If you are a long time Design Droplets reader you have probably already heard of the AGIdeas International Design Week, one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious design events. Regardless of its namesake reference (Alliance Graphic International – AGI, the international professional body for graphic designers and artists), AGIdeas is no longer a purely graphics focused event and has not been for sometime. AGIdeas ever expanding speaker list and event programme includes areas of design far beyond graphics and illustration. The programme now encompasses a diverse range of design disciplines and this year includes speakers and topics at the cutting edge of interaction, product, automotive and concept design, and much much more.

The AGIdeas 2011 festival programme and speaker line up is one of the most exciting and also largest to date.

This year AGIdeas International Design Week have further developed and refined their long standing events such as the International Design Forum, Secondary Schools Design Forum, Studio Access program and Workshops, and added a several exciting new events and additions/changes to the program.

AGIdeas 2011 events additions include:

• AGIdeas International Design Research Lab

The Design Research Lab is a one-day forum that provides design educators, researchers and practitioners with the opportunity to present design research papers to their peers.

• Children for Design

Aimed at primary school children, this event is a program of activities aimed at encouraging children to become champions of good design. Activities include a short forum, workshops with internationally renowned designers and a collaborative creation.

There have also been several changes to the traditional event programme including the Opening Cocktail Party now open to more than just AGIdeas speakers and organising committee.

Also returning after their huge success last year are In Conversation (a public seminar on Design) and the Advantage Business Breakfast.

The AGIdeas 2011 program is stuffed full of awesome events and will be a really worth while and exciting experience for any designer whether they are a student, graduate, long time practitioner or senior academic.

The speakers at this years AGIdeas that I am personally looking forward to seeing speak (and also to interviewing & showcasing here on Design Droplets) are Ian McCaig (one of the motion picture industries leading concept designers), Natan Linder (A member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Fluid Interfaces Group), Bruce Bigelow (from Electric Art, a Sydney based creative retouching and 3D company), Susan Bonds (a pioneer of transmedia storytelling) and Nicolas Hogios (Manager of Design at Toyota Style Australia).

As well as the above speakers there will no doubt be an awesome line up of other engaging and amazing speakers, so if I was you I would be grabbing tickets right now as AGIdeas sells out every year and is an event that is not to be missed.

Found an inspiring or just plain awesome piece of design? Submit it to inspireme@designdroplets.com and we’ll share it on Design Droplets’ Inspire Me.

1. 15 Awesome Clock Designs

2. Scott, rich & victoria: filament lamps

3. Tapi by Dreamfarm

4. Bellroy – The Original Carryologists

5. Dérailled by JONES CHIJOFF

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Check out the photos from the visit.

Transcript

Raph:  Soren thanks for joining us. Can you tell us a bit about Buro North and yourself?

Soren Luckins:  Sure; I started Buro North somewhere between four and five years ago. Can’t really remember exactly when it started, because it kind of started more as an idea than a business, and I was contracting at other design studios around town, doing small projects and freelance jobs and little things for friends. Eventually, it turned into a business that had one employee, and that took about 12 months. And then, in three years, it’s gone from 12 to 15‑ish, depending on the day.

[background noise]

We set up one meeting room when we started the studio. But invariably, we’ve always needed more meeting rooms, so we just keep shoving desks in places.

Yeah, it’s been an interesting, exciting ride. Buro North is a multidisciplinary design studio. We made that part of our brand, part of our title and identity, as in what we project and also what we stand for and what we’re interested in.

I studied industrial design in Melbourne and graphic design and architecture in Germany, and I guess it was the fusion of those design disciplines that I was interested in and excited by. And then, when I started working in Melbourne, I guess there weren’t that many people that were interested in multidisciplinary design, but rather had their niche and did what they did and kind of held the doors closed to everyone else, whereas now it’s a little bit more fluid, the design process. There’s lots of people that sort of cross the boundaries, and there’s interiors people that deal with architecture and architecture that deals with interiors.

This is the studio. There’s always a stack of people in here. It’s pretty busy at the moment because we’ve got a couple of big jobs coming to a head. This is the studio manager. Come down this way.

Some clients, it’s much easier to sell than others, because lots of clients, they don’t actually care if you’re a graphic designer or an industrial designer or a signage designer or a way‑finding strategist. They’ve just got a problem, and they want their problem solved. And so they’ll usually go and see a couple of people.

And there’ll be people that say “We’re graphic designers and we can develop this solution” and they’ll see somebody else who says something else. I guess we turn up to most clients and say that a multidisciplinary design studio is about solving problems. And we’ve got a lot of skills in‑house, but when we don’t, generally we’ll take them in.

We’ve got this cozy model‑making throw stuff together; create stuff area that clients don’t get to see. I guess it’s really the same as multi‑disciplinary design, for the last 12 months I’ve been seeing multi‑disciplinary design everywhere.

You’ve got a group that worked on this for the last 10 years. It’s a very narrow strain. I think you need to show clients what you’re selling, I think you’ve got to back it up with evidence of work that you’ve done, or work that you’re doing. Problem‑solving, I don’t know? I guess it’s a bit specific to industrial design.

It’s a trend that started in the United States. A lot of industrial designers turned into business partners because they took a broader perspective to dealing with a couple of problems. This is the other director Finn, hi Finn. [laughs] It’s a bit rough, because it was one of the studio’s first big commissions, and we won the job in cooperation with another company.

And basically, the client put out a tender saying “We’ve got some big concrete signs, a ski village signage system that is crumbling and useless and doesn’t really do it’s job effectively. Can someone come in, re‑skin them and make them look better.”

We went back and said that I probably wouldn’t do the job, and we should probably come up with a more sophisticated solution, so we designed a modular stacking system based solution.

That means they can change it from summer to winter, they can move signs for themselves. They can change them into different commissions, with one person, with one tool; and our casting, which was pre‑lot material.

We didn’t have to truck huge amounts of concrete and steel in to create it, which saved carbon emissions. It was the studio’s first big commission. It was also our most complex job.

Developing casting patterns is a complex process, and it really stretched us, so we ended up getting consultants in to help us with a lot of the technical aspects of a lot of the issues relating to the threes and fours of the materials. So, it was a big scary job. It took two and a half years and it’s just been finished. It was pretty successful.

Julian:  Did you set this one, too?

Soren:  Yeah, I went up there and it looks good in summer. I’d like to know how everything looks in winter.

Julian:  Wide focus.

Soren:  This is Dave and Ben. They’re trying to become a four season resort, with mountain biking and hiking, so part of the signage role is to respond to their changing needs so they can have a legible environment to abuse. I think it’s sort of one part of many things that have to do to become a Four Seasons resort. It’s an important part because signage is often the face of the resort that the people see that, I’d say, resort management or the board of the resort, they just see the signs the resort put up.

I find I get quite obsessed about things early in the design phase and then I get really unexcited about them as they progress through that difficult phase where you’re trying to protect the concept through execution and then I get really excited at the end again.

I think one of the things that I learned early and probably one of the best things I’ve done in the studio is to surround myself with people that are good at things that I’m not good at. I think I’m particularly good at the early creation ideas and I’m really bad at the documentation phase.

So, I might need to be focused by guys that are way better than me at documentation and delivery. It means that those ideas do translate through to the end. We’ve just finished all of internal graphics and signage for Myer’s new headquarters.

It was designed 18 months ago and it’s been going through this process where they try to make it more or they do value management and they try to remove some of the cost space and try to protect the design.

All those factors come into play and it’s pretty exciting after 18 months to turn up and see that it looks pretty much exactly like you envisaged.

Julian:  Do you find when you’re working with bigger corporations that it’s difficult to manage that organizational inertia; you have 18 months for a signage project?

Soren:  Yeah, it is. I think a lot of people, and I certainly did. When I started I sort of had this naive idea that design was the main part of our job. The sad reality is that design is kind of, I don’t know, maybe 40% and then there’s just massive tracking, administrating a project, and protecting the design and matching client relationship and expectations and managing the contractual issues that come up.

Yeah. The thing that I find exciting about the business side of things, I think, is that you’re designing the business as well. So I find it interesting the designing processes that we go through and how we manage a client, all that stuff is quite interesting because it’s essentially designing an outcome.

But yeah, the business side is really hard and you don’t really like it when [indecipherable 0:09:51.6] , but I didn’t learn it at the university and one of the other things I did early in the business was to hire a business adviser who helped steer through all of those commercial risks.

But it is a huge part and sometimes I wake up and think that it’s some kind of miracle that I somehow got to here. It’s a thriving business that puts out what I like to think is great design and we have happy people and we have happy clients and we make money.

Then, other times business is hard and it’s a really fine balance to get all those things right. Sometimes you have a big client but you’ve blown your budget. Sometimes you’ve got a happy client but that so‑and‑so’s not what you wanted.

Sometimes you’ve made money but you’re not that happy with the design. Getting all that right happens on some jobs.

To get it to happen on all jobs, you’ve got to really work very, very hard. And even just being across all the information, so knowing exactly how the client feels, exactly where the design’s at, how the finance is coming and how your project team are if they’re happy with it. Are they overworked? Are they comfortable with the project? You know all those issues.

Julian:  All the time across 20, 30 different jobs.

Soren:  Yes. It’s a big ask. So one of the things we’ve done in the last 12 months is develop some of the younger guys we have in the studio up to a point where they’re managing their own jobs and the clients. It means essentially they’re more in control which is better for them. There’s been more autonomy for me which means I can go back and dabble in the design rather than worry about some of the administrative things.

It was a big thing for me, after four years, to wake up and realize that the design part of it, which was what excited me, was sort of getting further away so at last I wanted to work pretty hard to get that back.

Julian:  Reclaim it.

Soren:  Very satisfying.Yeah, I think it’s an extremely exciting place to be, the design room. I think it’s safe to say when I went to start this business, either I wasn’t aware of it, or it’s developed in the last five or so years. Certainly, it’s an exciting, energetic design community. We’ve recently started doing a lot of work interstate, and we’ve just opened a mini‑studio in Sydney which is just one person. But it’s definitely a different scene in Sydney and they’ve got a different level of engagement here.

The mainstream media really gets involved in design, which means my dad, who has no idea about design, knows enough that he can have a conversation. He even knows enough about architecture that he can say he likes or he doesn’t like a new building in the city.

Julian:  How much does something like that where you’ve got the general public able to have a conversation about design or interact with design affect the studio or business?

Soren:  I think it just drives the design community to be more focused and more leading edge. I mean, a lot of people around Australia, I think, tend to believe that Melbourne’s the design hub of the country. And I think that’s probably just because it’s so competitive here. There’s so many businesses. I mean, when I think about the little design studios in Melbourne that I know. There’s just hundreds. It’s just a really competitive, striving and active community. And things like Australia Design, design festivals, I think they’re really good for kind of keeping things moving.

And we get invited to participate in design exhibitions and shows and talks and series and things all the time. And I think if that sort of stuff didn’t happen, it wouldn’t further that discourse and keep it such an energetic place for members.

Raph:  Thanks for taking time to chat. First, can you tell us a bit about you and what you do here at Buro North?

Shane Loorham:  Yes, sure. My name is Shane. I’m a graphic designer here at Buro North. We’re a pretty small to medium size design studio, but with kind of multidisciplinary skills across all sort of angles. I’m one of just a couple of graphic designers, which means I sort of, yes, get a really good opportunity to do a whole bunch of different stuff. I’ve been here for just over a year and prior to that I’ve worked in a few studios locally and abroad.

Raph:  Awesome, awesome. So in terms of working in, I suppose, a multidisciplinary design studio, here at Buro North, in terms of design, you do graphics, but how much interaction and input do you have into other areas of other projects that run across multiple areas.

Shane:  Yeah, yeah, well most of our projects run across a whole sort of breadth of sort of different disciplines. As I say, we’re still kind of a pretty tight crew. So we often get to, like we all collaborate. We also sort of get to crossover, so you’re not just sort of doing your bit and then stepping back, everybody sort of gets involved.

Raph:  Awesome.

Shane:  And it makes it exciting.

Raph:  What sort of differences do you notice in design scenes, especially the Melbourne design scene, which is pretty robust? And what are your thoughts on what’s going on in Melbourne in terms of design? Is it happening, or is it…?

Shane:  Yeah, yeah, I think it’s totally happening. So I’ve only really worked here and a pretty short spell in London. And then I sort of spent like a year in Norway. And I don’t know, you get a really good, sort of rep internationally for Scandinavia and what’s going on there. But I think what’s happening here is more exciting, really. We’re kind of our biggest [indecipherable 0:16:21.3] we’ve got there. And yet sort of placed in real sort of position of growth. So there’s just always so much going on.

In London, I felt like, as a designer, you were really pigeonholed. You wouldn’t get the opportunities you got here. Where I was a graphic designer and I would work as a graphic designer because anywhere that I sort of put my foot in the door was kind of a lot larger. And really, you were kind of doing your thing. So I think Melbourne’s as good as any place in the world to be a designer.

Raph:  Thanks very much.

Giovanni Mendini:  No, thank you.

Raph:  So can you tell us a bit about yourself; a bit about what you’ve been doing, and what you do?

Giovanni:  I’m Giovanni, and I’m Italian. I’m here for a year so far, and a points I’ve been at Buro North for a couple months now, and I’ve been lucky because I’ve been doing a lot of different jobs. Being in design, signage, and I’ve been designing small stuff like this. This is like a paper model of a chameleon that was sort of like a joke in the beginning, but then it’s developing more creative things besides normal projects that we do in the studio. I really like the approach we have here.

It is very, very different; like in the name you say multi‑disciplinary design. Because I’ve been working on graphic projects in that sort of project, industrial project signage and so many things.

Raph:  What sort of designer are you originally?

Giovanni:  I studied in Italy for being an industrial designer.

Raph:  OK.

Giovanni:  But I came here as a graphic, but slowly I am moving to be a proper industrial designer. I’m quite happy about that.

Raph:  That’d be nice. What sort of big differences have you noticed, or similarities even, between Italian design and what’s going on?

Giovanni:  I think there is a big difference in approach. Back in Italy, we’re really focused on our history in design and architecture. What design means, and what it meant before. Before designing everything, we are used to taking a huge look at what has been done on the field, yeah. We like to be quite informed about what’s gone before. Here, I love the thing that there is less history, probably, and this allows you to take a more spontaneous approach or more creative, what can I say? Almost randomly, at the beginning, and then you can focus and develop. But, yeah, the big difference is the freedom here compared to Parisian, you can say.

In a way there so, of course, not going to be too original. The group stays in the middle, probably, backspace. Yeah, I’m glad I’m not the Italian background because I’m more focused on research before doing things, and I’m glad to be here because creativity here is way better.

Raph:  I think you’d be inclined.

Giovanni:  I think so. I think I can compare the two things. Talking to college in Italian, in Australia the world is more open. So, yeah, I think it’s a good move to come down here. That’s what I did.

Raph:  I hope you enjoy it. Do you plan to stay long?

Giovanni:  Yes, yes. The first reason was for a year, and now I’ve got promised sponsorship. It’s taking longer. I’d like to stay here as long as I can, actually, yeah.

Raph:  Awesome. Thanks for your time.

Giovanni:  Thank you guys.

[end of transcript]

“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.”

– Leonardo Da Vinci

A specialist discipline in itself, Packaging Design is in many cases as important as the product it houses, its about much more than just whacking the product in a box. Packaging not only shows off the product within or focuses the consumers attention on the packaging itself and allures to the wondrous product that might lie within, but also deals with a raft of issues including allowing effective product inventory/tracking, safe transportation of the product, keeping the product intact and much more.

For those who wish to learn more about the discipline of Packaging Design or want to be inspired by all manner of amazing and awe inspiring packaging designs from across the globe then Boxed and Labelled – New Approaches to Packaging Design is the book for you.

Boxed and Labelled kicks off with a few very insightful pages on the discipline of packaging design, starting with the history of packaging pre 20th Century and moving on into the development of packaging in the 21st Century. Readers are then given an excellent overview of what packaging design is about and the job of a packaging designer, which then culminates in a couple of paragraphs on the future of packaging, Smart Packaging. Smart Packaging is predicted to appear in the next 10 years and according to the book smart packaging “will include nanotechnology in many applications: for tamper evidence, pack integrity, safety and quality traceability and product authenticity”.

Once the more insightful and academic side of the book is over you then have a choice of seven areas (chapters) of packaging to peruse, each with their own introduction on what the area of the book is focusing on and why, plus a little bit more insight into various areas of packaging design. There’s Strip Tease (Sweet & Seductive), From Container to Content (Reuse, Reuse, Reuse), Shades of Green (Taking Responsibility), Modularity (Building an Experience), Scantily Clad (The Virtue of the Minimal), The Gilded Cage (Desire Wrapped Up) and The New (Old-Fashioned).

Although the huge range of packaging in the book does make it hard to identify an overarching common thread or theme running through out the book (apart from just packaging). I think that to choose the designs to be showcased the editors went for designs that use unique colour palettes combined with minimalist design, plus a liberal use of recyclable or reusable materials/containers.

A few of my favourites from the book include Gloji designed by Peter Kao, Bootleg designed by Turner Duckworth, Azita’s All-Most-All-American-Rubs designed by Michael Freimuth, Nike Clot Airforce One packaging designed by Clot & Nike and Hangerpak designed by Steve Haslip.

If you’re an Industrial Designer, Product Designer or Packaging Designer searching for a bit of inspiration for the packaging on your next project, then look no further than Boxed and Labelled. Full of a mix of amazing concept and real life packaging examples, this book will inspire you to create stunning packaging.

Boxed and Labelled – New Approaches to Packaging Design is available on Amazon and Fishpond.

Andrew Fallshaw

1. Andrew, Welcome to Design Droplets. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, could you please give a quick introduction on yourself.

Thanks for asking Raph. I’ll give it a go…
I’m Andy/Ando/Roughnut, and I do a bunch of things these days to help establish and run really good businesses, while also hopefully contributing a few useful things to this world.

2. You started out as a designer at Rip Curl and eventually ended up as Global Chairman of Men’s Equipment and Board Shorts. Can you tell us a bit about this progression and transitioning from design to a more business focused role?

Haha, yeah, I guess there was a bit before Rip Curl that helped with that transition. I grew up in a family of wheel makers, where we’d talk business most nights around the dinner table. I then studied industrial design and product design, before finishing with a product design engineering degree.

So all of that, as well as some design and engineering consulting in Melbourne and London, gave me an almost completely irrelevant grounding to start designing hats, belts and accessories at Rip Curl. Basically, after returning from London, I approached Rip Curl because I really wanted to work for them. With no obvious openings for my direct skill set, they found a position that would let me get started with them, on a junior salary, but with a foot in the door.

I designed a couple of seasons of these apparel accessories, before an opening came up for a Product Manager of Bags and Equipment for the Australian division. Product Management is basically like being Steve Jobs for your division (although with 1/20th his talent). You work on briefs, marketing, strategy and sales, trying to grow your successes and improve your offerings. So if you are a pretty diverse designer who is used to getting involved in the business and marketing aspects, it can be a nice transition.

Our Australian team did well, so we scored more of a global gig. We then did well globally, so I was also asked to help with the global boardshort program. Because boardshorts are the lead product category for a surf brand’s marketing, that role involved loads of global coordination to get agreement on key trends and directions between all the Rip Curl regions. Then boardshorts was doing well, so after 4 years in the company, I thought I should go and become a novice again, at which point I left to become self employed.

Very Protective Wallet - Bellroy

3. There are plenty of Design Droplets readers who would love to work at Rip Curl, can you give us an insight into design and company culture at Rip Curl?

It’s diverse, depending on the division and the region you’re in. All the cliche stuff is there… you go to work in shorts and flip-flops, and if you score a good position you get to travel the world, with regular meetings in Bali, Hawaii, California, and the Basque coast, and sourcing trips throughout South East Asia. You surf at lunch, you surf with your boss, and if you don’t surf, you sometimes feel a little left out.

But like any successful company, there’s also long hours and shitty jobs to get done. There’s 4 seasons to get out each year, so it’s fast paced design without much down time. Some regions are more rewarding than others, and some divisions churn through the staff faster than others. But what seems to be the special part of a surf company is that you’re surrounded by crew that love the surf lifestyle, and so you don’t mind a few late nights or stress monkey situations, because you know you’ll get to go surf tomorrow.

Investling Companies

4. Since leaving Rip Curl you have founded and been a director of several companies and you also run Investling, a small investment group that loves building value from good ideas. Can you tell us a bit about your experiences founding and growing businesses?

Yeah, it’s a pretty massive change. A few of us founded Investling together, so thankfully I’ve had some awesome talent to lean on. We started with Electrodrive, a business that helps people move heavy loads with the help of battery powered goodness (from moving heavy hospital beds to small aircraft). We then also bought into the IT business that my brother had started, and we began to look for opportunities that would fit with our skill sets and staff talents.

We thought opportunities might be hard to find, but they started flowing really quickly. Either from clients we worked with, friends we rated, or ideas from along the way, we pretty quickly started spotting gaps that really should be filled. My bro and Lina (the other founder) are really switched on with supply chain, business systems, and programming, so it’s a really neat fit with my design, marketing and brand skills.

The risk side is not too bad, because we’re pretty lean with the way we start our businesses. We try to get something simple and focused to market, and if that proves there’s a gap that we’re filling, we start to scale up the resources behind it. We make sure that any business has a switched on leader who can spend at least 51% of their time on that business, and then we bring the network of resources in to support them.

So I feel really lucky to be able to work from home, work on businesses rather than just in them, and get to see our joint decisions leveraged by great teams. Happy days.

Ultimate Bag - Rip Curl

5. At Investling the focus is on building value from good ideas, what is your process for identifying a good idea?

I guess each of our businesses has been built around an insight, and those insights are usually about identifying an unmet or wrongly met need. But that’s only a tiny part of it…

For strong value to be added, you need the right business model, resources and processes to come around that idea. OK, so that’s sounding like wank. Ummm, go to http://investling.com/approach , and you’ll see how much time we spend trying to understand patterns in this world. We read, discuss and seek out ideas from loads of sources, so that when we look into the world, we can sometimes see when there are incomplete systems that we might be able to improve. Darn, that still sounds like wank…

Bellroy Wallet Range

6. What advice would you give to designers who are considering starting their own companies/business?

Design is only a tiny part of the picture. Unless you fluke it, you need lots more skills that just design to make a successful business. Either go out and get those skills (marketing, sales, business, etc), or find some partners that have all that and need a designer like you.

If you want a comfortable and predictable life, don’t start a business. Just go and work for someone. If you still want to give business a try, please don’t start a T Shirt brand. Or a magazine. Start with something that doesn’t have 3000 other people starting that every second of every day. Look for the niches, the things that are not so obvious. It will be much easier to succeed.

7. How important is organisation and focus to developing a business or bringing your designs into the world? Any tips on being organised and keeping focused?

Someone has to be organised. It doesn’t have to be you, but it really helps if it is. Too many designers think it’s OK to be all scatter brained and ‘arty creative’, when it’s just not (you create headaches all around you). Designers should deal well with constraints, and that means they need some structure. Read Getting Things Done. It’s a cracker, with some nice zen appeal. When you learn to get the simple things in life organised, it frees you up to be more creative. Strange but true.

Rip Curl Luggage

8. You have a fair amount of experience in the manufacturing area, if a designer is looking to get their products manufactured what 5 things are most important for them to consider?

Without the right marketing ideas, business model, distribution model, supply chain and business ecosystem, a product is a paper weight. Design is only one small piece of the puzzle, and you need to get most of the other pieces sorted for a design to work commercially. So having said all that, here are 5 things that might help with the design part of the puzzle:

1. To borrow a line from IDEO, prototype, prototype, prototype. A CAD drawing does not count as a prototype. You really want to be holding and playing with physical prototypes that trick your brain into thinking they are using the real thing.

2. Chose trustworthy partners. You’ll need loads of help and guidance, and you want someone that will stop you before you charge ahead with a dumb decision.

3. Don’t spend all your money on the first cut. We rarely get things right the first time, so save some coins for when you realise the changes you should have made.

4. Bust your gut working and reworking the design, but don’t let pursuing perfection paralyse you (paraphrasing Churchill). There’s a great Kent Bec quote that I think every designer needs to understand:

“By far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a reluctance to trade the dream of success for the reality of feedback.”

5. Customers rarely pay extra for ‘eco’, but it helps get them across the line. Some good first steps in achieving more responsible design seem to be make the design better (so people use it for longer), and eliminate the worst toxins (like PVC phthalates).

Bellroy - Carryologists

9. What are your thoughts on the current state of Design education? What do you think designers coming out of University really need to know?

Ummm, I hope I don’t piss too many designers off with this call, but I think big chunks of the graduating Product Design world are stuck in the 80′s (when their lecturers last worked). The 2 biggest gaps I see in lots of new designers are fashion and product humility.

By fashion, I mean a great understanding of current trends. Products are sold into marketplaces, and you need to understand what is going on in that marketplace. What are crew wearing and reading and thinking and digging? What are the cool brands and why are they cool? Sometimes you can rebel against this, but only if you really understand your user.

Sony has not been cool for years, because they are stuck believing ergonomics matter, when the whole world has shifted to User Interface and Experience. If you still think Sony is cool, you need to get out more. Time in retail is awesome for this. You graduate believing that designing a product with a dolphin as inspiration is cool, then you get in retail, and realise that no-one gives a shit about the designer’s inspiration. In fact, no one cares about the designer full stop.

Which leads me on to product humility. Our world is full of stuff. If you look at Japanese design (other than their sports cars), products are generally styled really minimally so that they fit with all the other products in your world. Nothing clashes too badly, as most products are clean and geometric. Then look at US design, where every product is trying to be a hero of curves and effects. Everything clashes with everything else, and the consumer’s world becomes garish and confusing (don’t get me started on Dyson). Graduates often try to put too much design into an object. We shouldn’t see the designer in a product. That’s distracting.

Rip Curl - The Search

10. In terms of current trends are there any companies or people that you think are doing really great, innovative and interesting things?

Yeah, there’s a small wallet brand called Bellroy… sorry, couldn’t resist. Ummm, yeah, for sure. Nike continues to blow me away with their resistance to mediocrity. Some of the stuff they are doing in Japan and the NSW and ACG stuff is still amazing, in a way that few big companies manage to maintain.

Apple is stupidly incredible, but everyone knows that.

And a huge hero is IKEA. To produce so many reasonably desirable products at such radically low prices is just awe inspiring. They have to massage so many constraints, and yet they still manage a creative and interesting output. Big heroes.

I haven’t mentioned any ‘star designers’ there. I guess that gets back to product humility. I don’t want a Marc Newson or Phillipe Stark design. That ends up more like art than design. I want products from a great brand that connect with my values. The designers should disappear into that brand, and contribute to products that heighten that brand’s appeal.

Plastic Castors

11. Andrew, thanks for taking the time to talk with us here at Design Droplets. Do you have any final thoughts or advice for Design Droplets readers?

Do more: Design more. Make more. Fail more. Get feedback on those failures. If you raise your output, your quality will rise faster than if you remain precious with it. That’s what I’ve found anyway

The Audio Design Museum is a new project developed by the team at Object: Australian Centre for Craft & Design as part of their new digital strategy. Basically they have created downloadable audio walking tours chronicling the design communities in the design precincts across Australia’s major Design hubs, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

I haven’t had a chance to test out the audio with the actual walking tour yet, but I have downloaded and had a quick listen to the Melbourne ones already, it’s sounding promising. Hopefully I will be able to road the Fliners Lane or Melbourne City tour test next time I have a spare moment in Melbourne’s CBD.

“The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.”

— Victor Papanek

The Unitec Design Graduate show is on again in 2010 and they are releasing their grads into the world on the 24th of November with a Grad Show Opening Party (free and open to the public). Disciplines exhibiting include Product Design, Architecture, Design & Visual Arts and  Landscape Architecture.

Dates:

Thur 25 – Sat 27 November, 10am – 4pm (free and open to the public).

Grad Show Opening Party (free and open to the public).

• Wed 24 November 2010 from 5.30pm
• Prizegiving at 6.30pm in the Marquee
• Live music & refreshments throughout the evening.
• Final year student publication ‘Asylum’ for sale.

Location: Unitec – Building 1, Entry 1, Carrington Rd, Mt Albert

“An inspired mix of exhibitions, industry events, guest speakers, networking opportunities and new talent from the entire Faculty of Creative Industries and Business.”

Reid Douglas & Mark Wu Tri-Cast. A system to replace 'moonboots' to aid in the support and rehabilitation of people with broken ankles.

Converge, AUT University’s first Product Design Graduate Exhibition, part of the School of Art + Design’s new AD10 (Art + Design) Festival, will feature the first ever graduating cohort of the Product Design students in the Bachelor of Design and a small number postgraduate students also specialising in product design. This is a fantastic opportunity to see, feel, touch and watch an amazing and varied array of student design work.

Location: AUT University, Auckland – WS218 and WS219 (Science and Engineering Building)

The AD10 Festival will be open to the public and run for 4 days from the 11th to 14th of November 2010. – with the AUT Rookie Fashion Show taking place on the 11 of November (8pm – Shed 12, Rhubarb Lane, 90 Wellesley St West).

The festival will be open from 10am -7pm Thursday to Saturday, and 10am-3pm on Sunday.

Reid Douglas Herb Garden. A mini garden and watering system for growing herbs indoors using recycled tin cans.

The undergraduate student work on display represents the outcomes of their in-depth project undertaken over a whole semester.

The emphasis of the project is on human-centred design research processes and the generation of key insights that lead to innovative product design outcomes.

The work presents an exciting and diverse range of issues, approaches, and design methodologies. A number of students have been sponsored by leading New Zealand companies including Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, Zespri and Trade Aide.

Mark Wu Valet Chair. This chair is based on the notion of 'valet' as a servant in the home and is designed to provide a place for your belongings as well as use as a chair.

The postgraduate student work on display represents the outcomes of an in-depth research project undertaken over the year including the theoretical and applied exploration of product design ideas and issues. This includes product design for eco-sustainable surfboards, socially engaging public furniture and waste management in apartments. The students and staff look forward to seeing you at the exhibition.

The Festival also includes together student work from the other six disciplines that make up the School of Art + Design including, Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Spatial, Textiles and Visual Arts.

Endy Loa &WadeVeldsman COPD Breathing Device. This mobile air pump is designed to allow patients with respiratory problems to take short walks away from oxygen machines.