Design for Life: Starck finds his British protégé

Ilsa the college lecturer in 3D design from Liverpool wins a place on Starck’s team. Her walking aid Flo for the elderly impressed the judges. In this the last episode of the program Design for Life Mike and Ilsa had to finalise their designs and work on an advertising campaign for the products.

Advertising posters needs

• Product name

• Logo

• Tag line

• Images

They both met with an advertising team. Advertising is all about letting people know the product exists and promoting the benefits of the product. Mike and Ilsa are instructed to design a poster. They need to have a product name, logo and tag line.  

Advertising is all about letting people know

Ilsa appeared to be all over the place. She continued in her style of complicating everything. She confused the advertising team by changing direction a number of times. Ilsa found it hard to stay focused on the project.  

Mike decides he wants his product (dining setting for the visually impaired) to appeal to the general public as well as the blind. The advertising team like his product name ‘Stable’. He explains Starck was unimpressed with the name. They convince him to use the name as it sums up in a word the main features of his design. He also has to redesign six items. Starck wants his intelligent design to be elegant. 

Comments on design

• Design touches us in our daily life

• Design is about solutions to problems

• Design is not easy

• Great design requires work work work…

• Designers need to think bigger

Results

Ilsa and Mike present the advertising posters to Starck. He is impressed with both. Ilsa had selected an image of Charlie Chaplin as part of her image. Starck thought she should find a modern image. Mike did very well considering he had to design six items. Starck was impressed with his design particularly the knife. Ilsa impressed Starck with the sculptural design of the Flo mobility aid for the elderly. He said it was the most beautiful object he had seen in a long time.

The budding product designers had impressed. Starck considered both joining his team. In the end Ilsa won because her design was ambitious and completely new. She won the six month placement with Starck’s company in Paris.  

State of Design Festival

I spent some time this week in Melbourne at the Decoration + Design, Furnitex and Design:Made:Trade expo. Talked with some great suppliers and designers and gathered tons of information on new products. I will enjoy spending next week going through my finds.

The Design:Made:Trade expo was excellent. The booths were made out of recycled cardboard. Some of the booths looked like funky igloos. Cardboard stools and tables were available for visitors to rest and have a cup of coffee. 

The cardboard stools reminded me of a sculpture project I did when I was studying art. The project brief stated we had to create a sculpture from paper. The sculpture had to be strong enough to stand on. We were only allowed to use paper and glue. This seemed an impossible task to most of us.

My fellow students came up with some brilliant designs. My sculpture turned out really well and I achieved top marks for this project I surprised myself. It is amazing how strong paper and cardboard can be. Unfortunately I lost the sculpture in one of our many house moves. But seeing the wonderful cardboard structures at the design expo brought it all back into my mind. Maybe I could use the sculpture idea to create an eco friendly stool of my own. It’s an interesting idea.
       

When we visit Melbourne we usually go to Lygon Street. This time we found a terrific restaurant zone within walking distance of our apartment. It was delightful to find this gem in Hardware Lane. Melbourne is a great city, with brilliant food and wonderful people.  

The Victorian State of Design Festival certainly had the city buzzing. The theme for this year Change by Design. The focus; on three key themes, the built environment, mobility systems and digital strategies. Events are being held throughout the state. The Design for Everyone program has free design events including Melbourne Open House, Vision Broadmeadows 2030 and the Anno Student Design Comp. Unfortunately two days did not allow enough time to do justice to the treasures on offer. Next year I will try to plan a longer visit.

One of the highlights of the festival will be the announcement of the Premier’s Design Awards on the 21^st July. My favorite designs in the running are the Fitzroy High School and the Bendigo Centre. If you are interested in looking at some of the finalists see the links below.       

http://vimeo.crom/12960421

http://www.stateofdesign.com.au/finalists/Premiers-Design-Awards/Finalists/the-bendigo-centre 

http://www.stateofdesign.com.au/finalists/Premiers-Design-Awards/Finalists/golden-age-of-couture

‘Good design can deliver economic, 

social and environment value 

by improving living conditions, 

generating innovative products and 

services and creating sustainable 

development opportunities’

Gavin Jennings Victorian Minister for Innovation (Sunday Hearld 11^th July 2010)

Designer in raptures over Sample Board Online

Designer in raptures over the Sample Board Online concept, today I presented the eco friendly, cost effective Sample Board Online design tool to the busiest designer in town. Rebecca was absolutely convinced the Sample Board Online concept was a real winner. She was so impressed she wanted to approach the suppliers she uses to invite them on board. 

SBO will save her time, energy and money

This lovely lady said the SBO tool would save her time, energy and in the long run money. She was delighted with the professional looking boards created on the SBO site.  Some suppliers in Australia have been a little bit reluctant to be the first to come on board. This is slowly turning around. Soon we will have an avalanche of suppliers wanting to come on board SBO.

Eco friendly electronic design tool  

Eco friendly, professional boards can be so easily created on The Sample Board Online website. The fact that the board can also act as a specification sheet is an added bonus. SBO will truly become the designers one stop shop. Designers encourage your suppliers to come on board. Rebecca said I want to use this brilliant tool I want the suppliers I use to embrace the excellent SBO electronic tool and come on board.   

And it acts as a specification sheet as well   

 'Good design at least part of the time, includes the criteria of being direct in relation to the problem at hand – not obscure, trendy, or stylish. A new language, visual or verbal, must be couched in a language that is already understood.'

Ivan Chermayeff