Design

Thoughts/quotes on Video:
- many of our traditional crafts and processes are based on colonial past
- if you are a commercial design studio that needs to run a business and find a balance between critical research and commercial design, in the best scenario these two entities should be merged. It is a constant struggle. Raises ethical questions.
- The complexity of the world we live in forces us to continue with these two different entities hoping at one point they merge.
- " we would like producers from the timber industry to approach us (after now the expo cambio) to ask them to create new ways of producing and distributing, or do internal research in our industry processes.
- Projects like Cambio help us to lead us to bring us to companies, but we do consultancy work, for a small parts of production.
- it is very difficult within a multinational to have a hollistic approach
- "The research we did the last 10 years and the next years to come, we hope that they will lead to more indepth research and conversation within the industries."
- "exhibitions also have limitations, you kind of create a bubble....you are in a museum space and you can critique a system, but reality is much more complex than this. We hope to continue like this approach also within education."
- advantage of being a designer to being an artist, is that you have the foot in de doorstep to the industry and you can actually have a conversation with the industry and try to change something within their thinking.
- Design is more dirty, it is a disciplin that is rooted in reality, in places where things are actually produced and where reality is actually shaped.
- question our role on planet as a dominant species.
- our way of living needs a rethinking, so consequence out of that is also that design also needs a rethinking
- have a talk with economists!! --> to discuss utopian ideas!! to discus enviromental changes
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Info:
Explores Textile in new ways. Without even knowing what the result will be she starts investigating and researching into a topic/material that interest her.
Althouh she is not using traditional craftsmanship tools she still manages to create something with the industry. It is often related to textile but in non-traditional executions and end results.
- it often starts from a raw material

Thoughts:

-Atelier NL is exploring craftmanship from different angles, but they also focus on one or two craftsmanship, like CERAMIC and GLASS. They translate it into their own practices and work closely with industry and craftsman.

- Atelier NL their medium is Glass and Ceramic, what are they telling with their products? They are very strong in story telling.

Thoughts on video:
- fascination for raw material : WOOL, FLAX
- tracks down to point ZERO where the material comes from
- is sourcing the material to connect it to a procuct
- C.M. medium is often a product but what is her storytelling? What is she telling with her products? Try to take apart the product from the story and try to analyse it.

- Crafts Historian
- was interviewd for Unfolds "A combakers Tale"

Design & Investigation --> find a better word

Quotes:
"my practise is based on collaborative processes. It should be considered as an object of design itself."

"Mapping is a tool to gather and share information and it is also a tool that is subjective and it is incomplete."

"Creaolization demands that hereogenous elements put in relation increase the value of each other, that is there is no degradation or diminution of the other, either on the inside, or on the outside, in this contact and this mixing. "

" In a collaboration you never know what to expect, that is nice. [..] We always work in dynamics of powers, and try to question it and balance it and even if it means to take a step back"

"Hors Pistes, is a nomadic Residency program. [..] we want that people learn from each other. Goals are: Sharing Know-How, Challenging practices through multicultural encounters, challening our habits of working, inventing new collaboration processes."

" We want the boarders between aritsan/craftsman and designer to be blured, where the designer is more involved in the concept and drwaing and the artisan is more involved in the production. We consider everyone as author so everyone is included in the conception and in the making. "

Thoughts:
- try not to do design linear, but stay open and try to see connections within the research. To not think in an endproduct but to go with the process to see where it leads.

- Creolization is a term referring to the process by which elements of different cultures are blended together to create a new culture. The word creole was first attested in Spanish in 1590 with the meaning 'Spaniard born in the New World'. https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-6981

- Hors Pistes --> off the beaten track

- Questioning the traditional roles that we have between craftsman and designers. (Hors Pistes) --> Maybe also questioning the traditional roles between designer and user? Designer and producer? --> Is Busatti a good example of a producers who also actually is a desginer?

- how to embed design research more within the production sites? --> example of premier vision, that it is a fabric fair that is so disconnected from the actual textile manufacturing process. everything looks the same...I think we would design different clothes if we would be more connected with the textile industry...

- Craftsman to collaborate with should be motivated to share their knowledge. Its never only about the technique but about the whole culture behind it.

- to invite designers on site but also to invite the craftsman in the studio of the designers.

- or maybe also to connect producers/craftsman together?

- How do we as designers communicate with the producers? it is all done by email, and written in english. Analyse these communication ways, is there something that needs to be improved?

Thoughts on the video:
- a product that just makes a life more beautiful just the esthetics of it is not interesting enough
- she wants to find out the whole history of a product and if she designs smt she wants to do that with a complete transparant background, so the rawmaterials are completely known whre they come from
- my mission would be to design a product that is good of cours and you can use a lot but that also has an honest story! Its important if a product can be traced back to its rawmaterial and people who made it you can never be sure if it is made in a proper way. Most products that we use are so incredibely cheap.
- to actually do very simple products that are made with 100% transparancy and in a good way is actually already a very hard thing to do.

The aspect of maping can be done in different ways.
--> see bellow the carved wood that is a map of greenlands coast. It is not really a precise map but it helps to tell a story for example. It is also tangible. And touchable. I see immediately people holding it in their hand and going over it with their tumb and each bubble is a reminder of a story etc.

Design & Collaboration (with Craftsman/Industry?)

Low Tech and High Tech at the Same time

Design & Exploration

Info:
Formafantasma is a research-based design studio investigating the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. Whether designing for a client or developing self – initiated projects, the studio applies the same rigorous attention to context, processes and details. Formafantasma’s analytical nature translates in meticulous visual outcomes, products and strategies. (from their website)

Quotes & Thoughts on Video:
- sees herself as a textile designer
- ask hereself the question: why do i need to create a new piece of design?
- prefers to work for KLM where they as her to re-design the cabins of the airplane, there she thinks she is needed as a designer
- she finds textile interesting because you can keep a piece (the skeleton) as it is and just change the "skin"
- textile is an abstract world, it is a very technical thing
- "one way of designing is expressing myself in textile but not having to make the full object"
- it is just one solution for design :"making stuff", you can do much more with your talent and brain.
- "if you design texile you also do not need to design a full new piece" "just the skin can make a new design, thats why i find textile intersting"
- industry measures quality in terms of functionality. For ex.if color changes during the day or if a fabric wears out after some years...then it means in the "industrial" eyes that it is not good....but what would actually the consumer say?
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Quotes & Thoughts on Video:
- A designer who "wants to combine craftsmanship in an industrial process, because what comes out of an industrial process is a very perfect anonymous shape/textile et. Most of the time with a lot of marketing clouds around it. to get more human life and imperfection so that people connect themselves with products that come out of an industrial process
- “ Build on the relation between and object and a human being because an object without humans cannot exist.
- As a designer you can step into worlds that are maybe not accessible, and you work with a lot of specialists, they inform you and you can create ideas from it.
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Quotes & Thoughts on Video:
- colors that are alive , colors that interact with the light.
- " most projects start as a research from the studio but in the end i want that it is applied in the industry/ produced "
- goal is always to apply the research in an indsutrial process and product
- you can change something within the industry!!
- Developing methods within the studio that can be applied in the industry (for example  asking the weaving factory to send to them the threads they have on their weaving loom to then make small tests on the hand looms in their studio to then later go back and show them exactely what they want, without them being able to say, oh no this is not possible)
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Quotes & Thoughts on Video:
- i have a small group of clients
- build up a network of suppliers
- " Mission: the designers crowd is divided into merchants and pastors; I see myself as a design pastor "
- " I am fighting for new industrial values"
- " listen not only to your aestethic and cultural conscious, but also to my social and enviromental consciousness"
- a holistic approach that correctorizes the indsutrial process. --> back in time industrial processes made high quality accessible for the masses. original values of industrial industrial values were: to connect cultural awareness and social responsible bond with practical economics. The quality seems to become less important.
- materials are a very important communication tool.
- design is not about objects themselves but about relationships to which they invite the users.
- Material attitude
- "start with the yarn" find interesting fibers, make intersting blends, go to spinners, etc.
- hands on methode, the mind works circular!!
- inside hollistic approach
- Being back with the hands of the approach! --> Intelligent hands know so much more thant the head!

1.) HOW DOES ATELIER NL USES STORYTELLING AS A TECHNIQUE WITHIN THEIR PRACTICE?

- Profound Material research
- transparant production and material
- localness
- not abstract
- questions our traditional use of material, resp.is reviving again traditional use and questioning current uses of glass and clay (which we do not know anymore where it comes from)
- social and inclusive (also inclusive for sectors that you do not directely link with design, like farmers --> above picture from POLDERLUNCH)
- local sourcing and production
- Design Practice: - research driven - archives - own material library making - product design

2. )WHAT DOES STORYTELLING MEAN IN YOUR OWN PRACTICE?

I do not yet really manage to do a lot on storytelling. I am fascinated by everyday objects and would like to integrate in my design practice more consciousnes towards these objects that we use everyday. To let people get an understanding about the richness of the materials that are used, the complexity and beauty of the techniques and the history and symbolysm that comes with it of these objects. This i would like to communicate in an indirect way, in a way that people can sense it, but that is not too obvious.

3.) WHAT ARE THE COMMON GROUNDS BETWEEN THE SHOWN PROJECTS IN THE LECTURE OF ATELIER NL?

- Using local raw materials
- inclusivenes towards other disciplines (like farmers or traditional craftsmans/women)
- first experimental approach resulting in a everyday product that is very applicable in domestic context (experiment ends in commercial product)
- mapping of the resources
- making a material archive

4.) QUOTE out of the TALK:

- "Looking at the things that are unseen!"

- "This is the way we would like to work. We are really intreged by the material. We want to discover all the possibilities that there are and show all these very beautiful structures and hidden colors that are normally not seen."

TOOLS & MEDIUM:
- Collaborations
- Mapping as a subjective and incomplete tool to gather and share information.
- Sharing knowledge

PROCESS:
- Collaborative processes
- Non-linear design process (stay open within the process, to see connections withing the research.
- Not thinking in an endproduct but to go with the process to where it leads
-

MAIN GOAL/DRIVE TO DESIGN:
- Blur boarders between artisans/craftsmen and designer, because everyone involved in the process is author and maker at the same time
- Questioning the traditional roles between craftsman and designers

OUTCOMES:
- Installations
- Collaborative processes, seen as the object of design itself
- Maps
- Frameworks for other designers and craftsmen
- Nomadic residency program

STORYTELLING
- Sharing as a methodolgy
- Redefining design processes by questioning traditional role distribution (Rollenverteilung)

TOOLS & MEDIUM:
- Opensource platforms
- Digital networks
- Collaborations

PROCESS:
- Fascination for a material and making links between ancient old techniques (Coiling with Clay) and new techniques (3-D printing)
- Collaboration with craftsmans, researchers, AI specialists, historians,
- Participative design

MAIN GOAL/DRIVE TO DESIGN:
- “How can Design & New Technologies change our relationship towards preservation of Crafts?”
- How to design product frameworks in which we invite the user as a Co-Author?
- To be mediators

OUTCOMES:
- Frameworks  3-D Ceramic Printer, open-source
- Raising questions about Craftsmanship, Design, Production, Labor, without giving answers
- Creating digital networks
- Creating manufacturing networks (de-centralized)
- Not only producing an object itself but actually reveiling the whole culture that surrounds an object
- Objects, like cups and teapots
- Installations
- movies

STORYTELLING:
- Embracing Craftsmanship, honoring old techniques, but always raising the question about necessity of it, without romantizing it
- Participative Design
- Investigating on distributed manufacturing versus centralized manufacturing

TOOLS & MEDIUM:
- Investigating on different disciplines & crafts
- Putting links between different disciplines that are involved for example in an object/material
- Collaborations
- Words
- Contextual research (for example Expo Cambio is travelling maybe to South America but without the objects from expo in London…)

PROCESS:
- Starting from a material
- Broad research
- Sharing knowledge
- “When we work with companies we ask them to be as much as possible transparent. Meaning letting us know how they produce, where etc.
- Constructive attitude without fingerpointing

MAIN GOAL/DRIVE TO DESIGN:
- We do not prepair solutions to what is ecological design, but we like to understand what kind of footprint we have with our design practice.
- Our main drive to make expos like CAMBIO is a consequent of being designers and whitnessing what it means to be a designer in this moment in time. How can you not realize that we are feeding a system and that we are contributing to the pollution of our planet, that creating objects has an impact in the life of other species of the planet.
- We hope that these issues mention above will also become more part of discussions within other disciplines.
- Doing research to see if the spaced-out research can be applied in a pragmatic context (=reality)

OUTCOMES:
- Commercial products
- Exhibitions
- Prototypes
- Websites with gathered information
- Design course/education (Geodesign Department Eindhoven)
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STORYTELLING:
- Approaching design from a holistic perspective
- Changing the way how design and production is approached nowadays
- Sharing knowledge
- Critiquing design how it is produced
- Questioning our role on the planet as a dominant species  putting forward a question how naïve we have been that we can keep on exploiting the planet. We do not wanna be moralistic, but we can not only keep thinking about the needs of us humans, because if we are living on a plante where everything is connected we also have to start thinking about the needs of other species. (holistic)
- Our own lives need rethinking, so it is a logical conclusion that also design needs a rethinking
- Producing in a scale like Ikea does, sure it is democratic, but the scale of it is insane…so it actually repeals the democracy of it…

TOOLS & MEDIUM:
- Analysing a product in its historical context
- Material analysation
- Collaborating with experts from the fields she investigates
- Talk a lot to people that touch a topic that interests her
- Knowing about production processes and analysing them and using them

PROCESS:
- “I have a vague idea in my head of what I want to explore, then I walk this path with 1000 of sidepaths and sideroads, and you have to trust that you come to that point in the end but you don’t know exactelly how. It can never be an easy straight way. I am looking for things that surprise me, or smt that is like a handle that is like a design start, and I never know in the beginning what that is. The idea could be in anything. It is all about being really open to what a story is and not to something that you think it is in advance. Just figure it out along the way. “

MAIN GOAL/DRIVE TO DESIGN:
- “My mission is to design a product that is of course a good design and you can use a lot but it also should be completely transparent.”
- Intuition and Intention combined and trusting the way!

OUTCOMES:
- Transparant Products: Chair, sweater, book, toys,….
- She says that her products are sometimes more of an example than actually a product, example of tea towel that is 100% produced in Europe and costs 20x more than a tea towel you buy in any other store. But it is an example of a tea towel that is produced in a transparent way.

STORYTELLING:
- making the process completely open and transparent, this actually adds the story to the product
- Feels more like a journalist and unravels stories of things and objects and materials
- Design as a means to explain something in an easier or visual way, make a product that explains something without judging it. She wants people to make up their own mind about something, without putting them into a certain direction
- Make things that you can make your own opinion about, without knowing actually what is her opinion about it
- Makes processes transparent, because if they are transparent you can also see who made what and how and under what circumstances
- Design is just another way of looking at things
- Everyday Objects are so entangled in our daily life that we barely see them anymore and she shines a new light on them (Pig Book)

TOOLS & MEDIUM:
- Maps
- Localness
- Questioning our traditional use of materials, resp. reviving forgotten traditional processes, crafts and use
- Traditional crafts (Glass making, Ceramic, Pigments,…)
- Archives
- Own material library
- Working with people from outside the “design-world” (for example farmers, scientists..)

PROCESS:
- Investigating on local raw material
- Mapping  according to color of earth or sand
- Translating investigations into materials as: Glass, Clay
- Profound material research
- Local sourcing of material and production
- The process starts with a research driven attitude which is later translated into often common and everyday products and objects that are very applicable in the domestic context (so experiments end in “commercial” products)

MAIN GOAL/DRIVE TO DESIGN:
- “Looking at the things that are unseen” – Nadine Studio NL (things that we use in our everyday and are so obvious that we do not even ask ourselves how the object is actually made, with which material and where, think about
- "This is the way we would like to work. We are really intreged by the material. We want to discover all the possibilities that there are and show all these very beautiful structures and hidden colors that are normally not seen.”

OUTCOMES:
- Tableware
- Daily utensils
- Colorlibraries and archives for different materials (sand, clay, earth…)
- Non traditional Maps, visualized in different clay or glass outcomes

STORYTELLING:
- Shed a new light on resources that we never looked at and that lie just in front of our housedoor
- “Looking at the things that are unseen” – Nadine Studio NL
- Participative Design  asking others to collect sand from all over the world

TOOLS & MEDIUM:
- Textile
- Colors
- Techniques and processes
- Material attitude!

PROCESS:
- Not having to design a full new piece, of course depends on the kind of project. "if you design textile you also do not need to design a full new piece" "just the skin can make a new design, that’s why i find textile interesting"
- Investigating on the industrial processes
- The goal is always to be able to apply it in an industrial process (even if the research starts small scale and with local craftsmen or in the studio) and product
- Developing methods within the studio that can be applied in the industry (for example  asking the weaving factory to send to them the threads they have on their weaving loom to then make small tests on the hand looms in their studio to then later go back and show them exactly what they want, without them being able to say, oh no this is not possible)
- Always start with the yarn (literally and not literally) meaning start at the beginning and investigate in the beginning!
- Multilayers of interesting topics!
- Cradle to Cradle
- Hands-Design-Process Methode
- New ideas occure when you cannot fully control the process!! The mind works circular!
- Hands on Process: Intelligent hands know so much more than the head!

MAIN GOAL/DRIVE TO DESIGN:
- Working with what you have
- Finding industrial ways where you still leave space for unforeseen influences to happen
- Change something from within the industry, even if it is just a small step, because that can later grow into a big thing or change!!
- " I am fighting for new industrial values"
- A holistic approach that corrects the industrial processes

OUTCOMES:
- Furniture
- Fabrics (skins)
- Installations
- Design the surface
- Developing methods to apply craftsmanship processes in industrial processes

STORYTELLING:
- I do not have to make a full new piece, "one way of designing is expressing myself in textile but not having to make the full object"
- Textile is a very abstract world and technical, the weaving machine was the first computer!!  I like this link, textile is a very different design discipline (in her opinion) than other disciplines
- Industrial vers. Handcrafted
- Questioning the quality measures of functionality (for example that the industrial paint and color industry only chooses to sell colors that are flat meaning they do not change”appearance during the day depending on how the light shines on them but they always stay the same. Or asking why a fabric is seen only as good if the color of it does not change or if the fabric wears out.
- A lot if lost because of “testing”
- Design the surface
- Combine Craftsmanship in an Industrial Process (what comes out of an industrial process is a very perfect anonymous shape) to get more human life and imperfection so that people connect themselves with products that come out of an industrial process
- “ Build on the relation between and object and a human being because an object without humans cannot exist.
- Imperfection craftsmanship = human touch design
- Craftsmanship in a product shows that design/product is about a humancondition. Its about daily life, you can connect yourself with it, because crafts is never perfect. That makes design more fragile, like human beings, we are fragile.
- Back in time industrial processes made high quality accessible for the masses.
- Introduce holistic approach into industrial processes and design.
- “How can you build a good relationship between and object and a human being. “
- How do objects communicate