Design Diary Entry - Week Three

Week three is already behind us and our projects are starting to pick up and evolve. Benchmarking, product testing and interviewing has put us out in malls, shops and cafes... especially cafes. For one particular concept, we had our first interview with an entrepreneur, a business mind, to get a fresh perspective on our direction. It turned out to be a valuable lesson in presenting and communicating ideas in a new medium. It’s almost like speaking another language, ‘selling’ an idea. I believe the real loss in translation was due to our different goals and values for a product.His objective is for a product to sell. To do that it has to stand out, it has to grab your attention. Meanwhile, our primary goal is for the user to form a relationship with the product, for it to become a part of their daily life, to function with competence and beauty. We aim for different parts of the brain. However, every product has to come off the shelf and I respect his outlook. Our professions overlap near the end of a product’s development, when we ask ourselves, “how do we make people want this from the moment they see it?” How that product grabs your attention is a matter of tact and taste, and this is where we did not see eye to eye. We would have been on a similar wavelength had our concept been more fleshed out. This is the level on which I will interact with some, if not most, clients. I need to be able to speak the lingo, the business jive, in order to see my ideas through to fruition. To be able to sell an idea at any point in its development, from conceptual to tangible, is an acquired skill and I was lucky to have had this initial exposure in such a casual manner. In the future the stakes will be higher, project funding could be hanging in the balance. In the end, it comes down to putting your values and feelings into a tangible product, and selling it.

The week concluded with the Design Action conference in Växjo with variety of different design disciplines and practices represented. I’m not yet skilled enough to be considered fluent in Swedish, however I understood enough from the presentations on a basic level to be filled in later for a full understanding. A few of the presentations really struck a chord, helping me to both remember why I chose to pursue design and to provoke new thoughts and ideas on where I want to be. When you are considering a product day in and day out, it’s easy to become disillusioned and begin to hold your project up on a pedestal. You forget the function is serves in a daily life, during the human experience. The user is always the top priority. You forget it’s niche in the scheme of things. You also forget about the way it comes into this world. A presentation by glass designer Ludvig Löfgren helped remind me to think past the artifact. He spoke about consumerism and the consequences on our fellow humans. In order for stores to provide cheap and affordable goods, someone along the line has to pay the price. The consequences rest in someone else’s life, on someone else’s health. The priveleged don’t have to interact with the ugly truth on a daily basis. If we did, would we still consume in the same way? There is a cognitive separation between the tidy shops with aisles of fresh products accompanied by pop music and the dirty factory floors. We are distracted from the pain that may have went into making what we mindlessly and impulsively consume; a lack of social responsibility. The day at Design Action reminded me that I want to design for a greater purpose; to fight the addiction, not feed it. Design a better world, where products have integrity and respect. Respect for people and respect for the planet.

The unobtrusive nature of Scandinavian objects is becoming ever more obvious as I continue to look in stores and magazines. I am starting to see the mentality of the Swedish people projected onto the objects that they’re created. The idea of being ‘lagom’ has started to connect to the aesthetic. The best translation is ‘just right,’ but is more of a mantra; a way of life that fosters sustainability. Lagom is unselfish and communal. Being lagom is taking as much as you need and nothing more, living at a happy medium. The baby bear from Goldie Locks had the right idea. I love the idea of lagom, especially after being raised in the United States where everything is either super sized or turned up to 11. It plays into the idea of obtrusiveness, of making room for enjoying and living life. It correlates directly with the minimalism and ingenuity of modern Scandinavian Design. Using only the material that is necessary is resourceful. Doing so artfully and subtly is beautiful.

Thanks again for reading. Keep checking back for more observations on Scandinavian Design, culture and philosophy!

Codee Adams
Industrial Designer