behind an object’s manufacture succeed, the object itself must be able to tell enough is one of Richard Hutten’s contributions to a project for cigar-box manufacturer Picus on behalf of Droog Design. Rather than altering the form of the cigar box

Fig. 30 Drunk wine Fig. 31 Trace Box glass by William Warren by Richard Hutten as part Japanese glass blowers are of Droog Design’s Pocket plied with wine prior to them Furniture Project for Picus blowing Warren’s wayward Each maker involved in the wine glasses. construction of Richard Hutten’s Trace Box applies a name stamp, emphasising the object’s hand-made status.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 78 3/26/09 11:28:14 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black of its own story to engage us. There may be “loose given and the designed object as cultural information connections” that we can join up and, if judged well, can be contemplated…It is important to re-establish this can be more alluring than overly literal works visual contemplation and communication: to put the where meaning is hammered home. The doorbell by brakes on unrefl ective proliferation and superfi cial Peter Van Der Jagt for Droog Design that is made from replication. It is time to provide critical, ironic and two upturned wine glasses is at fi rst glance a peculiar playful commentary on our condition and our cultures object. Its “Heath Robinson” (13) quality contrasts of consumption of both material and information. It dramatically with the little white box we have come is time to play and play seriously. It is time to put the to expect a doorbell to look like, but by inspecting it poetry back into design.” (14) closely it begins to reveal itself to us. The hammer Ball and Naylor defi ne poetic design as “objects mounted between the wine glasses rings each one which are elevated above the pragmatic and formal in turn. We can see the glasses are different sizes requirement of the functional artefact, and deliver and will therefore make different notes – the familiar ambient observations in condensed form for refl ection “ding dong” of someone at the door. But more than and contemplation.” (15) Source material for poetic simply working to recreate this noise, the glasses design is best found, the pair say, in what they call work symbolically – representing entertainment – “mature typologies” – types of objects where the and remind us that perhaps whoever is visiting may basic layout of form has settled over decades or even like to come in for a drink. centuries and is unlikely to change radically with the application of new technology or the whims of fad or [13.] - - - fashion. Such objects have a familiarity that “allow[s] W. Heath Robinson was DESIGN POETICS an English cartoonist and formal investigation and questioning of cultural values, illustrator who came to Designers are becoming more attuned to the ways in consumption, mass marketing, aspirational branding, prominence in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. which meaning can be expressed through product form. and so on to be explored directly through the visual He became known chiefl y Some see the exploration of narrative in products as an information within and associated with the objects for his caricaturing of the essential new focus for areas of design that appear to themselves.” (16) age of the machine and the way this impacted upon human have lost their way. Designers and academics Ralph Ball behaviour. The humour in his and Maxine Naylor, in their book ‘Form Follows Idea’ cartoons often emanated observe that the mainstream furniture and lighting from his drawings of ridiculously complex devices markets have become largely self-referential and designed to do the simplest creatively bereft. Rather than continuing to frame the of things and hence such design of these objects in the same way, Ball and Naylor contraptions have come to bear his name. propose poetic design as a genuine injection of life: -“If there are now fewer material and manufacturing [14. 15. 16.] - problems to solve in the general arena of furniture and Ball, R. and Naylor, M. 2005. ’Form Follows Idea: An lighting design, then we must fi nd forms of expression Introduction to Design Poetics’. where structure and material resolution are taken as London: Black Dog -

Fig. 32 Swiss Door Wedge by Andrew Stafford Stafford’s door wedge offers a piece of surrealism that draws on memories of “plastic cheese” cut into wedges.

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Fig. 33 One day Fig. 34 Chip Chop I’ll design the perfect paper Slice and Serve chopping lightshade by Ralph Ball board by Michael Marriott Blind, misplaced toil is evoked A chopping and serving in Ralph Ball’s ironic lamp in platter, which doubles up which screwed-up lampshade as a ping pong bat. Sold designs inadvertently create with a ping pong ball. the lampshade around a bulb mounted in the bottom of a wire waste-paper basket.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 80 3/9/09 8:15:06 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black Ball and Naylor’s desire for objects to transcend Finally, other design practitioners who explore their formal and functional requirements is gradually how poetic narrative may be derived, not from the emerging from avant-garde circles and into the appearance of the object alone but from the ideas our mainstream. Ball’s own ‘One day I’ll design the perfect interactions with it inspire. Professor Anthony Dunne paper lightshade’, manufactured by Ligne Roset, is an has campaigned through research and design work for illuminated waste-paper basket full of screwed-up greater engagement by designers with the aesthetics design sketches (fi g. 33, page 80). Michael Marriott has of use as opposed to the aesthetics of surface. His fi rst been known to mix elements such as word play with book, ‘Hertzian Tales’, reveals the untapped potential well-judged material choices that tend towards the electronic objects have for creating meaningful user utilitarian. His Chip Chop Slice and Serve is a chopping experiences – both pleasant and disturbing – that could board for serving in more ways than one, and his enrich our lives. Along with historical examples, Dunne candlesticks come with a cast iron guarantee (fi g. 34, includes some of his own proposals in collaboration page 80 and fi g. 35, page 81). Ian Roberts’s clipboard with Fiona Raby, including one called Tuneable Cities, fi nds a humane use for the mechanism used to trap where the car radio, instead of picking up commercial mice (fi g. 36, page 81) and Arnout Visser’s glassware stations, is programmed to react to local signals (fi g. highlights simple scientifi c principles in everyday 38, page 81). Dunne proposed a number of possibilities objects (fi g. 37, page 81). this could raise; in one, migrating birds tagged by scientists transmitted or refl ected radio signals, creating ambient soundscapes through the car radio that would be site-specifi c and unique, re-connecting the passengers with the outside world.

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Fig. 35 Cast iron Fig. 36 Mousetrap Fig. 37 Archimedes Fig. 38 Tuneable candlesticks by Michael clipboard by Ian Roberts letter scale by Arnout Visser Cities by Dunne and Raby Marriott Word play and The attractive qualities of the Using the principle of water This project proposed various material choice work together mousetrap mechanism are displacement, as the weight ways by which the car radio in these candlesticks that safely applied for holding of the letter pushes the glass could connect its users more highlight the attractive paper in this clipboard, one plunger down, the level rises directly to the cityscape by qualities of cast iron. of a range of small batch- and the weight can be read making available “leaked” produced products with a from the scale. sound from baby-coms and shared visual language using new site-specifi c soundscapes familiar but context-shifted generated by birds and speed components. trap radar.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 81 3/9/09 8:15:10 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.5 2. Motivation - - - - 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour SOCIAL INCLUSION TOWARDS USER-CENTRED THINKING 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes One criticism of the way industrial design was “Any analysis of the object – outside of anthropology carried out in its early days, particularly in America, and its more recent offspring, Material Culture Studies was that although generating desirable products, – has traditionally concentrated on the production of design activity was primarily client- rather than things by industry. This analysis has taken the form user-centred. One of the pioneers of the profession, of market research, target sampling, advertising Henry Dreyfuss, made a concerted effort to change and statistics. Such a particular representation this through his design methods and his work on tries to identify gaps for the profi table manufacture anthropometrics (the study of the measurements of of commodities, to effectively locate, isolate and the human body). Dreyfuss published an extensive eventually stimulate demand. Clearly this is a warped book on the subject in 1960 – ‘The Measure of Man: perspective: it may account for what, or how many Human Factors in Design’ (later reprinted as the things are in circulation, but it does not begin to offer politically correct ‘The Measure of Man and Woman’, any understanding of how they are actually used.” (1) (fi g. 1, page 82)). It featured measurements of the The location of demand that writer and sculptor Neil human body and their relationship to the designed Cummings talks of has traditionally been undertaken environment along with drawings that became an through research questionnaires that use Freudian invaluable source for designers, paving the way for tactics to press the buttons of our subconscious fears the fi eld of ergonomics. The rigorous adherence to and anxieties, in the hope of revealing how these may human dimensions can be seen in products such be overcome with the appropriate consumer product. as the Aeron Chair by Herman Miller (fi g. 2, page Such probing has many problems, not least because 83), which is both highly adjustable and comes in some questions will be based upon hypothetical new a variety of sizes. products of which the person interviewed has no actual While Dreyfuss’ s work made it easier for designers experience. In addition, if they feel that the truth to attune the dimensions of their objects to their refl ects badly upon them, people are prone to giving users, it did not stop them from choosing not to false answers, throwing researchers off course. These cater for a wide range of body types and levels of diffi culties have, of course, long since been highlighted ability. This section looks at attempts to question and new methods developed, but the real problem is in such practices and establish awareness of socially the kind of information being sought. More often than inclusive design – a process that fi rst aims to avoid not it focuses upon the signs that products present marginalising individuals and, where possible, in-store rather than investigating how or why the user consult them during the creative process to ensure might be using the products and whether or not they that their needs are met. are effective. Once money has changed hands, the realities of “post-purchase” have been of dwindling - -

Fig. 1 Anthropo- metric drawing from the book Dreyfuss’s book, and its successive editions, still provide useful reference material for designers wishing to check dimensions that relate to the human body.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 82 3/26/09 11:43:39 AM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black interest to manufacturers, an example being fi xed- solve problems. Maslow later added “cognitive needs” length guarantees replacing repair services previously (experiencing knowledge) and “aesthetic needs” available for the life of products. (experiencing beauty) to “self-actualisation”. The more enlightened businesses are realising that In their book ‘Universal Principles of Design’ (4), a deeper, more sympathetic relationship with their authors Lidwell, Holden and Butler extrapolate customers can provide the inspiration for market- Maslow’s hierarchy into a model aimed at designers. leading products and bolster a valuable commodity – Human need is considered in terms of what we require “brand loyalty”. An important part of this outlook from our products. Just as Maslow’s hierarchy implies, is a change in how design is perceived by business. lower levels of need must be fulfi lled before higher As Rama Gheerawo, Head of the Research Associate levels should be addressed and the same applies in the Programme at the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn design model. Hence, functionality must be achieved Centre explains: “If design is described as a purely fi rst, followed by reliability, usability, profi ciency and aesthetic process, it makes for a one-dimensional creativity (a level where all needs have been met relationship with business and society that weakens and the user begins interacting with the product in its effectiveness in both arenas. But if design is their own way, for example through customisation). described as a way of thinking about and visualizing By breaking down the elements requiring consideration people’s real needs and aspirations, it becomes a in this way, it is possible to pinpoint where defi ciency powerful tool for change.” (2) lies in genres of products or in specifi c objects. We can use the hierarchy to interrogate products, asking [1.] - - - what level they have reached and what the next Cummings, N. (ed.) 2003. PRIORITISING NEEDS ‘Reading Things’. London: level suggests for their design. What Lidwell, Holden Chance Books The most widely accepted attempt to categorise and Butler’s model does not cover are the evocative - [2.] - people’s needs, not only in relation to design but to life and emotional elements of design. It also misses Gheerawo, R. 2007. ‘Vital itself, was made by American psychologist Abraham (perhaps intentionally) the obvious correlation between Signs, Helen Hamlyn Research Maslow (3). His ‘Hierarchy of Human Needs’, typically Maslow’s aesthetic needs and the look of the product Associates Catalogue’. London: Royal College of Art illustrated as a triangle with fi ve horizontal levels, – often covered prematurely in design before more -proposes an order to our innate requirements exists, basic needs have been adequately fulfi lled. Indeed, [3.] - beginning at the bottom with the “physiological needs” Maslow’s “cognitive needs” may also have a place in Maslow, A.H. 1968. ‘Toward a Psychology of Being’. such as air, food, water, sleep, stepping up through a new model where the product can lead the user to New York: Van Nostrand the “safety needs”, such as security of body, property the discovery of new knowledge. While a hierarchical Reinhold and employment; the “love needs” of intimacy and model helps us avoid overlooking important essentials - [4.] - friendship; the “esteem needs” of achievement and before becoming more ambitious, by continuing Lidwell, W., Holden, K., Butler, respect and peaking at “self-actualisation” – a set up, adding levels of achievement towards some J. 2003. ‘Universal Principles of motivators rather than needs that drive humans kind of enlightenment through the object, we risk of Design’. Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers Inc. towards fulfi lling their potential. These include, among -others, the desire to act morally, to be creative and to

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 83 3/9/09 8:15:19 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation overburdening products with unnecessary features inevitable signs of ageing, there is an increasing market 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour that do not provide worthwhile benefi t. In doing so, for products that maintain their ease of use in the face 2.5 Social inclusion we can neglect the understated object that functions of our diminishing abilities. 2.6 Materials and processes perfectly yet makes no claim to fame or high design. While the need will always exist for products to help After the level of profi ciency, a wheel of options could liberate those with specifi c disabilities (wheelchairs for illustrate directions for enhancement (akin to Maslow’s example), by designing domestic consumer products motivators), which broaden and deepen the human for the mass market with less-able users in mind, experience (fi g. 3, page 83). they inadvertently cater for the supposedly able- bodied among us who might otherwise experience - - diffi culties. Crucially, this approach allows less-able USABILITY users access to products with a wide distribution that Useful though such models are, it remains for designers do not stigmatise them as “different”. The Derby Kettle and their clients to decide, during the development Tipper by Gordon Ellis Co. (fi g. 4, page 84) is designed process, when they consider they have fulfi lled certain to aid those with low strength and coordination to needs. This begs the question: to what standard have pour hot water from their kettle. As a retrofi t to these needs been met, and on whose terms? With the work with existing kettles, it draws attention to the rise of precise market targeting by client organisations, user’s disability and would still require a carefully designers have often been channelled to think about the controlled pour to avoid spillage. In the face of this needs of a narrow band of, often young, fi t consumers kind of ill-fi tting solution, the thrust of inclusive design with 20/20 vision. Those who do not fi t this model and has been to turn the tables, and ask why mainstream fi nd diffi culties using products are either left high and design cannot change to accommodate a broader range dry or have to search out specialist products, although of abilities. By re-orienting the product as a push- very few are actually available. Thanks to the work button dispenser (fi g. 5, page 84) the kettle becomes of many designers, researchers and campaigners, easier and safer to use, as well as non-stigmatising. particularly in the USA, Scandinavia and the UK, there Similarly, Ben Wilson’s design for a tricycle ingeniously is now a growing awareness that products, services incorporates pedal power by hand or foot, making it and experiences should be designed in such a way as usable by a wide range of people with and without to be enjoyed by a broad audience, regardless of age disabilities (fi g. 6, page 85). or ability. Two further examples show that considering Unlike disability language, which is black and white marginalised users can produce mainstream successes. – you are either registered disabled or you are not The enlarged buttons on the Big Button phones, – our capacity to use products is a graduated affair, designed by UK consultancy Alloy for British Telecom ranging from a complete inability through ability with (fi g. 7, page 86) would seem to single out its owners diffi culties and frustrations, to relative or complete as being visually impaired, yet when polled, only 60 ease and pleasure. Society demographics show more of us than ever are living longer. As we experience the

Fig. 4 Derby Fig. 5 Plusminus- kettle tipper manufactured zero / Hot water dispenser by Gordon Ellis & Co. by Naoto Fukasawa The Home Healthcare Products act of pouring is eliminated Companies such as Gordon in this hot water dispenser Ellis produce products – – an example of an inclusive such as this kettle tipper – design that does not specifi cally designed for older stigmatise those with less or disabled people. Although strength and dexterity. no doubt liberating for their users, products such as these often draw attention to the user’s disability.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 84 3/9/09 8:15:20 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black per cent said they had bought it for its accessibility set of seven principles in 1997 by North Carolina State features (5). The telephones in the range have University’s Center for Universal Design, its prescriptive numerous additional features to help the hard of nature has drawn criticism. However, its legislative hearing and visually impaired and have been a best achievements are to be applauded according to Roger seller for BT. Another popular case study looks at the Coleman, Professor of Inclusive Design at the Royal OXO Good Grips ranges of kitchen utensils (fi g. 8, page College of Art in London, and are favourable to leaving 86). After his wife developed arthritis and found the the market to its own devices. utensils on the market uncomfortable to use, Sam “American Federal legislation obliges suppliers to meet Farber looked into solving the problem himself. Together accessibility criteria. The logic is simple in that if we with Smart Design from New York, he developed have to be able to employ people of all abilities, so we the OXO Good Grips range. “The design incorporated have to have kit they can use. If you set performance plump, resilient handles for twist and push-pull tools requirements that are genuine then you leave industry like knives and peelers, while squeeze tools like can to meet them, industry can compete to produce good openers had hard handles. All handles were oval in designs. If you don’t have that and you say it’s got to cross section, to distribute forces on the hand and be the cheapest, there’s no incentive to improve the enhance grip, even for wet hands. The measuring cups design. My belief is that the place for political effort is and spoons featured large, high-contrast markings for in putting in place the legislation that creates a level visibility.” (6) Since their launch, the products have been playing fi eld for competition.” (7) a hit with mainstream audiences and have picked up numerous design awards. In the UK, where it is known as inclusive design, The Helen Hamlyn Centre based at London’s Royal College [5.] - - - of Art has been at the forefront of research, practice ‘University of Cambridge DISCOVERING INCLUSIVITY and dissemination of knowledge on the subject. Engineering Design Centre Coleman, a lynchpin in the centre since its inception, website’. 2005 [online]. The origins of the shift from designers targeting [Accessed 27th January 2009]. explains how the government structure in the UK specifi c user groups to including as wide a range of Available from World Wide has not benefi ted inclusive design: “In the UK, we Web: roots. In the United States, an almost evangelical - government to be equated to another, so if you spent movement emerged called Universal Design. It was [6.] - more money on providing housing that encouraged ‘North Carolina State formed by the convergence of two groups with similar independent living, then you may need to spend less University, Center for Universal goals: the researchers and producers of “assistive Design website’. 2008 [online]. elsewhere on taking people out of their homes and technology” – products designed to help disabled [Accessed 27th January 2009]. into care environments. There’s no proper cost benefi t Available from World Wide people function more independently, – and the Disability analysis guiding policy. If we had a government Web: the foundations of a market for inclusive design.” (8) -regarding access to buildings. This later broadened [7. 8.] - to force manufacturers of business equipment not to Coleman, R. 2007. [Personal communication]. 10 December marginalise older and disabled users. Presented as a -

Fig. 6 Tilting trike Rather than modifying a typical tricycle for those with restricted lower body movement, Ben Wilson created a new layout equally usable if pedalling with hands or feet, steered by leaning.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 85 3/26/09 12:37:07 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes

Fig. 7 BT Big Fig. 8 OXO Good Fig. 9 Gofer Button phone designed by Grips kitchen products One electric screwdriver by Alloy BT’s Big Button phone of a number of kitchen tools Matthew White manufactured is known to have appealed manufactured under the OXO by B&Q Designed during a to users who did not need Good Grips brand developed Helen Hamlyn Centre research its accessibility features. with arthritis sufferers in mind, associateship, the Gofer and but resulting in products that the Sandbug addressed the the majority of customers fi nd needs of older users and comfortable to use. those with reduced grip.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 86 3/26/09 1:28:24 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black By way of example, he fl ags up Sweden’s impressive stakeholders involved (the end users, purchaser, record, whereby the welfare system funded research retailer, manufacturer and so on). The result should and development into products for the disabled. This be a full picture of the real needs of the project. The in turn seeded a culture of quality inclusive design second stage, “Translate”, generates a “requirements led by infl uential consultancy Ergonomidesign. specifi cation” for the product from these needs. This sets constraints but ought not to “lead” designers by [9.] - - - implying solutions, instead remaining objective and ‘Inclusive Design Toolkit’. TOOLS FOR INCLUSIVE DESIGN matter of fact. The third phase, “Create”, is where 2007–2008 [online]. [Accessed design work begins. The toolkit suggests working in 27th January 2009]. Available In the design of domestic products as opposed to from World Wide Web: page 173) in order to capture a broad range of ideas -to achieve. Therefore, the focus has become the level before fi ltering and ranking them. Potential users of [10.] - of awareness of inclusive design principles among ‘Inclusive Design Education differing abilities can also be involved at this stage designers in business. Educational establishments Resource’. [online]. [Accessed where initial concepts are tested. Finally, once concepts 27th January 2009]. Available have recognised the role that they can play in ensuring have been fi rmed up and trialled, the “Develop” phase from World Wide Web: such awareness exists among their graduates. As requirements specifi cation and its ability to fulfi l real -graduate design research projects with live clients (fi g. needs based upon actual evidence of use. 9, page 86 and fi g. 10, page 87) and conducting its own research, the team at the RCA’s Helen Hamlyn Centre The online toolkit, available to all for reference, helps have developed tools to help designers and businesses students as well as professionals check the rigour of adopt inclusive design practices. The Inclusive Design their development process against inclusive design Toolkit (9) developed with British Telecom, and the principles. Naturally, such a process has time and cost Design Council’s online resource (10) were followed implications. If designers wish to create an inclusive in 2005 by the publication of the fi rst British Standard product they can either rely upon their predictive skills on Inclusive Design (BS7000-6). Although not to empathise with users of varying abilities, or they mandatory, the document provides businesses with can seek out such users for fi rst-hand consultation. practical guidance on managing inclusive design, Some advocates of the inclusive design methods will from organisational level down to project level. say that the latter is essential, although in reality each project must be assessed individually based on its own BT’s online Inclusive Design Toolkit sets out a clear context. The more complex the product, and the further and detailed inclusive design process. It has four away from the designer’s own experience, the more stages, each producing a specifi c output. These are important it is to conduct (or obtain) research into its described using a waterfall diagram (fi g. 11, page 88). usability. It is no surprise, therefore, that those involved The fi rst stage, “Discover”, begins with the perceived in designing interactions with computers have been at needs, described as the impetus for the project, which the forefront of developing user research methods. may not necessarily include any altruistic goals and could simply be to increase turnover. This stage involves - - research of these needs in relation to the individual

Fig. 10 Sandbug electric sander by Matthew White manufactured by B&Q Designed during a Helen Hamlyn Centre research associateship, the Gofer and the Sandbug addressed the needs of older users and those with reduced grip.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 87 3/26/09 12:42:46 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation - - day-to-day activities. However, such methods have 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour USER CONSULTATION come under fi re due to the hidden power relationship 2.5 Social inclusion involved (11): despite commonly being undertaken for Looking broadly at the issue of user consultation, it is 2.6 Materials and processes altruistic reasons (to tune products to users’ needs), possible to imagine a spectrum of user involvement in such research evidence can also be tapped to uncover the design process that stretches from: new forms of persuasion that the corporate voyeur a) the designer not considering the user may then use to sell us particular goods and services. at all, through Without access to user research data collected on b) the awareness of needs and user their behalf, designers who choose to collect their research that characterise inclusive own rarely have the luxury of time. As a consequence, design, and continuing through they have to adapt scientifi c methods to fi t their c) models where the user is not only schedule. As cognitive scientist Donald Norman points consulted by the designer, but is also out: “Methodologies in cognitive science, psychology, physically engaged in confi guring, anthropology and sociology may be approximated so making and eventually designing the they can be used with speed by designers who do not product themselves. (Approaches need scientifi c precision. Answers can be approximate. under c) are covered on pages 182–185.) They don’t have to be precise. The benefi t of many fast In place of user insights, designers make design answers far outweighs any defi cits.” (12) decisions based upon their own values, experiences [11.] - Before consulting users, design teams can undertake and culture, according to the conditions of the project. Poynor, R. 2008. Video various activities that generate, pool and structure Ethnography. ‘Icon Magazine’. User research methods, many of which borrow their predictions and insights into user behaviour. May from ethnography (a type of fi eld research used in - Discussing, sketching and storyboarding scenarios anthropology, the study of human culture), attempt to [12.] - (featuring stories around the use of objects) can be Norman, D. 1999. ‘The Method suspend judgment of needs until observation of user taken further by role-playing. Props and sets can be Lab’. Published by the Design behaviour has been undertaken. Design ethnography for Ageing Network (DAN), built to help designers place themselves in the context has emerged as a fi eld in itself and some design London: Royal College of Art of the users, while physical disabilities can be modelled -consultancies now employ researchers to gather and with objects that intentionally make tasks harder, an [13.] - sell packages of user research to clients. This aims to Gaver, W. 1999. ‘The Method example being frosted spectacles used to simulate reveal evidence of consumer attitudes and activities Lab.’ Published by the Design visual impairment. These often quickly assembled, for Ageing Network (DAN), that will shape the design brief. Aware that “research” “ad hoc” creations help designers to empathise with London: Royal College of Art can sound dry and statistical, the allure of “getting - users and draw out problems and solutions that closer to the customer” is invoked. Video is commonly [14.] - may otherwise have remained invisible. Design Myerson, J. 2007. [Personal used to record research subjects as they go about their communication]. 3 December consultancy IDEO, who pioneered many of the user - research methods covered here, call this role-playing to generate ideas “bodystorming”, and the use of

Fig. 11 Waterfall Discover diagram of inclusive Need design process This diagram explaining the stages in the inclusive Translate design process is part of Under- the Inclusive Design Toolkit standing commissioned by British Telecommunications PLC Create as part of their Corporate Require- Social Responsibility ments programme.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 88 3/9/09 8:15:30 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black props and settings “experience prototyping”. They - - have also used role play as performance to illustrate THE BOUNDARIES OF INCLUSIVE DESIGN usability issues to their clients. Although occasionally presented as such, the inclusive Within the realm of user research, techniques are many design process need not be linear and rigid. “‘People- and varied. These differ in formality, depth and focus; centred’ is the touchstone for me”, says Jeremy some being aimed more towards collecting information Myerson, Helen Hamlyn Centre Director: “there has on existing behaviour, while others are about testing to be some engagement with real people. Whether new product concepts. Methods include individual you have user groups, observations, you show them interviews, short observations of tasks or shadowing prototypes, you shadow them, give them diaries to fi ll over a longer period. User forums and focus groups are in. As long as you have consulted users somewhere convened to discuss existing or forthcoming products along the line…Hardcore inclusive design people think and services, and prototypes are introduced to these that you should talk to users and they should hold your sessions for feedback and user testing. hand all the way through the process. I’m of the view that there are periods when you need to rely upon your An experimental user research technique for own creative autonomy. You need to speak and fi nd your application at the front-end of projects, called a own voice as a designer.” (14) “cultural probe”, is also developing in popularity. Conceived for a project about increasing the presence As Jeremy Myerson suggests, the process requires of older people in their community, its designer William a balance between consultation and creation. While Gaver explains: “The cultural probes were packages impossible literally to separate, the stylistic aspects of maps, postcards, cameras and other items given of a design need not undergo the kinds of consultation to elders in local test sites for their responses…we discussed here for aspects of usability. In fact, most purposely left our requests vague, ambiguous and even designers interviewed for this book believed that absurd in order to evoke free and imaginative responses user consultation on matters of style ought not to be from the groups. The probes broke with scientifi c encouraged and represented manufacturers’ desire for methodologies, instead pursuing a design approach assurance of future sales rather than the search for seeking inspiration not information.” (13) genuine improvement. It was felt that focus groups concentrating upon appearance were essentially false Looking at various methods of user consultation in brief, environments because remarks would be prompted as we are doing here, does not allow us to cover the from participants on products that, if well designed, guidelines of their use that may be vital to collecting may not warrant comment in daily use. the appropriate information. Like the market research techniques that came before them, it is important that As an area of design that attempts to redress social consultations are carried out as neutrally as possible inequalities, inclusive design excites passionate support so as to avoid biasing the results. Those wishing to from those who practise it. Discovering it for the fi rst work with users in a structured rather than organic manner are recommended to study the techniques in more depth.

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Fig. 13 LTI TX1 Fig. 14 Electricwig London taxi The TX range Zoetropes for Billinghay of vehicles developed by As part of a regeneration London Taxis International project that included has been innovative in the redesigning public spaces fi eld of accessible transport and furniture, the designers design. The current TX4 installed a series of zoetropes model includes features such (nineteenth-century optical as an integrated wheelchair toys consisting of a cylinder ramp, highly visible grab with a series of pictures on handles and an improved the inner surfaces that, when driver intercom. viewed through slits with the cylinder rotating, give an impression of continuous motion) depicting stories relating to the village. Signposts with intriguing names directed the public between them.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 89 3/26/09 12:44:42 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation time, designers may be forgiven for mistaking this This led to new installations of seating and the 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour passion for a belief that the inclusive design process reclaiming of a public square previously cut off by 2.5 Social inclusion should be applied to all projects. But this is not the roads. The designed elements include a series of 2.6 Materials and processes case. In sectors where style and identity come higher zoetropes telling stories relating to the village, and up consumers’ priorities than use, designing for the old fencing, which became a recognisable motif and (or attempting an “inclusive style”) is more than likely upon which the public furniture was based (fi g. 14, to at least alienate, if not exclude, the young. page 89). A more recent project, also by Electricwig in neighbouring Metheringham, began with a design Rather than being seen as an inseparable set of linear workshop in which villagers explored how public processes, the tools of inclusive design – the gathering furniture might enjoy a mutually benefi cial relationship of empirical evidence from users, working with them with plants (fi g. 15, page 90). during development and satisfying the needs of as many abilities of people as possible – are to be Another method of ensuring an audience for socially added to the designer’s traditional, intuitive, studio- responsible design is to focus attention on the based design practices. Each is there to be used as developing world. By looking at the notion of inclusivity and when appropriate, governed by the context of on a global scale, the most urgent challenge is to help individual projects. those without access to the most basic standards of living. There is clearly a role for creative thinking - - in helping people to improve access to food, water, DIRECTIONS FOR SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE DESIGN shelter, sanitation, healthcare, transportation etc but there is also a need for sensitivity. Encouraged Despite the tools available and the various publications by websites such as www.worldchanging.com and and conferences encouraging it, the inclusive design exhibitions such as Design for the Other 90% (fi g. 16, message can still be hard to sell to business clients. page 90) at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum As a result, some designers have turned their attention in New York, an increasing number of designers are to the public sector, where a socially minded outlook is turning their skills to helping those less fortunate than intrinsic to clients’ activities. As well as government- themselves. However, rushing in with product-based sponsored initiatives in schools, designers have found solutions can be hugely patronising. Developing world niches working with health service providers to ensure communities hardly lack creativity; it is everywhere patient safety and on broadening access to transport in their improvised answers to everyday problems, (fi g. 13, page 89). Others, such as design company realised with great economy of means. Even when Electricwig, have found work with local authorities, product solutions help, the designer or entrepreneur helping to regenerate public spaces by applying needs to be aware of the social, economic and political solid design thinking to seating, lighting and other fabric of the communities they aim to help or much designed elements. Their commission for Billinghay in Lincolnshire, UK, included public consultations that identifi ed areas where people wanted to congregate.

Fig. 15 Literature Fig. 16 Lifestraw from workshop on Growing designed and manufactured Furniture by Electricwig by the Vestergaard Frandsen Public consultation merged Group Lifestraw is a portable with collaborative design water purifi er that requires when Electricwig conducted no external power and kills a workshop with the people of 99.999 per cent of waterborne Metheringham on the subject bacteria. It was featured on the of the coexistence of plants cover of the catalogue of the and furniture as the lead in to exhibition Design for the a public seating commission. Other 90%.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 90 4/8/09 12:26:26 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black development can be compromised. Pieter Hendrikse, Prior to the spread of inclusive design thinking, many designer of the much publicised Q Drum water roller more product designers tended to generalise about (fi g. 17, page 91), concedes that “it is still unaffordable people than do so today. Recognition of differences in to most people – those who need it cannot afford it and ability has grown and has led to products that have those who can, do not need it.” (15) genuinely improved people’s lives. The language of inclusive design – as described in this section – tends to Although many such products improve the lives of focus upon ‘users’. While perhaps an improvement upon those living in poverty, they do so with charitable ‘consumers’, it is still a less-than-rounded descriptor for funding. Instead, affordable and empowering solutions individual people who choose to buy products, and one are required. that concentrates attention upon their physical abilities The statistic that gave the name to the Cooper Hewitt rather than their psychological needs and desires. exhibition is quoted in its catalogue by Dr Paul Polak: The next phase of inclusion, if there is to be one, can “Ninety-fi ve percent of the world’s designers focus all address this by doing more to consider our complexities of their efforts on developing products and services as freethinking individuals. exclusively for the richest ten percent of the world’s [15.] - consumers. Nothing less than a revolution in design - - Hendrikse, P. 2007. ‘Design is needed to reach the other ninety percent.” (16) His for the Other 90%’. New York: Cooper Hewitt National conclusion as to why – designing for the rich is where Design Museum the money is – overlooks the fact that the majority of -designers who wish to help developing communities [16.] - Polak, Dr P. 2007. ‘Design for feel incapable of doing so. Although many of the the Other 90%’. New York: projects within Design for the Other 90% come from an Cooper Hewitt National initial piece of lateral thinking (fi g. 18, page 91), the real Design Museum -effort has come in fi nancing, engineering and producing the products. These are all roles in which the designer – particularly one trained in the nuances of style – may be left wanting. If designers are to be useful in these conditions they must be all-rounders, prepared to step outside of their usual remit to play the part of social entrepreneur and project manager, as well as social and cultural anthropologist.

Fig. 17 Q Drum Fig. 18 PlayPump water roller by Pieter water systems by Trevor Field Hendrikse manufactured manufactured by PlayPumps by Q Drum Ltd Although a International. Solutions such highly ingenious solution as this merry-go-round that to ease the physical burden harnesses the energy of play of transporting water, the Q to pump water are imaginative, Drum cannot at present be but nonetheless require the manufactured cheaply enough right context and backing to to allow those who need it be truly effective. most to purchase it, making it an object of charity.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 91 3/26/09 12:47:57 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - 2.6 2. Motivation - - been commonplace. How that was manifested 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes MATERIALS AND PROCESSES would have depended upon the kinds of objects 2.7 Technological innovation we could afford. All designers necessarily have a relationship with materials – they think in materials when drawing, Affl uent “bourgeois” society, able to indulge in the considering their properties in relation to the forms collection of objects beyond the utilitarian, typically on the page. However, some make a particular sets its aspirations of material qualities in contrast effort to deepen this relationship. Through to those available to “the masses”. When all goods experimentation and testing of materials, designers were handmade, the bourgeoisie aspired to the skill discover their limits and enduring properties of the fi nest makers who worked with precision and and become aware of suitable applications for often embellished objects with decoration. Such detail them. New materials are often the catalysts that distinguished their work from the “quick and dirty” produce new technologies – the discovery of efforts of volume makers, who had to balance speed various substrates that could be written upon and accuracy to produce suffi cient quantities to earn and played back created the opportunity for their living. Ironically, the qualities once produced recording technologies (such as vinyl records, by these makers for the masses (such as the fi nger audio cassettes and compact discs). Yet when marks in the clay) are now among those sought after examining the motivation of designers, it is clear among today’s aspirant society. This has come about that there are different approaches to materials because the mass production techniques that replaced and technologies: those who pursue solutions the handmade as the way of making utilitarian objects through a deep understanding of existing materials reached a precision that matched the skill of some fi ne and processes, and those who turn automatically makers. While craft skill that displays machine-like to new technology. This section and the next look precision is still sought and revered by those in the at why materials, processes and technologies are know and those who are prepared to pay for it, it has harnessed in particular ways by today’s designers. been devalued in the eyes of those who wish certain objects to show obvious differentiation from mass - - production. Hence, what was once considered crude ASPIRATIONAL MATERIAL QUALITIES becomes the bourgeois currency by which to show the ability to afford the craftsman’s art. The value we place on materials, properties and their manufacturing processes is determined not just by their The label “handmade” has become a strategic intrinsic engineering, tactile and visual qualities but marketing tool, lending cachet to specifi c objects by the cultural associations they hold. Today it is not where handwork is considered superior. At the Bentley uncommon to fi nd those who wistfully marvel at the motorcar factory in Crewe, UK, an uncommon mix of signs of hand work in a thrown pot, but are unmoved by the machine made and the handcrafted coexist in one the precision of industrial ceramic powder pressing, a product. The majority of the vehicle is made, like any method by which inexpensive crockery is manufactured. Yet prior to the industrialisation that brought us such techniques, the traces of the maker’s hand would have

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Fig. 1 “Proposta Fig. 2 Models from per la Lavorazione a Mano the project “Proposta per un” della Porcellana” Samos Autoprogettazione di Mobili’ series (prog. 1122) by Enzo (prog. 1123) by Enzo Mari A Mari, initially manufactured series of confi gurations for by Danese (1973), reissued furniture to be made by the by Alessi (1997) Rather than public from standard sizes of simply being about learning rough-sawn timber and nails. and illustrating material qualities, Samos encouraged refl ection upon the nature of repetitive work, whether “craft” or “industry”.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 93 7/31/09 11:10:22 AM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation other, with the tools of mass production, yet specifi c Beyond their formal education, many leading designers 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes interior components are “handcrafted”. Leather is have undertaken such research, confi ning themselves 2.7 Technological innovation cut on a computer-controlled machine but is then to one material or process at a time to discover in detail handstitched by an army of seamstresses. Walnut the possibilities offered by each. Frenchman Jean veneers are bonded to aluminium sheet and placed in Prouvé trained as a blacksmith before establishing a hydraulic presses to form dashboards, but where the metal fabrication business that went on to produce veneers split, a team of artists painstakingly fi ll and furniture and prefabricated buildings. Prouvé’s repaint the wood grain. Components can be genuinely relentless experimentation led him to pioneer the use labelled “hand fi nished”, but such activity begs the of aluminium in architecture. He argued that the root question: has all the effort genuinely produced a higher of creativity came from the application of theories quality result than could be achieved with automation, and not academic knowledge alone, and was critical or is handcraftsmanship being maintained simply to of architects who worked on unproven visions of pander to out-dated cultural values? the future. Italian Enzo Mari conducted a series of projects from the 1950s onwards, which focused upon - - using single materials and processes to make vessels. MATERIAL AND PROCESS EXPLORATION These included the use of welded steel sections from the construction industry, solid marble, porcelain Observing the way that materials and processes have and PVC tubing (fi g. 1, page 93). In another project, been used is an essential part of design education Autoprogettazione (roughly translating as “self- and over time creates an intuitive sense of what can design”), he used planks of timber in standard sizes effectively be applied in a given situation. Without available at hardware stores to construct items of needing to test them directly, designers know that furniture for the home, publishing plans of how to certain materials, processed in certain ways, will make them in a book (fi g. 2, page 93). have the necessary properties to do the job they are asking of them because they have seen them employed This strategy of using materials in individual discrete successfully in similar situations elsewhere. While units, like Lego, allows quick and intuitive investigation, teachable by rote, this material and process sensibility but in order to explore a material fully, designers need is best learned through hands-on experience. Hence, to appreciate all of the possible ways in which it can most three-dimensional design degree courses still be manipulated. In a press release for an exhibition in follow the Bauhaus approach of investigating a Milan in 2000, Ron Arad succinctly categorised these: range of materials to discover their advantages. This “In a slightly tongue-in-cheek press release for ‘Not speculative, practical activity of playing and observing Made By Hand, Not Made In China’ …I claimed that properties is a design method that can be honed until recently there had been only four ways of making to create products that make highly effi cient and things. The process of making any object could be appropriate use of materials and production processes. broken down into one or more of the following steps: Waste (chip, carve, turn, mill, chisel – the removal

Fig. 3 Infl atable pendant lamp designed and manufactured by Infl ate Infl ate explored the process of high-frequency welding of PVC and subsequently manufactured a dizzying array of infl atable products.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 94 3/9/09 8:15:42 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black of excess material, for example), Mould (injection for a particular material or process. After setting up moulding, casting, rotation moulding, extruding – the company Infl ate, Nick Crosbie and his colleagues pouring liquid material to take the form of its vessel explored the possibilities of using the high-frequency when hardened, for example); Form (bending, pressing, welding of PVC sheet – the process used in making hammering, folding, vacuum forming – forcing sheet infl atables – for domestic products (fi g. 3, page 94). material into a shape, for example); Assemble (bolting, Once they had exhausted this, they moved on to another glueing, riveting, soldering, welding – joining parts process – dip moulding – whereby a steel tool is together by any means, for example) and, I went on to dipped into liquid PVC before being cured in an oven. By claim, there is now a fi fth way – Grow. An object can be sticking to one process, Crosbie and his colleagues were grown in a tank, layer by layer, by computer-controlled able to master its idiosyncrasies and understand these laser beams [stereo-lithography]. Now I think all this as constraints. With dip moulding these included the can be reduced further – an object can be made by fact that a small teat of material – the last undripped either adding or subtracting. Computers, with their drip – formed on each product once dipped. Michael zeros and ones, love it. With CNC (Computer Numeric Marriott made use of this in his Dip Vase by push-fi tting [1.] - Control), RP (Rapid Prototyping), GM materials and it into a hole in a piece of wood, forming the base of the Arad, R. In: Fiell, C. and Fiell, a little help from robotic friends, virtual can easily vase, and providing an attractive contrast in materials P. 2001. ‘Designing the 21st Century’. Colgne: Taschen become actual; an image on screen rapidly transforms (fi g. 4, page 95). - to a solid mass. Anything can be drawn, modelled and Likewise, when Konstantin Grcic began working made.” (1) with glassware company Iittala, he took a tour of Although Arad used this description to illustrate their factory before designing anything, and became how current technologies were changing the making fascinated by a particular piece of glass-pressing process, his words powerfully rationalise the many equipment. His resulting work for the Relations range processes available in a way that helps a structured innovatively used this machine to create durable and investigation of each. Some such experimentation elegant stacking glassware (fi g. 5, page 95) that solved is done by designers simply to further their own the common problem of glasses wedging together and knowledge, but in other cases it is undertaken as part of client projects to search for new directions

Fig. 4 Dip Fig. 5 Relations Vase by Michael Marriott range of glassware by manufactured by Infl ate Konstantin Grcic manu- Marriott’s vase is made using factured by Iittala On a steel tool that develops a discovering a machine in removable skin when dipped Iittala’s factory that could into liquid PVC and cured in press glasses with changing an oven. The last drip is used wall thicknesses, Grcic as a means of fi xing the vase used this as a feature of his to its wooden base. Relations range, primarily using it to avoid the glasses wedging together.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 95 4/8/09 12:27:38 PM CD409-34/4028 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation cracking. Such an approach of identifying and being As an experiment in chair making, Wanders’s design 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes creative with the intrinsic properties of materials is intriguing, yet in production it is time-consuming 2.7 Technological innovation and processes already in use by client manufacturers and therefore expensive. Similarly, the Favela Chair shows a willingness to work in sympathetic partnership by Fernando and Humberto Campana (fi g. 9, page 98) with industry, rather than imposing forms that presents an unusual and engaging aesthetic, its surface require new technologies or machinery. To do so, clad in off-cuts from the workshop fl oor. But once designers must invest time and energy not only in their put into production, as it has been by manufacturer own experimentation, but also in learning from the Edra, its concept is compromised when this cladding technicians who work every day on the factory fl oor is no longer likely to be made from waste but rather and who understand in detail what can be achieved. cut specifi cally for the task. The validity of using each By posing sometimes naïve questions and responding process is therefore related to the volume of products to the answers, constraints emerge that guide the it is intended to serve. creative process. The quality of particular materials has been the focus Another approach taken to material-led projects is to of many designs whose primary result has been to begin with existing processes and subvert or re-work create spectacle. The approach of using familiar them in a new context. German design duo Vogt & materials on a grand scale, such as Tokujin Yoshioka’s Weizenegger brought selected European designers installations of transparent straws (fi g. 10, page 99), together with the workshops of the Institute for the forming cloud-like walls, is an often-repeated strategy Blind in Berlin to design new products that made use of in window display, less common in product design. their core skills of brush making and wicker work (fi g. Reversing the method, other designers have applied 6, page 96 and fi g. 7, page 97). The resulting designs strange and exotic materials to familiar forms. Tomáš intentionally brought the material qualities of brushes Gabzdil Libertiny managed to produce his Honeycomb and wicker to objects that would not normally contain Vase by encouraging bees to make a hive within vase- them – brushes as egg cups, CD racks and ring boxes; shaped scaffolds (fi g. 11, page 99). wicker in coat hangers, radio casings and lampshades. Marrying another traditional method – macramé – - - with modern composite materials technology, Marcel Wanders created the Knotted Chair (fi g. 8, page 98). A macramé surface is made from carbon fi bre and aramid rope (a synthetic polymer), which is then hung on a frame and dipped in resin. As the rope becomes impregnated, it forms a strong composite material. Once dry, the rope is solid, forming a very light (although not especially comfortable) chair.

Fig. 6 Brushanger by Tim Parsons One of the designs resulting from the project Die Imaginäre Manufaktur (The Imaginary Manufacture) organised by designers Oliver Vogt and Hermann Weizenegger for the Berlin Institute for the Blind.

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Fig. 7 Products from the project Wicker Games organised by Oliver Vogt and Hermann Weizenegger for the Berlin Institute for the Blind Clockwise from top left: Cover- up for kids, cats and toys by Ed Annink, Two of us by Jörg Hundertpfund, Radio block by Sebastian Bergne, Igloo by Klaus Franz and Basket as Stool by Fremdkörper Designstudio.

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Fig. 8 Knotted Fig. 9 Favela Chair Chair by Marcel Wanders, by Fernando and Humberto manufactured by Droog Campana manufactured by Design Wanders allies high- Edra The Campanas’ Favela tech materials associated chair uses unwanted off-cuts with the aeronautics industry of wood as an economical with traditional macramé decoration. Mass-producing weaving techniques to create the chair presents the dilemma an entirely new way of of sourcing a large quantity of constructing a chair. off-cuts or compromising the idea by cutting pieces afresh.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 98 3/9/09 8:15:55 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - type and examine changes to its standard design over NEW MATERIALS many years. The cafe/public hall chair is a favoured typology upon which designers enjoy experimenting. It is just as much the responsibility of designers to be It offers a tough challenge – as Mies van der Rohe aware of new developments in materials as it is for apparently commented; it is perhaps harder than them to have knowledge of those commonly in use. designing a building. Like type design for graphic Without this knowledge, they may overlook the most designers, it comes with an enormous weight of appropriate material for a particular task. Designers historical precedent that both inspires and exhausts, have often been called upon to promote new materials through the realisation that so much has already to show their potential. Associations who look after the been tried. New materials offer a fresh route: the interests of those who produce both new and well- challenge of marrying their specifi c properties to established materials are in the business of engaging the complex and contradictory criteria the chair designers in promoting their use through competitions presents; strength with lightness, rigidity with and showcase projects. Yet by attempting to espouse comfort, durability with affordability. the virtues of any materials, it is tempting to be drawn into generalisations that are not always helpful. Carbon Through a variety of texts and exhibitions, historians fi bre may be incredibly rigid in relation to its weight but and designers have settled upon an accepted lineage of its appropriateness to a task requiring these properties the most respected examples of advancement in chair will be determined by many other factors (such as design. ‘Although we could start earlier, the fi rst chair cost, availability of production facilities and cultural clearly to reassess traditional construction methods associations of the material in relation to the object it is was Michael Thonet’s work in steam-bent wood. being used for). Such high-performance materials can Struck with the problem that curved wooden elements even perform beyond required limits, an example being became weakened as they strayed from the straight the lightness of the Light Light chair in carbon fi bre by grain (traditionally solved by cutting and glueing Alberto Meda (fi g. 12, page 100). together small pieces so the grain followed the curve), Thonet experimented with laminating veneers and thin We must guard against being seduced by the idea of rods. However, the glue failed under high humidity. The new materials alone. In a fi eld where media exposure solution was to use solid timber treated with steam can generate business, products designed in new to make the fi bres temporarily pliable. Lengths could materials create good copy. Instead, we must look then be clamped into cast-iron moulds and once dried critically at such projects to determine to what extent would hold their curved form, with the grain running the new materials improve upon what was previously around the curve. This innovation made fast, effi cient possible. What tangible progress do they offer or is production possible, removing time-consuming carving credit being given only to their novelty? processes and enabled Thonet to become one of the In order clearly to see examples of genuine fi rst mass producers of wooden furniture. The most [2.] - advancements through new materials and processes, successful chair made using these techniques was von Vegesack, A. 1996. ‘Thonet: it helps if we confi ne our research to one single object Number 14 (fi g. 13, page 100), made from just six Classic Furniture in Bent Wood and Tubular Steel’. London: Hazar Publishing Ltd -

Fig. 10 Installation Fig. 11 Honeycomb of plastic straws by Tokujin Vase by Tomáš Gabzdil Yoshioka at the Super Fiber Libertiny Libertiny employs Revolution exhibition Tokujin 40,000 bees to help create Yoshioka has built a number of this vase, a home for fl owers, installations in which elements created with the aid of fl owers. such as plastic straws are used in multiples of many hundreds of thousands. As such, they take on a new and intriguing form, in this case, being malleable as a new material with behaviour all of its own.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 99 3/26/09 12:57:27 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation wooden components, 10 screws and two washers, However, the Eameses knew that for all its advantages 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes 36 of which could be packed, disassembled, in one over solid timber, plywood required a lot of processing 2.7 Technological innovation cubic metre (2). and was unable to produce a body-hugging one-piece chair shell due to the limitations of forming the While Thonet’s chair was highly effi cient structurally, in material in two planes. Plastics offered a possibility, terms of comfort it hardly excelled. The next challenge but early compositions were brittle. On discovering was to fi nd a means of contouring material to the form fi breglass-reinforced polyester resin, the Eameses of the human body without resorting to padding or realised they had found a material that combined compromising the manufacturing rationality Thonet had high strength, durability and tactile qualities with the established. A married couple working from Venice, Los desired mouldability to produce a one-piece shell. In Angeles, Charles and Ray Eames tackled this problem 1950 their fi rst mass-production plastic chair came after developing experience moulding plywood for on to the market and it remains one of the most leg-splints for the US Navy during the Second World comfortable examples to date (fi g. 15, page 100). War. Thin plies were layered with glue and clamped in contoured moulds. By alternating the grain direction Yet the story does not end here. Despite its many of the plies, components had strength both laterally favourable characteristics, impregnating fi breglass and longitudinally. Once the glue set, the edges of matting with resin requires a number of operations: the components were trimmed before lacquering. hand laying mat into moulds, pouring resin and after The process led to designs for lounge as well as moulding, trimming excess material. In addition, both dining chairs, with various leg confi gurations, their the matting and resin present health hazards and if sculptural elegance and lightweight quality appealing badly mistreated the shells can crack. As plastics to consumers (fi g. 14, page 100). technology developed, it became possible to remove these operations by injection moulding a one-piece chair shell that was stronger and even more durable, yet fl exible enough when sat on to “give”. Robin Day

Fig. 12 Light Light Fig. 13 Number Fig. 14 DCW Chair Fig. 15 Fibreglass chair by Alberto Meda, 14 chair by Michael Thonet, by Charles and Ray Eames, Chair by Charles and Ray manufactured by Alias It manufactured by Gebrüder manufactured by Herman Eames manufactured by is diffi cult to conceive of a Thonet Thonet not only Miller and Vitra The bending Herman Miller and Vitra context in which the extreme pioneered the technique of Thonet had applied to lengths The discovery of fi breglass lightness of Alberto Meda’s steam-bending wood but also of timber was achieved across enabled the Eameses to Light Light chair, made from industrialised it, his company sheets when Charles and Ray develop a one-piece shell, carbon fi bre, would be of becoming the fi rst real mass Eames used layers of plywood reducing the number of genuine benefi t when one producer of furniture. in contoured moulds. components and hence considers the high cost of the cost of the chair. its manufacture in relation to plastics.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 100 3/26/09 12:59:22 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black pioneered the application of polypropylene in furniture to be fi lled with plastic and air bubbles to be blown with the Polyprop chair, which has been in continuous into them, pushing the plastic out to the walls where production since 1963 (fi g. 16, page 101). its strength is required. Other sections of the mould could be thinner where the plastic remains solid. A Since the Polyprop chair, there have been a number chair could be made with hollow legs, reducing weight, of admirable attempts to make plastic chairs that go yet appearing solid, while seat and back could be beyond a one-piece seat and back, to produce a one- thin, contoured panels. These advantages were both piece chair. Designers such as Joe Colombo, Verner structural and aesthetic, and Morrison’s design (the Air Panton and Vico Magistretti all succeeded to some Chair for Magis, fi g. 18, page 101) gave the one-piece degree in exploring the limits of the technology. Yet one plastic chair a grace it had not previously achieved. problem inherent in injection moulding held them back: Since then, the technology has been used by a number the material requires an almost uniform wall thickness of manufacturers, perhaps most successfully by Kartell in order to cool evenly in the mould and not deform. This who, together with designer Patrick Jouin, produced made it impossible for designers to make certain areas a transparent chair, Thalya, where the bubbles of air of the chair thicker where more strength was needed, injected into the plastic can be seen (fi g. 19, page 101). and therefore to enhance the elegance of one-piece chairs. This uniform wall thickness and inelegance is At each stage of the development of the chair, these most easily recognised in the ubiquitous white plastic designers decided upon defi ciencies in the then- garden chair (fi g. 17, page 101), whose designer has current materials and processes being used and looked expressed the desire to remain anonymous (3). for opportunities to correct them. By establishing a critical position in relation to the object, they Jasper Morrison recognised a solution to this problem opened themselves up to spotting new materials and when presented with a sample of a new technique technologies that could be harnessed. It is this critical called gas injection moulding. It allows hollow cavities eye that designers need to nurture to provide the starting points for them to continue such chains of progress.

[3.] - - - Aldersey-Williams, H. 2000. “Common or Garden?” ‘The Guardian Space Magazine.’ July 20, p.9 -

Fig. 16 Polyprop Fig. 17 Generic Fig. 18 Air Fig. 19 Thalya chair by Robin Day, plastic garden chair Injection Chair by Jasper Morrison, Chair by Patrick Jouin Jouin’s manufactured by Hille With moulding an entire chair manufactured by Magis The chair does not improve his Polyprop chair, Robin usually presents the problem relatively new process of gas upon Morrison’s in terms of Day replaced the hazardous that the plastic must have injection moulding used in technological advance, but and time consuming a uniform wall thickness. the Air Chair allowed hollow its use of transparent plastic fi bre-reinforced polyester Designers have struggled cavities to be fi lled with displays its manufacturing resin with the durable, to produce elegant solutions plastic and air creating process by making the injection-mouldable plastic using inexpensive plastics hollow sections. This injected bubbles of air visible. polypropylene. with such constraints. changed the parameters of the possible form of a one-piece plastic chair.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 101 3/9/09 8:24:44 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation - - - - 2.5 Social inclusion 2.6 Materials and processes DOMESTICATING THE INDUSTRIAL THE QUALITY OF MATERIAL EXPERIENCE 2.7 Technological innovation It is rare for new materials to fi nd their fi rst use in the The lack in modern plastics of attractive patina (the home, most being developed for industrial applications. quality of surface that emerges from wear) has Consequently, there are many examples of designers resulted in the degradation of the material quality “domesticating” industrial material and details, fi nding of many everyday objects. While undoubtedly making an appropriate use for them among our everyday very cheap products more widely available, where objects. Prior to the Eameses applying them within plastics have replaced metal, wood and leather, the furniture, both plywood and plastic were uncommon property of ageing gracefully has often been replaced materials in the home, whereas since then, they have by shabbiness. This decline in actual physical quality become relatively common. Just as industry develops has allowed craft to fi ll the gap, setting the array of the high tech, it also searches out paths of least sumptuous effects its processes allow in contrast with resistance and expense where the visual good manners the cheapening of the industrially produced. For those of refi ned style are not required. Hence, products who can afford them, craft objects allow their owners made cheaply for use within industry occasionally to revel in such qualities. display signs of manufacturing effi ciency that, while Although much of the value in certain craft objects unsophisticated, can have an honest elegance. A emerges from the romance of the hand of the maker, number of designers have tried to smuggle such details some lies simply in the sensory experience of the into the domestic environment believing that, shown materials themselves. The Splash Bowl (fi g. 22, in the right light, we may come to appreciate them. page 104) was made in a factory in Sheffi eld, UK, An example is Michael Marriott’s use of crush-bent specialising in producing objects from pewter, the steel tubing in his Courier shelving system for British traditional metal used for making drinking tankards and manufacturer Established and Sons (fi g. 20, page 102 hip fl asks. Although it has an aesthetic associated with and fi g. 21, page 103). Square-section tubing of the craft – it is irregular rather than precision-moulded – kind Marriott used buckles when bent sharply, unless the dripping process by which it is made requires little an articulated mandrel supports it internally. A cheaper time or skill and could easily be mechanised (fi g. 23, method – crush bending – uses a bending tool that page 104). By making it in this semi-controlled manner, controls the collapse, bringing the top and bottom walls each piece is slightly different, the pattern on its of the tube together but maintaining the fl atness of surface and the arrangement of solidifi ed drips offering the side walls. The resulting detail, commonly seen on a record of the process of its creation. As it embodies school table legs, offers a voluptuous point of interest very little skill in its making, its value emerges largely highlighted in Marriott’s shelving. from its material qualities. This points to the notion that designers and industry could attempt to slow the - - diminishing material quality of our objects by searching for inexpensive techniques and formulations of material that give lasting value.

- -

Fig. 20 Crush-bent table leg While it is possible to bend square-section metal tubing without it deforming, the process requires expensive tooling to support the tube from the inside. As a cheaper alternative, a crush- bending technique has been developed to allow the tube to uniformly deform.

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Fig. 21 Courier shelving by Michael Marriott, manufactured by Established & Sons By using the crush- bending technique in the frame of his shelving for high- end manufacturer Established & Sons, Marriott encourages us to see it as an aesthetically pleasing detail, rather than an economic expediency.

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Fig. 22 Splash bowl Fig. 23 Making by Tim Parsons, manufactured process for Splash bowl The by A.R.Wentworth The splash bowl is made by dripping bowl highlights a territory molten pewter on to a steel between craft and mechanised tool. Although quick and production where value is repeatable like an industrial neither based on making skill casting, every bowl has a nor precision manufacture, but different arrangement of drips on an intrigue in uncommon and hence is unique, albeit material qualities. within controlled boundaries.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 104 3/9/09 8:24:52 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - Pragmatically, we must recognise that our THE DURABLE AND THE SUSTAINABLE predecessors did not have access to the knowledge of cause and effect related to using materials It is worth considering the extent to which we should that we now have and that this presents us with design objects to last as long as possible, while looking responsibilities. While a few far-sighted commentators as good as possible. The durability and longevity predicted the problems to come, based on the waste of products is determined not only by the physical and pollution they could see, environmental concerns ability to do the job, but also by the strength of our were simply not part of the psyche of mid-century emotional attachment to them. This is often far more designers. It was not until the space race delivered the fragile than the physicality of the object itself as it fi rst real images of the planet and the Club of Rome’s depends on our changing circumstances, whims and report, ‘Limits to Growth’ (1972), expressed its fragility the peer pressures of fad and fashion. While there is that sustainability began to enter public consciousness. an environmental argument for making long-lasting Now, we are in a position to research product life products and encouraging people to keep them for their cycles, cut out ineffi ciencies and avoid harmful and usable life (the additional material and energy put into polluting processes. Lightness has become a recognised their production, spread over time, can amount to less environmental virtue in products, providing fuel and than that needed to produce a number of less durable material savings at various points in their life. Achieving items that fail), the inexorable force of consumer high performance requires study. Now more than ever, culture drives the acquisition of the new forward at a designers and their clients need to build materials, rate that brings this approach into question. Is it the research into their projects, setting their decisions into responsibility of the designer to play down fashion and a sustainable framework of activity. promote the timeless?

[4.] - Thinkers such as author and journalist Hugh Aldersey - - Aldersey Williams, H. 2008. Williams have expounded the theory that to solve this ‘Design and the Elastic Mind’. New York: MOMA dilemma design must mimic nature: “An organism dies - once it ceases to have a use and ceases to have a use once it dies. A primary goal for designers now has to be to bring an object’s material existence and practical utility into harmony.” (4) But as the lifespan of many objects depends as much upon people’s desire to keep them as it does upon their physical ability to last, it is impossible to predict a correct date of “death”. Such a predicament suggests the deployment of materials that break down upon request – from durability to biodegradability – when we decide that the object is no longer needed.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 105 3/9/09 8:24:54 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.7 2. Motivation - - lightness nor strength – has become a staple for 2.6 Materials and processes 2.7 Technological innovation TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION car customisers.) Yet with an expensive and time- 2.8 Ethics consuming manufacturing process, its applications Technology can be described as any method of remain in those areas where performance is prioritised applying technical knowledge to a productive over affordability, an example being Formula 1. John process. That knowledge may be of various Barnard pioneered its use in chassis design and kinds – of materials, of methods of production, of also created an innovative suspension system using programming computers or other electronics, for “fl exures” – sections of the suspension’s carbon fi bre example. With much coverage given to high and wishbones that literally fl exed. As Barnard explains: new technologies, it is easy to forget that even the “The suspension movement is gained by carefully simplest tasks within organised manufacturing balancing fl exure length with width and thickness. constitute “technology”, such as a jig to help drill When the balance is correct enough, movement can be a hole at the same point on multiple components. obtained for an F1 suspension” (1). Barnard went on to As new technologies emerge, designers are design aerodynamic carbon-fi bre covers for the point at naturally interested in how these could be which the suspension attaches to the car body. These applied to new products. This section looks at a used a mixture of fl exible- and rigid-setting resins with number of approaches that designers have taken the carbon cloth to provide a pivot-point that allowed to utilise technology and explores some of the the suspension to move. products that have emerged. Areas of industry such as sport, aerospace and [1.] - - - medicine produce a technological “pull” from their Barnard, J. 2008. [Personal HIGH-TECH MATERIALS customers for the development of ever higher- communication]. 14 May performing materials that is far less evident among - As discussed in the last chapter, particular new [2.] - domestic consumer products. Consequently, when methods of doing things emerge from the discovery Gershenfeld, N. 2006. ‘TED designers apply high-tech materials in the home, they conference presentation, and application of new materials. Interest inevitably must establish a genuine need for their use or their Monterey California’ [online]. focuses upon those that attain the highest performance [Accessed 27th January 2009]. efforts can appear futile. While it is the luxury of the in relation to desired goals. Fusing lightness with Available from World Wide rich to afford superfl uous performance, objects that Web: strength has been one such common goal, fuelling provide it intentionally foster an obscene wastefulness. -developments principally in metals, plastics and To avoid this trap, concerned designers are focusing composite materials (those made from two or their attention on the provenance of objects (how more materials moulded together to give enhanced are they made, with what materials and under what properties, such as bricks made with mud and straw, conditions). By forging collaborations with material laminated plywood and fi bre-reinforced plastics). The scientists they explore new formulations of materials fetishising of carbon fi bre-reinforced plastic to the that are no less useful but come from renewable extent that its visual appearance alone has become sought after is testament to it having achieved the pinnacle of this strength/lightness ratio. (Carbon-fi bre effect sticky-backed vinyl – ironically adding neither

Fig. 1 Chairfi x by Ben Wilson The availability of computer-controlled routing equipment allowed Ben Wilson to produce his Chairfi x chair. Lines plotted on screen are translated into the

TAP WITH RUBBER MALLET ENJOY! movement of a cutting head with precision. The piece is cut accurately enough to be push- fi tted together without screws.

CUT TABS SAND TABS FLUSH

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 106 3/9/09 8:24:55 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black sources, are recyclable or biodegradable. Potato starch, to be pushed out and assembled at home. Perhaps the nutshells, bamboo and other forms of biomass are ultimate “fl at-pack”, Chairfi x has no other screws or among many natural ingredients likely to fi nd their nails, requiring only a wooden mallet to construct it. way into our domestic products in the future. With these simple two-axis cutting machines becoming commonplace, the next wave of fully three-dimensional - - prototyping equipment is set to have even greater CONTROL AND PRODUCTION impact. In use in the product design industry for Developments in computing, the Internet and many years, technologies that enable computer electronics have had an enormous impact on the design fi les describing three-dimensional components to be and manufacturing industries. From the presentation transformed into solid models are being developed of ideas, drawings, model-making and prototyping, for the hobby and home markets. With home “3D through to the control of manufacturing equipment, printing” becoming a serious proposition, designers computers can be seen at every step of design have gone from treating these rapid prototyping development. But they have also had a profound technologies as model-making tools to seeing them effect upon concepts. Designers have grasped the as manufacturing processes in themselves. Héctor idiosyncrasies of computers and electronics and made Serrano’s project Reduced Carbon Footprint Souvenirs use of them to create designs never before possible. (fi g. 2, page 107), proposes a scenario in which the A number of these are discussed below. data to make miniature statues or buildings would be emailed to family or friends to be printed by them Computers allow precision control of systems, which instead of being carried home. Extrapolating on such when applied to manufacture, allows precision concepts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s automated production. This is broadly referred (MIT) Professor Neil Gershenfeld predicts a global to as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing revolution sparked by these machines. manufacture or CADCAM. Until recently the preserve By creating and touring fabrication laboratories or “Fab of the factory, now almost every secondary school has Labs”, Gershenfeld discovered that, while affl uent some kind of computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) audiences created “products with a market of one” (2), making equipment: routers, laser cutters, vinyl cutters, developing world entrepreneurs used the labs to solve for example. The ready availability of this technology local problems, making tools, replacement components in local workshops has allowed designers to use it for and unavailable products. By making almost anything quick prototyping or self-production projects. Inspired manufacturable on site, the democratising of innovation by Airfi x model kits, where all the components came – putting the production of their ideas in the hands of held within a plastic frame, Ben Wilson designed the people – becomes a genuine possibility. Chairfi x (fi g. 1, page 106). Using a computer-controlled milling machine, Wilson created a chair cut from sheet - - plywood but with its components held in place, ready

Fig. 2 Reduced Fig. 3 The Basic Carbon Footprint Souvenirs Stamp Chip manufactured by Héctor Serrano This by Parallax Inc. The Stamp project proposed that instead Chip is a microcontroller that of carrying souvenirs home, can be connected to a home the data to make them could computer and programmed. be emailed and new 3D It allows home users the printing technology used ability to “craft” one-off to print them in the place electronic products more where they will be enjoyed. easily than ever before. This should reduce the energy used in manufacturing, packaging and transporting them.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 107 3/26/09 1:01:40 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation - - With technology becoming cheaper and knowledge 2.6 Materials and processes 2.7 Technological innovation TECH-CRAFT AND PROGRAMMING of how to use it more readily available through the 2.8 Ethics Internet, creative activists have started to fi nd Gershenfeld’s Fab Labs marry the power of material striking ways of making their presence felt. Members fabrication with tools to construct and programme of New York-based Graffi ti Research Labs (GRL), electronic devices, an activity known as “physical committed to “developing high-tech tools for the art computing”. The Stamp Chip is one of a number of underground” (3), glued an LED, a watch battery and inventions that have brought physical computing to a magnet together to create the fi rst LED Throwie, a a “pro-am” audience (in this context, pro-ams are permanently illuminated miniature light source that, enthusiasts who, despite being amateur by dint of their when thrown, attaches itself to any ferrous metal having another occupation, nonetheless engage in their surface (fi g. 6, page 109). GRL went on to produce “hobby” with the seriousness of professionals). The thousands of Throwies, decorating metal-clad buildings, Stamp Chip is a microcontroller that can be connected trams and public sculptures. By arranging them to form to a home computer and programmed using the text on a board, sets of Throwies can be transferred language BASIC (fi g. 3, page 107). Arduino boards are simultaneously, creating removable illuminated graffi ti. a newer development that augment the functionality Co-opting higher technology, GRL pioneered projected of the Stamp and are easier to program. Such graffi ti by marrying a car battery with a suitable technology makes it possible to construct your transformer to powerful LCD projection equipment. own electronic products that in the past might have needed considerable investment. While these tools show how technology can be a conduit for self-expression, other designers have As the ability to create electronic products escapes the investigated how objects can appear to express corporate realm, so, too, the concepts that emerge no themselves. Andy Huntington and Louise Klinker’s Tap longer follow typical models. Hektor, by Jürg Lehni and Tap Box (fi g. 7, page 109), as the designers explain, “is Uli Franke (fi g. 4 , page 108) and Pixelroller by rAndom a construction toy capturing a fascination with rhythm International (fi g. 5, page 108) are electronic products and fi dgeting. The system is built up of individual knock that enable large-scale murals to be printed or painted boxes. Each box has its own memory and is completely automatically. Hektor automates the use of a spray self-contained. As you tap on the top of a box, the box can, operating it via a system of wires and pulleys that waits for a few seconds and then taps back what it has enable it to reproduce screen graphics many times heard. At four seconds, the delay is just long enough to their original scale. Pixelroller mixes computer-print give the boxes a life of their own. Just long enough to technology with the typology of a paint roller to allow wonder if they have forgotten.” (4) a digital image to be rolled on to any surface. In both systems, the computer is aware of the location of the Applying similar skills on a large scale, Troika’s Cloud printing or painting device so it can ensure that the at Heathrow Airport uses data to control over 4,000 image is transferred accurately. Beguiling to watch, mechanical fl ip-dots on its surface (fi g. 8, page 110). the large-scale freedom of expression both systems As the dots fl ip back and forth from shiny to black allow suggests they may never have emerged from a corporate product-planning meeting.

Fig. 4 Hektor by Fig. 5 Pixelroller Jürg Lehni with Uli Franke by rAndom International Hektor is the name of a system By bringing together various that translates on-screen technologies around the graphics into painted murals typology of a paint roller, via the automation of a spray rAndom International were can. The can is moved and able to create a device capable operated from the computer of painting digital images by a series of motors, wires directly on to large surfaces. and pulleys.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 108 3/26/09 1:02:52 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black and back, a wide variety of patterns fl ow over and Colliding computer animation with computer-controlled animate the skin of the object. Other companies such as rapid prototyping, Ron Arad highlighted the sense in Luckybite have mixed the sense that the object itself is which a three-dimensional print-out of an object is alive with the ability for the public to send information but one “frame” in its evolution. For his Not Made by that will affect its appearance. Their Comment Hand, Not Made in China exhibition, he created and installation, a 26-metre-high wall of LED light tracks animated a vase-like form that bounced excitedly on (fi g. 9, page 110), sends visitors’ comments on a visible screen before being frozen at various points in its cycle journey, becoming legible as they pass through defi ned to be printed (fi g. 11, page 111). The project took a display “stations”. postmodern approach to form – the designer could delegate its choice to the purchaser, allowing them to Like craftwork centred on material properties, tech- stop the animation at any point and print the result. craft offers the danger of becoming a self-conscious Similarly, designers Reed Kram and Clemens Weishaar activity promoting only the skill of the maker, rather devolve the exact confi guration of their Breeding Tables than a means of fulfi lling broader goals. While pro- to a computer algorithm (fi g. 12, page 112). Able to am enthusiasts are at liberty to indulge in designing generate an infi nite number of unique table bases to primarily for themselves, designers for industry be folded from sheet steel, their software generates and the public sector are in the business of fi nding random forms within set parameters (such as foot ways to apply technology that will have more position and table height). Drawings of the resulting widespread appeal. forms are automatically generated and sent to laser- cutting equipment (although their fabrication still takes [3.] - - - place manually). Graffi ti Reseach Labs website’ POETIC TECH OBJECTS [online]. [Accessed 27th These projects raise questions about the role of the January 2009]. Available In an attempt to achieve this, some practitioners have from World Wide Web: of a design to be left to chance, designers step down -production of their products or in the way they operate. from their apparent position of controlling every detail. [4.] - Like a visual translation of the Tap Tap Box, the History Huntingdon, A. and Klinker, However, this generosity becomes an abdication of Tablecloth memorises and displays the location of L. In: Cameron, A. 2004. responsibility if the elements being made arbitrary ‘IdN Special 04: The Art of objects placed upon it (fi g. 10, page 111). Developed at would benefi t from intelligent analysis. In Arad’s Experimental Interaction the Royal College of Art’s Interaction Design Research Design’. Corte Madera, CA: vase, chance impacts most upon its aesthetics, but in Studio, the tablecloth uses electroluminescent material Gingko Press Kram Weishaar’s tables it has a greater infl uence upon -to create fi ligree “pixels” that give the impression of material use. Not all of the tables can be as effi cient glowing lace. The cloth creates a halo around objects as each other. If a computer can generate random left on it, which fades away once they are removed. It versions of products, it can also be employed to help is responsive, quietly and briefl y recording the fl ow of measure which one performs best outside of our objects it encounters. subjective aesthetic judgements.

Fig. 6 LED Fig. 7 Tap Tap Throwies by Graffi ti Research Boxes by Andy Huntington Lab Created by glueing with Louise W. Klinker Tap together an LED, a watch Tap is a construction toy that, battery and a magnet, LED after a short delay, taps back Throwies are permanently any rhythm tapped on to it. illuminated miniature light Combinations of boxes can be sources that will attach made to tap on to each other themselves to any ferrous creating complex rhythms. metal surface and glow for the life of the battery.

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Fig. 8 Cloud Fig. 9 Comment electronic sculpture by installation by Luckybite Troika for Heathrow Airport for The Science Museum Terminal 5 Flip dots are Luckybite created an mechanisms used in public enormous, animated, visitor- transport information boards, feedback wall that enabled fl icking from black to white messages to be sent to hide and reveal parts of to it, becoming “trains” words. Design group Troika that travelled along LED used the dots to cover their light tracks. Cloud sculpture, enabling pre- programmed patterns to fl ow over its surface.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 110 3/26/09 1:03:45 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Oscar Diaz, when developing a product for champagne and lamps, but when applied to chairs it is diffi cult to company Veuve Clicquot, took advantage of the work the material so as to avoid them being heavy and accurate calibration that computers can provide. In uncomfortable (fi g. 16, page 114). Both examples point order to create a set of translucent glass vases that, to the need for materials, processes and technologies when stacked together, revealed the client’s signature to be chosen and used as appropriate to the objects orange, Diaz used the RGB values displayed in computer they are making, regardless of how engaging they are graphics packages to calculate the correct colours for to watch. each (fi g. 13, page 113). By printing on to transparent acetate, overlays could be tested and given as samples - - to the glassmakers for matching. INTERACTION While fascinating in itself, new technology can be a Interaction design, an entire discipline unto itself, trap into which designers in awe of it fall, blinkered emerged from industrial design when those involved from the need to apply it effectively to progress our with designing electronic equipment, in particular product-based culture. The objects that emerge from computers, realised they were spending more time projects such as design group Front’s Sketch Furniture designing the way we interacted with them than appear to beg our forgiveness for their inadequacies as on their physical form. In tandem, those involved in practical products on the grounds that their creation designing computer software faced the same problem: produced a spectacular performance (fi g. 14, page 113) how can systems be designed around people rather (Front used motion capture – an animation technique than people having to change the way they think in that tracks and records movement – combined with order to use them? Without undertaking a history of rapid prototyping to create furniture that looks to have interaction design – more than adequately covered been drawn in space). Yet if such projects are a genuine by father of the discipline, Bill Moggridge, in his book attempt to improve upon the development of chairs, ‘Designing Interactions’ (2007, Cambridge, MA: MIT tables and lamps, the technology used must be judged Press) – it’s worth noting its key achievements. It has against all that have come before – and that could been responsible for exploring and defi ning the layout have been used instead. Tom Dixon’s project Fresh Fat of desktop, laptop and palmtop computers and mobile Plastic raises the same issue. The designer recognised phones (still an unsettled typology with bar, clamshell, that by removing the die from a plastic extrusion sliding and fanning varieties currently competing for machine, it continually pumps out a toothpaste-like market dominance). It has defi ned the input devices we worm of hot, soft plastic, which can then be worked have become familiar with, from remote controls, the manually into a desired form (fi g. 15, page 114). The computer mouse and numerous game controllers, to material is attractive, having a glass-like lustre, and the the touch-sensitive wheel of the iPod. And where would process works effectively for small objects like bowls we be without the graphical user interface (GUI), with its desktop metaphor of fi les, folders and trashcans?

Fig. 10 History Fig. 11 Bouncing Tablecloth by Interaction Vase from the Not Made By Design Research Department, Hand, Not Made in China Royal College of Art, collection by Ron Arad Each developed with Rachel vase-like form is a rapid Wingfi eld The History prototype of one frame of Tablecloth uses sensors and an animation Arad made electro-luminescent material using computer software to leave glowing traces of in his studio. objects left on it. These fade slowly once the objects have been removed.

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Fig. 12 Breeding Tables by Kram Weisshaar A computer algorithm decides the exact form of Reed Kram and Clemens Weisshaar’s Breeding Tables.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 112 3/9/09 8:25:07 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black As well as incorporating technology into products to - - go on sale immediately, some designers are involved CRITICAL POSITIONS in speculating upon the types of products that might Designers critical of the way technology has been emerge in the future. A few large consumer electronics applied to electronic products have emerged as corporations, including Royal Philips Electronics in The strong voices within academia. Professor Anthony Netherlands, regularly run projects that investigate the Dunne, leader of the Design Interactions course at scenarios, functionality, interaction and appearance the RCA and former colleague Professor William of the objects we might be using up to 20 years Gaver, now Head of the Interaction Research Studio hence. Their Home of the Near Future project of 1999 at Goldsmiths, University of London, share distaste at examined social and technological trends and presented the commoditisation of technologies into prescriptive a vision of the smart home where objects became objects that homogenise experience and behaviour. “assistants” or “companions” that would respond to our Both argue that technology as conventionally applied to preferences. The Home Medical Box combines a video- common electronic object types has led to an optimum conference portal and medical encyclopaedia with level of performance being achieved, reducing the diagnostic tools to check heart rate and blood pressure designer’s role to little more than that of packaging. and can send data, as well as images, to the doctor These products, Dunne says, support a banal reality wirelessly. Part of the earlier Visions of the Future and condition us to act according to the rules of project, Hot Badges are dating aids that hold personal systems design pioneered by cognitive scientists. (6) information about their wearer’s likes and dislikes Gaver contends that: ‘Digital products – especially and fl ash when in the vicinity of another badge with those for the home – do not have to reproduce our matching attributes. culture’s preoccupation with work, consumption and Perhaps ill-advisedly, such projects suggest that entertainment. Instead, technology can encourage technology, packaged correctly, offers a utopian more exploratory engagements with life, providing [5.] - solution to our frenetic lifestyles. The time used to evocative resources with which to discover new Philips website. 2004–2009. [Page no longer available]. get to know someone or to visit the doctor is freed up, perspectives on ourselves and the world around us.’ them rather than through a device? By generalising alternative methodologies for the development of - about desires and seeing technology as a cure for all electronic products. [6.] - ills, designers risk adding further unwanted layers Dunne, A. 2005. ‘Hertzian Tales’. Cambridge, MA: of complexity to life. Possibly in response to such As well as meditations upon the electronic object, MIT Press concerns, Royal Philips’s recent SKIN Probes project Anthony Dunne, with partner Fiona Raby and their RCA - instead used technology to refl ect emotional states. students, are investigating the future implications of [7.] - Gaver, W. 2007. ‘The Curious Garments were produced that were “sensitive rather bio- and nanotechnology. In contrast to the blindly Home.’ London: Goldsmiths, than intelligent” (5) and visualised emotional and utopian technological visions of the past, much of this University of London physiological changes in the wearer’s body on their work, rather than pushing commercial propositions, - surface (fi g. 17, page 115). uses design as a tool for enquiry, exploring potential conclusions of current scientifi c ‘advances’. These themes are also elaborated in 2.12 Design for debate.

Fig. 13 RGB Vases Fig. 14 Sketch by Oscar Diaz for Veuve Furniture by Front Although Clicquot Three nesting glass bringing together a set of vases of different colours technologies never previously come together to create a applied to product design, the volume displaying a particular objects resulting from Front’s hue of orange used by Sketch Furniture project are the client, Veuve Clicquot. considerably less effective in Accurate colour matching was their own right than the video achieved using a computer. performance showing them being made.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 113 4/8/09 12:42:00 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black 2. Motivation Developing from the Slow Food movement founded in 2.6 Materials and processes 2.7 Technological innovation Italy nearly 15 years ago, there is a growing network 2.8 Ethics of designers who apply the same principles of reviving pleasure, quality and an awareness of nature and the environment given to eating, to the design, manufacture and use of products. In an on-demand world of 24/7 consumption, products that force us to slow down and take time to enjoy experiences can be seen as virtuous. Droog Design took the theme for their 2004 Milan exhibition, where “seniors” served customers a slow meal. The previous year, sometime Droog Design collaborator Dick van Hoff unveiled his Tyranny of the Plug range of kitchen machines – an entirely hand-powered set of appliances consisting of a food processor, blender, whisk and juicer (fi g. 18, page 115). Arguments abound as to whether small gestures such as these have an impact upon energy usage. Yet rather than relying upon our guilt as an incentive, Van Hoff has done everything in his power to make his tools a pleasure to use, gearing them effi ciently and constructing them from solid and beautiful materials. Consequently, they are far less likely to languish at the back of kitchen cupboards than their electrically- powered cousins.

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Fig. 15 Fresh Fat Fig. 16 Fresh Plastic machine by Tom Fat Plastic chair by Tom Dixon By modifying a plastic Dixon The imprecise and extrusion machine, Tom Dixon spontaneous nature of the created a tool for the free Fresh Fat Plastic process manipulation of hot plastic means that it is diffi cult to as a craft skill. A continuous produce large objects that worm of pliable hot plastic use material effi ciently, emerges from the machine this chair being a case that the operator must in point. manually shape into a usable product.

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Fig. 17 SKIN Probes Fig. 18 Tyranny project by Philips Philips’s of the Plug human-powered SKIN Probes project used kitchen tools by Dick Van soft, wearable technologies Hoff Van Hoff’s human- to visualise emotional and powered kitchen tools make physiological changes in the use of precise gearing and wearer’s body on the surface high-quality materials to of their clothes. engage us more physically in the act of food preparation instead of relying upon electrical appliances.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 115 3/9/09 8:25:18 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.8 2. Motivation - - workshop of the world. The impact of this on world 2.7 Technological innovation 2.8 Ethics ETHICS politics has yet to be felt. The half-asleep giant might 2.9 Sustainability wake up one day with surprising consequences.” (1) Ethics is the system of moral principles that helps us decide what we consider to be right or wrong. Like nineteenth-century Britain, Chinese manufacturing These moral principles, although shared by many leaves much to be desired by the ethical standards people, are not absolutes but are personal and open expected in developed countries today. With the to change. They guide our behaviour and, in relation majority of global production migrating to these Asian to design, have an impact upon what designers NICs, it is increasingly likely that designing a mass- choose to work on and how they go about doing it. produced product will mean having it manufactured This section does not propose a rigid set of ethical there. The central ethical conundrum of product design principles – to do so would be to preach my designers today, and one the vast majority choose to own view. Instead, it points out the core dilemmas ignore, is how to be sure their work is manufactured that product design sets up and discusses attitudes under conditions that they deem acceptable. Yet such towards them. assurance is, to say the least, diffi cult to obtain. Some designers have had the tendency to play down [1.] - - - the importance of their ethical views in the work they Ali, T. “The Year That Changed DESIGN WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE the World”. 2008. ‘Sydney do, not questioning the implications of their projects. In Morning Herald,’ 5 January As societies become more civilised, greater levels making an enquiry about the working conditions under - [2.] - of scrutiny and accountability are applied to human which their product will be made, the designer may feel The exception to this is when behaviour. Practices deemed acceptable in one period they are both challenging the authority of their client the designer is working in- or in one culture become disgraceful in another. In the and overstepping the limits of their role. However, this house for a manufacturing company. In such cases, realm of object making, differences in where ethical is to assume two things, both questionable. The fi rst they may inescapably fi nd lines are drawn are most marked when considering is that the designer-client relationship is a hierarchy in themselves in a hierarchy. issues such as workers’ rights, sources of materials, which the designer is subservient, when in fact it should - (2)(3) [3. 4.] - originality, the safety of objects in use and, more be an equal partnership. The second is that the Bierut, M. 2007. ‘79 Short recently, energy usage, pollution and waste. designer’s infl uence over the production of the object Essays on Design’. New York: ends with the specifi cation of materials, components Princeton Architectural Press As different countries make advances in ethical and manufacturing methods. In truth, clients may -controls at different rates, contrasts occur around welcome advice on where these could be carried out, the world that are easily exploited. The rise of Newly by whom and under what conditions. To assume, Industrialised Countries (NICs) in Asia, in particular without enquiring, that the client will necessarily China, has come about in no small part because put profi t fi rst before meeting their ethical the developed economies of the West discovered responsibilities is to condemn them prematurely. it as the cheapest and most enthusiastic source of manufacturing. “The Far East is now central to the Raising such issues isn’t easy. All the while, the nagging future of capitalism”, writes novelist and historian Tariq fear of losing future business eats away at one’s Ali. “China today, like Britain in the 19th century, is the resolve. “The spirit is willing. But the fl esh, for the most part, remains weak” (4) as Michael Bierut puts

Fig. 1 ‘Icon’ magazine cover November 2006 ‘Icon’ magazine’s article ‘Design is Evil’ discussed the emergence of once taboo themes such as sex and death as inspiration for product designs.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 116 3/26/09 1:52:51 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black it. He urges designers not to blame the client if they China has what Rizoff describes as “adequate labour themselves are too weak to confront them – to fl atten laws” (7), but claims that these are poorly enforced. the hierarchy of the relationship and talk on equal Compliance with these laws costs money and critics terms. By nature of being in the relationship, designers say that with the government having a vested interest are implicated in the actions that emerge from it. They in the continued economic competitiveness of its may feel that they have limited power, but owe it to manufacturing industry, it cannot be trusted to uphold themselves and to those affected by the decisions made them (8). Typical violations have included paying below not to underestimate it, and to exercise it in line with the minimum wage, forcing staff to work beyond their ethical convictions. If design is to serve society the 40 hour per week limit without paying overtime, as it should, it must be done with a clear conscience. denying them the minimum one day off per week, As Henry Dreyfuss said of the good industrial designer: withholding and deducting wages without due cause, “Occasionally he may lose a client, but he rarely loses providing unsafe working conditions and engaging a client’s respect.” (5) in physical abuse. Termination of employment upon illness or pregnancy and lack of compensation for [5.] - - - work-related injuries and death have also been common Dreyfuss, H. 1955. ‘Designing THE ETHICS OF LABOUR (9). Crucially, although Chinese workers are allowed for People’. New York: Simon to form and join unions, these are not independent and Schuster The fi rst step for any designer when faced with diffi cult - and must submit to governance by the All China ethical decisions is to educate themselves on the [6. 7.] - Federation of Trades Unions (ACFTU). A report in the Rizoff, R. J. 2004. “Beyond facts beyond the headlines. Although by no means the UK’s ‘The Guardian’ newspaper described them thus: Codes of Conduct: Addressing only offending nation, the recent scrutiny of labour Labor Rights Problems in “Organised from the top down, they have little infl uence conditions there makes China an ideal case study for China”. ‘China Business Review’, on personnel decisions and are often used by the March–April revealing ethical issues in the workplace. Writing on government and management to placate employees.” -labour rights in China, Robert J. Rizoff, director of [8.] - (10) As Rizoff’s report states, this leaves workers the China Working Group, an organisation of socially ‘China, like so many other “without representatives who can discuss violations industrialising developing responsible businesses working in China, revealed with management. Workers who have tried to form countries, is genuinely widespread abuses but also suggested positive actions afraid that enforcement of independent unions or lead labour protests have been that companies can take to lessen their likelihood. In labour laws will reduce its imprisoned.” (11) so-called “competitive the magazine of the United States–China Business advantage” (cheap labour) and Council, a non-profi t organisation of more than 250 To safeguard their image at home, Western drive away foreign investment.’ Chan, A. ‘China and the American corporations that do business with China, corporations have taken to implementing codes of International Labor Movement.’ Rizoff wrote that: “Labour rights violations are so conduct and policing these themselves or through [Page no longer available]. widespread in China that violations can be presumed professional monitoring companies. Sadly, these to exist in every factory until proven otherwise.” have been only moderately successful. The fi nancial -However, he immediately adds that factories owned benefi t of fl outing the codes is tempting despite the [9.] - by or having direct investment from foreign companies risk of being caught, and the workers themselves are ‘China Briefi ng’. 2000–2009. [online]. [Accessed 27th that stress the importance of good codes of conduct often unaware of the laws and guidelines in place to January 2009]. Available tend to have fewer violations. protect them, and hence do not necessarily protest. from World Wide Web: - [10.] - Watts, J. “Wal-Mart backs down and allows Chinese workers to join union in Beijing”. 2006. ‘The Guardian’. 11 August - [11.] - Rizoff, R. J. 2004. “Beyond Codes of Conduct: Addressing Labor Rights Problems in China.” ‘China Business Review’, March–April. For further reading: -

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 117 3/26/09 1:11:22 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation Progressive foreign companies have begun to go further not buy these products then they would not be made” 2.7 Technological innovation (12) 2.8 Ethics by educating workers about rights and democratically . After educating the public about the merits of 2.9 Sustainability electing representatives among their Chinese durability and honesty to materials, Pick encouraged workforces. These actions produce pools of Western- them to make demands of their shopkeepers who style employment practice that, while encouraging, would, in turn, pass these on to manufacturers and are in danger of being at odds with the methods of the their designers. state-linked federation of unions. They nevertheless Regrettably, with the exception of a few small offer recommendations that designers can take to their organisations, consumers did not rise to the challenge clients that could have a real impact among the lives of and the conceptual value and material substance of the workforce. In markets where not to manufacture in designed products have continued to be diluted. In a countries like China would jeopardise competitiveness, recent publication, designer Konstantin Grcic wrote: those benefi ting fi nancially need to do what they can “In the domains of services and facilities, design is to ensure that the lives and livelihoods of those making considered to be smart, producing intelligent solutions their products are protected. to the specifi c demands of a situation. In comparison to this, a lot of product design is seen to have lost its - - [12.] - integrity and original virtues to the marketing interests Pick, F. 1975. “The Meaning A PROFESSION ADRIFT? and Purpose of Design”. In: of the large corporations. As the fundamentals of Benton, C. (ed). ‘Documents: A The ethical compromises around manufacturing are social and ecological issues become ever more sensitive collection of source material on a contributory factor in what could be described as a to modern industry we need to rebuild a culture of the Modern Movement’. Milton Keynes: Open University Press wider malaise in which the product design profession products that ‘make sense’. The relevance a product -currently fi nds itself. Central to this is an identity crisis has to our life lies not only in its use, but also in how [13.] - that has strengthened over the past half-century, it is made, what it is made of, and where it is made… Grcic, K. In: Fiell, C. and Fiell, (13) P. 2007. ‘Design Now.’ Cologne: resulting from its own success. Having helped to and fi nally who disposes of it and how?” Taschen achieve the goal of making Western society a relatively -comfortable place, abundant with affordable labour- - - saving and entertaining devices, there is a sense in DARK DESIGN some quarters that the hard work has been done – that Rather than simply being complacent, many respected product design’s traditional problem-solving role has commentators have suggested that designers have largely disappeared and that real problems are no begun intentionally embracing the amoral and even the longer solved by designers but by policy-makers such immoral. Unsurprisingly, as society has become more as politicians. Perverted by marketing, designers’ skills liberal, tolerant and willing to push the boundaries have been diverted into solving fi ctitious problems, of taste and decency, so design has followed suit. or into continually reworking perfectly satisfactory Designers are now tackling once-taboo themes such products. As early as 1933, Frank Pick, the then head as sex, death and war, albeit through one-offs, limited of London Transport and a keen patron of design, said editions and research projects rather than the mass- in a public lecture: “I often think of the wretched designer forced to improve on the best for the sake of novelty. But it is the consumer’s fault…if you would

Fig. 2 Lifelong Bookcase by Kenneth Grange After his mother’s death set him thinking about the stagnant tradition of coffi n- making, Kenneth Grange conceived one that would serve another function – as a bookcase – and bring a smile, in his words, “at the end, just as at the beginning, and have a useful life in between”.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 118 3/9/09 8:25:25 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black mass-produced. In a cover feature article in 2006, But just as the existence of pornography must not be entitled “Design is Evil” (fi g. 1, page 116), ‘Icon’ used to censor valuable works of literature, fi lm or art, magazine discussed the phenomenon showcasing dark design of a poor quality must not preclude others designs including a set of bullets with their tips from being allowed to explore these subjects with shaped into roses entitled, A last bunch of fl owers greater depth and substance. for my girlfriend, (Michael Sans) and Traces of an For example, death has provided the inspiration for Imaginary Affair, (Bjorn Franke) described as “a set a range of poetic, practical and thoughtful works of of nine tools allowing you to infl ict bite marks, carpet design in recent years including Kenneth Grange’s burns, love bites, scratches and bruises on yourself, bookcase that becomes your coffi n (fi g. 2, page 118), giving the appearance that you are having an affair, Nadine Jarvis’ bird feeder (fi g. 3, page 119) and Michele to make your partner jealous”. The text states that: Gauler’s project Digital Remains (fi g. 4, page 119), in “design’s new willingness to address darker issues which access to a deceased person’s computer data makes for dramatic imagery in a magazine, but will becomes a mediator in the grieving process. More be viewed by some as further confi rmation of the controversially, Auger–Loizeau’s Afterlife project (fi g. discipline’s descent from a noble cause into shallow 5, page 120) reveals the possibility of creating batteries sensationalism.” (14) It was right. In their latest book using acids created by the body after death, during the ‘Design Now’, distinguished writers Charlotte and process of decay. Although the project has raised the Peter Fiell lambasted some of the work featured. Of hackles of some critics, it is more than a technological the ‘Icon’ magazine piece they wrote: “In a recent stunt. The designers say that the batteries provide design magazine article, dwarf fi gurines, Delft dildos “an expression of life after death for those who are and gun-shaped handbags were featured as the latest spiritually disconnected or demand tangible evidence”. thing in design. Beyond asking, “What the hell is that In contrast to the superfi cial application of imagery, all about?” we should refl ect that if this is the state each of these projects explores the relationship of contemporary practice then fundamental problems between death and the objects with which we live, exist within certain areas of the design community.” (15) [14.] - examining how they may offer catharsis to those who Bates, A. and James, L. As the Fiells’s quote suggests, some of the new work own them. 2006. “Design is Evil.” ‘Icon’ that deals with so-called darker issues does so in a magazine. November Much of the consternation aroused by such work comes -trivial and sensationalist way. Imagery of guns, sex from a misreading of its context and of the designers’ [15.] - and death are simply applied to everyday objects in the Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. 2007. intentions (neither Michael Sans, Bjorn Franke’s nor vain hope of grabbing attention. When these images ‘Design Now.’ Cologne: Taschen Auger–Loizeau’s products were designed for use but to -are used not to examine the profundity or seriousness raise debate). Many commentators are yet to cast off of the issues to which they are inextricably linked, but the notion that a designer’s products always represent simply to exploit the frissons of pleasure and guilt they an eventuality that he/she supports and is seeking to may provide, the works become akin to pornography. put in place. In fact, an increasing number of designers have rejected this role of the utopian visionary in favour of highlighting contemporary conditions and potential

Fig. 3 Bird feeder Fig. 4 Digital by Nadine Jarvis Moulded Remains by Michele Gauler from a mixture of bird feed and This project explored the way human ash, Nadine Jarvis’s that digital data belonging Birdfeeder offers an alternative to the deceased could be to scattering ashes by hand. accessed in a controlled way via personal access keys given to friends and family, to form part of the grieving process.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 119 4/8/09 12:30:43 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black 2. Motivation futures that they do not necessarily advocate. These Some, however, believe otherwise. A small number 2.7 Technological innovation 2.8 Ethics cautionary tales are easily mistaken for the work of of designers have picked up on the benefi ts of being 2.9 Sustainability dangerous misanthropes if viewed in the traditional ambiguous about the planned outcome of their work way. (16) The difference – not always discernable from with the express purpose of using any adverse reaction images and sound-bites in magazines (or even the to fuel the debate (see 1.1 Design and politics). A designers’ own websites) – is the context of the work. big enough outcry may even stop others with fewer While some pieces are intended to be manufactured scruples trying genuinely to release similar products. and distributed, others have been designed specifi cally Rather than eviscerate the work by declaring its hoax to generate debate around their implications and these status, these objects and scenarios are presented tend to be shown in galleries or disseminated through neutrally – neither with a sales pitch nor a damning publications. Whether it is these products, or simply the indictment. Faced with the question “Does the ideas they provoke that are intended for consumption, is designer really think this is a good idea?”, the viewer is likely to affect our ethical view of them. The discussion, encouraged to form his or her own opinion. Part of this representation, or even satirising of immoral acts and process, explains Anthony Dunne, a leading exponent of dark deeds is part and parcel of a free society, but design for debate, is to avoid the work being described the promotion and distribution of tools to aid them is as art. “If our work is categorised as art, it defuses more questionable. it. We insist on it being design because people get uncomfortable with that. They say, ‘How can that be The public understanding of design culture is slowly design, it’s not mass-produced’. Why does it have to catching up with that of literature, fi lm and other art be mass-produced? They say, ‘But it isn’t answering a forms where shocking images have become acceptable need.’ Well, why does it have to answer a need? You can when part of an intelligent narrative expression. Like raise all these questions by keeping it in that space…We these art forms, designers will have to cope with the borrow a lot from art but I see that as research.” (17) righteous indignation of self-appointed moral guardians, who, not prepared to look for deeper meaning in the [16.] - - - work or engage in the debate it sparks, will dismiss Dunne, A. 2007. In: ‘Design OBJECTS AS MORAL ACTANTS Interactions Yearbook 2007’. it out of hand. However, far from being negative, this London: Royal College of Art broadening of subject matter and the emerging context To the high-minded designers and theorists of the last - [17.] - of design for debate provides a conduit for designers century, design had a social imperative. As founder of Dunne, A. 2008. [Personal and their audience to refl ect upon the state of society the discipline of design history, Nikolaus Pevsner put it: communication]. 15 January and the full spectrum of possibilities it holds – a role “To fi ght against the shoddy design of those goods by - [18.] - previously hampered by the expectation of presenting which most of our fellow men are surrounded becomes Pevsner, N. 1937. ‘An Enquiry only positive imagery (see 2.12 Design for debate). With a moral duty.” (18) Thanks to modern materials, Into Industrial Art in England’. context playing such an important role in the ethical especially plastics, the once elusive mixture of Basingtoke: Macmillan (19) -view of this work, designers may need to be more affordability and durability is commonplace and [19.] - careful to communicate their intentions effectively. the moral emphasis has shifted to ensuring products As discussed on p102, although are conceptually as well as physically sound. plastics have brought durability at a low price, they suffer from an inability to age gracefully and their tactile qualities are often considered less satisfying than the materials they replaced. Hence the material substance of products can be said to have been diluted by plastics, despite their advantages. -

Fig. 5 Afterlife by Auger–Loizeau The project explored uses for the latent chemical energy remaining within the body after death.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 120 3/9/09 8:25:33 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black When considering concepts, designers are heavily Rather than forcing or shaming us into conforming, guided by their own moral projection of what designers can look for ways in which products can help constitutes appropriate behaviour. Hence they us be good while remaining sympathetic to our routines must acknowledge the position of objects as and habits. The Eco Kettle (fi g. 7, page 122) tackles moral actants (20) – that is, objects encourage and the problem of electricity being wasted by boiling occasionally force us into certain behaviour deemed a kettle-full of water when we need only a cupful right or wrong. Designers, therefore, have the critical (usually a result of our lazy desire to fi ll the kettle less role of deciding to what extent their objects will direct often). By allowing us to fi ll it up completely and then our actions, and what they will direct us to do. Citing transfer what we want to boil into a separate chamber, French sociologist Bruno Latour, Hans Achterhuis the product fi ts our existing pattern of use rather than writes: “One of Latour’s most famous examples is forcing another upon us. the safety-belt, that protests when it is not clasped [20.] - on before starting to drive.” (21) While the belt alone - - Achterhuis, H. In: Van Hinte implies that we take our safety seriously by adding COPYING (ed). 2004. ‘Eternally Yours: an alarm when not used, the design becomes fi ercely Time in Design: Product Value The ethics of ownership is a naturally contentious Sustenance’. Rotterdam: 010 paternalistic, forcing us to conform. Publishers subject in design. Every designer, knowingly or -While many similar details are put in place for our otherwise, will have reused elements from elsewhere. [21.] - safety (for example, power tools that won’t start This book has advocated the borrowing of forms that Moore, Dr T. 2007. ‘Whose design is it? How to protect without their guards in place) the very concept of are in the public domain as a strategy for attracting your IP in China’. Report certain products is intended to shape us towards people to objects through familiarity (see 2.4 Collective published by Sagentia “being good”. A case in point is Wattson, a home energy memory and behaviour). Nevertheless, millions are - monitor (fi g. 6, page 121). Although other monitors spent each year to protect against copying, or to are available, Wattson is the only one that attempts to prosecute those who are caught doing it. The subject endear itself to us as an object of desire. Its slick black is made murkier by the fact that many areas of design and white exterior, in the iPod vein, houses a red LED are lead not by original thought but by trend, which can display on top (showing precise energy consumption appear to advocate and justify direct appropriation. in units) and coloured mood lights below (for a more While there is no value in producing new for the sake general indication – blue for low usage, red for high). of new – the best of history must be built upon and Its designers want us to place it prominently in the improved – most designers recognise, as a matter of living room so that we may monitor our consumption integrity, the need to differentiate their work from regularly. Laudable though its purpose is, Wattson is that of others. Where this threshold of differentiation a somewhat invasive and incessant reminder of our begins – at what point he or she feels they have consumption and one that is likely to cause more than avoided encroaching upon the intellectual property a little anxiety among users. Its designers must feel (IP) of others – is personal and varies greatly among this is a small price to pay for the consequent reduction designers, manufacturers and across cultures. The in energy use they hope it will achieve. However, the notion that designers should encourage self-imposed limits on what is still regarded as “normal” behaviour remains controversial.

Fig. 6 Wattson home energy monitor designed and manufactured by DIY Kyoto Wattson is a home energy monitor intended to be left on show in the home. It indicates via mood lighting and an LED display the energy consumption of the household.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 121 3/9/09 8:25:34 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation practice of producing counterfeit products, prevalent Would it not jar with their ideals to fi nd the designs they 2.7 Technological innovation 2.8 Ethics in parts of Asia, is seen as morally corrupt by Western had worked hard to rationalise for inexpensive mass 2.9 Sustainability standards, yet in some countries the notion that it production – now design classics – being sold at such is wrong has yet to develop fully. Dr Tim Moore of comparatively exorbitant prices (the Standard chair by innovation consultants Sagentia points out that: “In Jean Prouvé (fi g. 8, page 122), originally designed for mainland China, the years of communist rule since the municipal buildings, currently costs around £470 from 1940s engendered a culture where individuals could Vitra and auction estimates for originals reach as high not own ideas; they were handed over and subsequently as US$5,000)? Not that the Eameses or Prouvé would became the property of the state. Knowledge, it was necessarily have condoned copying; aside from the lack considered, was better shared for the greater good of integrity, many copies compromise the quality of of the country. It became natural for people to share the offi cial versions and royalties are not paid to the ideas and the concept of IP as a valuable asset was estates of the designers. unknown.” (22) Moore continues to assert that although For practitioners educated to respect and pursue China has introduced legislation to protect IP, in his original thought, it is disturbing to see the way that view “it will take much longer to change the culture copying and direct imitation, particularly in fi elds of than it did to change the law.” (23) design led by style and fashion, are accepted as the Stories are told of parallel production lines for norm. A relatively successful young furniture designer counterfeiting being set up by the same manufacturers recently boasted to a colleague that he just copied commissioned to make the originals, thereby creating other people’s designs and “changed them by 10 per identical fakes. Customers are encouraged to split cent”. Sadly, the people who employ and publish the up their products and have various parts made in work of such “me-too” designers are often unaware independent factories to cut down the likelihood of that they are buying work of dubious integrity. However, counterfeiting (24). On a recent visit to the China some encourage it. Designer and client are likely to be [22. 23.] - Moore, Dr T. 2007. ‘Whose Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, furniture able to make a successful living, the only drawback design is it? How to protect designer Richard Shed saw copies of “Azumi LEM being the lack of critical acclaim from fi gures within the your IP in China’. Report barstools, Arne Jacobsen Swan chairs and Ron Arad profession, who know that the work is derivative. published by Sagentia V&A chairs. They were like subtly mutated, interbred - Even global giants such as IKEA – a company whose [24.] - versions of the originals, all with oddly placed lumps reputation has been built, in part, upon its “good design”, Shed, R. 2008. “The China and bumps and disproportionate limbs.” (25) Chronicles.” ‘ID magazine.’ have been caught selling direct translations of others’ June, p.42 There is an argument that says copies of design designs. Its Sture trestle, by ex-IKEA in-house designer - [25.] - classics make them available on the mass market at Rutger Andersson, was banned from sale in Germany Fairs, M. and Knutt, E. 2005. affordable prices, expanding demand for the originals. when courts there established it was a copy of a design “Original Fakes.” ‘Icon’ One might even go so far as to suggest that such called Taurus (fi g. 9, page 123), by Jörg Sturm and magazine. June -enterprises refl ect the social ethos of bringing good Susanne Wartzeck, produced by German company [26. 27.] - design to the masses, that designers such as Charles Nils Holger Moormann (26). Such legal battles are Moormann, N. H. 2003. and Ray Eames and Jean Prouvé applied to their work. tremendously costly and therefore represent great risk ‘Moormann defeats Ikea in the battle against plagiarism’. for small fi rms. Backers for Authentics, the company [Page no longer available] -

Fig. 7 Eco Kettle Fig. 8 Standard designed and manufactured chair by Jean Prouvé by Product Creation Ltd. The manufactured by Vitra Eco Kettle allows control of This chair was designed how much of its capacity is for municipal buildings and to be boiled at any one time, is an example of Prouvé’s allowing it to be fi lled fully but attention to rational mass only one cupful boiled, if that production that reduces costs is all that is required. to a minimum while retaining durability.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 122 3/26/09 1:22:11 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black who popularised well-designed domestic products Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United using translucent polypropylene, were brought to States saw both sides of the argument for protecting the brink of bankruptcy by the costs of stopping their ideas as an inventor and was the administrator of the plagiarists in the US courts. (27) fi rst US patents. He wrote: “Certainly an inventor ought to be allowed a right to the benefi t of his invention for With relatively superfi cial changes required to avoid some certain time. Nobody wishes more than I do that prosecution and global budget brands that have the ingenuity should receive liberal encouragement…In power to fi ght litigation openly selling barely legal the arts, and especially in the mechanical arts, many translations of designs from others, originality is in ingenious improvements are made in consequence of danger of becoming a quality found only in high-end the patent right giving exclusive use of them.” (29) products. In-the-know consumers who wish to Although as Victor Papanek pointed out in ‘Design for purchase products with integrity, designed and the Real World’, when it came to his own inventions developed for the company who manufacture them, Jefferson never took out a patent, remarking of are increasingly having to pay for the privilege. By his hemp brake (a device for vastly speeding up the exploiting the fact that some consumers will not processing of hemp), “I shall probably describe it know the origins of a design, unscrupulous fi rms avoid anonymously in the public papers in order to forestall paying for concept development, instead employing the prevention of its use by some interloping “designers” simply to draw up copies for manufacture. patentee.” (30) If copying of an invention could speed In areas of design that are heavily infl uenced by the spreading of its benefi t and was therefore in the fashion, it is sometimes hard to tell whether a product public interest, Jefferson saw that restricting its use has been copied or the same form has been arrived at to the owner and licensees of a patent could do more coincidentally. With certain forms and ideas becoming harm than good. fashionable and many designers looking in the same [28.] - places for inspiration, this is inevitable. Hence, many - - Wilde, O., Jackson, R., Small, of the most innovative designers avoid fashion trends THE ETHICS OF MATERIAL USE I., Bristow, J. 2000. ‘The as inspiration, preferring to look elsewhere and chart Complete Works of Oscar The ethics of material use can be considered to Wilde’. Oxford: Oxford their own unique path that others may choose to follow. encompass our relations towards fellow humans, University Press Designer Robin Levien, who specialises in the industrial - animals and to the planet as both a resource and an design of ceramics, takes care to source themes and [29.] - ecosystem. There is an ethical imperative to ensure Jefferson, T. In: Jefferson, formal infl uences from product genres other than the humane behaviour in all aspects of the identifi cation, T. and Foley, J.P. 1900. ‘The one being designed for. When working on tableware, Jeffersonian Cyclopedia: A extraction, processing, transformation into product cues may be gathered from other disciplines such as comprehensive collection of the and disposal of materials. While much of this falls views of Thomas Jefferson’. architecture, fashion design or jewellery. In doing so, neatly under the remit of sustainability (discussed New York: Funk & Wagnalls Levien and his team arrive at proposals that are subtle - in the next section), our attitude towards animals aesthetic variations with a look “of their time”, yet they [30.] - as materials stands out and hence deserves Jefferson, T. In: Papanek, V. are not copies of anything within the same fi eld. They separate discussion. 1974. ‘Design for the Real conform to Oscar Wilde’s belief that the artist should World: Human Ecology and (28) Social Change’. London: provide “originality of treatment, not of subject.” Granada Publishing Ltd -

Fig. 9 Taurus Fig. 10 Lasting Void Trestle by Jörg Sturm and by Julia Lohmann Lohmann’s Susanne Wartzeck for Nils stool, made of fi breglass cast Holger Moormann Nils Holger from a plaster mould of the Moormann manufactures this ribcage of a calf that had died ingenious design for a trestle of natural causes, sparked that twists to ensure stability much ethical debate when on uneven fl oors. It is made in images of the process of its solid beech and stainless steel. creation were printed in An almost identical version ‘Icon’ magazine. in plywood and painted mild steel produced by IKEA was banned from sale in Germany.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 123 3/26/09 1:23:44 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation There has long been debate surrounding the ethics of consider the ethical issues surrounding its production, 2.7 Technological innovation 2.8 Ethics what materials are deemed appropriate for processing and that of other related products i.e. those of the meat 2.9 Sustainability into products. The fur and ivory trades are the most industry and the furniture made from its by-products. obvious reminders of a colonial heritage of products From the tone of Mendini’s criticism, it appears he containing materials now considered of dubious origin. believed the calf had been killed for the sole purpose Arguments still rage over the use of animal products of creating the stool, hence his ethical outrage. And in fashion, design and, of course, for food. why wouldn’t he jump to such a conclusion if limited The designer Julia Lohmann set up an intriguing information had been given? Our view of Lasting Void’s ethical debate with her stool entitled Lasting Void ethical status may well depend upon our knowing the (fi g. 10, page 123). Like a number of her projects, circumstances of the calf’s death and of the activities it encourages us to dwell upon our treatment of that led to its transformation into a stool. Once in animals by presenting us with an uncanny form and possession of the facts, we can compare these to our revealing its source. The stool, made by casting inside own actions and views on the treatment of animals. the carcass of a dead calf and subsequently moulding The piece becomes an ethical barometer. As a reminder this form in black fi breglass, is seductively organic of the unseen materiality of factory farming, it may or and bears the unmistakable ribcage of its master. may not be sobering to the committed carnivore. Yet On seeing the piece, Alessandro Mendini (considered those who literally believe that animals and humans one of Italy’s great design theorists and a respected are to be treated as equals may have diffi culties designer in his own right) wrote an open letter to ‘Icon’ condoning the interference with a dead body, no matter magazine and Gallery Kreo in Paris where the stool how it was obtained, and no matter how worthy the was being exhibited, describing it as “an extremely intended result. sad moment in the history of objects.” He continued: Putting this specifi c case to one side, such work “I can see no theoretical, aesthetic, methodological raises numerous questions. Do the boundaries of or anthropological reason which justifi es the idea of acceptable behaviour within the design of products immortalising a dead animal’s last breath in order, and furniture differ from those of art? Should a piece sadistically, to propose it as an item for everyday use... of highly evocative work be allowed to traverse more The idea is cynical and pointless, it is simply turning the ethical boundaries than something less affecting? torture of a dead body into entertainment.” (31) Does the reproduction of a piece exacerbate any In Lohmann’s reply (printed in the same issue of ‘Icon’ ethical transgression required to make it singly, or is magazine as Mendini’s letter), she defends the piece on volume beside the point in matters of right and wrong? the grounds that the design did not cause the death of As with the work dealing with dark subject matter the calf – it died of natural causes – and was therefore discussed earlier, our ethical views may be coloured considered unsuitable for consumption as meat. Far by our understanding of the context of a piece and the from being designed merely for entertainment, it is, intentions of its designer. she says, embedded with “ethical functionality” (32) – her neologism for the way the object prompts us to

Fig. 11 The Natomo Family, Mali from the book ‘Material World’ by Peter Menzel An astonishing achievement, Menzel’s book captures the dwellings, possessions and members of statistically average families in 30 countries around the world. The contrasts speak for themselves.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 124 3/9/09 8:25:38 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black While design work can provoke debate about its own Child (OLPC) (fi g. 13, page 125), an education project ethical status, some intends to elicit discussion around instigated by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte. the ethics of the behaviour of others, in particular the The project has developed a laptop that costs around conundrums surrounding new sciences. Many of these US$175 and is now available, through government works concern the future making of objects, food and purchasing schemes, to children around the world. Its extensions to the functionality of the human body (see user interface was designed by Pentagram and the 2.12 Design for debate). exterior by Yves Béhar. Product design, as part of a wider manufacturing [31.] - - - and distribution system, is a business of ethical Mendini, A. Open Letter to ANOTHER WORLD ICON and Gallery Kreo, ‘Icon’ compromise. The personal ethical decision that all magazine, November 2007. The astonishing disparity between the average wealth designers face is that of how much compromise they - [32.] - of families in countries across the world is starkly are willing to accept when faced with the dilemmas Lohmann, J. Response to illustrated in Peter Menzel’s book ‘Material World their work raises. Philosopher A C Grayling sums up Alessandro Mendini, ‘Icon – A Global Family Portrait’ (Sierra Club Books, San the predicament with these words: “Like everyone else, Magazine’, November 2007. -Francisco, 1995), (fi g. 11, page 124 and fi g. 12, page designers fi nd themselves in a spider’s web of duties – [33.] - 125). Sadly, as historian D. J. Huppatz’s quote below contractual duties, duties to clients, to stakeholders, Huppatz D. J. 2007. ‘Critical suggests, many others have a tendency to consider “the to colleagues, to themselves and their work, and to Cities Refl ections on 21st Century Culture’ [online]. world” as confi ned to the consumer society in which society at large. It is sometimes diffi cult to serve [Accessed 27th January they live: “When a celebrity designer such as Karim everybody well, while at the same time fulfi lling one’s 2009]. Available from World Rashid, for example, states that he ‘wants to change implicit duties to society. I think it legitimate for Wide Web: world? (See the book ‘Karim Rashid, I Want to Change from failures.” (34) -the World’, New York: Universe, 2001.) Or, in response to [34.] - Grayling, A. C. In: Roberts, L. his more recent challenge, ‘Design Your Self: Rethinking - - 2006. ‘Good: An Introduction the Way You Live, Love, Work, and Play’ (New York: to Ethics in Graphic Design’. Regan Books, 2006), isn’t it time we got beyond simply Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA (33) -thinking about ourselves?” However, as discussed in 2.5 Social inclusion, many designers may feel out of their depth working in the developing world when the common skills they use are not necessarily those most required. However, there are projects that industrial designers have become involved in that are set to have enormous effect there. An example is One Laptop Per

Fig. 12 The Skeen Fig. 13 XO laptop Family, USA, from the book computer by Pentagram and ‘Material World’ by Peter Yves Béyar manufactured Menzel by One Laptop Per Child The One Laptop Per Child project aimed to dramatically reduce the purchase price of a laptop computer and make one specifi cally designed for children, available around the world, particularly in developing countries.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 125 4/8/09 1:02:29 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black - - 2.9 2. Motivation - - is the answer. Each side caricatures the other – it’s 2.8 Ethics 2.9 Sustainability SUSTAINABILITY the polluting, optimistic futurists against the hand- 2.10 Participation wringing, doom-laden nostalgics. Sustainability – the goal of achieving equilibrium in the production and consumption of the planet’s Innovation strategy expert John Thackara writes that resources – is an ethical issue although its “sustainability is hard to sell as a gruelling regime complexity and importance in product design of limits – but not if we recast it as progress.” (2) warrants a section of its own. Its vastness as a Traditional thinking on the subject is based around subject makes it impossible to do justice to it in using less of what we currently use, but recycling and even one whole book; however, a number of the reusing as much of that as we can. Yet with economies issues it encompasses are raised below. based on growth, such an equation simply doesn’t add up. We merely use up our precious resources at [1.] - - - a slower rate. The result is our current anxiety William McDonough is an OPPOSING SOLUTIONS around the consumption of products and energy internationally renowned and the consequent paternalism of governments designer and the co-author It is an ethical imperative that we should not leave with Michael Braungart of and green lobbyists. ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the the planet in a worse state than we found it. This Way We Make Things’. 2002. statement applies to our built infrastructure and - - New York: North Point Press the products within it as well as to the natural - CRADLE-TO-CRADLE [2.] - environment. As campaigning designer William Thackara, J. In: Bakker, McDonough (1) and others have pointed out, with the But new thinking is emerging that challenges this C. and van Hinte, E. 1999. information we now have about the damage caused model. Limits are imposed when our use of resources ‘Trespassers’. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. Thackara’s book by being unsustainable, it is profoundly unethical not poses threats. Remove these threats and we will ‘In the Bubble: Designing to act positively or to simply do nothing. have unlimited resources. How can this be done? in a Complex World ‘(2005, According to William McDonough, the answer is to Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press) With the exception of a few radicals, there is broad change the way we think about materials. Along also confronts the challenge agreement about the diffi culties we face in terms of of sustainability. with Dr Michael Braungart, McDonough founded reaching a sustainable ecosystem, yet there is huge - consultancy MBDC to promote and shape what they disagreement about the methods and means to be call the “Next Industrial Revolution”. The fi rm’s website used to achieve it. Although far more complex than states: “The industrial framework that dominates our this simple explanation suggests, one of the main lives now is fairly primitive. It is conceived around a disagreements is between imposing limits as opposed one-way manufacturing fl ow – what is known as a to allowing freedom to explore solutions. There is a ‘cradle-to-grave’ lifecycle. This cradle-to-grave fl ow pro-technology lobby that back far greater investment relies on brute force (including fossil fuels and large in research and development and the removal of top amounts of powerful chemicals). It seeks universal down regulation that, they say, impedes innovation. design solutions (‘one size fi ts all’), overwhelming and On the contrary, there are those who argue that our unquestioning deference to technology is what has led to our current predicament and that people-power

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 126 3/9/09 8:25:51 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black ignoring natural and cultural diversity. And it produces closed loops. Such tasks can be read as limits, but massive amounts of waste – something that in nature they offer hope of a move towards the limitless. does not even exist… Instead of designing cradle-to- By embracing biodegradability (itself potentially part grave products, dumped in landfi lls at the end of their of a closed loop) and closed loop recycling within ‘life’, MBDC transforms industry by creating products industry, McDonough and Braungart propose a model for cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are that is about being “100% good” rather than simply perpetually circulated in closed loops. Maintaining “less bad”. (5) materials in closed loops maximizes material value [3.] - without damaging ecosystems.” (3) - - ‘MBDC website’. 2008. [online]. LIFE-CYCLE ANALYSIS [Accessed 27th January 2009]. Most recycling, McDonough and Braungart tell us, is Available from the World actually “downcycling”. That is, the resulting material Such a panacea is a big leap, especially as not all Wide Web: is of a lower grade than the original, meaning the same designers are the most scientifi cally minded of people. - product cannot always be made from it. However, However, tools are available to help. For many years, [4.] - this is not inevitable. They use their own book, ‘Cradle eco-minded designers have used life cycle analysis to DuraBooks website. 2005. [online]. [Accessed 27th to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things’, to try to gauge the relative harm done in the processes January 2009]. Available demonstrate. It is made not from paper but from from cradle to grave. Sprout Design, whose Binvention from World Wide Web: a waterproof, polymer recyclable to the same (fi g. 1, page 127) helps with the separation of - quality – an example of the closed loops to which household waste, are an industrial design consultancy [5.] - the title refers. (4) specialising in sustainable and inclusive solutions. McDonough, W. and Braungart, Sprout say they “undertake a basic life cycle analysis M. 2002. ‘Cradle to Cradle: “Cradle to cradle” thinking is powerful because it at the start of every product design project. This Remaking the Way We Make appears to bring together the confl icting visions about Things’. New York: North Point allows us to identify the main aspects of the design sustainability. It promotes abundance, but through a Press that cause environmental damage and inspire creative -symbiotic rather than an imposing approach to creation. new concepts to fulfi l the brief while also reducing [6.] - It responds to our moral duties, but without setting us Sprout Design website [online]. the impact.” (6) During this process, they consider the impossible limits. It embraces the need for technology, [Accessed 27th January 2009]. resources (including energy) consumed by the ways Available from World Wide research and development, but applies these pointedly in which: Web: raw materials are sourced -Such a model places great weight upon designers manufacturing is carried out and their clients to rethink the current materials and processes they use. It challenges them to work with products are packaged material scientists in order to fi nd and implement these and transported products are used and disposed of.

Fig. 1 Binvention recycling bin designed and manufactured by Sprout Design Binvention is a product that allows easy separation of domestic refuse prior to recycling using conventional plastic bags.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 127 3/26/09 2:00:06 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation Another rarely considered factor is the impact of any new product might be reused or recycled (fi g. 2, 2.8 Ethics 2.9 Sustainability marketing and promotion. By placing fi gures upon the page 129). For designers and their clients, this means 2.10 Participation impact of all these factors it is possible to achieve considering how an electrical product can be easily a kind of eco-quotient for a product. However, the dismantled, enabling this reuse and recycling – a complexity of such calculations can be vast and with sensible consideration whether the product falls contention over how it should be done, the fi gures are under the directive or not. open to manipulation. There are various tools that help give ballpark fi gures and - - designers ought to attempt, as far as is realistic, to EMOTIONAL DURABILITY encourage their clients in the right direction. However, Another way that manufacturers can be reconnected ultimately it may be the law that will have the with consumers is through not selling them products, biggest impact. but by leasing them. Already popular with white goods such as washing machines, the notion that - - the manufacturer retains ownership of the object LEGISLATION is a popular one for consumers because it puts the One of the greatest hindrances to recycling has been responsibility upon the manufacturer for repair and the lack of effective systems that facilitate collection replacement of failed components as well as the WEEE of products before they are wrongly disposed of in obligations. In spite of this, extending this approach into landfi ll. While provision has been made for the likes of products with which we tend to have a more personal glass, cans, newspapers and some plastics, electrical relationship may prove diffi cult and may not necessarily goods often pose greater environmental threats. In be benefi cial. Ownership can engender a greater sense response, the European Union recently launched the of care and allows the personalisation of the object, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) through wear or planned customisation. This offers directive that makes producers and importers of the opportunity for a strong bond to develop between electronic goods responsible for recycling their user and object that can transcend fashion. Why is products. The directive ensures that businesses this useful for sustainability? Objects cherished in this fi nance the cost of recovering and treating the way will be kept long after others are swapped for types of products they import, re-brand or the latest model. Less desire for the new means less manufacture, and provide information on how resource use manufacturing it, less energy recycling it or waste disposing of it. While making products physically durable sometimes clashes with what makes them recyclable, if lifespan is increased suffi ciently this may be justifi able.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 128 3/9/09 8:25:52 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black This is an approach advocated by Sam Hecht at Because no design work (or design book) is neutral, Industrial Facility who tells us: “We try to ensure it will always be open to critique from at least one design is enduring, that people keep it around. If it’s perspective. Hence, designers often shy away from memorable and enduring, it treats design as a concept promoting a particular piece of work as being especially of quality; quality of craftsmanship, quality of thinking. ethical or sustainable in case this exposes it, or their That’s a far greener, more sustainable product than one other projects, to increased scrutiny. With such highly designed with sustainability in mind but without those emotive issues and confl icting views on the right values. What’s the point of designing for recycling if courses of action, there is a sense that anyone who puts it’s a piece of crap, compared to designing something their head above the parapet will be shot at. However, that’s not designed specifi cally for recycling but that’s if progress is to be made and knowledge shared, going to be sticking around for a lot longer?” (7) Michael designers and their clients need to be encouraged Marriott cites the Eames fi breglass dining chair as an to declare their successes and face criticism of example, recently re-released in polypropylene, its their shortcomings. manufacturer Vitra says, for environmental reasons. [7.] - “Fibreglass is nasty stuff to work with and you can’t - - Hecht, S. 2008. [Personal recycle it, but I don’t think that matters when that communication]. 24 January - chair has already lasted 40 years and will easily last [8.] - another 40 or more. The new ones will need to be Marriott, M. In: Roberts, L. recycled, because they are so much less robust and 2006. ‘Good: An Introduction (8) to Ethics in Graphic Design’. will soon become grubby and rough-looking.” Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA -Engendering this emotional as well as physical durability is the purpose of many of the approaches explored in this book, whether through qualities of form and materials, making poetic links, involving the user in the creative act or eliciting meaningful discussion.

Fig. 2 WEEE directive symbol This symbol indicates that the product’s manufacturer has duties under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive and that the product should not be disposed of in landfi ll.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 129 3/9/09 8:25:53 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.10 2. Motivation - - “Mari is right, everyone should design: after all, it 2.9 Sustainability (1) 2.10 Participation PARTICIPATION is the best way to avoid being designed.” 2.11 Strategies and services As discussed previously, one way of contributing This quotation about the sentiments of Italian designer to the reduction of waste is by designing in such Enzo Mari hints at one of the central theoretical a way as to provide a sense of quality that will reasons why anyone, not just designers, can benefi t make people less likely to dispose of products from involvement in designing what surrounds them. prematurely. Yet despite all of the form- and In the 1950s, the threat of totalitarian regimes was material-based attempts to encourage longevity, it fresh in the memories of designers like Mari. Even a so- can still feel something of a lottery as to whether called free market did not necessarily offer suffi cient objects endear themselves to people. The following opportunity for people to buy what was best for them. section discusses design approaches that involve Despite the abundance of goods available to us now, people in the creative process in the hope that many actually offer us quite narrow spectrums of personal connection will guarantee this long-term choice. When industry’s view of how we want our satisfaction. While being successfully applied to the products to manifest themselves becomes out of sync design of objects, these participatory approaches with our actual desires, the more creative among us have also become the tools of choice for a tend to take matters into our own hands. Design in this growing band of design consultancies looking context becomes an expression of personal freedom to democratise their activities. and individuality beyond that available to us through consumption alone. [1.] - - - Argan, G. C. In: Burkhardt, APPROACHES TO PARTICIPATION - - F., Capella, J., Picchi F. 1997. PRO-AMS ‘Why Write a Book on Enzo There are two discernibly different strands to this work. Mari?’ Milan: Frederico Motta The fi rst, termed ‘participatory’ or ‘co-design’, is literally Many of those who express this individuality through Editore (Argan was writing about Mari’s Autoprogettazione to design with the people who will be buying and using making are not designers but “pro-ams” – professional project featured on page 93.) the products. These methods emerged from the user- amateurs who live their pastimes with singular -centred approaches discussed in 2.5 Social inclusion. commitment. As Charles Leadbeater, a writer and [2. 3.] - Leadbeater, C. 2005. Speaking The second, which we will call “self-design” involves promoter of participatory models of design and at conference Technology, using people as active participants in confi guring, innovation reminds us, some of the key commercial Entertainment, Design building, completing or customising objects but differs product genres of our time, such as the mountain bike, (TED), Oxford, UK. Available from World Wide from participatory and co-design in that it does not emerged from grass roots innovation by users rather Web: imply real-time collaboration with designers; rather, it than the lone genius inventor or the R&D departments -indicates that the designers have intentionally allowed of bicycle manufacturers. (2) As Leadbeater recounts, the purchasers/users to have a pre-defi ned role in some users in Northern California, frustrated with racing aspects of making the objects. bikes and traditional “sit up and beg” road bicycles, combined gears from the former with frames from

Fig. 1 Readymade Fig. 2 Creative Magazine Readymade Commons Licence logos Magazine continues a long Creative Commons licences tradition of the sharing allow creators to assign of creative and expedient different ways in which tips for home décor and others can use their work. self-made objects.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 130 3/9/09 8:25:53 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black the latter and brakes from motorcycles to create the and it made sense for software developers (hackers fi rst mountain bikes or “clunkers”. Small companies – before it became a dirty word) to share source code grew to service this group of users and kept growing. and modify it for their own needs, adding improvements It took 10–15 years before the mainstream bicycle as they went. But as the industry grew and software manufacturers took notice and now, 30 years later, 65 became a competitively saleable commodity, companies per cent of all bicycle sales are of mountain bikes (3). became inclined to protect their code and build in All of which resulted from the self-interested diligence safeguards against unsolicited use. This change so of a group of enthusiasts. outraged some of the early protagonists that they committed themselves to foiling secrecy within - - corporations by wilfully making public new code for OPEN-SOURCE others to use, causing the emergence of a strong open-source community. Collaborative innovation is of course not new – it is simply a buzz phrase for an activity that has happened One of these early pioneers, Eric Raymond, coined the since communities were formed and people began phrase “the cathedral and the bazaar” (3) to represent sharing knowledge. These practices are still very much these two opposing models of behaviour. The corporate in evidence despite the very notion of community, software developers build the cathedrals – Microsoft particularly in cities, shifting from one defi ned by being the most potent example – where they employ locality to one formed by shared interests. Magazines thousands of developers working secretively to improve such as ‘Practical Farm Ideas’, ‘Readymade’ (fi g. 1, their programmes for periodic release every few years. page 130) and websites such as continue a tradition of publications based programmers and software engineers who share code upon people sending in “how to” articles. California- and help build systems in an open and collaborative based O’Reilly Media has been a key exponent of way, uploading them to the net for continual use and knowledge sharing, not least through its magazine, improvement by others. ‘Make’. Subtitled “technology on your time”, it contains It is easy to assume that such decentralised structures instructions for useful and whimsical products, usually would fail to produce anything coherent. However, the containing simple mechanics or electronics. Many also most prominent example – the Linux operating system included software hacks refl ecting O’Reilly’s roots in and products emerging from it (such as the popular the collaborative software movement that became Firefox web browser) – have become genuine rivals of known as open-source. the wares of the major cathedral-based developers. It is worth briefl y exploring the background to the One of the central reasons for the success of the open- open-source movement in order to see how the source model was that it allowed the developer-users lessons learned are being applied to product design. to personalise the software for their own needs, rather than relying upon the cathedral-based producers to - - predict them. THE CATHEDRAL AND THE BAZAAR In the early days of the computer industry, just as in any society, the essential structures were being built

Fig. 3 Freitag F-Cut web tool by Severin Klaus Thanks to Klaus’s tool, visitors to Freitag’s website can see the lorry tarpaulins the company uses to make bags and select which portion they would like theirs to be made from.

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Fig. 4 606 Shelving Fig. 5 Do Scratch System by Dieter Rams, lamp by Marti Guixé, manufactured by Vitsoe The manufactured by Droog fl exibility designed into Rams’s Design Essentially a painted shelving system means it can light box, this lamp requires be easily reconfi gured to fi t its user to scratch at its black new spaces should its owners painted surface for light to be move. Designed in 1960, it is able to shine through. still in production today.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 132 3/9/09 8:25:54 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black The open-source model has become the core principle these new collaborative models are proposing is that behind websites that rely on user-generated content “the design bit” becomes a more open activity, based such as Wikipedia. Like software programs, written less on the intuition of the designer and more on content can be edited, improved upon and uploaded, needs made evident through discussion with those gradually improving quality. Yet as a model that relies the design affects. upon a critical mass of user involvement, quality starts While the term “participatory design” implies that out low and remains patchy, improving greatest where a designer is participating with other stakeholders there is most “traffi c”. By accepting these early stages (such as users, purchasers, manufacturers, retailers) of development as usable, critics have accused mass to improve the end result, co-design suggests an collaboration projects of lowering our expectations even fl atter hierarchy where no single stakeholder is of quality. (4) considered to be “in charge”. Instead, all of the parties While enterprises run by and for its customers will involved input ideas, expertise and energy to bring new happily let them defi ne its direction, businesses products to the market. with shareholders may feel differently. The counter- While some consultancies are applying this model argument against the collaborative process is that face to face, it is on the Internet that it becomes it inherently lacks singular vision. The customer as most powerful, with websites becoming forums developer may have short-term goals that are easily for developers to communicate. One example is fulfi lled, but can they effectively contribute to the CrowdSpirit, an online community that proposes, long-term direction of a business? Companies, like designs, invests in and organises the manufacture politicians, need to gauge the opinions of the people, of new electronic products. The website enables but for success and respect they also need to display the process to happen by managing various stages, their own convictions and employ those with suitable including allowing the community to vote for which experience. Such people may or may not be discovered ideas ought to be developed and to defi ne product using an open-source model. As collaborative processes specifi cations. It is an example of what has become are embraced by product design, there is much known as “crowdsourcing”. discussion about what is delegated and how. Importantly, CrowdSpirit’s community allows different [4.] - - - amounts of involvement. You can become part of the Richmond, S. 2007. “Critical CO-DESIGN AND PARTICIPATORY DESIGN community and simply observe developments, or you Mass”. ‘RSA Journal.’ can become a more active participant in various stages, December. Product design is an inherently collaborative process. depending upon your expertise or fi nances. It caters for -Except for a select band of designer-makers, at some those who do not want to be designers or developers point in the design process discussions occur about the but want to have a say in the kind of products that best way of doing something. Even the most hermit-like might be developed – a feeling that is absent from designer will discuss the brief with the client, present our dealings with large corporations. their work and liaise with production managers. What

Fig. 6 Do Add chair by Jurgen Bey Bey’s chair has one leg shorter than the other three, requiring the user to fi nd something, such as a pile of magazines, with which to prop it up.

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Fig. 7 Hat Lamp Fig. 8 Bracket by Curro Claret Wall and Shelves by Curro Claret table versions of this lamp Claret’s shelving system have been made. Both consist consists of folded metal of a light fi tting with a wire brackets, which the user frame upon which the user positions, fi xes to the wall is intended to place a hat, and on which they then sit thereby making a shade. found boxes and crates.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 134 3/9/09 8:25:58 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black Such enterprises pose the question of who owns the further what it is that they offer – but they will have intellectual property that they generate. To protect a place nonetheless (6). The notion that non-designers the interests of open-source producers, a new set of will either want to, or be able to, defi ne effectively in licences has been introduced called Creative Commons detail the physical aspects of a product, is doubtful. , to allow creators Just as home printing gave people the opportunity to greater control over how their work can be used (fi g. be typographers, few did so to a high standard, thereby 2, page 130). Rather than work being either protected highlighting the skills within the profession. While or not, CC licence symbols refer to different ways in there are some interesting examples of the public being which the work can be used by others. given the opportunity to defi ne certain visual aspects of objects (discussed below), these commonly amount [5. 6.] - - - to them simply being offered options predefi ned by Brown, T. 2007. Speaking at AN ENDANGERED SPECIES? designers rather than any broader freedom. For the Intersections conference. 25 sake of both the designer and non-designer, a balance October It is highly likely that over the next 5–10 years, three- - between valued input and necessary expertise must be dimensional printing equipment (see 2.7 Technological struck. While collaboration may ensure the design fi ts innovation) will become available for the home market. all, at some point we must acknowledge the primacy Marrying this technology with online crowdsourced of the designer as having heightened visual and/or design opens up the possibility of downloading and technical acuity, and allow him to do his work. printing products at home, just as we are able to do with documents today. Three-dimensional scanners, - - already available, allow designers to scan and upload SELF-DESIGN objects for others to download and print. With more and more tools empowering the public to become designers As was proposed in 2.5 Social inclusion, it is possible to and manufacturers, will designers themselves become describe a spectrum of user involvement in the design an endangered species? At a recent conference, CEO process that ranges from 0 per cent (the designer of global design consultancy IDEO Tim Brown advised: not involving or considering the user at all) to 100 per “I believe that letting go as designers, and engaging in cent (the user designing the entire product). The lower a collaborative process, is the biggest challenge from end of the scale can be said to represent traditional a conceptual point of view for us as designers… If we industrial design practice. As their involvement don’t embrace it, it’ll happen anyway.” (5) increases, the user is fi rst empathised with, then actually consulted by, the designer. Beyond this point, But to what extent will designers be left behind by they begin to get physically involved in defi ning the this shift? Crowdsourced innovation bypasses the object. This territory can be defi ned as “self-design”. traditional corporate infrastructure of which some designers are part. Yet, crowdsourcing without design Under this umbrella, there are many distinct input is likely to produce products that lack the approaches that require differing levels of expertise refi nement that designers traditionally bring. As Tim and commitment on the part of the user. Brown suggests, designers may have to fi t into this new model – it may even force them to objectify still

Fig. 9 Candloop Fig. 10 Techno by Sebastian Bergne Tapas by Marti Guixé While manufactured by Details many people follow, adapt or Bergne’s design turns make up recipes, few other the usually ostentatious than professional chefs pay candelabra into a modest much regard to form. Guixé and minimal object, reconfi gured the ingredients borrowing a used wine of typical tapas dishes making bottle for its base. them less messy to eat, publishing the results in a book.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 135 3/9/09 8:26:00 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation The fi rst – open products – allows the user to confi gure the designer has intentionally left something out in 2.9 Sustainability 2.10 Participation or customise them. An obvious example is the desktop order for the consumer to fi nd pleasure in supplying 2.11 Strategies and services of any computer that can be personalised with our it. Whereas one can imagine a certain enjoyment in own choice of image. Similarly, Freitag, a company that scratching the paint from Guixé’s lamp, Bey’s chair makes accessories from recycled lorry tarpaulins, has looks like a dangerous liability. Should its short leg slip a website that allows customers to personalise new from its supporting pile of literature, the sitter will be bags. Using a cookie-cutter-like tool, they can select unceremoniously catapulted onto the fl oor – hardly a which area of the tarpaulin their bag will be made from recipe for endearment? (fi g. 3, page 131). Open products may also be modular Successful unfi nished products allow the owner to systems or kits of parts that we put together to suit our give a personal contribution without needing to show own needs. Vitsoe’s 606 shelving by Dieter Rams offers a high degree of skill. Curro Claret’s lamps require just such an opportunity (fi g. 4, page 132). hats to act as their shades (fi g. 7, page 134), while The next category is unfi nished products, where his wall storage brackets invite us to use found boxes the user must complete them before use. This may to create a striking and unique system (fi g. 8, page involve assembly, decoration or the addition of an 134). Selling something incomplete is a challenge to object of their own (if this is considered as a design conventional wisdom and hence such products tend to approach primarily intended to create an enjoyable be marginalised into more avant-garde retail outlets. experience, it stands in contrast to that of fl at-pack One that has found a more mainstream audience is furniture whereby the purchaser is made to assemble Sebastian Bergne’s Candloop candelabra (fi g. 9, page their product for the sake of economy). As a protest 135) that simply requires an old wine bottle to act as against bland uniformity, Dutch advertising agency its base. KesselsKramer created Do, a brand to encourage The fi nal category of self-design before the user participation and personalisation. Curators Droog literally becomes the designer is the recipe. Just as Design recruited designers to come up with Do products with cooking, instructions are provided along with a and the results were shown at the Milan Furniture Fair list of ingredients (materials). The product becomes in 2000. Two examples from the range are Marti Guixé’s weightless – consisting only of the transmission of an Do Scratch lamp – a black painted acrylic light-box idea. User becomes manufacturer. Marti Guixé’s Techno that requires the user to scratch off the paint to let Tapas project literally brings together cooking and the light through (fi g. 5, page 132) and Jurgen Bey’s product design, re-working tapas dishes to make them Do Add chair which has one shorter leg, requiring it to cleaner and more enjoyable to eat (fi g. 10, page 135). be propped up with books or magazines (fi g. 6, page 133). The underlying benefi t to this approach is that Yet even more so than with unfi nished products, building a product from scratch is a leap of faith the uninitiated may fi nd daunting. The designer must do

Fig. 11 Ecolo by Enzo Mari, limited edition manufactured by Alessi This set of four vases in a presentation box has been made by cutting new forms into used plastic detergent bottles (see page 16).

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 136 3/9/09 8:26:02 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black all they can to simplify and clarify the process via the accompanying sticker that “certifi ed” the creation. instruction material. The project becomes as much Like Autoprogettazione, Mari had an ulterior motive. about information design as product design. Examples Ecolo could be obtained in three ways: buying the label include Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione (which means and instructions to do-it-yourself; buying one already literally self-design) featured on page 93. This book of cut and labelled; and buying one cut, numbered and designs for domestic furniture was not, as many people signed by Mari (Alessi later produced a box set of four mistakenly thought, about doing away with industry as a limited edition (fi g. 11, page 136)). As well as in favour of the homemade. Mari’s thinking held that if encouraging appreciation of the value of the disposable we all had experience of making furniture ourselves, bottles, the project became a meditation upon the value this would give us a more discerning eye towards the of labour, presentation and provenance. quality of what we found in stores. An uncannily similar Similarly, Daniel Charny’s Pigdogs (fi g. 12, page 137) project was undertaken in the 1990s by Tord Boontje are cut from two-pint plastic milk bottles. Designed entitled Rough and Ready Furniture, although rather as “votive objects” – symbols of our desire to recycle than printing scale drawings, Boontje gave away 1:1 more, and to help alleviate our guilt that we do not – scale drawings on to which the components could be Charny and his team conducted a workshop showing laid as they were being assembled. the public how to make their own. Special gold- A slightly different approach was taken by Mari in metallised versions were on sale and instructions a later project, Ecolo. Instead of building with raw could be taken away. materials, he proposed that people modify used plastic bottles into vases. Again, an instruction booklet - - was provided offering suggested designs, and an

Fig. 12 Pigdog by Daniel Charny Turning the everyday into the extraordinary, Charny designed a way to turn a plastic milk bottle into a pig with a few cuts of the scissors. A metalising process then gives each pig a lustrous coating, creating an object of contemplation around the subject of recycling.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 137 3/9/09 8:26:03 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 2.11 2. Motivation - - Hence, the role played by larger design consultancies 2.10 Participation 2.11 Strategies and services STRATEGIES AND SERVICES shifted from providing product-specifi c knowledge and 2.12 Design for debate skills to directing a company’s image. This required This section is about a shift that has been taking an overview of their activities and future strategy. place in product design from designers dealing Consultancies, as well as selling the physical results with the physical task of designing products to of design, began to sell knowledge and advice about their involvement in strategy. The notion that how organisations conceived of their offerings and their designers used to stick to designing objects is an brands. This process of designers becoming advisors on oversimplifi cation. Company directors occasionally the strategic direction of company policies is referred formed close relationships with designers, who to in the profession as “going upstream”. would advise, usually informally, upon directions that may be taken. What has changed is that The fi rst step in this process, and one which many designers are now formalising this process, designers have long been battling for, is to become offering services to clients that are about shaping part of the process of defi ning the brief rather than their future business models and organisational only being involved in implementing it. Beyond this structures. By framing what they do differently lies the notion that no actual product design brief will and forging new interdisciplinary collaborations, be answered, but that the focus will be upon broader designers have discovered clients and projects themes. This, Tim Brown from IDEO admits, is “an that take them outside of the traditional confi nes insurance policy” (1). In times of recession, companies of the profession. One of these new areas of may cut back on product design services as they spend business, discussed below, is the design less on developing new products. However, if designers of services. are selling thinking that helps defi ne the appropriate direction for companies, this can be sold at any time [1.] - - - and is, if anything, more crucial during recession. It Brown, T. 2007. Speaking at GOING UPSTREAM allows designers to be involved where there may not Intersections conference, be a product to be designed, opening up their client Gateshead, UK. 25 October From an early stage in their history, product design - base to include service providers, charities, government consultancies recognised that once they had gained departments and other organisations. the trust of the client then they were in a good position to sell them other kinds of work. This was not entirely This movement “upstream” can also be seen as a cynical – by offering corporate identity, packaging, way for designers to confront their usual sense of point-of-sale design and so on alongside designing impotence – the feeling that they are small cogs in a the product, they could ensure all elements worked machine over which they have no control. By placing harmoniously. themselves within a sphere of greater infl uence, they have the opportunity to advise clients on the big issues as opposed to only being able to make small changes to products “downstream”.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 138 3/9/09 8:26:06 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black Yet going upstream does not always mean losing touch a designer has often found mysterious. It was useful with the task of designing the object; rather it can fi rstly because it gave people reassurance that there be about framing it in the right way. Its advocates was something behind what we did, that it wasn’t would claim it is about working through big and messy just serendipitous, and secondly it allowed us to look problems methodically, with the appropriate people, at those methods and say: ‘well, why wouldn’t you to arrive at tangible solutions. An example is the work apply them to designing for a social system, a service, of the Design Against Crime Research Centre, based or outside the traditional business sphere?’ and all of at London’s Central Saint Martins School of Art and those things we wanted to work on.” (3) Design. The centre aims to promote awareness of the Based on this principle, Stanford University in the ways in which design can reduce crime by undertaking United States opened its D-School to teach design exemplar projects resulting in new products, services skills to students from different departments and environments. The ambition is broad but the results including business, science and engineering. Head are still object based. of the D-School David Kelley has stated that: “We decided that designers are going to be the people [2.] - - - who integrate the technology and the process and Brown, T. 2006. Speaking in DESIGN THINKING lecture Innovation Through are the glue that holds these experts together.” (4) Design Thinking, MIT, USA. 16 Central to this move upstream is the notion that the Similar aspirations can be seen in Design London, a March. Available from World Wide Web: transferable to a broad range of disciplines. Splitting College of Art, the technological knowledge of Imperial - up and analysing the processes they use has enabled College’s Faculty of Engineering and the business [3.] - Brown, T. 2007. [Personal designers to identify tools and methods they are able to acumen of Imperial’s Tanaka Business School. communication]. 11 December pass on to non-traditional clients. Encapsulated in the Tim Brown is passionate about extending the D-School - phrase “design thinking”, these include learning how to [4.] - idea back further so that everyone can have a level of observe and empathise effectively with people, ideas Kelley, D. In: Moggridge, B. design knowledge as well as written literacy: “Just 2007. ‘Designing Interactions’. generation techniques including building prototypes, imagine if everyone who came out of secondary school Cambridge, MA: MIT Press presenting ideas in the form of stories, scenarios and - had reasonable skills in visual problem solving.” (5) [5.] - experiences and managing interdisciplinary teams Brown, T. 2007. [Personal of experts. (2) While the intuitive form-based and - - communication]. 11 December craft-based skills are sometimes still used, they are - SERVICE DESIGN downplayed so that design can be seen as a general problem-solving activity, rather than being specifi cally Interaction design (see 2.7 Technological innovation), object-centric. in stepping outside of the confi nes of the form of the object and embracing behaviour and computer Tim Brown explains that “describing this process of interfaces, was a sign of the fl exibility of design design thinking was a way of demystifying some of the pieces of the design process that anyone who is not

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 139 3/9/09 8:26:07 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 2. Motivation thinking. It established a new colony that grew into throughout the world, but they’re not often designed. 2.10 Participation 2.11 Strategies and services a distinct discipline. Since then, a new colony has They’re not crafted to the same level of expertise that 2.12 Design for debate emerged from this – that of service design. products, interactions, and interfaces are.” (7) Service design began to form when the experience- - - based thinking previously applied to designing DESIGNING EXPERIENCES “tech-products” was considered in relation to whole services. It can be seen as an extension of the remit of By its nature, service design is not object-centric. interaction design in that some of the interfaces and Although we occasionally interact with services equipment that interaction design dealt with became through objects – using what service designers call components within services. (Cash points, ticket “touchpoints” – the objects are a means to an end, machines, mobile telephones and websites have all not an end in themselves. As opposed to many of benefi ted from the expertise of interaction designers, the products we buy, where, besides functioning, we and all enable access to services such as banks, public invest in the status they confer, many services leave [6.] - Downs, C. 2007. Speaking at transport, telecommunications.) However, whereas no visible trace that we have used them. As a result, Intersections conference, interaction design tended to deal specifi cally with the emphasis in designing them shifts away from Gateshead, UK. 25 October. chip-based technologies, a service may be designed desirability and status towards clarity, simplicity and - [7.] - without necessarily including these. Consequently the effi ciency in use. That is not to say that the touchpoints Downs, C. In: Moggridge, B. technology-based skill-sets of interaction designers of a service must be bland and uninspiring – rather, to 2007. ‘Designing Interactions’. became only one of many that service designers endear themselves to us, they must fi rst of all work, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press -might call upon. and work well. Chris Downs of service design consultancy Live/Work Using various methods, Chris Downs and his team explains that “Service design is a multidisciplinary at Live/Work test the effectiveness of their clients’ practice that applies design thinking as the umbrella services, map the relationships between all those process / practice that brings all of these people involved, prototype improvements and produce a [interaction designers, communication designers, blueprint to help ensure that quality is maintained management consultants, operations experts etc.] (fi g. 1, page 141). As part of this process, they transfer together in a slightly different way than had previously knowledge and empower their clients to improve been considered.” (6) “Services are run and operated their services themselves. One example is a co-design workshop undertaken with the staff of the Baltic Centre, an art gallery in Gateshead, England.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 140 3/9/09 8:26:07 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black According to Downs: “Visitors to the Baltic don’t like The danger is that, to appeal to a wide market, envy the big £3 donation sign as they fi nd it confusing when will be generated in generic ways that can be avoided it is actually free entry. The staff don’t like it either. It through ownership. For example, while, if funds allow, makes them feel uncomfortable and they often feel we have the option to buy a new car every few years, the need to explain it to customers. But they’ve never alternatively, we can decide to keep it, look after it, had the tools or known how to make changes to their perhaps personalise it with accessories and develop working environment. So [at the workshop] they just a long-term relationship with it. After a few years, got a big piece of paper, blanked out the ‘pay us £3’ and the car loses the generic “enviability” of being a new on the back wrote ‘Did you love us? If you loved your car and its value becomes more personal. If a car is experience with us, how about a donation?’ It was a provided as part of a service, it is highly likely that really quick service prototype that transformed the “service envy” would be engendered by ensuring all mood of the staff and the visitors.” of the cars remained new, therefore stopping the possibility of this personal connection developing. [8.] - - - Services need to fi nd ways of allowing people to Downs, C. In: Moggridge, B. FROM PRODUCT ENVY TO SERVICE ENVY? express their values in highly personal ways, which 2007. ‘Designing Interactions’. may have less to do with conspicuous consumption Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Leading commentators and practitioners in the - and more to do with responsible and emotional desires. fi eld, including Live/Work, have argued that a shift towards providing more services is one way of - - getting us to consume less ‘stuff’. They propose that if the value within products we buy could instead be delivered through services, these could be made more sustainable by design. The problem is that one of the main reasons why we consume so voraciously is that owned products express our individuality in ways that services currently do not. Consequently, Live/Work say there is a need to design into services the visible signs that have been used in order to provoke in others a sense of “service envy” (8).

Fig. 1 Workshop by Live/Work at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead The team at Live/ Work conducted a design workshop with staff at the Baltic on how they could improve the experience of visiting the gallery.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 141 4/8/09 12:33:07 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black - - 2.12 2. Motivation - - hence design) thus far (2). By recognising the state 2.11 Strategies and services 2.12 Design for debate DESIGN FOR DEBATE of society and establishing what they think about it, designers can position themselves within Ambasz’s This section examines the ways in which designers model, learning from the techniques of others who use their work to question conventions of design defi ne themselves similarly. practice and other societal norms. While the desire for designers to differentiate their work from that of Design history, dating back to the Arts and Crafts others can imply a critique of what has gone before, movement, can be seen as a series of oppositional what materialises are often small modifi cations stances (Arts and Crafts movement versus mass- that challenge little. However, there is a growing produced Victoriana, modernism versus decorative understanding that rather than simply questioning styles and hand-work, postmodernism and Pop Design the form and function of an object within a versus modernism, for example) each attempting framework of production and consumption, design to establish a new orthodoxy to replace the last. can further be used as a means of questioning According to Ambasz’s model, many of the prime those systems. Having grasped design’s ability to movers of each era would have been “reformists”, manifest fi ctional spaces and props, practitioners changing the system through participation. Those he are using these to present scenarios about design, described as “in contest” have more radical views. technology and human nature. Rather than take part in a system they fundamentally oppose (even in order to reform it), factions within this [1.] - - - group withdraw from designing objects for production Barthes, R. and Heath, S. OPPOSITION AND CRITIQUE and distribution. Instead, they used their design skills (trans) 1978. ‘Image, Music, to give expression to their critical positions and to Text’. New York: Hill and Wang Once mainstream thoughts and actions become - communicate alternative possibilities. It is here that established, critiques are ripe to emerge. “To criticise,” [2.] - we fi nd a territory where design is used primarily to Ambasz, E. 1972. ‘Italy: The wrote Roland Bathes, “is to put into crisis…something provoke debate. New Domestic Landscape’. New which is not possible without evaluating the conditions York: MOMA (1) -of the crisis” . Designers who use their medium Although there is a long history of critique about the to engage in effective critique must therefore fi rst nature of manmade artefacts, the 1970s Italy that understand the nature of what they are criticising, Ambasz was writing about, and the decade thereafter, before proposing alternatives. This suggests that they was perhaps its richest period in design. In the hands ought to have an overview of the structures and of a close-knit band of trained architects, products motivations that often go unquestioned in mainstream and furniture became critical essays against what design practice. was seen as the blandness of European modernism. Studio Alchymia, Superstudio, Archizoom and Memphis At the beginning of this chapter, three ways of were among the most prominent avant-garde groups, considering the ideological positions of designers engaging in exhibitions, performances and the sale of were discussed. Curator Emilio Ambasz defi ned one-off or small-batch works. Although Memphis was these as: conforming to, wishing to reform, or utterly contesting the systems that have shaped society (and

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Fig. 1 Robot 4 by Fig. 2 Robot 3 Dunne and Raby According by Dunne and Raby This to its designers, this robot is robot uses retinal-scanning very needy and cannot move technology to decide who has around on its own. It performs access to what data. The user very diffi cult calculations but must stare intently into it in we are not party to these, our order to be recognised. role being to serve its quietly voiced desires instead.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 143 3/26/09 2:02:30 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation by far the most publicised of these, it was also the most Research Studio at the Royal College of Art in London. 2.11 Strategies and services 2.12 Design for debate commercially orientated and to some degree eclipsed While they don’t claim to have invented a new category, the more critical positions of its forebears. After its it has become a popular label for design that elicits demise, fewer dissenting voices were heard, although debate (3). Dunne explains: “For us, it’s simply the idea the prime movers from this period, such as Alessandro of design as critique. It’s happened in the past…and Mendini, Andrea Branzi and Ettore Sottsass, became will continue into the future. Critical design was just highly respected fi gures within Italian culture. a useful way to articulate what we were doing at that time in a particular context…It’s more a set of loose With the appearance and success of Dutch group Droog affi nities and shared aims.” (3) Design in the early to mid-1990s, a new awareness of conceptual design opened up around furniture and According to Dunne, the primary purpose is “to make home accessories. Starting as curators of a collection people think…For us, the interesting thing is to explore shown through themed exhibitions, Droog is not, as is an issue, to fi gure out how to turn it into a project, often mistakenly assumed, a collective of designers. how to turn the project into some design ideas, how Formed by designer Gijs Bakker and design-historian to materialise those design ideas as prototypes, and Renny Ramakers, Droog initially brought together fi nally, how to disseminate them through exhibitions products from Dutch designers that expressed the or publications. We’re not interested in trying to fi nd [3.] - “dryness” of their name (droog is Dutch for “dry”). Their a manufacturer to put them into production…We hope Similar fi rst outings expressed a dual critique of the excesses the work will inspire people and encourage them to theoretical positions have been termed variously: “anti-design” of 1980s design culture and the anti-intellectualism of see things differently and open up new spaces for (by the more extreme groups mass marketing. Through these exhibitions, numerous discussion.”(4) within Italy’s avant-garde of publications and acquisition of parts of the collection by the 1970s), and “interrogative This reticence towards manufacture refl ects the fact high-profi le museums, Droog became a unique cultural design” (by conceptual artist that the work is aimed at provoking thought among Krzysztof Wodiczko, director force despite not being manufacturing-focused. the general public, rather than persuading industry to of the center of Art, Culture However, as their exhibitions have become more and Technology at MIT). refocus its activities. In his fi rst book ‘Hertzian Tales: pluralist and their spartan playfulness has become a Spaniard Marti Guixé has also Electronic Objects, Aesthetic Experience and Critical contributed to the language of signature of Dutch design, there is a sense that Droog Design’, Dunne quotes from Raymond Geuss’s ‘The Idea design criticism by describing have lost their critical edge. Like earlier radical design himself as an “ex-designer” of a Critical Theory’ in which he explains that “Critical groups, the arguments that their products embody while still working in the fi eld. theories aim at emancipation and enlightenment, -often fall on deaf ears as their forms are subsumed at making agents [i.e. the public] aware of hidden [4. 5. 6.] - into the mainstream as easily consumable trends. Dunne, A. 2008 [Personal coercion, thereby freeing them…and putting them in communication]. 15 January a position to determine where their true interests -- - lie.” (5) In this light, Dunne sees critical design as a CRITICAL DESIGN necessary addition to, rather than a replacement for, Professor Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby coined the mainstream business: “I can’t see any deep social or term “critical design” in the late 1990s during their time as researchers in the Computer Related Design

Fig. 3 Local Barometer by Interaction Research Studio, Goldsmiths University of London The Local Barometer brings information from classifi ed advertisements into the home via a series of boxes with screens. The user cannot control the content; where the advertisements come from is decided by the current wind direction, determined by a weathervane placed outside the property.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 144 3/26/09 2:04:17 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black cultural value in what comes out of big businesses. Interaction design can be a more subjective affair, with Cultural risks are avoided at all costs. Their perception designers working in opinionated uncertainty and their of people has to be extraordinarily narrow and shallow products serving as tools for enquiry”. (8) otherwise they can’t sell products on a mass scale. In the work that has emerged from the research They have to ignore everything that might make people studios headed by Dunne and Gaver, and Dunne’s own different like culture, education or taste and deal with practice with partner Fiona Raby, there is a sense of the lowest common denominator. That’s fi ne, that’s wilful contrariness towards the methods and values business. It’s the world we live in…But the problem is of the commercial industrial designer. In particular, that so many of our experiences today are mediated there is a shift away from objects that provide us with by these mass-produced products and services, that prescribed results “on-demand”, to those which have the idea of ‘humanness’ embodied in them – because more passive or ambiguous roles. For example, their they are mass produced – is so impoverished that the project Technological Dreams Series: No.1. Robots, more we interact with them, the more we become questions the notion that robots will necessarily be subtly conditioned to this very low level of being. I subservient, humanoid “companions”. Like people, their think if designers can come up with alternatives that robots have personality traits and skills that do not respond to our complexity and put them into even batch have a clear purpose, but that we may learn to live production, that’s fantastic. The work Fiona and I do with in time (fi gs 1 and 2, page 143). A similar lack explores the more theoretical aspects of this.” (6) of prescribed intent is behind the examples below. They formed part of William Gaver and his team’s [7.] - - - contribution to Equator, a six-year interdisciplinary Dunne, A. 2005. ‘Hertzian Tales: CRITIQUING THE ELECTRONIC OBJECT Electronic Objects, Aesthetic project “investigating new ways of interweaving the Experience and Critical Design’. Electronic products do not have an established critical physical and the digital in everyday life” (9). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press tradition of the kind that has developed for furniture. - The Local Barometer (fi g. 3, page 144) is a series of [8. 9. 10.] - In ‘Hertzian Tales’, Dunne takes the position that multicoloured boxes to be placed around the home, Gaver, W. 2007. ‘The Curious “design research should explore a new role for the Home’. London: Goldsmiths, with screens upon which information from classifi ed electronic object, one that facilitates more poetic University of London advertisements is displayed. However, rather than being - modes of habitation: a form of social research to controllable, the current wind strength and direction integrate aesthetic experience with everyday life determines which adverts are shown. “Ads are selected through ‘conceptual products.’” (7) from areas that are upwind of the home, and the harder A former colleague of Dunne, William Gaver, now Head the wind blows, the greater the distance becomes from of the Interaction Research Studio at Goldsmiths which the ads ‘travel’,” Gaver explains (10). The devices University of London, shares this view, stating that: puncture the daily routine with information we may “Though digital technologies often seem the epitome otherwise fi lter out, prompting unusual thoughts and of science and engineering, the methods we use in free associations. designing them need not be governed by such traditions.

Fig. 4 Plane Fig. 5 Drift Table Tracker by Interaction by Interaction Research Research Studio, Goldsmiths Studio, Goldsmiths University University of London The of London Through the small, Plane Tracker plays out the round window in the Drift likely fl ight paths of passing Table, an aerial photograph aircraft after receiving of the United Kingdom slowly data that determines their scrolls in the direction of the destination. It turns what heaviest object on the table. might otherwise be the annoying sound of aircraft overhead into a participatory event.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 145 3/26/09 2:05:01 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 2. Motivation Looking like a collision between the Jetsons’ television is possible to remove the visual and aural senses 2.11 Strategies and services 2.12 Design for debate and an Eames chaise, the Plane Tracker (fi g. 4, page from the body’s actual location, replacing them with 145) collects data from passing aircraft. It then real-time input from recording equipment located takes the viewer on the journeys of their likely fl ight elsewhere. Auger–Loizeau’s project investigates the paths using a modifi ed version of Google Earth. It is, social narratives that such a system might present, its designers say, “intended to give people a feeling such as a “rent-a-body” service where the client can of connection with distant parts of the world via the “visit” unethical places or “attend” meetings or events planes that physically pass by overhead.” (11) However, without physically being there. (fi g. 6, page 146). they add that “like the Local Barometer, the system [11. 12.] - does not dictate how it is used. People may fi nd their - - Gaver, W. 2007. ‘The Curious imaginations stirred in ways that have little to do with CRITIQUING SCIENCE Home.’ London: Goldsmiths, geography.” (12) University of London While Anthony Dunne’s PhD thesis, which led to his - [13.] - Finally, the Drift Table (fi g. 5, page 145) shows moving, book ‘Hertzian Tales’, and the work of William Gaver’s Flusser, V. 1999. ‘The Shape of digitised, aerial photographs of Britain through a Interaction Research Studio offer critiques of the Things: A Philosophy of Design’. circular window in a coffee table. Unlike the two narrow scope of mass-produced electronic objects, London: Reaktion Books -previous projects, the Drift Table has an element of critical design now encompasses many other subjects. controllability, in that the image scrolls in the direction Within their teaching roles on the MA in Design of the heaviest weight placed on the surface of the Interactions at the Royal College of Art in London, table. The effect, like that of being in a hot air balloon, Dunne and Raby have encouraged their students to encourages the consideration of details of topography explore the future implications of emerging bio- and as it moves across the landscape at slow pace. nanotechnologies – the manipulation of particles and Although it can be reset and coordinates entered, this is organisms on a microscopic scale. intentionally diffi cult, encouraging its users to “travel” As it becomes clear that important aspects of our in their chosen direction at the device’s own speed. futures will be infl uenced by research undertaken in These products do not pretend to serve an essential the concealed world of the laboratory, and much of need. Instead, they add a layer of intrigue, sitting what occasionally slips out may be characterised as alongside our existing devices, their functions (if not monstrous (the famous mouse wearing a human ear their styling) offering a quiet, non-confrontational being an example), a role opens for designers to become presence. Their ambiguities of purpose enable us to facilitators of a measured engagement between engage in speculation, sparking our imagination rather science and the public. than simply feeding us an implicit message. Whereas scientists may claim to be involved in value- As discussed previously, James Auger and Jimmy free research (13), its ethical implications can be Loizeau’s projects tend to take a more confrontational highly emotive, particularly when certain applications position, hoping to engage the public and the media in a are proposed. In the case of genetically modifi ed discussion of ethically sensitive proposals. Developed for military use, Telepresence is a system by which it

Fig. 6 Social Telepresence by Auger– Loizeau James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau’s project investigates the implications of bringing the military technology of telepresence – the ability to experience another place through real time recorded images and sound – into the social realm. Here a viewer at home uses the service to “visit” a location they may not feel comfortable attending in person.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 146 4/8/09 12:34:16 PM CD409-34/4028 2ND PROOF Black (GM) organisms used in farming, food containing GM before being combined with precious metals to create ingredients began to be rolled out and used before any rings. The couple were able to own and wear rings consensus had been reached regarding their safety. (“Biojewellery”) made from the bone tissue of their Rather than simply refl ecting the positive benefi ts of partner (fi g. 7, page 147). Included in the remit of the these technologies, designers can visualise a range of project was a live public debate where the process potential outcomes. By extrapolating the possibilities and outcomes were presented and reactions to it in tangible ways (for example, through models, images were recorded. and fi lms), the public can get a handle on the subject The Biojewellery and work from SymbioticA featured matter more directly than through dry, text-based in critical design’s most high-profi le outing, the 2008 documents. While such a role may seem fanciful, Museum of Modern Art, New York exhibition, Design researchers interested in nanotechnology applying for and the Elastic Mind. The show, which contained government funding are now being asked to say how applications of technology by designers, engineers and they would work with the public to address the ethical scientists for frivolous as well as serious ends, was and social issues their research brings up. (14) [14.] - described by the ‘New York Times’ as: “As revolutionary Corbyn, Z. “Special Deliveries The Material Beliefs research group, also based at in its own way as MoMA’s Machine Art exhibition of Get Smaller”. 2008. ‘Times Goldsmiths University of London, has been set up 1934”. (17) However, the director of the Design Museum Higher Education.’ 19 June -with just this purpose in mind. The group’s website in London, Deyan Sudjic, contends that: “The Machine [15.] - proposes that “successful collaborative design projects Art link could be seen as being quite two-edged because ‘Material Beliefs website’. [between design researchers, scientists and the public] Design and the Elastic Mind is presented as being 2008 [online]. [Accessed 27th January 2009]. Available can operate as cultural litmus paper, gauging public about how design is interpreting and understanding from World Wide Web: awareness before radical new technologies arrive in Machine Art show was really about how designers - [16.] - the public domain changing irrevocably the fabric of made objects that looked as if they were machine- ‘SymbioticA website’. 2008 our lives.” (15) produced but were actually laboriously made by hand [online]. [Accessed 27th and hence, it was actually based on wishful thinking January 2009. Available from Although some designers working in this territory have about mechanisation. One could see this current World Wide Web: show in very much the same speculative light.” (18) -techniques, the SymbioticA Lab at the University [17.] - of Western Australia actively encourages creative Whether such designs for debate will have any genuine Sudjic, D. 2008. [Personal practitioners to take part in “wet biology” practices effect depends on how well they tackle subjects of communication]. 4 April (16) - in a biological science department . In the UK, widespread public concern in measured ways and make [18.] - prior to setting up Material Beliefs, Tobie Kerridge these meaningful for both the public and those who will Ouroussoff, N. “The Soul in the undertook a project where a couple’s donated bone be implementing them. New Machines”. 2008. ‘The New York Times.’ 4 April cells were cultured in a laboratory at Guy’s Hospital, - - -

Fig. 7 Biojewellery by Tobie Kerridge with Ian Thompson and Nikki Stott The structure of these rings was created using lab-cultured bone tissue donated by the couple that the rings were being made for.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 149 3/9/09 8:26:20 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 3.1 3. Process - - If that were not enough, the application of the 3.1 The elusive design process THE ELUSIVE DESIGN PROCESS word “design” has become so broad that it no longer 3.2 Design methodology necessarily maps on to these descriptors. As well Writing in MIT’s journal, ‘Design Issues’, David Ryan as becoming associated with meretricious goods wrote of the design process: “It is the lifeblood of (“designer jeans”, for example) it has become common design and the key to creativity for the designer. At in the description of processes where creativity is at its basis, it is a methodical and even understandable best peripheral and often non-existent. An example process, but it is always mysteriously mutated by the would be “kitchen design” which, instead of denoting designer…it is a formula and beyond formulas, it is the conceptualising of the room and its individual at once accessible and mysterious, it is the essence elements, is the service of helping a customer choose of design, it is the struggle and the discovery.”(1) and position a set of ready-made items. Some would What is it that makes this process so diffi cult to say many contemporary design consultancies have grasp? A huge number of designers and theorists been complicit, if not infl uential, in allowing the have tried to describe it, defi ne what it should meaning of design to change, by moving their “offer” be and teach this to others, but there is still no from an open, partially intuitive process guided by consensus as to what constitutes a defi nitive design client discussions, to a set of selectable packages process. This chapter discusses this conundrum, from which the client can pick and mix. looking to philosophy for assistance and going on It is worth reminding ourselves here of the real to examine the use of tools that most designers meaning of creativity – itself a word in need of more would agree to be useful. selective use. In his startlingly abundant collection of almost everything connected with the subject, ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’, designer Alan Fletcher wrote: [1.] - - - Ryan, D. 1997. “Enzo Mari and “Creativity is a compulsive human urge which demands A GUIDE TO PERPLEXITY the Process of Design”. ‘Design more than ritual actions or routine responses, and is Issues’. Volume 13 Number 3, (3) Autumn The fi rst reason that the design process is hard to only valid when one is trading beyond experience.” -defi ne lies with language: “Design” is both noun and Fletcher quotes biologist Lyall Watson, who proposes [2.] - verb. Writer and educator John Heskett usefully that creativity is “that moment of insight [which] Heskett, J. 2002. ‘Design: A Very Short Introduction’. pins down the many correct applications of the word becomes the creative act as a joining of two previously Oxford: Oxford University Press in English with a “seemingly nonsensical sentence: incompatible ideas.” (4) “Insight,” Fletcher contends, - ‘Design is to design a design to produce a design’”. (2) “is unreasoning.” (5) [3.] - Fletcher, A. 2001. ‘The Art of He explains that every use of the word “design” in the Looking Sideways’. London: sentence is grammatically correct: the fi rst denotes the Phaidon fi eld, profession or discipline; the second is the process [4.] or action; the third is the expression of that process in Watson, L. In: Fletcher, A. the form of a plan, concept or proposal; and the fi nal 2001. ‘The Art of Looking usage is reserved for the end product. Sideways’. London: Phaidon - [5.] - Fletcher, A. 2001. ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’. London: Phaidon

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 150 3/26/09 2:09:16 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Hence, creativity requires us to get out of our depth, Sadly, despite this clear difference, much design and, in responding to the situation, suspend our education consists of learning a standard set of disbelief in order to consider the bringing together of activities and being taught to practice them in a linear ideas, concepts, forms and so on, never before thought way, similar to how most trades and professions are possible or appropriate. taught. However, we will see below that far from being about developing a rigid, standardised method, the When seen in this light, we are able to recognise that design process itself needs to be reactive to the needs much of what purports to be design is not in the least of the project. bit creative. The defi nition and execution of a staged process does not automatically involve creativity. It Even when trying to adhere to the notion of a fi xed will lead to outcomes, but these may be nothing more design process, examples to follow can look very than an amalgamation of existing thoughts used in a different. The star designer sketches on a napkin similar form. “Design is about enjoying risk”, says Sam and hands it to his assistant. The design department Hecht. “Give me a design that involves no risk and you of a large corporation undertakes a year’s worth give me a copy.” (6) It is a rare designer indeed who of research, prototyping and testing. On the one has never conducted a lazy project, falling back upon hand, design is seen as fl amboyance and intuition, existing strategies, signature styles and personal and on the other, as an apparently logical, almost preoccupations, yet it is something to be aware of and scientifi c endeavour. to guard against. If we never feel challenged, uneasy, Yet is the quest for logic not at odds with the way the in need of a bolt from the blue, or to go in search of new design process plays out in our minds? Attempts to knowledge during a project, we need to ask ourselves: let logic rule appear to be undermined when chance “Are we really being creative?” or unexplained intuition butt in and appear to make [6.] - It is possible, and in fact common, for designers to a valuable contribution. Good ideas do not present Hecht, S. In: Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. 2007. ‘Design Now’. Cologne: undertake projects (and entire careers) without being themselves in an orderly way as a result of a carefully Taschen particularly creative. This is because, in order to reduce chosen string of processes. They can be diffi cult to - the risk of failure, experience is invoked by repeating come by one minute, fl ow in a fl urry the next. They [7.] - Nelson, H. and Stolterman, past methods and forms instead of being used to often appear to emerge from our subconscious mind as E. 2009. ‘Advanced Design help navigate forays into the unknown. Experienced we engage in “unthinking” activities such as train travel institute website’ [online]. educators Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman discuss or having a shower. [Accessed 27th Janury this problem in relation to design education: “Design 2009]. Available from The obsession with arranging thought is, according World Wide Web: Naylor, being offered as a replacement for genuine disciplines or professional areas of expertise. Designers - creative acts. They observe that: “There is, in the are educated with the understanding that they are expected to produce unexpected outcomes.” (7)

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 151 3/9/09 8:26:20 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 3. Process background, a latent imperative that the design process Stefan White is an architect, designer and academic 3.1 The elusive design process should be orderly, tidy, and rational when the world who has studied the relationship between the design 3.2 Design methodology plainly does not work like this. Yet a cultural nagging, process and contemporary philosophy. He offers the ambient and constant, prevails; if only we could get following insights into the way we perceive objects all of our systems in place then everything will work and how they come into existence through design: (10) and everything will be fi ne. Time spent managing the “Traditional philosophies have explained our process has overtaken the creative activity of actually relationships with objects through a notion of generating something. Filing is now more important ‘determination’, and this is true of philosophers from than forming. This in turn refl ects a culture that lacks Aristotle through to Kant. Determination works by autonomous self-confi dence and a willingness to trust classifying and naming what we do, think, make etc. in risk… Organising is a preparatory and retrospective by resemblance (or not) to other things; for example process, not a generative one. It is useful when the traditional divisions of beings and objects into consolidating that which, in general, has already been genus and species. A thing gets its identity by the proved to work, but it does not function well as a device principle of how it’s determined in relation to other for the generation of new ideas.”(8) things. A dog is not a cat. ‘Hi there! – no I mean him The design process requires intuition because it not you…’ Contemporary critical philosophers call requires predictive action – we must have a go in order this kind of thinking ‘representation’. to see and test the result, and in having a go we may as Representation starts with comparisons or analogies. well try to make the right choice rather than a random It asks, ‘Do I recognise it’. It is based on the past, one. Research helps us to make appropriate choices because you have to already have an identity with but it can only assess what already exists. Hence, which to compare it – so it doesn’t deal very well with designing only through researching existing forms and the new – something you’ve never seen before. What not “intuiting” new ones (albeit in response to research) do you call that? If you’re trying to create things, this will lead to a repetition of those forms. Intuition, model implies you will always be trying to relate them Ball and Naylor contend, is “a sense of the rightness to something you have seen before.” of something ahead of the proof or verifi cation.” (9) Research is useful before – to identify the best of the White continues: “Gilles Deleuze is principal among past and improve upon it – and afterwards, to test the a number of contemporary philosophers who have effectiveness of your design, but in between, intuition offered alternative explanations as to how objects must take its rightful place. become determined, and it seems to concord with the designers’ experiences I’ve come across. Deleuze [8. 9.] - - - doesn’t start with comparisons or analogies; he instead Ball, R. and Naylor, M. 2005. A PHILOSOPHICAL MODEL proposes that life is a process of differentiation, a ‘Form Follows Idea’. London: process of ‘splitting’. This means that all living beings Black Dog Publishing In order to better understand the design process, we - [10.] - need a model that describes what is happening in the White, S. 2008. [Personal mind. For this we need a philosophical perspective. communication]. 23 June -

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 152 3/9/09 8:27:29 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black – including designers – are working in non-reversible discovered, rather than created it. However, the sense time by a process of selection and distinction. We are of rightness of an idea, concept or design is nonetheless constantly choosing and branching, and, with every in our heads and defi ned by our own notion of what has choice we make, we change what reality is. guided the project. When we see this sense of rightness in the designs of others, it is because we can also see In Deleuze’s logic of sense, each one of these the reasons behind their choices. ‘splittings’ is an event within a series, but is not necessarily instantaneous. There might be a whole load White explains: “Deleuze isn’t saying representations happening at once or just one after the other over a and representational thought do not exist and are period of time. However, it’s a movement towards an not useful. He is instead clear that it’s just one of the exploration. It’s an unknowable goal. And that’s the key modes of thought but there is another one. Traditional point. In a representational view, in a way, things are semiotics (which emerged from the representational pre-determined. You’re not creating anything truly new model) imagines an already existing world where – you are simply discovering something that’s already sense is possible (see 1.3 Reading form). Deleuze there. Deleuze argues the opposite: that ideas don’t says, ‘you can see the world like that – yes it does come from somewhere else. They are immanent rather tend to appear to operate like that – but how did we than transcendent. We are not simply referencing get there?’ How did all these signs and symbols get to objects that at the beginning of the design process are the point of coherence where they can be understood, somehow there, but beyond reach, but instead truly and isn’t that what’s really happing all the time? creating experimental positions, ‘events’ which we then Language is becoming sense, as we make sense from ‘check’ against our expectations by choosing to select it. We got there by trying to make sense of experience. them or ignore them.” Representational thought is a short cut that we practice instead of thought, instead of making - - new sense.“ DISCOVERY OR CREATION? “According to Deleuze”, White tells us, “the object is Designers occasionally make reference to the only ever more or less “determined”. There’s only the representational model when they describe the end of continued branching towards a more determined object. the design process as a discovery of something rather So even when you get towards the end of the design than the creation of it. It often feels like that, and process (you’ve decided exactly what chair you want, with good reason. The constraints guiding the project how you want it to look, what materials you want etc.) will set up boundaries that many of our ideas will fall you still have to go and get it made. And as you well outside. When one does manage to tick all the boxes, know, when you do, another whole series of diverging especially if the solution seems quite simple, the notion that no one has ever come to the same conclusion can seem far-fetched. The sense that someone else must have the same idea plants the thought that we have

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 153 3/26/09 2:10:42 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black 3. Process selections and choices comes into effect, because this as devices for representing thoughts: “[In the design 3.1 The elusive design process process of determination of the indeterminate happens process] we’re using a series of tools that allow us to 3.2 Design methodology at every stage. It is, for Deleuze, the very process by tentatively order our thoughts ahead of a fi nal, yet still which all objects are “given” to us – how we are able experimental, decision. These processes of thought to make sense of the world as consisting of objects we are not separate design ideas – they are embodied in interact with. In design, the process is the same, but the process of selection. For example, there is no such our role is more active, mediated and conscious. Design thing as a blank page, because you’ve got all of your is the guided process of determining objects. In this memories, all your life experiences that you’re bringing process, there will always be more or less important to the point where you’re making that choice as to decisions, but all of the selections will have a role in what line to draw. At the same time, that line is utterly making the object singular. For example, a less or more experimental because you don’t know everything that important decision might be about how diffi cult, time- you can draw. At the moment before drawing the line, consuming or energy-wasting it is to return to an earlier your potential for expression is limitless (which is decision point or ‘splitting’”. what the fear of the blank page is all about – not that it’s empty, but that it’s actually so full, and what is “In relation to design then”, White proposes, “Deleuze’s drawn out might be a disappointment). It’s unknowable position would be extremely pragmatic. As a designer, because you’ve never been in that precise situation. you would simply be asking [of your work] what does it Even if you try your hardest to repeat what you’ve do? What affect (11) does it deliver?” Deleuze suggests drawn before [or exactly what you are thinking], it that instead of attempting to categorise things, we always comes out slightly differently.” should make a “chart of affects” – a kind of diagram of the real impacts they will, can and do have on the White cites Robin Evans, in his book ‘Translations from other things around them, and that we place them in Drawing to Building and Other Essays’ (1997), who relation to. proposes that the power of the drawing lies precisely in this fact; that it doesn’t look like what you wanted it By being aware of these models of thought, designers to look like. “There is no deterministic relation between can consider to what extent they are concentrating on what is represented, and the representation in the mind what will be representational, as opposed to what will of the person attempting to draw what they think. be most affecting. For example, when designing a chair, The power of the drawing to be creative is that it will are they asking themselves, “What type of chair do always be different from the representation you try people want?”, “How do people want to sit?” or “How and make it conform to.” do people want to be affected?” “The root of this”, White explains, “lies in the fact [11.] - - - that design tools such as drawing are ‘expressions’, Not to be confused with TOOLS OF EXPRESSION like words, but that, taken literally, these differ from effect, meaning change or what is actually ‘expressed’. For example if a designer consequence, affect is a White contends that, to get the most out of them, we technical term in psychology (the ‘expresser’) draws a chair (the ‘expression’) the and philosphy meaning a desire should see tools of design, such as drawing and model- or emotion that infl uences making, in terms of their affect rather than simply behaviour. -

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 154 3/26/09 2:12:34 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black sense we make of that drawing (what is ‘expressed’) This process of thought is what enables us to look will be to picture a complete chair, even though what beyond our own experience, and test and challenge our we are literally seeing is just some lines on a page. habits of thought – to create the new. Deleuze refers Importantly, the sense we make of the expression is to this testing mode of thinking, and all the external fi ltered through our own interpretation, governed by expressions made which attempt to interrogate beyond our life experiences. This explains how one expression our direct experience, as ‘diagrammatic’. He does not can be understood to mean many different things by mean a particular type of drawing, but all potential different people. The chair I picture in my mind when ways of thinking (non-representationally). To Deleuze looking at the drawing will be different from the this is intuition, and he puts it as the highest level of one you picture. While we might think that the more thought. Intuition is not just emotions or feelings – that detailed (‘determined’) the drawing is, the more alike is the pejorative understanding it from representation. our interpretations will be, even this is not guaranteed. Intuition, in what we have discussed here, is affect – For example, many members of the general public it is the logic of sense – it is the process by which we cannot understand orthographic projections (12) but come to be able to manifest ‘the rational’.” the indeterminate chaos which the drawing attempts [12.] - to ‘control’ into a single interpretation is what is special - - Orthographic or orthogonal about it. The drawing enables determination, it is DESIGN IS EXPERIENTIAL projections are views used determinable, it is not complete chaos, and at the within technical drawing that Deleuze’s thinking, when applied to the design process, illustrate objects, plans and same time it is never totally determined or decided.” buildings from one angle, reveals why chance encounters and intuition make without perspective. The lines White continues: “If your being is engaged in the a contribution. If the design process is experiential are drawn at right angles to the design process you’re expressing your intuition about rather than logical – that is, it is a journey upon which plane of projection (the view point of the drawing) and hence that design process and it’s only through expressing our whole being embarks and anything that happens to can be accurately dimensioned. these expressions that you get to look at them us on that journey and has happened to us in the past -retrospectively. As a designer you don’t see the affects the choices we make – then the way we are expression [the lines on the paper], you see what it affected will in turn infl uence how we shape what we expresses – what kind of chair is it, was it the kind of are designing. This will be mediated by all the kinds of chair I wanted? The point of a drawing or model is that expressions we can make, including the rational. As it creates an expression of our intuition of the sense much as we can try to plan a logical design process created by sets of relations. By creating an expression using tools to help us understand, iterate and improve of these relations, it enables us to manipulate and the set of relations within the project, any number of interrogate what these relations might be, and what other infl uences (some of which may not be conscious) affect they might have. Without the expression, we are may interject. Rather than devaluing a planned unable to attempt to discover what it expresses. Some process, this awareness allows us to consciously set very clever people might be able to do all of this inside out to have a number of experiences (reading texts, their own heads, but it is very doubtful that they would seeing exhibitions, having discussions etc.) that can do anything other than repeat their own presumptions. complement typical design tools. However, what it must also do is to allow any useful (affective) insights, wherever they come from, to change the direction of both the design and the pre-planned process.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 155 3/9/09 8:27:30 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 3. Process In their drive to package and sell design as a formula, - - 3.1 The elusive design process many consultancies have put in place a linear design TAKING DECISIONS 3.2 Design methodology process into which clients can easily buy. The activities With all of these factors infl uencing us, it is worth within each stage become highly familiar and, as refl ecting upon how we go about making decisions. creative tools, no doubt occasionally yield creative Again, philosophy can offer guidance, starting with outputs. Yet the standardised nature of this approach why the journey begins. Stefan White informs us that: does not allow for the individual character of the “Deleuze talks about there being an ‘inducement to act’. project to shape the way it is tackled. What happens [In design, these are the reasons we are undertaking when an insight early on in the project suggests a the design process. This book has discussed many direction other than what has been proposed, quoted subject-related ones but others may be more basic, for and sold? Furthermore, if a process has been such as earning money to survive, or altruistic, such undertaken successfully on one occasion, there’s as improving society.] These inducements are felt no guarantee that it will be successful again. This repeatedly and are described differently by various is because what led to a successful design was not philosophers. For example, in Freud, it is the ‘pleasure necessarily the planned ingredients, but may have been drive’ and ‘death drive’. Deleuze argues that, whatever a random insight that happened to arise during the the reason, we tend to want to put ourselves in to process. That is not to say thinking tools are useless. composition with things that agree with us rather than For example, brainstorming is an acknowledged way disagree with us, and our desire to repeat agreeable of trying to force insights to occur, often with a degree actions induces us to pursue particular paths. This can of success. become very complex as we gain more experience – we have to work much harder in order to select - - amongst the possible inducements.” “[According to Deleuze’s interpretation of Spinoza] inducement”, White continues, “is about capacity. Being sad is having a reduced capacity to act and joy increases that capacity. This is what drives us on through the stages of a process – an attempt to increase our capacity to act.” If we are to do this – to advance the design process – White contends that we must fi nd a way of expressing our intuitions in some form, so they can be useful to us.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 156 4/8/09 12:35:09 PM CD409-34/4028 3RD PROOF Black “If we start to try and express intuition using a rational There’s no reason why you can’t obtain knowledge of language (for example, if we start trying to express the (likely) outcomes of your choices. The more times the object according to what it is and what it isn’t), you undertake the process, the more you get a logic what our intuition was grasping escapes. Rather than of sense of the process – that that kind of decision being pinned down for examination, it is destroyed. Like is a crucial one, or that one isn’t going to make much butterfl ies in glass cases, to become purely aesthetic difference. There is a subtle but vitally important compositions, they had to be killed. We are not being difference between this tacit knowledge and the belief frivolous or wilful, therefore, to insist on the value of that it establishes a pre-conceived formula.” intuition; it is the only way we can create the new.” Thinking about design, and indeed life, through We might therefore consider that a sense of Deleuze’s model ought to be inspiring because it indifference or uncertainty in the design process suggests that the more we throw ourselves into means one of two things. The set of relations we are experiencing it and being affected by it, the more considering (the “current design”) is not increasing our resources we are able to call upon to help guide us in capacity to act. It is not allowing us to take the project our decisions. It encourages us to judge objects on their to the next stage and therefore must be changed. individual merits in terms of how we are infl uenced by Alternatively, the method of expression we have chosen them, rather than upon their relationship to existing to use (sketch/drawing/model) is not increasing our archetypes. It advocates originality with purpose, not capacity to act, in that it has not adequately revealed new for the sake of new (or indeed old for the sake the benefi ts of this “current design”. A more effective of old). It recognises that familiarity has a place in form of expression must therefore be used. When faced creating emotional responses, but that we should with this sense of uncertainty, we must therefore beware of applying it by default. Finally, it breaks us consider if it is the design, or the way it is being free from the tyranny of an imposed methodology expressed, that is at fault. and embraces generative and responsive action. Finally, the philosophical modes discussed here offer - - insight into the way experience is invoked. As White describes, there are two possible methods, one benefi cial and one counter-productive: “You can’t not use your experiences, but you can use them in two ways: in a representational way, to copy what has gone before, and if you do this they will be restraining you from producing the new. Alternatively, you can use your experiences to lead you to make good choices.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 157 3/9/09 8:27:30 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 3.2 3. Process - - design…It was thus an obvious step for designers to 3.1 The elusive design process DESIGN METHODOLOGY try to integrate scientifi c methods into the design 3.2 Design methodology process so that they could be accepted as serious If we buy into Deleuze’s observations regarding the 3.3 Thinking tools partners in the sphere of industry.” (1) However, this value of being guided by insights and intuition – presupposes that the subjective and emotional methods that unproven hypotheses and not the application of of design were indefensible to industrialists. Rather cold logic are what lead us to the new – this implies than communicate the value of intuition as a necessary that we should take attempts to apply systematic ingredient, designers chose to hide it behind, among logic to the process of design with a pinch of salt. other things, the apparent logic of geometric forms. However, we must recognise a distinction between Designers attempted to build and follow methodologies the act of creation and the framework within which that would allow them to demonstrate to their clients it sits. A design methodology is an organisational that creation itself could be scientifi c, rather than just structure within which creative acts occur. It is the organisational structure in which it operated. a means of visualising the process, categorising the sets of relations within the project, and of This was seductive because the design process as suggesting an order in which they may be tackled. a whole benefi ts from a sense of structure, and Rational thinking is therefore useful in order to in explaining a project, a choice could be made to avoid us getting lost in what, in a complex project, emphasise this over any intuitive creative acts that, could appear to be a tangled web of confl icting and in themselves, defy logic. In addition, designers are interrelating factors. That said, rationality should apt to “post rationalise” their intuitive decisions, not be invoked in order to suggest an entirely rigid overlaying them with a sense of logic identifi ed after process, or one that must be repeated verbatim for their creation. The success of the axiom “form follows each project; to do so would be to repeat the well- function”, debunked by David Pye (discussed on page meaning mistakes of many designers and design 23), can be seen in the light of this attempt to show theoreticians. What is required is an understanding design as an objective method in which the designer that the nature of the project will infl uence the is simply guided by predefi ned signals. choice of methods that are appropriate at any It is worth noting that some of the most successful given time. design that emerged from post-war Italy came from designers who, while demonstrating a structured [1. 2. 3.] - - - process, were able to “intuit” creative responses to Bürdek, B. 2005. ‘Design : DESIGN AS SCIENTIFIC METHOD History, Theory and Practice the problem of overhauling the country’s architecture of Product Design’. Basel: Design methodology evolved in response to the and design. They did this through establishing trusting Birkhäuser -rationalisation of industry. Bernhard Bürdek, who has relationships with industrialists, rather than convincing written extensively on the subject, tells us that once them of their scientifi c methodologies. industry had begun rationalising construction and production methods, “It was not possible to continue - - practising the subjective and emotional methods of

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 158 3/9/09 8:27:30 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - and testing their designs in situ to check their FROM DETERMINISM TO EMPIRICISM effectiveness. What is more contentious is that it also tends to embrace market research as an instrument Bürdek explains that three branches of the humanities for determining the content of products prior to their have infl uenced design methodology: semiotics (the design and the use of focus groups after it. study of how meaning is constructed through our understanding of signs); phenomenology (the study of The move from hermeneutic-led singular experience in terms of phenomena, from a fi rst-person interpretations of good design to empirical market- perspective, for example); and hermeneutics (the study oriented thinking is also expressible through the of theories and methods of the interpretation of texts contrast between modernism and postmodernism and systems of meaning). (2) – a move from “top down” theories espoused by an intellectual elite to the “bottom up” embracing of For semiotics to be useful, we must be able to popular taste. interpret everything as a sign. To do so we have to have discovered the meaning of the sign previously. Hence, While many designers have shunned the restrictive semiotics ignores experiences that cannot be “read”, purism of modernist thought, there is unease at the (yet, as has been discussed, it is precisely these that notion of letting the pendulum swing too far back in the may be seen as the essence of the new). It is these direction of the market. “The quest for quality”, explains direct experiences that phenomenology recognises. Achille Castiglioni, “never grows out of some market Hermeneutics has a more over-arching aim, not just survey. Market surveys mainly refl ect established to explain the nature of ideas, but also to propose how images and will never produce an innovative project.” (4) those ideas came about. It is clear to see how this After all, it is designers who, while able to acknowledge maps on to the notion of a design methodology; if we the desires of the market, are also the ones who have can understand how our good ideas have been arrived actionable access to new technologies, materials, at, we may defi ne a method to enable us to have more. methods of manufacturing and strategies of thought However, as Bürdek tells us: “Hermeneutics [like design that offer them the ability to create something the methodology] is not a mechanical procedure but an art” market didn’t know it wanted. and was “criticised for its universal urge to generate When applied as market research, empirical methods uniform interpretations.” (3) are primarily about reassuring big business that its By combining hermeneutics with empiricism (deriving investment will produce a return. Turning to the market [4.] - knowledge from experience and observation rather for advice often throws up conservative propositions, Castiglioni, A. In: Polano, S. 2001. ‘Achille Castiglioni than theory), we arrive at the basis for much modern not because that is what will necessarily be bought, Complete Works’. Milan: Electa design methodology. This fi nds designers attempting but because it is not in its nature to collectively propose -to understand and react to sociocultural conditions, innovative alternatives. Companies infer that the consumer is unwilling to step too far outside of their existing experience and this justifi es the production of

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 159 3/9/09 8:27:30 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 3. Process bland goods. Yet this apparently risk-averse method of a building connects to and offers the context for its 3.1 The elusive design process could, in itself, be seen as a risk. In applying such rooms, which in turn have a pattern of their own which 3.2 Design methodology methods, companies miss the opportunity to introduce is linked to the language of the objects within them 3.3 Thinking tools major innovations that could lead the market. If their and so on. Alexander explaines the concept as part of a competitors get there fi rst, the risk-averse will be methodology to empower individuals to plan and create left behind. architecture from the scale of entire regions down to individual rooms. By emphasising the co-relatedness of - - all forms, Alexander champions the idea that a broad VISUALISING THE PROCESS understanding of context should be the fundamental driver of product form. The father of design methodology, Christopher Alexander, in his book ‘Notes on the Synthesis of As Bürdek explains, this view has taken time to gain Form’ (1964), explains his theory of how complex currency in product design: “Up until the 1980s, context design problems can be broken down into sets of was generally understood to mean only those practical requirements, visualised as trees. These trees, which demands (such as ergonomic conditions, construction hold individual requirements on their branches, specifi cations and manufacturing options) that allow each requirement to be identifi ed and analysed designers had to take into consideration in their designs. individually. Requirements may themselves branch into In reality, however, the design is often dominated by subsets containing further requirements. As the project an entirely different set of conditions…it has become is thought through, requirements are gradually replaced increasingly important to design contexts…or provide with proposed solutions until the whole tree is covered. contexts as models of interpretation for design. The question today is not ‘How are these things made?’ While this method allows for the visualisation but ‘What do these things mean for us?’” (5) of complexity, it does not necessarily bring to light situations where, in meeting two individual [5.] - - - requirements, a separate problem is generated. Bürdek, B. 2005. ‘Design: TYPICAL MODELS OF THE DESIGN PROCESS History, Theory and Practice In his later work, ‘A Pattern Language Which Generates of Product Design’. Basel: Typical models of the design process describe it as Birkhäuser Multi-Service Centers’ (with Sara Ishikawa and a linear set of steps where each must be completed -Murray Silverstein, 1968) Alexander describes the successfully in order to continue to the next. This infi nite scalability of the concept that all designed linearity is broken only by failures that lead the designer elements consist of a pattern of design language and back to earlier steps to rectify whatever had caused that each patterned element is connected to others in the problem. Relying too heavily upon such diagrams the same context. For example, the pattern language can be problematic for a number of reasons. As generic descriptions, they assume a level of complexity in a

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 160 3/26/09 2:14:06 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black project, which may be entirely different to the actual one being undertaken. As mentioned earlier, they also enforce a rigidity that does not allow for insight to suggest alternative courses of action or models of development. A typical design process chain contains: Defi ning broad aims (brief) Understanding constraints/context etc. Defi ning specifi c requirements Exploring design solutions Testing and analysing solutions Communicating/realising chosen solution (completion) This order is upset in a variety of circumstances. Specifi c requirements may appear to be incorrect (misdirected or unambitious, for example) upon exploration of possible solutions as unforeseen possibilities arise. A playful process of research and design that is unimpeded by over-specifi c sets of criteria can lead to discoveries that meet the broad aims effectively, but may confl ict with specifi c aims if these are set prematurely. In addition, testing and analysis occasionally throw up such fundamental problems that a rethink of the specifi c requirements is the only option. A degree of fl uidity is needed to ensure that the completion of a tidy process is not placed above arriving at the best possible product. While interjecting with additional stages or returning to previous ones may be costly, designers must be prepared to argue a case for when they are necessary.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 161 3/9/09 8:27:31 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 3.3 3. Process - - In drawing, we generate a representation of 3.2 Design methodology our thoughts that we are subsequently able to 3.3 Thinking tools THINKING TOOLS 3.4 Observation interrogate. A cycle of expression, consideration The remainder of this chapter is concerned with and further expression drives the process onwards. a number of tools designers use to develop ideas. In model-making, we are fi nally able to grasp our These are introduced briefl y below. As we have design literally, to assess how it interacts with its learned, insights can develop as a result of all context and to test it empirically. Like drawing, manner of uncontrollable factors and the impact of the very process of making models is a form of these should be considered alongside those that expression, which prompts new ideas – not just develop from more traditionally recognised sources. the assessment of its results. However, for most designers, the well-established methods of observation, drawing and model-making Besides these ”artistic” methods, design and the still lie at the heart of their development of ideas. business community have developed their own While appearing in many other walks of life – we thinking tools. Based upon the understanding may observe then draw a still life, or assemble that insight requires the short-circuiting of a model from instructions – in design, none of accepted methods and ritual actions, tools such these methods is an end in itself. Each enables a as brainstorming are specifi cally designed to particular set of cognitive processes to occur that encourage irrational thinking and the juxtaposition prompt decision making. Their power lies in their of unlikely pairings. By forcing the expression of use as thinking tools. unreason, we are able to reassess its potential as “the new reason”. In observation, we deconstruct what we perceive, consider its parts, the forces acting upon them, and - - how they join and support each other. We take in material properties and qualities and consider from all of these, how we might apply this knowledge elsewhere. Inga Sempé shows a clear example in her Lunatique Table for Ligne Roset (fi g. 1, page 163). Sempé used the foldability of a ring-handle from her mother’s bedside table as part of a discrete height-adjusting mechanism for an occasional table (fi g. 2, page 163).

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Fig.1 Lunatique Fig. 2 Ring handle table by Inga Sempé manufactured by Ligne Roset The ring handles in her mother’s bedside table provided the spark for the adjustment in Inga Sempé’s Lunatique table. She then designed a mechanism that allowed the height of the table to lock when the ring sat fl ush with the tabletop.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 163 4/8/09 12:36:19 PM CD409-34/4028 2ND PROOF Black - - 3.4 3. Process - - in a neat row; they are aligned as in a botanical chart 3.3 Thinking tools 3.4 Observation OBSERVATION or a catalogue, or a dictionary. But this catalogue, 3.5 Ideas generation lying somewhere between imagination and memory, “It is something of an effort to look at things around is not neutral; it always reappears in several objects us with our minds as well as our eyes. We so soon and constitutes their deformation, and in some way, accept them unthinkingly.”(1) their evolution.” (4) Frank Pick, the patron of design who commissioned Rossi’s sentiments are mirrored by Jasper Morrison the famous Underground map while head of London who advises us that: “The practice of seeing is a Transport, highlights the overlooked nature of designer’s most vital education. Everything seen and the everyday. Surrounded by the familiar, we are assessed will have an infl uence on the way he designs” inclined to “switch off” and are only prompted (5). Not only is observing from the overlooked minutiae when difference breaks our routine. Transplanted of our surroundings something from which we can to another place – in particular, another culture – learn, it is an ability that designers and other visual our observational ability is stirred and we begin artists should try to hone. Just as a good musician can to notice even the smallest of details. As designer deconstruct a song by hearing it, defi ne the key and Alan Fletcher aptly puts it: “Blinkered by habit, timing and talk with authority about the nuances of its we glance around rather than look with acuity. composition, good designers can develop the equivalent In effect, the eye sleeps until the mind wakes it skills in relation to objects. The senses become attuned with a question.”(2) to properties such as visual weight, proportion, poise, This selective absorption is necessary to avoid and patina (the way materials develop traces of use information overload, but if we can short-circuit this and wear). Experience of the use and abuse of objects system we may develop the advantage of seeing combines with this visual observation and informs us of what others miss. In other words, we may teach the likelihood of an observed component to be fi t for its ourselves to see. Fletcher continues: “We forget purpose. To a degree, this knowledge is able to save us that we learn to see. We are not given the world the task of testing every material when observation has but make it through experience, categorization shown them working (albeit at particular dimensions and memory.” (3) and under specifi c conditions). But beyond amassing an encyclopaedia of tools for [1.] - - - design practice, learning to see offers an opportunity Pick, F. In: Benton, C. (ed). OBSERVATION AS DESIGN EDUCATION 1975. ‘Documents: A collection for liberation. It enables us to form our own narrative of source material on the Renowned architect and designer Aldo Rossi once noted around the use and effect of objects to accompany Modern Movement’. Milton Keynes: Open University Press that: “Perhaps the observation of things has remained the stories fed to us by our commodity culture; to - my most important formal education, for observation see where things actually end up and what they [2. 3.] - later becomes transformed into memory. Now I seem really mean to people. Fletcher, A. 2001. ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’. London: to see all the things I have observed arranged like tools Phaidon - [4.] - Rossi, A. 1984. ‘A Scientifi c Autobiography’. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press - [5.] - Morrison, J. 1990. ‘Jasper Morrison – Designs, Projects and Drawings 1981–1989’. London: Architecture, Design and Technology Press -

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Fig. 1 Bicycles of Japan Seeing many images of the same object type reveals a language of details. A small collection of pictures of bicycles seen on the streets of Japan shows a propensity towards small wheels and folding frames rather than the Western emphasis on racing or mountain bikes.

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Fig. 2 Images Fig. 3 Sample from ‘50 Hangers’, a picture collection by Tim Parsons book by Tim Parsons Part Many of these objects have of a collection of 50 coat little or no fi nancial value hangers donated by friends, but are kept because they these images enable us to demonstrate something – see how different designers material properties, a forming tackled the task of designing of fi xing method, a structure. the humble coat hanger and They offer both inspiration to identify subtle differences and valuable reference. in their character. Responses range from the commonplace through to the kitsch.

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Fig. 4 A street Fig. 5 Basket base barrier in New York Product Close-up of a basket base as typography. showing how a sheet material can be joined to a woven one.

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Fig. 6 Bird-boxes Fig. 7 Documenting at Boisbuchet, France The a manufacturing process multiplication creates a Bristles are fed between spectacle and a sense of wires, twisted by machine a “bird community”. and “shaved” to make bottlebrushes.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 168 3/26/09 2:15:42 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black The photographs of Richard Wentworth and the work of are moved to recreate it”, he says, “When the artist Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska, specifi cally sees something that inspires them, they create the book ‘Reading Things’ (1993), encourage us in this something else.” direction. It is also intrinsic to the French concept of Rather than distinguishing the creative from the the “fl âneur” – an outsider fi gure who walks the city, uncreative, it is perhaps more useful to consider the taking in its every nuance. An entirely different animal urge to copy what we see, as the base level of creative to the tourist, the “fl âneur” values experience over the maturity that we all must pass through and leave tick-boxing of attractions. Design consultancy IDEO behind in order to fi nd our own voice. A stage above has attempted to instil the spirit of the “fl âneur” into might be described as one of being able to extract the modern traveller via a series of guidebooks entitled and transpose form, method or strategy from what is ‘Eyes Open’ that shun the tourist trail in favour of the being observed and apply it effectively in a new context. more obscure charms of our major cities. (6) This ability can be very effective for designers creating In design practice, observation has the paradoxical new work (see 2.4 Collective memory and behaviour). role of providing education by suggesting methods that This combination of different interdisciplinary ways of might be adopted, while simultaneously offering the doing things is well established as a tool for innovation opportunity for conscious differentiation. While there and is obviously one that has observation at its core. is a limit to what we are reasonably able to investigate, Described recently by Frans Johansson as The Medici it is the lazy and misguided student who wilfully Effect in his book of the same name (2004), the author shuns research in the belief that this will allow him named the phenomenon after the Medici family of uninhibited access to new ideas. Through awareness, Florence who were credited with helping to kick-start we are able to avoid repeating history, take account the Renaissance by bringing together an enormously of it and, if we choose, build upon it. [6.] - varied group of individuals from different disciplines ‘IDEO website’. 2009. [online]. Observations of objects or processes often elicit in the and cultures. [Accessed 27th January 2009]. designer (or indeed in anyone) a sense of inspiration Available from World Wide Accurate observation and its use to prompt analogies, Web: hearing that an American critic had recreated his piece, - and stylistic emphasis of an object not yet designed. Equivalent VIII (known colloquially as “The Bricks”) by The Mood Board (a collection of images that convey buying and arranging bricks from a local builders’ yard, a particular sense of style and character), despite the minimalist sculptor Carl André was moved to write reaching the status of high cliché, is a useful tool in the and thank the critic for helping him to understand the communication of nuanced concepts of form, if used difference between an artist and a layperson. “When with care and rigour. By observing successful products the layperson sees something that inspires them, they in certain market sectors, an awareness of trends and preferences can be built up for the purposes of following them or preferably to enable differentiation.

Fig. 8 Display Fig. 9 “Family as installation The mass tricycle” This homemade of variations is displayed “family tricycle” illustrates proudly by the retailer and its owner’s ability to create a prompts us to look at the practical item not available in detail differences. the marketplace. It represents ingenuity and a non- conformist outlook.

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Figs 10–13 Character- Fig. 14 Customisation Fig. 15 Acknow- isation We are prone to The friendly appearance of the ledging behaviour An see faces in products and Renault Twingo (also a product architect wittily predicts the designers have been known with a distinctive face) has use his arched doorway will to play upon this. These pilons prompted this owner to add have and populates it with appear to be an army of robots his or her own touch. This stone pigeons. Behavioural rampaging across the Belgian suggests the notion of observations can lead to countryside. The stapler has designing products that designs in tune with our been given character by the explicitly encourage users unconscious actions. positioning of a fi xing, giving to customise them. it an eye. The viewer appears to be a conscious piece of “friendly” styling, whereas the ship’s lamp has developed a face by a trick of the light.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 170 3/26/09 2:24:19 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black Noting typical specifi cations, such as layouts, features, that cost less than fi ve pounds each. Brought together fi nish and materials, gives a picture of the apparently in the exhibition and publication ‘Under a Fiver’ the immutable elements of a typology and hence the items display everything from kitsch to functionalism, opportunity to rethink it. We are able to ask: Which each offering its own peculiar insight into aspects elements are of real value and which have been of contemporary culture. appropriated out of conceit? - - - - SAMPLES COLLECTIONS Perhaps even more common among designers is the The usefulness of observed detail has a habit behaviour of collecting material, product and process of planting in designers the bug of the collector. samples. Just as interior designers are known to collect Collections hold a particular professional intrigue for colour swatches, product designers are apt to hoard designers, which can set them apart from those who items that demonstrate characteristics (including collect for pleasure or fi nancial gain. In collecting one colour) they enjoy and may subsequently fi nd useful typology of object, the designer builds a picture of the (fi g. 3, page 166). Having such samples to hand can many possible ways by which such an object can be be invaluable when working on a project. The ability determined. The collection creates a three-dimensional to hold, feel, sense the weight, strength, fl exibility or mind-map of designs for that object, which becomes otherwise of a material, to feel its texture or see how especially useful should the designer then turn his hand light plays off its surface; these sensory experiences to the task of designing that kind of object himself. are vital aids in the decision-making process, helping This also explains the popularity among designers of us grasp the tangibility of concepts before the fi nal books concerned with single typologies, such as Daniel modelling begins. Rozensztroch’s taxonomies of coat hangers (‘Cintres’, The previous pages show a photo essay of design 2002) and brushes (‘Brush’ (with Shiri Slavin, 2005)). inspiration. Each image was taken because it Similar books that have been compiled by designers demonstrated a technique, arrangement, example or themselves include Jasper Morrison’s ‘A Book of strategy that was striking and could inform a future Spoons’ (1997) and Alexandra Martini’s ‘Litter Only: design project. All designers do this, either with a A Book About Dustbins’ (2000). The camera and the camera or sketchbook, or if they are fortunate enough, medium of print, of course, enable the space-saving a photographic memory. You might consider starting capture and storage of these collections and it may be a similar collection and categorising the pictures that you fi nd yourself embarking upon such activities to provide easy future reference (fi gs 4–18, pages yourself (fi g. 1, page 165 and fi g. 2, page 166–167). It 167–171). is here that the designer becomes something of a part- time anthropologist. An acute example is Sam Hecht - - of Industrial Facility who, instead of focusing upon an individual typology, has for the past 15 years been amassing a collection of objects from around the world

Figs 16–18 Reuse Examples of objects reused in a new context. Ammunition fashioned into a toy helicopter, bottle tops as a café tabletop and a bollard made from a car wheel.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 171 3/26/09 2:24:57 PM CD309-148/3184 2ND PROOF Black - - 3.5 3. Process - - disparate thoughts and subsequently to allow focussed 3.4 Observation 3.5 Ideas generation IDEAS GENERATION investigation of categories and sub-categories, 3.6 Drawing eventually resulting in verbal design ideas. Although ideas can be triggered any time and in particular through the processes of observation, Once a number of ideas that all seem equally viable and drawing and model-making covered in this chapter, fi t the brief have been proposed, a decision is needed designers, management consultants and theorists as to which to take further. There are various design have identifi ed methods that specifi cally encourage management tools that try to rate concepts logically, the generation of apparently fresh thinking. In based on charting their likely success against chosen addition, they have developed tools that facilitate criteria. These pseudo-scientifi c methods offer no the organisation of thoughts that help focus guarantees and it could be argued that it is at such a decision-making. These methods and tools are point that logic should be abandoned and intuition and discussed below. experience brought to bear. When the “real” design work of transforming words into objects starts, the - - potential or otherwise of these verbal or written ideas STARTING WITH WORDS will become apparent. As has been proposed, a mix of logical structuring, - - irrational intuition and experienced judgement goes MIND-MAPPING into an effective design process. It requires a degree of fl exibility, but one thing is fi xed; we all must start at A mind-map is a simple diagram that enables all the the point of recognising, or defi ning, the scope and aims possible directions a project may take, and the sub- of the project. Discussions with clients or colleagues categories and ideas within them, to be put down on will usually guide this and hence it is, most commonly, paper as they come to mind. As thoughts are laid down through words that we arrive at a notion of what we they are grouped, prompting us to ask ourselves if each want to achieve. Matching the verbal intention with new thought is part of an existing group or requires a an agreed physical solution is of course the challenge. new one to be started. Words have the habit of forming different images in the Mind-maps commonly have a radial structure intended mind’s eye and hence are best augmented with visuals, to evolve from the centre out, hence why they are material samples, or other “props” where possible to occasionally called spider diagrams – the analogies avoid diverging notions of where the project is heading. of the spider’s body with legs radiating out in all However, there is another stage in which words can be directions, and the building of its web, can both be seen more useful. That is in helping us understand, iterate as appropriate. A pyramid or family tree layout is also and improve the set of relations within the project, occasionally used, but this provides a more limited and before the visual work begins. Once broad aims have defi ned amount of space on the page for ideas to be been defi ned, avenues of research and key themes the added and reinforces the sense of hierarchy. project might deal with can be identifi ed. It is here that tools such as mind-mapping and brainstorming Figure 1 shows a typical mind-map from a short become useful, fi rstly to simply pin down and bundle design project about clocks. The subject of the brief or overarching theme is placed centrally. Around this

Fig. 1 Mind-map A simple mind-map from a short project about clocks. The central theme branches off into sub-themes that in turn yield individual product concepts.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 172 3/9/09 8:28:19 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black are islands of themes that clock design could explore. Mind-mapping can be done individually or in a team Branching off from the themes are sub-themes that with a chosen facilitator to draw the map from the form the basis of design ideas. For example, the theme members’ suggestions. Software is also available from that examines “when you need to know the time” various companies to enable the easy construction of produced the response “shaving” which led to the mind-maps on the computer. idea for a clock set into a shaving mirror (fi g. 1, page [1.] - 172). Cross links may be made when ideas appear to - - Miller, G. A. 1956. “The be appropriate to more than one theme; for example, BRAINSTORMING Magical Number Seven, Plus the idea of a water clock could have emerged from the or Minus Two: Some Limits on The structure of a mind-map implies that only ideas our Capacity for Processing theme “physical phenomena” or “mechanism”. Information.” ‘Psychological considered appropriate to the context of the project Review’, 63. Mind-maps prove useful because they allow us to focus and its related themes are worth recording. We are -attention on one theme at a time and suggest ideas or inclined to think in terms of “what fi ts”, which can sub-categories that relate to it. Their ease of use aligns reinforce existing models and practices. Brainstorming with the fi ndings of cognitive psychologists who have attempts to turn this on its head and jolt us out of discovered that the human brain has the capacity to routine thinking. deal with a limited number of “chunks” of information Brainstorming is a collaborative process and at any one time (1). By splitting the design problem therefore requires a group of people. At its core lie down, we are able to make best use of our imperfect the concepts that one idea triggers another and that mental resources. the combination of ideas can lead to innovative The radial, branching form of a mind-map implies solutions. While this may seem possible individually, that we arrive at all of our ideas through this gradual it becomes exponentially more effective when many narrowing down from core subject through any number trains of thought are allowed to intersect. As the of themes and sub-themes until we reach defi ned process involves the collective sharing, mixing and product ideas. Yet anyone who has completed a mind- development of ideas, individuals must be prepared to map will know that the experience tends to include give up ownership of their ideas for the benefi t of the random product ideas popping up for which we then project. Protecting “your idea” from being mutated by feel we must create a theme and link back into the others is counter-productive to the process. Ideas in core subject – post-rationalising it as part of our logical all their stages of development should be noted down thought process. Although slightly perverse, this has for evaluation at a later stage, hence participants ought its advantages by allowing us to then build upon the not to be concerned that an idea will be eclipsed and themes and categories that these chance thoughts lost in the process. suggest. However, by not always developing logically Through its evolution and use (which spreads far from the centre, mind-maps can take on somewhat beyond design), various rules have become recognised chaotic layouts, which critics argue is nothing more for ensuring effective brainstorming (2). Yet as a than a visual expression of the confusion in the mind. process concerned with breaking rules, it must be They also do not necessarily facilitate choices, but recognised that most of these have a fl ip-side and are simply map out the enormity of the possible range open to interpretation. Therefore, rather than provide of ideas from which one might choose.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 173 3/26/09 4:11:11 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black 3. Process separate lists of dos and don’ts, the following headings design ideas for X type of clock for X market at X price 3.4 Observation 3.5 Ideas generation try to encapsulate the theories behind various aspects point to be made by X supplier, but rather than using 3.6 Drawing of the process. this, it is likely to be more effective to start discussions around how we perceive and use clocks that will build - - into a general sense of what the object means to us. We FACILITATION might ask seemingly obvious questions such as “What is a clock?” and “What do clocks enable us to do?” in order Brainstorming requires a facilitator – someone whose to draw analogies with other things that do the same. job it is to keep the ideas fl owing. They may also be the This will also help us to tie our solutions in to genuine person noting down ideas as they emerge, although it needs and desires and avoid irrelevant novelties. is benefi cial if a separate scribe can be appointed. A Instead of thinking about improvements only in terms key principle of brainstorming is to fl atten hierarchy. of the object in question, it can be useful to list ways The boss’s ideas are of equal importance to those of that other objects give benefi t (effi ciency, comfort, the tea-boy. Hence, the facilitator does not direct the convenience, education and so on) and then map these session from a position of authority, but allows it to back on to the object you are working on. This creates ensue by lubricating points of friction or inertia. They the non-linear thought process we are looking for. For must encourage those who have an idea to speak rather example, what might an “educational clock” look like? than putting people on the spot. They can throw in their own suggestions as a participant, but must not - - prioritise these. At quiet points, the facilitator should CRITIQUING try to prompt the group by asking questions differently or by giving an example and asking for others. A The perspective that a bad idea can trigger a good one calm, optimistic and informal demeanour is likely to justifi es the “no criticism” rule that should be applied help alleviate any feelings of pressure amongst the in all brainstorms. If bad ideas are suppressed, fewer participants. Finally, the facilitator must be aware of good ones will emerge. In fact, the very concept of and be prepared to enforce certain rules, in particular, discussing good and bad ideas should be actively set the need to have only one person speak at a time, and to aside at the beginning of the brainstorm; the goal stop the critiquing of ideas. is ideas, and lots of them. If the group focuses on judging and rating ideas, they are diverted from the [2.] - - - task of simply responding to them by thinking up These sections are built upon SUBJECT FOCUS more. While it is impossible to completely suppress rules identifi ed by global design our judgement, brainstorming asks that we channel group IDEO: any critical thoughts into expressing a preferable problem. The terms in which this is couched are - idea (no “buts”, only “ands”). This notion that value- essential to prompting a positive response. If it is too judgements are to be suppressed causes some people vague, participants struggle to fi nd where to start; to dismiss brainstorming as worthless. But this is to too specifi c and they can go into immediately detailed, ignore the fact that value-judgements are welcome prescriptive solutions. Imagining a brainstorm for afterwards. However, during brainstroming, facilitators the clock project mentioned above, the brief asked for are encouraged to allow what may appear to be wildly

Fig. 2 IDEO Method Cards Global design consultancy IDEO has been generous in their desire to share their working methods. These cards help designers during brainstorms or as prompters when considering the future direction of a project.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 174 3/9/09 8:28:24 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black off-target ideas in order to act both as triggers and triggering effect, notation must be highly visible to all to provide the necessary suspension of disbelief that participants and should be allowed to spread around enables innovation to occur. They therefore need to the walls as the brainstorm unfolds. Ideas hidden in strike a careful balance between this and allowing the back of a fl ip chart are unable to inform the current the session to spiral away from the chosen subject. thinking and lose the chance of forming part of an Deviation within limits may provide the essential important connection. The use of marker pens on large, ingredient to spark a good idea. easily pasted-up sheets or, if possible, large-sized Post- It notes can help keep all the material readable. - - By allowing the thought that “anything goes” and EXPERTISE nothing is beyond the scope of change, brainstorming It is tempting to think that including experts in opens up new possibilities. Such methods come brainstorming sessions would be counter-productive; under fi re from pragmatists because they lead to after all, the point is to break with convention and many unusable suggestions and as such can seem to avoid any sense of intimidation or deferment to those represent a desperate, unstructured search as opposed with greater knowledge. However, by bringing together to a rational plan of action. However, it is precisely experts from different fi elds and ensuring that they such plans that tend to revert to known methodologies follow the same protocols as other team members, the and produce staid ideas. The inappropriate thoughts cross-fertilisation of their expertise may prove highly that appear during ideas generation are perhaps effective. The key is to ensure that the focus remains on best considered as necessary waste in a process of breadth of ideas from everyone and not depth of detail. elimination, like the many discarded sketches before a design is perfected. [3.] - - - ‘IDEO website’. 2009. [online]. NOTATION - - [Accessed 27th January BRAINSTORMING METHODS 2009]. Available from World A brainstorm is a process of ideas generation rather Wide Web: than ideas selection; therefore the end result is not Various designers and design companies have produced -one great idea but, hopefully, a large number of ideas sets of cards that aid brainstorming and individual that subsequently need analysing. For this reason, it ideas generation, and have marketed them to designers, is essential that every idea, no matter how apparently architects and business people. These include IDEO’s insignifi cant, is written down or sketched. Whatever the Method Cards (fi g. 2, page 174): “IDEO Method Cards means of recording used, participants, the facilitator show 51 of the methods we use to inspire great design or the appointed scribe must do it quickly so as to avoid and keep people at the center of our design process. interrupting the fl ow of thoughts that is emerging. Each card describes one method and includes a brief Hence, longhand descriptions covering several lines story about how and when to use it. The cards are must be avoided in favour of quick keywords or at most, divided into four categories, Learn, Look, Ask and single sentences. Sketching is to be encouraged and Try…It’s a design tool meant to help you explore new the need for skill and accuracy played down (even a approaches and develop your own.” (3) misunderstood sketch in the brainstorming environment can trigger another contribution). Again, due to this

Authoritarian Fig. 3 The Political Fascism Compass This two-axis chart Stephen Harper maps the estimated results Robert Mugabe of an on-line questionnaire • George W. Bush • called The Political Compass Ehud Olmert (www.politicalcompass.org). Pope Benedict XVI • Jacques Chirac Hose Maria Aznar It was developed by a political • • John Howard journalist who was dissatisfi ed Mamoud Abbas • • •• • Gordon Brown with the traditional left- Romano Prodi right description of political • • persuasions. Left José Zapatero Angela Merkel Right Communism Neo-liberalism

• Nelson Mandela

• The Dalai Lama

Libertarian Anarchism

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 175 3/26/09 4:10:46 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black 3. Process - - we need the systematic rigour of an outlook, which, by 3.4 Observation 3.5 Ideas generation FLOWMAKER accepting chance, can dig out the unforeseeable. But 3.6 Drawing that is the point: to get closer to the infi nite variety of Sarah Johnson and Jason Allcorn, partners in design the world outside we need rigour, a method, and precise company We Make and sustainability group [Re]Design, rules. Like those of a card game.” (5) developed Flowmaker, a set of 54 cards with fi ve colour-coded suits consisting of instinct, personality, Taken to its (il)logical conclusion, if the cards are simply ageing, play and potential. Like IDEO’s Method Cards, a trigger for thoughts, they could contain anything at there are no fi xed rules for use, the intention being to all, even random shapes and patterns. In the context generate non-linear thinking. Its designers suggest of thinking about a design problem, revealing a card will approaches such as dealing one from each suit to imply prompt an attempt to associate whatever is on it with a brief, or using single suits to evaluate concepts and the task in hand. Such attempts to bounce the mind analyse existing products (4). around in a non-linear way have become linked with the term “lateral thinking” after the book “The Uses of [4.] - - - Lateral Thinking”, published in 1967 by Edward de Bono. ‘We Make’. [online]. [Accessed LIVING 27th January 2009]. Available - - from World Wide Web: CHARTING INFORMATION -in the 1970s to produce a set of cards entitled “Living”, [5.] - which were printed and sold by product manufacturer As we have seen, the way that ideas are arranged ‘Domus’ magazine. 2006. Danese. Reprinted in the September 2006 edition of and juxtaposed can have an effect upon our ability to September -‘Domus’ magazine, the cards contain descriptions make connections between them and hit upon new of professions, types of home, places, neighbours, discoveries. It is therefore no surprise to discover that fl atmates and belongings. By dealing a selection, a those in the fi elds of design and business consulting, random but nonetheless feasible picture of a person’s who sell “innovation services”, make use of a wide range life situation is created. The intention is to lead to the of methods to manipulate and visualise data. These consideration of scenarios that encourage the designer include, among others, creating grids of attributes, to consider life beyond their own narrow frame of using two-axis charts and Venn diagrams. These are reference and away from dangerous generalisations explained in more detail below. about people, lifestyle and culture. - - ‘Domus’ wrote: “Enzo Mari’s card game seems to tell ATTRIBUTE LISTING us that our cities do not accommodate “types” of living, but infi nite combinations of practices and feelings, Attribute listing is a method of generating alternative each different to the other and all absolutely logical if product specifi cations by comparing and contrasting we bother to understand them. It shows us that our different mixes of attributes that a product could be classifi cations are only feasible if we know how to designed to possess. Each attribute of a product is dismantle and reassemble them all the time, without listed (for this book we would list size, shape, weight, ever treating them as real substitutes for life itself. paper thickness, type of binding, number of pages, Enzo Mari seems to be saying that to discover the number of colours used in printing, for example). unpredictable combinations of daily life and its spaces,

High Functional Innovation Fig. 4 Map of the ambitions of a design project Although reverting to Designs in this area bring Designs in this area represent stereotypes, this map helps about a new mode of high ambition, re-defi ning the us to defi ne the ambition of operation but present this product both functionally and a design project in terms within an existing house aesthetically, aiming to break of functional or aesthetic style or using a common new ground in each area. innovation or conformity. formal language.

Low Aesthetic High Aesthetic Innovation Innovation

Designs in this area represent Designs in this area (often low ambition, re-designing a termed “re-designs”) look for product without functional a new aesthetic language but improvement and to fi t an base their mode of operation existing formal language. upon existing typologies.

- - Low Functional Innovation 176 177

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 176 3/9/09 8:28:25 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black Then, as many variations of each attribute would be Bottom right (high aesthetic but listed; for example, under weight we would list various low functional innovation) denotes a stages from light to heavy, and under binding, we would redesign that looks for a new aesthetic list perfect, spiral, sewn and so on. A grid of possible language, but bases it upon an existing, attributes emerges and by reading across these, unchanging, functional typology. products with a huge range of different specifi cations Top left (low aesthetic and high are revealed. Compared to other methods of generating functional innovation) would represent ideas, attribute listing is among the most tedious and a product that brings about a new mode tends to throw up nonsensical results (such as a round, of operation but presents this within an spiral-bound book), but may on occasion enable us to hit existing house style, or using a common upon combinations we had not previously considered. formal language.

[6.] - - - Bottom left (low aesthetic and ‘Political Compass’. 2001– TWO-AXIS CHARTS functional innovation) is an unambitious 2002. [online]. [Accessed project that redesigns a product without 27th January 2009]. Available Simple L-shaped, two-axis bar and line graphs compare from World Wide Web: existing formal language. - time. However, using a cross-axis creates four fi elds where X and Y values can be used to map two sets Axes may be exchanged to explore other opposites, of opposites. For example, a chart (fi g. 3, page 175) such as high-low cultural appeal or small-large market called The Political Compass (6) maps people’s political take-up etc. Charts such as these are used to defi ne the persuasions by juxtaposing the traditional left and position of competitors’ products and to visualise where right wing continuum (the X axis) and an authoritarian new products might be situated. versus libertarian continuum (the Y axis). Where a person is placed is determined by their answers to - - a set of questions that produces data resulting in VENN DIAGRAMS an X, Y coordinate. Named after their inventor, mathematician John Venn The same system can be used to map the ambitions (1834–1923), Venn diagrams consist of overlapping of a design project (fi g. 4, page 176) by, for example, areas, commonly circles, and are used to visualise all creating axes for low to high aesthetic innovation (X the possible relationships between sets or groups. They axis) against low to high functional innovation (Y axis). are useful for ideas generation because they visualise Although this specifi c subject reinforces a troublesome the intersection of fi elds; the area of overlap denoting a form/function divide, the resulting chart nonetheless potentially creative combination. Fields could represent shows four recognisable approaches in each corner: many things including disciplines, markets and subjects. The diagram by Charles Eames (fi g. 5, page 177) Top right (high functional and aesthetic overlays the interests of the designer, the client and innovation) is the most ambitious society to defi ne the territory in which, in his words, “… project, redefi ning the product both the designer can work with conviction and enthusiasm”. functionally and aesthetically and breaking new ground in each area. - -

Fig. 5 Diagram by Charles Eames An example of a Venn diagram, Eames describes the interests of various parties (client, designer, society) as two- dimensional shapes that overlap each other. The area where all three coincide represents the most fruitful area for collaboration.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 177 3/9/09 8:28:26 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 3.6 3. Process - - but sketches are sometimes made quickly in a client 3.5 Ideas generation 3.6 Drawing DRAWING meeting to convey a point, whereby they become 3.7 Maquette and presentation devices. They may also be dimensioned, This section is not about how to draw but is rather model-making becoming tools for conveying measurement. Similarly, about theories of drawing. Why do we do it, what “rendering” suggests a level of fi nish associated are its applications and how does it help us in the with presentation, yet rendered drawings appear in design process? Drawing is almost unquestioningly designers’ sketchbooks and are not always shown to promoted as being benefi cial in design schools clients. So as not to get lost in semantics, we must around the world yet how many of us really concentrate upon what the intention of the expression understand what it does for us? As with many of is, rather than what we choose to call it. the subjects touched on in this book, a full study is not possible here, but a number of concepts - - are expounded that will hopefully prompt deeper FREEING THE MIND investigation. In the past, we might have thought of drawing for [1.] - - - design as being a series of one-way actions to represent Pipes, A. 2007. ‘Drawing for WHY DRAW? what is in our heads on paper. We think about the Designers’. London: Lawrence design, do one drawing, wait until another idea comes King In his book ‘Drawing for Designers’, Alan Pipes tells us - into our heads, draw that and so on. Our drawings that: “A designer’s drawing has three main functions: it record the process and free our mind from holding is a means of externalizing and analysing thoughts and their images. The writer W. Somerset Maugham once simplifying multi-faceted problems to make them more commented that characters haunted him until he could understandable. It is a medium of persuasion that sells write them satisfactorily into a story. Once he had done ideas to clients and reassures them that their brief this, he was free to forget them and this was a great is being satisfi ed. It is a method for communicating relief. Drawing may provide a similar release to the complete and unambiguous information to those designer. Particularly in complex projects, to hold all of responsible for the product’s manufacture, assembly the elements in one’s head and consider how they might and marketing.” (1) interrelate becomes diffi cult or impossible. As Pipes explains, drawing is done for different reasons As was discussed in 3.1 The elusive design process, and hence, the fi rst task for a designer is to know why obviously when we draw to develop design ideas, we he is drawing. Is it a sketch (fi g. 1, page 178), a drawing aren’t thinking about lines on paper, but rather about (fi g. 2, page 179) or a rendering (fi g. 3, page 180, fi g. what we are designing. Once pen touches paper, we are 4, page 181, fi g. 5, page 181)? The problem with these appraising what the drawing expresses. Hence many terms is that they do not suffi ciently imply one of designers’ sketchbooks are fi lled with half-fi nished drawing’s three functions (which we may boil down sketches, some drawn over one another indicating from Pipes’s descriptions to “thinking”, “presenting” that part way through the drawing it was decided that and “measuring”). There is a great deal of fl uidity in the another form, another idea, was preferable. One of the use of each. For example, the informality suggested great advantages of drawing over other methods by the word “sketch” might place it more fi rmly in the territory of a thinking tool for the designer’s use only,

Fig. 1 Sketches from the second-prize- winning entry for the New Bus for London Design Competition (2008) by a consortium consisting of three companies: Miñarro García, Héctor Serrano Studio and Javier Esteban This montage shows the range of ideas explored quickly through sketching by Enrique Miñarro and Joaquin García.

- - 178 179

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 178 3/9/09 8:28:26 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black of expression is its immediacy. It can almost keep - - up with the speed at which the designer thinks – DRAWING IS GENERATIVE the speed with which he changes his idea of what What is not often recognised is the way in which he wishes to visualise. drawing, beyond being a visual bookmark showing where we have got to in the design process, plays - - an active role in prompting new ideas. This happens SLIPPING INTO PRESENTATION because, as was mentioned early in this chapter, what By contrast, the act of presentation drawing (by your drawings express will always, to a lesser or hand or computer) is more laboured and self- greater extent, be different from what you try to make conscious. We might think of it as a separate activity them express (that is, the drawing will not precisely and it can be. However, a design sketch can slip into represent what you had in your head). Only by making being a presentation drawing simply with a lapse of the drawing and seeing what it expresses, can we concentration. When the designer becomes aware of his recognise this difference and be prompted to make a drawing as a set of lines on paper with an aesthetic of decision. Do we like what the drawing has expressed their own, he is liable to try and improve that aesthetic or shall we try again to express something different? rather than improving the design they express. The Seeing drawing as an active participant in the decision- drawing becomes a presentational device and stops making process justifi es its continued relevance in being a thinking tool; light, shade and line weight take design. Technology now enables us to sketch into over from assessing the design itself. Self-satisfaction a computer, but whatever the medium, the speed at reaching a particular stage can get the better of and directness must be maintained in order for it us as we start titivating the drawing in celebration of to prove effective. our success. In design education, the assessment of Not all designers feel the same attachment to drawing. sketchbooks, without clear guidance, exacerbates this As a device for refi ning and pre-determining the made problem. Students are inclined to justify the unthinking object, it favours those who prefer studied, calculated rendering of design sketches because they feel they action rather than spontaneous, impulsive decision- must give in a “presentable” body of development work. making. In design for industry, there is generally no Experienced tutors will, of course, be more impressed option but to show drawn solutions, because the by the evidence of the manipulation and interrogation decisions as to what will be made must be signed off of the object and its relations within the project. and because the making itself will be done by someone Presentation drawings have their place in the decision- else. In craft or designer-maker activity, these making process, especially when feedback from others mediators are removed. The notion of pre-planning is required. But the difference is, they are done in the end result can be discarded in favour of letting preparation for a decision upon their completion rather the mind react directly with the expressions made than as an aid to thinking during the drawing process. by the materials during the making of the fi nal work. Martino Gamper (whose 100 Chairs in 100 Days project - - is pictured on page 70) works directly with found furniture, cutting it and re-assembling it to create one-off pieces.

Fig. 2 Cross- section and fl oor plans for a new bus for London by Miñarro García, Héctor Serrano Studio and Javier Esteban These computer drawings are to scale and are dimensioned to show the size of the vehicle as well as the layout of seats.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 179 3/9/09 8:28:28 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 3. Process According to Gamper: “Drawing is an intermediary purposes, and has been co-opted by designers for use 3.5 Ideas generation 3.6 Drawing process: you have an idea, you transcribe it onto paper, during the design process. As a result, such software 3.7 Maquette and then you translate it (have it translated) into reality, requires the inputting of dimensions or the creation of model-making which means there are two extra steps [between idea geometry using various tools that divert the mind away and made object]”. (2) “I like to draw, I like to make from consideration of the design and into “driving the sketches…[but] even if you do drawing after drawing software”. How an object is made on-screen requires and defi ne everything down to the last detail, you might its own bank of knowledge that driving a pen does not. still be disappointed with the end result…I’m more Attempting to develop design ideas early on in a project interested in the moment of creation itself, because using CAD can be problematic because the software while you are doing it you understand where you want sometimes requests the setting of precise dimensions to go; you can change direction, fi nd more ideas…The before this level of detail is needed by the designer. cut is always a clean break. There’s no going back.” (3) General impressions are often what are required at an Gamper could, of course, sketch out many possibilities early stage – the exploration of layouts, proportions and [2.] - for how to cut and assemble his found ingredients, scale. If set with CAD, these can become resistant to Picci, F. 2008. “Gio Ponti translated by Martino Gamper”. and then choose the most desirable result, but this being questioned at a later stage. The design becomes ‘Domus 911’, February would slow him down. More importantly, it would turn “determined” to a level that may discourage other - the process of making into one of following a series of branches of enquiry. As a consequence, the hyper- [3.] - Gamper, M. In: Picci, F. 2008. instructions rather than one of creation itself (of course reality of a CAD model can give the impression of a “Gio Ponti translated by such a set of instructions is exactly what fi nished product when in fact the design process may Martino Gamper”. ‘Domus industrial production requires from the designer, have only just begun. Computer renderings present a 911’, February - but that is not Gamper’s context). The inherent risk clinical completeness, while a sketch is a suggestion [4.] - Gamper sets up by not using an intermediary process that allows us to fi ll in the detail with our own Dormer, P. 1990. ‘The Meanings like drawing is what allows the result to be seen as a imagination. Watching a CGI fantasy fi lm as compared of Modern Design’. London: Thames & Hudson virtuoso performance. In the words of Peter Dormer: to reading the book of the same story generates the - “At the heart of the workmanship of risk, is the thrill of same dichotomy. However, even when meeting the [5.] - avoiding failure.” (4) Drawing for design can be seen as client early on in a project, fewer and fewer designers “The workmanship of risk” and “The workmanship of an aid to the opposite – the workmanship of certainty have the confi dence to show sketches and instead turn certainty” are phrases coined – whereby risks are reduced by visualising the many to the computer rendering for its seductiveness. by David Pye in his seminal options and choosing those least likely to fail. (5) book The ‘Nature and Art of Although the process of using CAD has the same Workmanship’ (1968). generative capability that drawing has, in the sense -- - that it results in expressions that enable comparisons, COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN if used on its own, it does not leave a paper trail that Although advancing all the time, three-dimensional can be easily reviewed later on. CAD modelling is done computer-aided design (CAD) software is yet to provide by modifying the object on-screen. Unless the operators the fl uency of interface needed to allow designers to studiously save each step, the ability to compare think through their ideas in “virtual” three dimensions current and past steps is relegated to what they with the stream-of-consciousness fl uency they can can remember. achieve on paper. Most CAD software was designed primarily for engineering or rendering and animation - -

Fig. 3 Presentation rendering of a design for a new bus for London by Miñarro García, Héctor Serrano Studio and Javier Esteban A three-dimensional computer model of the fi nal design has been rendered and set in context for the fi nal presentation.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 180 3/26/09 4:10:15 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black - - - - APPROPRIATE EXPRESSION THE PARADOX OF PERFECTION Once aware of drawing as a generative process, By offering up hyper-realistic representations, designers can consider what kinds of expressions computer renderings make the designer responsible (drawing or otherwise) will be most useful to them for delivering the results that such images suggest at various stages of the project. They can try to match are possible. When presentation drawings were done the set of relations being investigated with a means by hand, they could be more ambiguous, and hence of expression that shows them clearly. Hence, if we allow more room for manoeuvre. However, even these are chasing a fl amboyant, sinuous form, large-scale became highly sophisticated, developing into an art freehand sketching is likely to be more effective than form with its own language of seduction. Rather than tight, precise drawing, or CAD. Likewise, if we are trying being still-lifes, the marker pen and pastel techniques to understand scale and proportion in relation to the of late-twentieth-century product designers gave a nod human body, the sketchbook must be given up for full- to reality but concentrated upon selling the beauty of scale drawings or models. There are even some, such the objects’ form and surface. This art has now passed as the architect Will Alsop, who use large-scale canvas from drawing board to computer. Whereas photo- painting as part of their design process. realism was once the holy grail of three-dimensional CAD users, designers soon realised that dynamism Notwithstanding the reservations expressed regarding and fl air were more compelling than reality. its use too early in the design process, there comes a point in many projects where the computer becomes - - invaluable. With rapid prototyping (6) becoming more RENDERING INTEGRITY prevalent in mainstream product design practice, a rigorous design process becomes possible, whereby With the increasing competition in some sectors of the representations of a product pass freely from two design industry, the rendering has become the currency dimensions to three dimensions, from virtual to real young designers use to get noticed. Certain sections and back. Data is inputted to enable computer models of the design press can be found printing renderings to be “printed” in three dimensions and those models of designers’ work before any concrete evidence of its are then considered and altered – fi rst by sketching and ability to function or be producible has been shown. physical modelling, then by altering the computer data. Such processes reduce design to a purely visual pursuit Despite the slow speed of inputting this data compared and denigrate its conceptual and technical aspects. to sketching, its advantages are revealed in the quality Designers, clients and the media have a role to play in [6.] - of representation, especially when that representation ensuring the integrity of the design process does not Rapid prototyping encompasses becomes three-dimensional. This holistic use of the get sold for the price of a quick rendering. Designers a number of methods of building objects from computer greatly increases its importance in the must resist the temptation to overstate the maturity computer fi les created using design process over its role simply as a rendering of quick ideas and clients must resist the seduction of three-dimensional modelling or manufacturing tool. the image, seeing it not as a page in their next catalogue software (see 3.7 Maquette and model-making). but as the fi rst step in a process that may lead to a - - - multitude of different outcomes.

Fig. 4 Rear Fig. 5 Interior view of a new bus for view of a new bus for London London by Miñarro García, by Miñarro García, Héctor Héctor Serrano Studio and Serrano Studio and Javier Javier Esteban The three- Esteban Here the three- dimensional model is rotated dimensional model is seen to show one of the bus’s from inside the upper deck innovative safety features: a and shows the seats with their rear platform that lights up as removable upholstery pads. the bus is about to pull away.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 181 3/9/09 8:28:34 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 3.7 3. Process - - Katherine Hearn and Anthony Quinn run the BA(Hons) 3.6 Drawing 3.7 Maquette and MAQUETTE AND MODEL-MAKING Ceramic Design course at London’s Central Saint model-making Martins College of Art and Design and have researched The craftsperson or designer-maker, should they and written about the use of maquettes and models choose, is able to defi ne and refi ne each object in product design. They argue that: “The maquette, as it is made, exerting their control during the the point where the idea and its three-dimensional act of making. The designer for production has representation inhabit the world without recourse to relinquished that role, their craft skills instead manufacturing or market limitations, could be said to being applied to embody their intentions prior to encompass the essence of design activity. When you manufacture, particularly through drawing and see somebody in a department store, thoughtfully models. Product design could be done without holding a fork and testing its balance, it is at this point model-making but it is hard to conceive of a single that the consumer’s act of enquiry exactly mirrors project where its infl uence might not be of benefi t. the investigations of the designer.” (1) Even when a model simply confi rms the effi cacy of a preceding drawing, it has done its duty in allowing Through an exhibition at The Aram Gallery in London, a fuller preview of the fi nished product. its curator Daniel Charny expressed a fascination with models and prototypes in their own right: This section examines the uses of maquette and “These objects …hold a rare charm; there’s an model-making and attempts to identify their value. increased closeness to the designer’s imagination, Like the drawing chapter, it is not a “how to” guide and a directness to the making that often changes to techniques but instead studies why and where when manufacturing and marketing forces are fully the process can be of benefi t to the designer. integrated. The objects may be characterised by a technical or material discrepancy, compared to the [1.] - - - fi nal product, due to a lack of access of the designer to Quinn, A and Hearn, K. 2006. THE VALUE OF THE MODEL ‘Blueprint’. December technology at the process stage. It’s a stark contrast to - Models come in many forms and serve many purposes. the current wave of limited editions – which has made [2.] - Charny, D. 2008. Press release They can be the fi nal stage or the starting point of for the unique to be diluted by multiples and for the for exhibition, Prototypes and a project – about capturing a rough impression or production piece to be restrained in order to increase Experiments, the Aram Gallery. the complete picture. They may be real or virtual. the value of singular pieces.” (2) - Like “sketch”, “drawing” and “rendering”, the terms [3.] - Quinn and Hearn have found evidence that the general Quinn, A and Hearn, K. 2006. “maquette”, “model” and “prototype” suggest three shift towards a less making-based culture, exacerbated ‘Blueprint’. December different levels of speed and refi nement, and a gradual - by children growing up with largely screen-based increase in sophistication as the project unfolds. All [4.] - entertainment, is having an effect in design schools. “As Grcic, K. In: Bohm, F. 2005. may be used as tools for process or presentation but, educators of designers we have become increasingly ‘Konstantin Grcic Industrial like drawing, the vital consideration on the part of Design’. London: Phaidon frustrated by the lack of manipulative making skills the designer is “What am I making this model for?” - and tenacity in the physical working in 3D of these or rather “What is it that I am looking to analyse and what effect do I want it to produce?”

Fig. 1 Chair One model-making Konstantin Gcric’s Chair One seen on page 56 was modelled full size in cardboard. These images show the chair’s development from an early model (left) to the fi nal design (right).

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 182 3/9/09 8:28:36 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black potential designers…Our hypothesis is that the spirit 2, page 183). The model requires a pile of magazines to of endeavour in trying to transform the ethereal idea be “sat on”, yet it serves its purpose perfectly. Another into its fi rst rudimentary physical representation is model may do the opposite, testing the strength of the the hidden or forgotten craft of design.” (3) material without labouring over the precise detail of the form. However, despite the decline in skills, most practitioners underline how important model-making A common mistake is to try and jump from early is for designers. “The modelling phase represents the sketches to a fi nal facsimile model that requires fi rst real test for a design”, says Konstantin Grcic. “All considerable effort or expense to make. After the the models [in our studio] are built to full scale, so that money and time have been spent, the result is almost they provide an opportunity to engage with the actual always a piece that contains fundamental fl aws that substance of the design (fi g. 1, page 182).” (4) could have been discovered quickly and inexpensively through sketch modelling. Initial models may trial The products of high-tech industry that Grcic designs vastly different layouts or formats while later take hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of tooling ones often concentrate upon almost imperceptible to produce, yet they have the humblest of origins. differences, such as exploring the precise contouring Many of his models are made from cardboard, wire or of a surface or setting a radius on an edge. anything that will allow for the quick expression of a design. They are not necessarily for showing to clients Material choice will depend upon the focus of the but are primarily for him and his team to move the project and access to equipment. If a key part of the project forward, testing pre-conceived assumptions project is about exploring material properties, and you and pinning down essential information. have access to the material concerned, then naturally, getting hands-on with it will be the fi rst step. However, - - if you are yet to defi ne the fi nal material choice, are MODEL AS SKETCH designing for an involved, time-consuming process (for example ceramic slip casting) or one that you do not For this kind of sketch modelling or maquette making, have access to (such as plastic injection moulding), speed is of the essence. Like drawing, ideas fl ow fast sketch modelling techniques will be benefi cial. fast and a process is required that allows the design Designers co-opt whatever is to hand, but commonly to appear in three dimensions quickly in order to be keep stocks of materials such as paper, card, foam, seen, analysed and another response made. Whereas wire or plaster available in their studios. Ready-made in a fully working prototype all aspects of the design objects can also help leapfrog lengthy modelling must be proven in one model, at the beginning of the processes early in the project. For example, £1 shops process many models may be made that fulfi l only one or their equivalent offer a multiplicity of hollow plastic or two criteria each, but collectively provide all the forms (from plates and bowls to laundry baskets) required information. For example, a model that tests that may be cut up and re-formed, to create parts that proportions and visual appearance may intentionally would otherwise need vacuum forming, a process that ignore criteria such as structural strength. For his often requires time-consuming tool making. It is easy design for a wooden chair, Stefan Diez created a sketch model using a simple ribbon of cardboard and tape (fi g.

Fig. 2 Friday Chair models by Stefan Diez A model need not test all aspects of a design at once. Here, Stefan Diez uses card modelling to quickly explore the chair’s lines, proportions and dimensions, yet these models will not hold a person’s weight without assistance from a pile of magazines.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 183 3/26/09 4:09:43 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black 3. Process to dismiss materials such as card and paper, yet with The same techniques are being adopted by designers 3.6 Drawing 3.7 Maquette and techniques such as layering, cross-halving, skinning wishing to present scenarios as provocations (see 2.12 model-making or using papier-mâché, a broad range of organic Design for debate). forms is also possible. Inexpensive, readily available modelling materials enable designers to work without - - a restricting sense of preciousness; to feel that each RAPID PROTOTYPING model need not be the last, but one of many that, As most design projects evolve, there is a call for through comparison and failure, will help refi ne the models with a higher level of sophistication than is end result. provided by maquettes and sketch models. The various criteria the product must fulfi l eventually need to [5.] - - - be tested in one unifi ed object to ensure they do not Kelley, D. In: Moggridge, B. PROTOTYPING EXPERIENCE 2007. ‘Designing Interactions’. confl ict (the fi nal prototype of Stefan Diez’s Friday Cambridge, MA: MIT Press While designers can use models to personally analyse Chair is shown in fi g. 3, page 184). Such models used - their ideas, they offer the important potential of to be the province of highly skilled craftsmen, but to a allowing other people to experience them. Expanding large extent they have been superseded by the arrival this notion, the model-making process fi nds itself of computerised rapid prototyping techniques. Rapid transcending the boundaries of the singular object and prototyping (RP) is the umbrella term for a number becoming the vehicle to test services. This has given of methods of generating objects from computer fi les rise to some additions to the traditional set of materials created using three-dimensional modelling software. and processes of the design studio. IDEO’s David Kelley RP machines use a variety of processes and materials says of his Stanford D-School students: “We used to with which to build models, all of which work by design objects, and we had machine shops to prototype treating the three-dimensional form as a series of them. We still need machine shops, but if you’re going horizontally-sliced layers. The machines subsequently to design experiences and services, you have to have build these up in the following ways: new prototyping tools to explain to people what it Solidifying liquid resin would be like if we had this new technology. Now (Stereolithography (SLA)) we’re using storytelling. My students are taking improv classes and acting things out. They all know how to use Fusing particles of plastic or metal some kind of quick and dirty video process so they can (Selective laser sintering (SLS) and tell a story; they are becoming cartoonists so they can Electron Beam Melting (EBM)) do quick storyboards.” (5) Solidifying a plaster-like powder using a The techniques of creating sets, props, performances liquid binder through ink-jet print heads and fi lms stretch the skill base of the designer but (3D printing (3DP)) can prove very effective, alongside direct engagement Squirting a directed fl ow of molten with the object. Whichever method is used, prototypes plastic through a nozzle (Fused can become user research tools to establish whether Deposition Modelling (FDM)) a proposed approach is worth developing further. Cutting and laminating layers of heat-bonded paper (Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM))

Fig. 3 Friday Chair fi nal prototype Bent wood is used in the fi nal prototype, replicating the process that would be used to manufacture the chair.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 184 3/9/09 8:28:40 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black The techniques vary greatly in price, possible materials development is the appearance of inexpensive student that can be used and the properties of the models licences and freeware software such as Google’s that emerge (SLA, SLS, EBM and FDM being generally SketchUp that, while crude compared to professional higher end and consequently more expensive than tools, still offers useful basic functionality. 3DP and LOM). As it has advanced, RP technology has [6.] - become able to mimic mass production materials with - - Levien, R. 2008. [Personal increasing precision. Using these techniques, designers COMPUTE WITH CAUTION communication]. 26 March are able to shorten model-making time and get a better - However, just as drawing for design can easily slip into appreciation of the end product before committing a presentation exercise, side-tracking the designer their clients to expensive tooling. In addition, three- away from the analytical process, the computer offers dimensional modelling software is able to carry out a similar trap. It is all too easy to retreat into a self- many calculations such as stress analysis to predict satisfi ed world where every design looks beautiful how manufactured components will physically behave. as it fl oats in a virtual world. Careful consideration This combined with RP technology and product is needed as to whether time is best spent on the renderings have enabled the designer to show clients, in computer or in actual physical modelling that can give ever-greater detail, the results of their process. As less tangible feedback. Even when working towards a rapid and less is left to chance, the designer takes on greater prototype, the computer model seduces in a way that responsibility for the effectiveness or otherwise of the the sketch model does not; therefore, the idea that end product. emerges as being valid from sketch modelling does so With computers opening up these new methods despite, not because of, the polish of its presentation, of form creation, designers and craftspeople are and hence may contain a deeper, more resonant value. beginning to explore the characteristics intrinsic to Despite its increased use, there are drawbacks to RP. the computer as making tool. What was once reserved Relatively few design studios have machines on-site, for prototyping has become a manufacturing method meaning there may be some delay between the in itself. In addition to these RP technologies, the creation and analysis of the model. More importantly computer numerically controlled (CNC) cutting of sheet for ceramics designer Robin Levien, the process materials, solid blocks and the bending of wire has itself contains none of the latent possibilities that emerged as useful tools for prototyping and fabrication. modelling by hand does (6). Although they use Students and practitioners face a bewildering array computer modelling, the designers in his studio are of software programs to allow them access to these all able to make highly accurate hand-carved models technologies. In such a fast-moving market, it would in foam and plaster. The act of carving, like drawing, be dangerous to make recommendations here as they is a cyclical process of expression, interpretation and would soon become outdated, but the safest advice is response. Although designers may be working to be aware of the intended goals (different software towards a predefi ned form, each intermediate step has different advantages – rendering / animation / is an expression that triggers ideas that they are able engineering drawing output / CADCAM (computer- to compare with what they were intending to make. aided design and manufacture)and RP compatibility) These thoughts can offer valuable new directions and consult an academic or practitioner. A recent within a project or starting points for new ones.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 187 3/9/09 8:28:41 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 4.1 4. Context - - - - 4.1 Employment 4.2 Commission EMPLOYMENT CONSIDERING EMPLOYMENT This chapter is concerned with the working Ron Arad, maverick designer and Professor of Design contexts of designers. The assortment of terms Products at the Royal College of Art in London, once that designers use to describe themselves tends declared (mischievously and with pride) that “my not to give clear pictures of defi ned spheres of students are unemployable” (1), meaning not that they activity. What, for example, constitutes the role of a were unfi t for employment but that they had developed “freelance designer?” Do they work alone or within personal agendas, incompatible with entering the a team, for themselves or in a design offi ce, to their corporate establishment. These were postgraduate own agenda or on projects directed by others? students, yet ask most undergraduates studying The answer can be all of these, and the range of design if they want to get a design job on completing fi elds in which their work may end up is broader their courses and the likely response will be “yes”. The still. Instead of attempting to focus the blurred process of postgraduate education quite rightly lays out edges of such terms, it is clearer to defi ne context a critical landscape enabling the student to understand by the way in which the designer is engaged, more fully the nature of their profession and form project-by-project. We can do this with only three opinions on how it ought to change. Healthy though this [1.] - terms. A designer is either employed, has been critical distance is, a perhaps unintended side-effect Arad, R. 2008. ‘Design Products Yearbook’. London: RCA commissioned, or is working speculatively. can be to instil students with a sense of pessimism - towards the possibility of effecting change by working This section therefore discusses the experience of [2.] - within the corporate world. This, combined with media Sottsass, E. In: Bayley, S. and working in-house for corporations, manufacturing hype that increasingly focuses upon designers as Conran, T. 2007. ‘Intelligence fi rms or design consultancies. “Commission” Made Visible’. London: Conran personalities, has resulted in a rise among graduates of examines the notion of operating as an independent Octopus Ltd individualism and the desire to remain self-contained. -designer or building a team under your own control, and looks at the nature of client relationships. Another potential infl uence on this trend could be that “Speculation” looks at the context of working members of the generation of designers who witnessed without a client – with the intention of bringing one the decimation of the manufacturing industry in the UK on board at a later point – or not, choosing instead throughout the 1970s and ’80s, and a lack of interest to engage directly with the public. in their work from what little of it remained, are now teaching. Their responses – turning to designer-maker These contexts are not exclusive career paths. activity or to freelance work in Europe – have been Designers operate across more than one, yet observed by the current generation of students and each project will be rooted somewhere, and this a certain romance has grown up around them. With will affect the specifi c circumstances and the this background, graduate designers are apt to feel range of possibilities it generates. They ought alienated from industry rather than go knocking on its therefore to be seen as different lenses through doors for employment. Ettore Sottsass, a man with which the approaches to design in Chapter 2 would be viewed.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 188 3/26/09 4:09:05 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black extensive experience of corporate employment (with Frustratingly, one of the things a lot of designers Olivetti) and avant-garde activism (with Memphis) once are worst at is recognising what they’re good at, said “industry should not buy culture, industry should and applying these skills in non-traditional ways. be culture” (2), and who, if not designers, are going to Market forces mean that more are looking for unusual be the ones to “cultivate” industry from within? employment opportunities, as they see the extent of the competition in the glamorous product and furniture The premise that fi nding a “design job” is diffi cult design sectors, yet their training usually hasn’t helped depends, in part, upon how narrowly one defi nes the them to be versatile. Many design schools are yet term. As industries died out, the typical in-house to fully embrace the strategic potential of design, designer, using craft-based skills to shape the products sticking to the craft-based model of teaching that of the fi rm, will naturally have been swept away with emerged from the Bauhaus. While both are needed, their departure, but skills have a habit of being adapted design management experts predict that the growth to new contexts by the most observant, and new area will be in designers infl uencing the strategies, ones developed. structures and services, not just the physical products While being aware of the danger of reinforcing of businesses and the public sector. stereotypes and making generalisations, it is [3.] - nonetheless worth ruminating about what designers - - McCullagh, K. 2009. ‘Riding are usually best capable of. Doing so might enable CHANGE FROM WITHIN the Flux: Design is changing us to promote those that were taken for granted and in myriad ways. Are you?’ Ultimately, fi nding meaningful employment is about see which are most suited to being adapted for use [online]. [Accessed 27th fi nding a way for our distinct sets of values to feed January 2009]. Available from in different fi elds. Most are good at breadth – being rather than be eclipsed by an organisation’s culture. For World Wide Web: to being fed. Yet it need not necessarily entirely match - and mapping them. Their creativity relies, in part, our own ethos; it need only avoid too painful a clash. upon their ability to make often random but useful Whether working within a manufacturing industry or a connections between these, spotting opportunities that design consultancy, projects will land on a designer’s others with more blinkered outlooks may miss. They desk that they will not be given the option to refuse. are good at dealing with ambiguity – being faced with Hence, an awareness of the ethical content of likely more than one possible solution. Designers learn to use projects and a sense that there is at least some their intuition, make educated guesses and test the common ideological ground is vital. outcomes. They are, of course, good at making tangible previously intangible thoughts, ideas, concepts and, While it would be unwise to speculate which has obviously, objects. They are good at working within greater social and cultural value – the external constraints and recognising boundaries, while still infl uence of avant-garde voices, or the Trojan Horses being prepared to question them. (3) within organisations – both offer valuable contributions – it is clear that working to effect meaningful change from within is an “active” rather than “passive- aggressive” position. If global corporations, rather

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 189 3/9/09 8:28:42 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 4. Context than individuals, are most immediately able to tackle when fully accepted. Whether working in research or 4.1 Employment 4.2 Commission some of the world’s toughest social divides and on products for impending release, pressure is exerted environmental challenges, being at the boardroom on employees’ ability to communicate effectively on a table, or having the ear of somebody who is, could daily basis. Team working skills are central. Ideas need be far more effective than working externally. to be engagingly and persuasively presented to get various stakeholders on board, to convince managers [4.] - - - to allow particular lines of enquiry, or to allocate Mama, J. 2008. [Personal EXPERIENCING EMPLOYMENT investment to new projects. Like any area of design, communication]. 4 July extra commitment is needed when deadlines draw - Engaging with large corporations, by working in-house, [5.] - near. A 9–5 job it ain’t. ‘Philips website’. 2004–2008. or consulting for them, greatly multiplies the scope [online]. [Accessed 27th and complexity of the projects that designers are able For those working in design research exploring future January 2009]. Available to participate in, compared to acting individually. The directions for business, the results of all this effort go from World Wide Web: trade-off is that while your contribution in itself may be unseen by the outside world, glimpses only appearing -important, it will represent a small portion of the whole years down the line as they fi lter into the products of project. A suppression of ego is therefore required in the day. However, some companies, like Royal Philips handing over ownership of your ideas to the team. The Electronics, do disclose the results of this endeavour designer must be able to glean suffi cient satisfaction to invited opinion leaders, collaborators and the from the knowledge that he or she has played a media, enabling it to enrich and infl uence the current contributory rather than leading role in the project, market. Jack Mama, Creative Director at Philips Design and that these contributions lead to products that currently working on the Probes Programme, gives an may be enjoyed by many people. example of how the company’s New Nomads projects about wearable technology led to collaborations with Personal independence offers a seductive alternative, Levi’s and Nike that resulted in products that hit the yet the individualists occasionally give the sense that high street. “We’re there to provoke the company they believe working within a corporate design team to think about new business opportunities”, he says. is a safe and unchallenging option: a place to hide “Although we are informed about technologies, we start rather than to make a difference. Such conclusions are with looking at sociocultural trends. We start with comprehensible if derived from looking only at products people. It’s about trying to anticipate what people’s rather than having knowledge of the reality of the lives are going to be like in the future based on what the work behind them. Many corporations that would be research says the economic, social, cultural, political judged as conservative by their product output have and environmental concerns will be.” (4) Research extensive design research facilities where working life environments, design consultancies and manufacturers is anything but mundane. The challenges differ from working across product genres offer a diverse range working independently, but are nonetheless demanding of projects for their designers to get involved in, puncturing another myth that employment means designing the same product over and over.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 190 3/9/09 8:28:42 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black Although there are relatively few organisations that to frequently form their design directions by hashing support internal research to the extent that Philips together seasonal trends from magazine cuttings does – employing a permanent team on projects instead of setting their own agendas that embody that look forward 20 years into the future (5) – the discernible values. fact that they exist at all ought to help dispel another It is also not uncommon for those who fi nd work in deep-rooted myth: that employment excludes the creative industries to discover a soul-destroying opportunities for provocative, conceptual design. hierarchy that reserves the creative aspects of projects While this may be true in the majority of fi rms for those who have “served their time”. All design where the focus is restricted to products for current involves “the perspiration part” that is not to be shied marketability, departments for research and strategy away from. However, making this the sole preserve provide exceptions. of new recruits shows extreme short-sightedness from bosses who miss out on harnessing “untainted” - - creativity. The “naïve” questioning of entrenched HOME TRUTHS methods that fresh minds bring is often precisely It is also tempting to be drawn into the notion that what is needed to open up new creative directions. corporate structures offer high job security. While Experience, it could be argued, is more desirable at the overall risks may be lower than working in a the delivery stage. consultancy (where they must bring in new work to Allied to this, a pernicious practice of non-payment for stay afl oat) or as an individual freelancer (where you internships (work experience) prevails and conspires must bring in new work), design services, particularly to make young designers dramatically undervalue their research, are often the fi rst to experience cuts when labour. While they may be prepared to work for free in recession strikes. Arguing “the case for design” to exchange for what they hope will be valuable insights others within the corporate hierarchy may well become into the workings of the industry and a well-known an intrinsic part of the job. name on the CV, employers who make this trade need In doing so, it is not unheard of to fi nd employers with to consider carefully the experience that will be a limited and, occasionally, warped sense of what provided. What other professions are able to get a designer does. Just as common ground regarding away with the custom that the employee’s presence ethos is important, so is a basic level of respect for is a luxury they themselves should subsidise? the activity of design itself. Firms regularly advertise However, if instead both parties look at experience as for designers when the positions they wish to fi ll are encompassing the full range of skills a designer may not creative ones, involving only the manual labour possess (as described above) rather than focusing associated with design. One graduate told of an solely upon computer software aptitude or years interview for a junior design position with a lighting chalked up working elsewhere – a model that places fi rm, in which it was explained that the role would not most graduates on the bottom rung – both are likely involve designing lamps, but rather to produce technical to enrich their partnership. drawings derived from camera-phone pictures of lamps taken in high street stores. Even companies that are - - more scrupulous than blatantly to copy are known

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 191 3/9/09 8:28:42 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 4.2 4. Context - - that: “The entire history of painting after, say, 1830 4.1 Employment 4.2 Commission COMMISSION can be understood in terms of the dilemma faced by 4.3 Speculation painters: whether to be society”s picture makers or This section looks at the circumstances of being to be misunderstood visionaries.” Bayley tells us that: assigned work by a client, either as an individual “Dostoyevsky described this as the choice between or heading up a team. There is, therefore, lofty suffering and cheap happiness” (2). Under this some crossover with the context of the design new broader defi nition, designers now face a similar consultancy, where external clients “commission” choice (although the suffering may be somewhat less the fi rm to undertake projects, but here we consider harsh than in 1830). The options between forming and this scenario from the perspective of the individual following a personal ideology still exist– making money in charge rather than the employee. It examines at the points where it happens to intersect with market independence as a means of enabling choices of demand – or consciously seeking out that demand and who to work for and how to engage with them. working to fulfi l it. Of course, the degree to which one can be said to have “sold out” has a lot to do with the [1.] - - - nobility of the demand that one chooses to serve, not to Woodgate, T. 2007. [Personal THE CHOICE OF INDEPENDENCE communication]. 17 December mention who is doing the demanding. It’s hard to shake - “There is a certain joy to being the master of your own off the perception that “you are who you work for”. The [2.] - Bayley, S. 2000. ‘General destiny”, says designer Terence Woodgate, “I just do principles of client and customer tend to rub off, even if Knowledge’. London: Booth- projects that I want to do, for the people I want to designers’ work attempts to confront them. Clibborn Editions do them for.” (1) Woodgate is one of many who choose - to plough their own furrow in the world of product - - design. Considering that the frequency of decisions TYPES OF COMMISSION regarding what projects to take on as an independent The range of work for which product designers may be designer is greater than the frequency at which those commissioned is vast, and hence there is a necessity in employment change jobs, it is safe to argue that the for them to defi ne areas of aptitude, if not specialism. former has greater control over the work they choose What are the skills and services being tendered and to pursue. The amount of infl uence they have therein, on what terms? Are designers prepared to “plug however, may differ dramatically. in” to projects being run by others – freelancing for Whereas the very title “designer” used to identify companies or consultancies (in effect, undertaking somebody who collaborates with clients and industry, short-term employment) – or is the idea to be at the those with critical voices who do not insist that helm? While there are those who go it alone from the they also have a rightful claim to the term, and start, there is a long-established model of others who are forcing the revision of this defi nition. Design “cut their teeth” in employment, observing, learning and historian and journalist Stephen Bayley proposes subsequently leaving to set up shop, occasionally taking as many clients with them as they can.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 192 3/26/09 4:08:34 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black The situation whereby the product or industrial with are changing. This is the way I used to think of designer establishes a strong, discursive relationship the world: businesses produced, people consumed, with a client that leads through a process of close governments regulated and NGOs [non-governmental collaboration until the release of the product is, to organisations] advocated…Now we are in a much many, the most rewarding path to pursue. more interdependent world where people are both creating and consuming, NGOs are funding businesses, However, other models of “offer” have augmented this, businesses are funding NGOs and governments are such as providing a menu of services, which may or investing in NGOs. It’s incredibly more complex than it may not include the design of a product (brand analysis, used to be. One result of that is that all kinds of new trend forecasting, lifecycle analysis, market research, participants and entrepreneurs have emerged…We need ethnographic (user) studies and so on). to evolve. We can’t necessarily rely on the processes Alongside these come more making-based models we’d developed before.” (3) of work, where the designer is responsible for both Brown is not the only voice suggesting that designers the design and production of one-offs or batches of broaden their horizons for their own good. Kevin objects. Here the designer may have a more or less McCullagh, head of product strategy company, Plan, “hands-on” aproach, either literally getting involved and a former director at industrial designers Seymour with the making of objects, or contracting it out to third Powell, describes a bleak outlook for those who parties. Alongside traditional designer-maker activity, focus solely upon designing objects: “Globalization the recently emerging fi eld of “design-art” occupies has reduced the number of manufacturers to a small this ground, with galleries commissioning designers to number of behemoths, and multiplied the number of [3.] - produce extraordinary objects at extraordinary prices. designers pitching for jobs. The era of product design Brown, T. (CEO of global design Similarly, many product designers, including some consultancy IDEO) speaking at as practiced by a small band of gurus in Milan, London, of the most renowned, have, as a core part of their Intersections conference, The Munich and New York is long gone. There are now Baltic Centre, Gateshead, 25 business, undertaken the design and construction thousands of competent product designers around October 2007 of exhibitions and trade fair stands, overseeing the - the world able to give good form. Design as ‘styling’ or sub-contracting of components and project managing [4. 5.] - ‘form-giving’ has become commoditized, and competing McCullagh, K. 2009. ‘Riding their installation. the Flux: Design is changing at this level is already a tough, low-margin slog… If we in myriad ways. Are you?’ As mentioned in the last section, designers are being shed the blinkers and see the world differently there [online]. [Accessed 27th encouraged to see their skills as transferable and look are many positive shifts, like the mainstreaming of January 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: for ways in which they can be applied in non-traditional design in business and the public sector, which offer means developing an awareness of emerging markets of design.” (4) - for their talents. Tim Brown from IDEO has noted that As China up-skills, a portion of its workforce is training the commissioners are no longer who you might expect: as designers. Already, those who have established “The people we are working for and are designing themselves are able to dramatically undercut Western design businesses. McCullagh recalls:

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 193 3/9/09 8:28:42 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 4. Context “A Shanghai-based designer paid me the backhanded deal with an external, independent designer. If all goes 4.1 Employment 4.2 Commission compliment, ‘Your work is very good, but we do nearly well, a chance to assess compatibility will be set up, 4.3 Speculation as good for a tenth of the price!’” (5) While the objects which could be anything from an informal chat down themselves may be the central point of interest for the pub to an intense show-and-tell of past work. Part many product designers and the idea of branching of this process of investigating a possible working out, unappealing, they at least need to consider what relationship, beyond establishing mutual respect, will will make their designs have more value than those of be to ensure mutual understanding of the designer’s, their competitors. Perhaps they will embody a more and indeed the client’s, role in any ensuing project. acute understanding of the market, or can be delivered The same applies if the company has approached the through a supply chain of exemplary quality and designer. Both must reach a clear understanding of provenance. Whatever the method of differentiation, why the other wishes to work with them and what it is the product designer of today is going to have to work they believe the other has to offer. Many projects break much harder to fi nd and maintain their niche than in down at a later stage when differences in expectation years gone by. come to the surface. Was the client primarily after a famous name, a house style, a pair of hands to direct, [6.] - - - or do they see in the designer’s thinking something that Mari, E. In: Burkhardt, F., THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT chimes with their own? Regrettably, the kinds of robust Capella, J., Picchi F. 1997. conversations that uncover such things can be tough ‘Why Write a Book on Enzo On top of these global business challenges, the designer Mari?’ Milan: Frederico Motta to initiate and hence do not always take place. Yet they starting out as an independent without prior experience Editore should be an intrinsic part of any project. “Design is - faces a bewildering array of variables and the “rules always a two-way process, the result of a dialogue [7.] - of engagement” are often unclear. Hammering home Grcic, K. In: Bohm, F. 2005. between the designer and the person commissioning the need for these to be thoroughly discussed and ‘Konstantin Grcic Industrial the work”, says Konstantin Grcic. “It’s like a game Design’. London: Phaidon understood, Enzo Mari once declared that “95 percent of ping-pong: an exchange of knowledge, ideas and - of the project is words.” (6) The very fi rst ones – those [8.] - arguments, which only becomes exciting when both with which the designer must interest the client – are Woodgate, T. 2007. [Personal parties are equally strong players.” (7) communication]. 17 December the fi rst hurdle and can be among the most diffi cult. - The problem with the rules of engagement is that Particularly diffi cult to establish prior to the design [9.] - Hecht, S. 2008. [Personal they are fl uid: different cultures, product sectors process getting underway is the extent to which the communication]. 24 January and companies have different protocols for engaging client feels they may impinge upon the designer’s craft. - with designers, different expectations of deliverables, “Once, early in my career, I let a client move my pen [10.] - Berge, S. 2007. [Personal different methods of paymentand so on. The fi rst step for me,” recalls Terence Woodgate, “and I swore I communication]. 11 December is to fi nd out how (and if) the client company wants to would never let that happen again. They can give me - constructive criticism on why something won’t work, and ask me to go back and reconsider. And I’m

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 194 4/8/09 12:38:34 PM CD409-34/4028 2ND PROOF Black quite happy to do that. [But the design] has to please Once the territory of the project has been determined, me in every way, shape or form, use of material, the the forms in which it will be delivered can be discussed. production, the ethical issues…you have to be guided by Again expectations often vary, not least regarding the your principles.” (8) Woodgate knows as well as anyone number of alternatives that the designer ordinarily that design is about fulfi lling constraints, but he is also presents. Is it the designer’s duty to give the client keenly aware that the designer must be given space a selection of product concepts or should it be their to do what he does best. Sam Hecht sheds additional role to synthesise the problem well enough so that light on the situation by offering that: “The difference one solution stands out? The context of the individual between a constraint and a compromise is in when the project will produce different requirements, but it information is given”, (9) explaining that, if provided is perhaps worth proposing a rule of thumb. To the early on, it forms part of the design brief (a constraint) unenlightened client, volume of ideas represents good and it is therefore the designer’s duty to accommodate value. Yet the best designers will fi lter out, through it. If the client suggests a change, it risks unbalancing experience and elimination, the ideas that do not fi t, a concept tailored to the initial requirements and and have no wish to let the client pick from among resulting in a compromise. them. On this point, Milan-based designer Perry King explains that the dialogue and consequent The design process takes as much or as little time understanding of the problem from both parties prior as its protagonists feel necessary – from a scribbled to the presentation of any ideas meant that when the sketch on a napkin to years of full-time commitment. (singular) idea was presented, the client knew it was Settling upon the scope of the project is key. A watch the right one. It is therefore the designer’s role to manufacturer might work with a designer on the future communicate effectively the rigorous process that they direction of their product ranges right down to the have gone through, and to illustrate that all the points effect of a fraction of a millimetre difference in the raised during consultation have been addressed. radius running round the bezel of one of their watches. Being clear about the areas in which their expertise is An analogy may be made to the clothes retailer and the being sought is essential. Some designers argue that tailor. The tailor discusses your requirements at length, it is their duty to challenge the boundaries of the brief, getting to know your preferences and needs and only especially when clients appear to have conservative suggests fabrics and cuts that are right for you. Having goals. However, wilfully delivering solutions beyond the identifi ed these, he will present one garment, but scope of the client, no matter how innovative, is to fail with the understanding that a fi tting will take place them. “You can always fi nd a creative angle to whatever to allow modifi cations. The retailer lines up choices you are doing”, advises Sebastian Bergne. “You have to in the hope of covering a range of tastes, but these identify where the room for movement is, and within rarely fi t as precisely as the tailored garment. One is that space, how far you can go; what you propose will a time-consuming and, hopefully, rewarding process be accepted.” (10) for both parties. The other is a gamble that may or may not pay off. It is worth remembering that the

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 195 3/9/09 8:28:43 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black 4. Context way a product idea is presented can be fundamental In the case of working with product manufacturers and 4.1 Employment 4.2 Commission to how well it is received. Hence, the same idea, distributors, another key contrast occurs in the extent 4.3 Speculation dismissed when presented on-screen in an email, may to which the client has the capacity to undertake parts be welcomed when presented in person supported by a of the development process themselves. It must be verbal rationale of its context along with drawings and established in early meetings, whether the designer a model. is charged with defi ning the object in relation to the subcontracting of manufacture or if they must respond Aware of the competitive nature of the profession, to specifi c existing facilities. Either way, they must some of the more sought-after clients have changed determine where their role ends and the company’s their practices. Rather than building deep-tailored begins – a sketch, a model, a technical drawing, a relationships with designers they know and respect, CAD model, or drawings of tooling for manufacture? some have resorted to a pitching process where Companies with in-house engineering designers will designers are encouraged to send in speculative ideas. be able to take drawings and models and cover the Like spoiled children, the most oversubscribed fi rms are necessary engineering of the production process instantly gratifi ed by picking from the many projects themselves. If this becomes part of the external pitched to them every week. Yet with each piece of designer’s role, it can represent a considerable increase work receiving such scant attention – most being sent in the amount of technical knowledge required to by email rather than presented in person – there is complete the project. insuffi cient time for the designer to explain any depth of meaning and the process becomes dangerously [11.] - - - similar to that of a beauty contest. Bierut, M. 2007. ‘79 Short THE MYTH OF THE PERFECT CLIENT Essays on Design’. New York: While many young designers are happy to spend time Princeton Architectural Press Designers are forever moaning about clients who -on such work, the “hit rate” is extremely low and appear to take no interest in the fi ner points of what encourages a scattergun approach. Designers who they are trying to achieve, focusing only on the bottom work this way – detached from clients, fi ring product line. They long for enlightened clients to whom they ideas at them “on spec” – may be able to predict some feel they can relate. Yet as Michael Bierut points out of the company’s requirements based on existing (11), these “perfect clients” have at their helm, or in ranges, but they cannot know their plans for the future. positions of power, individuals with a personal passion For the businesses concerned, it is a way to shortcut for design that they choose to bring to work. This is, the payment of fees for ideas development, which Bierut says, the kind of passion that one might have for designers must try to offset through other income. wine or music, and it becomes company strategy as Ultimately, designers have a choice as to whether opposed to emerging from it. Furniture magnates Giulio to take part in such a process or instead attempt to establish more meaningful links from the start. What is more important is that once any selection process is out of the way, the relationship is allowed to deepen so the project can be developed harmoniously, rather than at arm’s length.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 196 3/26/09 4:08:04 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black Cappellini, Eugenio Perraza of Magis, Rolf Felbaum of Vitra, and, of course, Steve Jobs of Apple, are the most well-known examples of the company director immersed in the concerns of his designers. The output of all four fi rms typifi es innovation and it is through this commitment that they have become the most respected names in modern design. These extremely rare and special cases are held up as the standards to which designers should aspire. Looking at the issue another way, it can be argued that designers shouldn’t expect manufacturers to have the same level of interest, enthusiasm or knowledge about design as they do. After all, a plumber wouldn’t expect a householder to be interested in the fi ner points of u-bend specifi cation. However, it is perhaps not too much to expect the client to engage with why the job needs doing, what a good (as opposed to mediocre) result will achieve and how this will be recognised.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 197 3/9/09 8:28:43 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 4.3 4. Context - - design for a lampshade made from acid-etched 4.2 Commission 4.3 Speculation SPECULATION stainless steel (fi g. 1, page 198). Bergne could order batches of the piece, their fl at-pack design enabling Designers work speculatively for a diverse set of them to be easily posted. reasons, the most obvious being simply for the pleasure of it. Although focused by constraints and As well as acting as a stop-gap between client projects, deadlines, the creative mind need not require a self-production can be an effective means of promotion, client brief to propel it into action. Indeed, for those a “business card” that gives weight to graduate normally in search of one, the lack of a brief can folios that may otherwise be stocked with unrealised be the impetus to set their own. Competitions offer concepts. By exploring available manufacturing other starting points (although with some asking for technologies speculatively, experience can be gained a large amount of work, the time investment needs that is usefully transferable to later client projects. careful consideration). What starts on a whim or as a “pet project” may be shown to a client at a later - - stage, once the designer has satisfi ed himself that it PRODUCTION ON THE EDGE has potential. Like panning for gold, for some there Some may argue that this designer-maker activity is is the hope that one day they will “strike it lucky” more akin to craft, and yet it is discussed here because when one of their ideas is adopted by an industry it is a route that many product designers are taking in in exchange for a lucrative royalty contract. Outside order to get their ideas to the market. It is particularly of this there are a number of contexts in which common when the product in question does not fi t maintaining complete independence from industry the conventional rules of the market, yet the designer is considered desirable and still others where it believes it will be well received. Constantin and Laurene is inevitable. Leon Boym followed this line of thought when they Speculative work is rarely all a designer does. If well started their in-house label, Handy. Their Buildings of received, a project is likely to lead to commission Disaster series (fi g. 2, page 199) – small bronze models or employment. Otherwise, it may intentionally be of buildings that had befallen a natural disaster or maintained alongside more commercial practice become major crime scenes, intended not to celebrate, as an outlet for particular expressions. but as cathartic reminders – were controversial enough for the Boyms to recognise immediately that [1.] - - - they would have to produce the pieces themselves. Bergne, S. 2007. [Personal IN LIEU OF A CLIENT “The bottom line for Handy is that the project should communication]. 11 December be crazy enough so that it’s useless to approach any -“When you start out…you’re just happy to do anything [2.] - manufacturer with it”, says Constantin Boym. “The that comes along,” says Sebastian Bergne, “and if things Boym, C. In: Hall, P. 2002. Buildings of Disaster, for example, would be kicked ‘Curious Boym’. New York: don’t come along you tend to make up projects using out of the door by a manufacturer.”(2) Princeton Architectural Press technologies that are accessible, with low investment.” - (1) [3.] - Bergne, who now runs a successful design offi ce Daniel Weil, now a partner in multinational consultancy Sans, M. 2008. [Personal covering industrial design, furniture and accessories, Pentagram, designed and made a series of radios communication]. 24 June achieved early success with just such a project – a after leaving college in the 1980s. Intrigued by - [4.] - the postmodern theories being applied in Italy at David Report, Issue 7 June 2007, -

Fig. 1 Lampshade by Sebastian Bergne manufactured by Radius Gmbh Bergne’s acid-etched clip-on lampshade can be inverted to provide direct or indirect lighting. As a one- piece, single-process product, it allowed its designer to begin production cost-effectively.

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 198 3/26/09 4:07:23 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black the time, Weil used the radios as a means of exploring auctioneer Alexander Payne of the Phillips de Pury an alternative product language and lampooning chain of auction houses, has come to describe one-off British middle-class taste (fi g. 3, page 200 and fi g. 4, or limited edition works by designers for galleries, page 201). art fairs and the auction market. Whereas the price of designer-maker editions, with the exception of a Products like Weil’s radios and the Boyms’s Buildings of handful of star names, remains within bounds, Design- Disaster show that there is a role for designer-makers Art has established its own territory where prices have in fi lling niches considered dangerous or insuffi ciently been pushed up to those associated with (if not quite profi table by mainstream industry, and in doing so that of the Grand Masters), artwork of considerable spicing up the often bland range of products available pedigree. Marc Newson’s Lockheed Lounge chaise- to us. Although neither of these examples sold in vast longue, for example, allegedly sold for just under $1m. quantities – this was not their aim – in producing them Characterised by Swedish design entrepreneur David in series they take on the gravitas of “real” products Carlson in his infl uential David Report as “Vulgarism as opposed to concepts that remain out of reach. for the Nouveau-super-riche” (4), the design world is Despite their expense (and consequent cult status) split between those prepared to embrace this new this availability ensured greater interest from both development and others, like Carlson, who see it as a press and public alike. dangerous distraction from design’s more worthy goals. The wilful rejection of industrial collaboration opens Of course, this is not the fi rst time that designers have up the conceptual space that Boym, Weil and many been accused of fi nancial elitism. When it happened others have entered. It allows for speculation as previously, such as with the design group, Memphis, deviancy – a chance to pervert the norms of client in the 1980s, some dodged criticism by ensuring the projects. Michael Sans refl ects that “this kind of work work had a clear intellectual rationale. Despite doing happens because designers don’t have clients. so through exclusive design objects, in challenging Perhaps there is bitterness which manifests itself modernism’s blandness and intellectual elitism the in dark humour.” (3) For German-born Sans, his work of Ettore Sottsass and his cohorts placated many controversial work redesigning bullets and using who might otherwise have lambasted it. To many, the taxidermy in domestic products is about rebelling rationale behind the work of the latest band of Design- against the typical strictness expected of German Artists, such as Studio Job, Marcel Wanders and Jaime designers, while providing an ironic take on design and Hayon, is less comprehensible. a chance to have fun.

- - - - ACADEMIA DESIGN-ART Design education is, by its nature, a speculative space. Designer-maker editions can often prove fi nancially However, in attempting to prepare students for work unsustainable due to the high manufacturing costs of in industry by emulating its contexts, the full freedom small batches and the low number of people prepared of this space becomes constrained. While some to invest in these special objects. However, a small courses encourage the plurality of approaches this branch of the practice has morphed into what has book illustrates, the narrow industrial orientation of become known as “Design-Art”. The term, coined by others channels them towards serving, rather than

Fig. 2 Federal Building, Oklahoma City from the Buildings of Disaster series by Constantin and Laurene Boym Self production has allowed designers such as the Boyms to deal with sensitive subject matter likely to deter most clients. Their Buildings of Disaster series aims to aid remembrance rather than celebration, of the tragedies that had befallen the locations they depict.

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 199 3/26/09 4:06:57 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black 4. Context challenging, the status quo. A pretence is maintained commercial design projects. However, design research 4.2 Commission 4.3 Speculation that the circumstances of industry can be accurately work that does not need to bring an immediate return re-created within academia. Yet beyond so-called “live” is vital. Just as chemistry explores the effects of projects, students rarely encounter a “real” client and, substances independently from the search for cures though tutors try to predict appropriate responses, (chemistry’s equivalent of the design brief), design mismatches are inevitable. Tutors, many being research can investigate the nature of materials, designers themselves, are aware of many different processes, forms and behaviour outside of the brief potential outcomes. They are torn between advocating of applying these to objects. Despite the fi nancial creativity and compliance with conventional thinking in pressures, some quarters of industry do regularly the form of industrial constraints. Clients are liable to undertake research outside of the design process, be more dispassionate, looking at proposals and seeing which turns up invaluable discoveries that spark if they fi t their needs. new projects and feed our culture. In the light of this, design courses could do worse than - - polarise their projects into those that are genuinely THE CONSCIENCE OF DESIGN “live” and those that use the speculative space available to explore specifi c issues without recourse to pseudo- Led by the need to give shareholders a return on industrial constraints. their investment, many buisnesses have no in-built incentive to behave philanthropically. The design As many reading this will be aware, the structure of that it commissions must fi rst and foremost serve most undergraduate degree courses in product or this fi nancial bottom line and the compromises this three-dimensional design is broadly similar, with much presents diminish the potential of many products. or all of the fi rst two years spent learning skills within As we have seen, this background has motivated brief-led projects and the third, self-directed. This some designers to avoid the pressures and dogmas requires students to be capable of setting themselves of entrenched business and marketing methodologies a worthwhile project in the fi nal year that has a clearly and go in search of more vibrant and humane understood context, a subject that they are passionate alternatives. Speculative work, although constrained about, and that is of a scope that can realistically by individual circumstances, offers the opportunity for be brought to a conclusion. The choice of what to a truly independent voice – for designers to express investigate can be seen as an indication of the concerns their values through the design of objects, either as of those students. Sadly, too few appear to engage with optimistic presentations of what they ideally want or the issues and challenges facing design and the world as cautionary tales of where we might be heading. A beyond, instead retreating into introspective projects mature understanding of today’s design culture must that investigate little beyond their own self-interest embrace the fact that design has transcended its roots in specifi c objects. as a service industry and has expanded to become a tool for independently expressing personal and - - political standpoints. Speculative work is therefore the RESEARCH conscience of design and may be seen as a barometer Rigorous practice-based design research is rarely of the prevailing concerns of designers. possible within the time and fi nancial constraints of - -

Fig. 3 Radio in a Plastic Bag by Daniel Weil Weil’s radios were curious, quirky objects likely to baffl e manufacturers yet demonstrated insights such as the desire for transparency, that would later become mainstream. This example sets the components as a graphic composition inside a clear plastic bag.

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Fig. 4 Small Door radio by Daniel Weil Weil argued that it was only tradition that boxed up radios and restricted their visual language. This response places the components in a cage behind a door and covers the speaker with chintz fabric, alluding to the backward-looking tastes of middle class Britain.

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- 5.1 Bibliography 204 - 5.2 Picture credits 206 - 5.3 Acknowledgements 208

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 203 3/9/09 8:28:49 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 5.1 5. Sources - - Gershenfeld, N. 2005. ‘FAB: Ramakers, R. and Bakker, G. 5.1 Bibliography The Coming Revolution on (eds). 1998. ‘Droog Design: 5.2 Picture credits BIBLIOGRAPHY Burkhardt, F., Capella, J., Picchi your desktop-from personal Spirit of the nineties’. F. 1997. ‘Why Write a Book on computers to personal Rotterdam: 010 Publishers The following list gives Enzo Mari?’ Milan: Frederico fabrication’. New York: a selection only of the Motta Editore Basic Books Redhead, D. 2000. ‘Products works consulted. For more of Our Time’. Basel: Birkhäuser information, see individual Chapman, J. 2005. ‘Emotionally Hecht, S. and Colin, K. 2005. margin notes. Durable Design: Objects, ‘Product as Landscape’. London: Smith, C. 2008. ‘Design for Experiences and Empathy’. Industrial Facility the Other 90%’. New York: Ambasz, E. 1972. Italy: the London: Earthscan Cooper Hewitt National Design Hecht, S. and Colin, K. 2003. Museum New Domestic Landscape’. Cummings, N. (ed.) 2003. New York: MOMA ‘Things That Go Unseen’. ‘Reading Things’. London: London: Industrial Facility Sudjic, D. 1989. ‘Ron Arad: Antonelli, P., Aldersey- Chance Books Restless Furniture’. New York: Heskett, J. 1980. ‘Industrial Forth Estate/Wordsearch Williams, H., Hall, P., Sargent, Dormer, P. 1990. ‘The Meanings T. 2008. ‘Design and The Elastic Design’. Oxford: Oxford of Modern Design’. London: University Press Thackara, J. 2005. ‘In the Mind’. New York: MOMA Thames & Hudson bubble: designing in a complex Bakker, C. and van Hinte, E. Jencks, S. and Silver, N. 1973. world’. Cambridge, MA: Dunne, A. 1999. ‘Hertzian Tales: ‘Adhocism – The Case for MIT Press 1999. ‘Trespassers’. Rotterdam: Electronic products, aesthetic 010 Publishers Improvisation’. New York: experience and critical design.’ Anchor Books Van Hinte, E. (ed.) 1997. Ball, R. and Naylor, M. 2005. London: RCA Computer Related ‘Eternally Yours – Visions on ’Form Follows Idea: An Design Research Julier, G. 2000. ‘The Culture Product Endurance’. Rotterdam: Introduction to Design Poetics’. of Design’. London: Sage 010 Publishers Dunne, A. and Raby, R. 2001. Publications London: Black Dog ‘Design Noir: The Secret Life von Vegesack, A. 1996. ‘Thonet: Barrow, J.D. 1997. ‘The Artful of Electronic Objects’. Basel: Lidwell, W, Holden, K, Butler, Classic Furniture in Bent Wood Universe: The Artful Universe’. Birkhäuser J. 2003. ‘Universal Principles and Tubular Steel’. London: London: Penguin Books of Design’. Gloucester, MA: Hazar Publishing Ltd Dreyfuss, H. 1955. ‘Designing Rockport Publishers Inc. Barthes, R. 1957. ‘Mythologies’. for People’. New York: Simon Williams, G. 2006. ‘The Paris: Editions du Seuil and Schuster Moggridge, B. 2007. ‘Designing Furniture Machine: Furniture Interactions’. Cambridge, MA: Since 1990’. London: V&A Bayley, S. and Conran, T. 2007. Gaver, W. ‘The Curious Home’. MIT Press Publications ‘Intelligence Made Visible’. 2007. Goldsmiths University of London: Conran Octopus Ltd London Morrison, J. 2002. ‘Everything but the Walls’. Baden: Lars Bayley, S. 2000. ‘General Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. 2001. Muller Publishers Knowledge’. London: Booth ‘Designing the 21st Century’. Clibborn Editions Colgne: Taschen Norman, D. 2002. ‘The Design of Everyday Things’. New York: Bierut, M. 2007. ‘79 Short Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. 2007. Basic Books Essays on Design’. New York: ‘Design Now’. Cologne: Taschen Princeton Architectural Press Papanek, V. 1970. ‘Design for Fletcher, A. 2001. ‘The Art the Real World: Human Ecology Bohm, F. 2005. ‘Konstantin of Looking Sideways’. London: and Social Change’. New York: Grcic Industrial Design’. Phaidon Pantheon Books London: Phaidon Flusser, V. 1999. ‘The Shape of Pipes, A. 2007. ‘Drawing for Bovier L. 2003. ‘ECAL Design Things: A philosophy of design’. Designers’. London: Lawrence Industriel / Industrial Design’. London: Reaktion Books King Lausanne: ECAL Forty, A. 1995. ‘Objects of Polano, S. 2001. ‘Achille Boym, C. 2002. ‘Curious Desire’. London: Thames & Castiglioni’. London: Phaidon Boym’. New York: Princeton Hudson Architectural Press Potter, N. 2002. ‘What is a Fukasawa, N. 2007. ‘Naoto designer?’ London: Hyphen Braungart, M. and McDonough, Fukasawa’. Phaidon Press Press W. 2002. ‘Cradle to Cradle: Gaver, W. 2007. ‘The Curious Remaking the Way We Make Pye, D. 1978. ‘The Nature and Home.’ London: Goldsmiths, Aesthetics of Design’. London: Things’. New York: North University of London Point Press A & C Black Bürdek, B. 2005. ‘Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design’. Basel: Birkhäuser

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 205 3/9/09 8:28:49 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 5.2 5. Sources - - P43, fi g. 15 Collection of P67, fi g. 10 Courtesy of Sam 5.1 Bibliography Cranbrook Art Museum, Hecht/Industrial Facility 5.2 Picture credits PICTURE CREDITS P24, fi g. 1 Mods on scooters. Bloomfi eld Hills, Michigan. 5.3 Acknowledgements 31st March 1964: Mods on With thanks to Lisa Krohn P67, fi g. 11 Courtesy of Sam Introduction scooters at Clacton. (Photo by Hecht/Industrial Facility P8, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Dyson Ltd Terry Disney/Express/Getty P44, fi g. 16 Design: Sander Images) Photograph © 2007 Mulder; Photography: Niels P68, fi g. 12 Plusminuszero/A4 P8, fi g. 2 Image courtesy of Getty Images van Veen, Sander Mulder light Photo by Hidetoyo Sasaki, Ron Arad Associates courtesy of Naoto Fukasawa P25, fi g. 2 Rockers, British P44, fi g. 17 Photograph by Design P9, fi g. 3 Courtesy of Infl ate youths into scruffy clothes, Patrick Gries, courtesy of P68, fi g. 13 Photograph by P9, fi g. 4 Client: IKEA, motorcyles and leather, tearing Matali Crasset along road in convoy. (Photo Tim Parsons Advertising Agency: P45, fi g. 18 Courtesy of Kamarama, Campaign: Van by Terrence Spencer//Time P69, fi g. 14 Courtesy of Zanotta Life Pictures/Getty Images) Established & Sons and den Puup, Photograper: Henrik Zaha Hadid Architects SpA - Italy/Studio Museo Halvarsson. With thanks to Photograph © Terrence Achille Castiglioni Curtis Brown. Spencer, courtesy of Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images 02 Motivation P70, fi g. 15 Photograph by P10, fi g. 5 Courtesy of Inga P52, fi g. 1 Image © Kodak Angus Mills, courtesy of Knoelke P26, fi g. 3 Courtesy of Freeplay Martino Gamper Energy P52, fi g. 2 Image © Kodak P11, fi g. 6 Courtesy of Morrison P53, fi g. 3 Image © Paul P71, fi g. 16 Courtesy of KGID Studio, Walter Gumiero/Magis P26, fi g. 4 Courtesy of Freeplay offi ce Energy Linnell Photo: Jon Linnell P72, fi g. 17 Photograph by P27, fi g. 5 Image © Olinchuck SHOW 2004 “HAPTIC”/Juice P54, fi g. 4 A map of the Paris Tim Parsons skin. Photo by Masayoshi P27, fi g. 6 Anna G corkscrew. metro at Bastille station, Hichiwa/(hue amana group), P72, fi g. 18 UNITED STATES - Design Alessandro Mendini, circa 1950. In the foreground DECEMBER 12: Bands of light courtesy of Naoto Fukasawa Alessi S.p.A. is an art-nouveau entourage Design wrap the Guggenheim Museum designed by Hector Guimard. at night, New York, New York P29, fi g. 7 Photograph by (Photo by Gabriel Hackett/ P12, fi g. 8 Courtesy of Tim Parsons (Photo by Bates Littlehales/ Edward Goodwin and Richard Hulton Archive/Getty Images) National Geographic/Getty Hartshorn P31, fi g. 8 Photographs by P54, fi g. 5 DIGITAL IMAGE © Images) David Sykes, courtesy of Zaha 2008, The Museum of Modern P13, fi g. 9 Courtesy of Dunne Hadid Architects P72, fi g. 19 Muji/CD player and Raby Art, New York/Scala, Florence Photo by Hidetoyo Sasaki, P32, fi g. 1 DIGITAL IMAGE © P55, fi g. 6 Photo by Luigi courtesy of Naoto Fukasawa 01 Perception 2008, The Museum of Modern Colani/Colani Trading AG design P16, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Alessi Art, New York/Scala, Florence P55, fi g. 7 Courtesy of P73, fi g. 20 Plusminuszero/Sole P18, fi g. 2 Courtesy of P33, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Ettore Bernhardt Design bag Photo by Hidetoyo Sasaki, Wedgwood Sottsass for Memphis courtesy of Naoto Fukasawa P56, fi g. 8 Courtesy of KGID design P18, fi g. 3 V&A Images/ P35, fi g. 3 Illustration by offi ce/Magis S.P.A. Victoria and Albert Museum Tim Parsons P73, fi g. 21 Photograph by P57, fi g. 9 Illustration by Patrick Gries, courtesy of P19, fi g. 4 Courtesy of Apple P35, fi g. 4 Courtesy of Alessi Emmi Salonen Matali Crasset S.p.a. P19, fi g. 5 DIGITAL IMAGE © P58, fi g. 10 Courtesy of Braun P74, fi g. 22 Photograph by 2008, The Museum of Modern P36, fi g. 5 DIGITAL IMAGE © and Daniel Nelson Patrick Gries, courtesy of Art, New York/Scala, Florence 2008, The Museum of Modern Matali Crasset Art, New York/Scala, Florence P59, fi g. 11 Courtesy of Apple P20, fi g. 6 Photograph by P74, fi g. 23 Photograph by Ben Kelway, courtesy of P37, fi g. 7 Photograph by P60, fi g. 12 Courtesy of Sam Patrick Gries, courtesy of Intersection Media Tim Parsons Hecht/Industrial Facility Matali Crasset P20, fi g. 7 Photograph by P38, fi g. 8 Courtesy of Robin P61, fi g. 13 Courtesy of Sam P75, fi g. 24 Courtesy of Kay Adams Levien and Caroline Aston/ Hecht/Industrial Facility Bouroullec Studio Levien P21, fi g. 8 Photograph by Ivan P62, fi g. 1 Jasper Morrison P75, fi g. 25 Photograph by Coleman, courtesy of Amos P39, fi g. 9 Courtesy of Sam Ltd. Product: Flower pot table, Tim Parsons Field Reid Hecht/Industrial Facility produced by: Capellini, photo credit: Morrison Studio P76, fi g. 26 Courtesy of William P21, fi g. 9 Photograph by Ivan P40, fi g. 10 Photographs by Warren Coleman, courtesy of Jessica James Bartlett P62, fi g. 2 Knifeforkspoon. Corteen Design Jasper Morrison, P76, fi g. 27 Courtesy of William P41, fi g. 11 From the series: Alessi S.p.a. Photograph Warren P21, fi g. 10 Photograph by ‘Making Do and Getting By’. by Andre Huber Ivan Coleman, courtesy of Courtesy of Richard Wentworth P77, fi g. 28 Photograph by Rhian Jones and Lisson Gallery P63, fi g. 3 Courtesy of Morrison Tim Parsons Studio P22, fi g. 11 Courtesy of P41, fi g. 12 Pablo Picasso, Tete P77, fi g. 29 Courtesy of William Auger–Loizeau de taureau. Realisee a partir P63, fi g. 4 Socrates corkscrew. Warren d’une selle et d’un guidon de Design Jasper Morrison, Alessi P23, fi g. 12 Courtesy of Jai bicyclette. 1942. © DACS S.p.a. P78, fi g. 30 Courtesy of William Redman/UHC Design Ltd 2008. White Images/Scala, Warren Florence P64, fi g. 5 Courtesy of P23, fi g. 13 Heatwave (2003) Association Marcel Duchamp P78, fi g. 31 Courtesy of Richard Designer: Joris Laarman, P42, fi g. 13 Courtesy of Hutten Manufacturer: Hot water Antonio Cos P64, fi g. 6 Courtesy of Massimo version Jaga The Radiator Varetto P79, fi g. 32 Photograph by Nigel Factory , P43, fi g. 14 David Gresham, Haynes/randomproduct.com Electric version Droog Design American, b.1956 (Designer), P65, fi g. 7 Courtesy of Zanotta SpA - Italy/Studio Museo P80, fi g. 33 Courtesy of Martin Thaler, American, Studioball and Ligne Roset b.1954 (Designer), Model for Achille Castiglioni Book Computer, 1985, Plastics, P65, fi g. 8 Courtesy of Zanotta P80, fi g. 34 Courtesy of Michael 20 x 32 x 32cm, collection SpA - Italy/Studio Museo Marriott of Cranbrook Art Museum, Achille Castiglioni Bloomfi eld Hills, Michigan, Gift P80, fi g. 35 Courtesy of Michael of David Gresham and Martin P67, fi g. 9 Courtesy of Sam Marriott Thaler through Design Logic. Hecht/Industrial Facility P81, fi g. 36 Courtesy of With thanks to Professor Ian Roberts Bernhard E Buerdek - - 206 207

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 206 3/26/09 4:04:26 PM CD309-148/4028 2ND PROOF Black P81, fi g. 37 Archimedes letter P100, fi g. 14 Courtesy of Vitra P115, fi g. 18 Photographs P134, fi g. 8 Courtesy of Curro scale by Arnout Visser for © Dick van Hoff Ontwerpen, Claret Droog, courtesy of Arnout P100, fi g. 15 Courtesy of Vitra Tyranny of the Plug Visser P135, fi g. 9 Courtesy of P101, fi g. 16 Courtesy of Robin P116, fi g. 1 Cuckoo clock by Sebastian Bergne P81, fi g. 38 Courtesy of Dunne Day Michael Sans, Photographer: P135, fi g. 10 Courtesy of Inga and Raby P101, fi g. 17 Image © anki21 Dominik Butzmann/Media 10 Images Knoelke P83, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Herman P101, fi g. 18 Courtesy of P136, fi g. 11 Courtesy of Alessi Miller Studio Morrison P118, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Kenneth Grange S.p.a. P84, fi g. 4 Photograph by P101, fi g. 19 Courtesy of P137, fi g. 12 Courtesy of Daniel Christopher Dawson, courtesy Patrick Jouin P119, fi g. 3 Photograph © of Gordon Ellis & Co. Nadine Jarvis Charny P102, fi g. 20 Photograph by P141, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Baltic P84, fi g. 5 Plusminuszero/ Tim Parsons P119, fi g. 4 ‘Digital Remains’ Hot water dispenser Photo by 2006, by Michele Gauler, Beta Centre for Contemporary Art Hidetoyo Sasaki, courtesy of P103, fi g. 21 Courtesy of Tank Ltd P143, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Dunne Naoto Fukasawa design Michael Marriott P120, fi g. 5 Courtesy of James and Raby P85, fi g. 6 Courtesy of P104, fi g. 22 Photograph by Auger/Auger-Loizeau P143, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Dunne Ben Wilson Tim Parsons P121, fi g. 6 Courtesy of DIY and Raby P86, fi g. 7 Courtesy of BT P104, fi g. 23 Photograph by Kyoto P144, fi g. 3 Courtesy of Tim Parsons P86, fi g. 8 Courtesy of OXO P122, fi g. 7 Courtesy of Interaction Research Studio, P106, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Ben Product Creation Ltd Goldsmiths P86, fi g. 9 Courtesy of Wilson Matthew White P122, fi g. 8 STANDARD P145, fi g. 4 Courtesy of P107, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Hector CHAIR, 1934, Featured in Jean Interaction Research Studio, P87, fi g. 10 Courtesy of Serrano Prouvé’s The Poetics of the Goldsmiths Matthew White Technical Object exhibition at P145, fi g. 5 Courtesy of P107, fi g. 3 Courtesy of the Design Museum, P89, fi g. 13 courtesy of Parallax Inc Interaction Research Studio, London Taxi 7 December 2007–13 April Goldsmiths P108, fi g. 4 Pixelroller MKI 2008. Photograph by Luke P89, fi g. 14 Courtesy of (prototype), © by rAndom Hayes, courtesy of Design P146, fi g. 6 Courtesy of James Electricwig International (Wood, Ortkrass Museum, Shad Thames, Auger/Auger-Loizeau/Onkar London, SE1 2YD Kular P90, fi g. 15 Courtesy of & Koch) 2004–2009. All rights reserved. 10.00–17.45 daily, Electricwig T: 0800 833 9955, P147, fi g. 7 Courtesy of Tobie P108, fi g. 5 ‘Bricks’, 2005, Kerridge, Ian Thompson and P90, fi g. 16 Courtesy of Nikki Stott Vestergaard Frandsen Hektor & Karl Holmqvist for the exhibition, ‘Hektor P123, fi g. 9 Photograph © P91, fi g. 17 Photo by PJ and Rita’, by Jürg Lehni at Lutz Bertram, courtesy of 03 Process Hendrikse Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm. Nils Holger Moormann GmbH P163, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Inga Photography: Sophie Ballmer Sempé P91, fi g. 18 Courtesy of P123, fi g. 10 Photograph by PlayPumps International P109, fi g. 6 Courtesy of Grafi tti Fabrice Gousset, courtesy of P163, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Inga Research Labs Julia Lohmann and Gallery Sempé P93, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Alessi Kreo S.p.a. P109, fi g. 7 Photograph by P165-171 All photographs by Michael Salmon, courtesy P124, fi g. 11 Photograph by Tim Parsons P93, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Alessi of Andy Huntington Peter Menzel, courtesy of S.p.a. Peter Menzel/Impact Photo/ P174, fi g.2 Courtesy of IDEO P110, fi g. 8 Photograph © Alex Image State P94, fi g. 3 Courtesy of Infl ate Delfanne/Artwise Curators P177, fi g. 5 Image © 1969 2008 P124, fi g. 12 Photograph by Eames Offi ce LLC Marriott P110, fi g. 9 Photograph by Peter Menzel/Impact Photo/ P178–181, fi gs 1–5 All images P95, fi g. 5 Courtesy of KGID Andreas Schmidt, courtesy of Image State Casson Mann courtesy Héctor Serrano offi ce/iittala P124, fi g. 13 Courtesy of Fuse P182, fi g. 1 Courtesy of Offi ce P96, fi g. 6 Courtesy of Oliver P111, fi g. 10 Courtesy of Projects Interaction Research Studio Stefan Diez Vogt P127. fi g. 1 Courtesy of P111, fi g. 11 Image courtesy RobertBrown/Sprout Design P183, fi g. 2 Courtesy of Offi ce P97, fi g. 7 Courtesy of Oliver Stefan Diez Vogt of Ron Arad Associates Ltd P112, fi g. 12 Courtesy of Kram P130, fi g. 1 Courtesy of P184, fi g. 3 Courtesy of KGID P98, fi g. 8 Courtesy of Marcel offi ce Wanders Weisshaar Readymade P98, fi g. 9 Courtesy of P113, fi g. 13 Photograph © P131, fi g. 3 Courtesy of Severin 04 Context Fernando and Humberto Sylvain Deleu Klaus/Betabong Klaus Kreation P198, fi g.1 Courtesy of Sebastian Bergne Campana P113, fi g. 14 Courtesy of Front P132, fi g. 4 Photograph by Ken P99, fi g. 10 Courtesy of Kirkwood, courtesy of Daniel P199, fi g.2 Courtesy of Boym P114, fi g. 15 Photograph by Nelson Partners Inc Nacasca & Partners Inc/ Helene Bangsbo Andersen, Tokujin Yoshioka design by Tom Dixon Knoelke Wiel Gabzdil P114, fi g. 16 Photograph by P133, fi g. 6 Do Add Chair. P201, fi g.4 Courtesy of Daniel P100, fi g. 12 DIGITAL IMAGE Helene Bangsbo Andersen, Studio Makkink & Bey, Photographer: Modern Art, New York/Scala, tomdixon.net> Bianca Pilet and Fendry Ekel, Commissioner: Droog Design Florence P115, fi g. 17 Courtesy of P100, fi g. 13 Courtesy of Philips P134, fi g. 7 Courtesy of Curro Michael Thonet Claret

AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 207 3/9/09 8:28:49 PM CD309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black - - 5.3 5. Sources - - In the delivery of the book, I would like to express 5.2 Picture credits my gratitude to all of the designers who contributed 5.3 Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS images of work and in particular, to those who Like any design process, a book is greatly gave up their time to be interviewed. I would like to infl uenced by the relationships that occur during thank Emmi Salonen for the design and layout of its creation, both personal and professional. I am the book itself and her help with illustrations. I am eternally grateful for the boundless support, very grateful to Leafy Robinson, Caroline Walmsley, patience and contributions of Jess Charlesworth Leonie Taylor, Lucienne Roberts, Helen Stone and my parents David and Dorothy Parsons. I am and Brian Morris at AVA for their hard work and also highly indebted to my friends, whose vigorous patience. Thanks to Edward Goodwin, Alke Groppel- discussions and debate formed many of the ideas Wegener and David Parsons for their assistance expressed herein. with proofreading. I would like to thank all those connected to the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art - - who sowed the seeds that led to this book. Many of Interviewees: the ideas took shape while teaching at Manchester Michael Marriott Metropolitan University and latterly, at Camberwell Terence Woodgate College of Arts. I would like to thank Ian Roberts Anthony Dunne and the staff of the Three Dimensional Design Tim Brown programme at MMU/Manchester School of Art for Sam Hecht their friendship and encouragement, David Crow for Deyan Sudjic his kind recommendation, and Stefan White for his Robin Levien valuable insights. Thank you to Karen Richmond at Sebastian Bergne Camberwell and to students past and present for Jeremy Myerson their energy and inspiration. Roger Coleman Stefan White Jack Mama

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AVA•Thinking Object Text AVA T.O. AW_.indd 208 3/9/09 8:28:50 PM D309-40/4028 1ST PROOF Black ------TIM PARSONS ------Tim Parsons is a product designer, writer and Product designers have gone from being the Other AVA Academia titles of interest: lecturer. He has worked with manufacturers in packagers of engineering to developing a holistic

Britain and Europe and has exhibited widely. He understanding of objects. They have acquired - Thinking: Objects Tim Parsons - Visible Signs: An introduction has contributed articles to publications including human-centred perspectives, embraced semiotics Thinking: Objects to semiotics Blueprint and Phaidon’s Design Classics. and cognitive science, and warned us of the - potential applications for technologies beyond our Good: An introduction to ethics - - control. Design has stepped into the envisioning Contemporary in graphic design of new business directions and ways in which - consumers can become more involved in shaping Visual Research: An introduction their surroundings. Through all this it has not lost to research methodologies in touch with the physical substance of the object approaches to graphic design itself and the refinement and exploration of - new forms. Visual Communication: From theory to practice This book is liberal in its definition of product product design - design, embracing many categories of object and Verbalising the Visual: Translating including both critical and commercial work. It aims art and design into words to help readers grasp the breadth of design activity - happening today by identifying approaches that are Design Management: Managing design applied across different object types. It explains and strategy, process and implementation questions prescribed design methodologies and - discusses the dual values of logic and intuition that Left to Right: the cultural shift intermingle in the design process. By setting design from words to pictures in the context of a personal journey in which every decision helps determine a unique expression of - - values, Thinking Objects challenges the reader to define how they will affect the world by design.

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an an an AVA Academia advanced title AVA Academia advanced title AVA Academia advanced title Tim Parsons

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