Design Talks

Jerrycan inspires e-bike

2012-05-13T10:57:54Z

One+ is an intriguing concept. Vehicle designer Fernando Ocana has created a conceptual electric bike designed specifically to transport clean water from place to place in the developing world.

The lead designer at pioneering electric car company Think, Ocana’s design is an unusual electric motorcycle inspired by the simplicity of the bicycle so that it is simple to produce and easy to maintain.

He says he was inspired by locally available material such as the jerrycan which he notes is a ‘common approach for the developing-world scenario.’

Ocana used rough plastics in the construction to keep costs low and weight nimble. The overall shape works around the need for it to hold the water containers, which can be removed and replaced as users fill up their jerrycans.

The wheels are made of rubber to absorb any shocks and impacts. This is where the battery and engine are stored to meet the renewable energy capacity in the developing world.

Ocana says the idea for the in-wheel electric engine and batteries came as an attempt to match the intensive developments in solar and wind power that are taking place through developing regions such as Central Africa.

Ocana was sponsored by Japanese carmaker Honda through the ‘mobility for the masses’ project when he was completing his masters in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art in London.

For more visit his site.
Read our review of Monoform by Ocana.

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Exhibitions: Bauhaus Art as Life

2012-05-13T10:57:02Z

It is near impossible to be a designer in this day and age and not have been in one way or another influenced by the Bauhaus. The modern world’s most famous art school operated relatively briefly – between 1919 and 1933 – yet it changed the way we see, think and create. Bauhaus united art and technology, its utopian vision sought to change society in the aftermath of the First World War.

Founded by architect Walter Gropius, the school changed location in Germany from its first home in Weimar to Dessau and finally Berlin before its members were dispersed before the Second World War. Even after its avant-garde teachers and pupils had emigrated to Europe, the US and beyond, the Bauhaus style remained the most influential movement in design and architecture.

It seems completely fitting that the Barbican – itself a brilliant example of 60s utopian thinking – should host one of the most comprehensive, and exciting, exhibition in the UK in over 40 years.

Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the diverse artistic production which made up its turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age. The exhibition features a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation.

There are examples on display from teachers at the school including Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stölzl.

It features a host of workshops, talks, films and performances as well as the Bauhaus Summer School, an intensive two-week school held at the Barbican and led by leading practitioners from all artistic backgrounds. In short, this is an exhibition not to be missed by anyone interested in design.

Bauhaus: Art as Life  is at the Barbican in London, UK from 3 May to 12 August 2012 .
The exhibition in co-operation with Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Museum für Gestaltung, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

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Designer Talks: Tom Dixon

2012-05-09T06:23:33Z

Tom Dixon discusses the parallels between nationality and creativity at the 2012 Milan Furniture Fair. In the latest video from Nowness experts Carlo Lavagna and Roberto De Paolis the British industrial designer talks of his likes of Lee Broom, La Chance, and Noé Duchaufour Lawrence. Watch the video here.

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Colour One for Mini at Milan

2012-05-03T17:40:04Z

Colour One is the work of Dutch design duo Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings of Scholten & Baijings, created for Salone del Mobile 2012. It aims to explore the design of the Mini One, the marque’s base model, by dissecting the car – examining its composition. It draws on the familiar stylistic devices of Scholten & Baijings who deal mainly with colour and material.

Working with the Mini design team, the Dutch duo almost peeled the car, removing layers for a closer look at the individual components, adding colour and texture to the stripped parts.

The result is quite intriguing as these so called ‘art parts’ – components that were extracted as a whole – take on a very different personality once removed from the car.

The transparent tyres, for instance, in their deconstructed form are made of cast resin produced in cooperation with industrial designer and polyester specialist Vincent de Rijk. Or the seats and seatbelts have been lined with specially developed fabrics and recall the brand’s rally heritage.

The doors have been taken out and are displayed separately from the car with three-dimensional golden textures or a matt porcelain paint finish developed jointly with Mini.

Colour One was exhibited at Milan as part of the Interni Legacy exhibition at the University of Milan. See our report from last year here. Also read our reports on Salone del Mobile 2011.

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Twizy electric mobility pod

2012-04-28T12:25:15Z

The Twizy sets out to carve a new niche in personal mobility. Producer Renault refers to it as a ‘UDO’ as in unidentified driving object. Essentially a quadricycle, the diminutive hub is 2.34m long and 1.24m wide, can sit two and is available with or without doors.

An all-electric engine powers the car, which on the more powerful model of the two accelerates to 28mph in six seconds and offers a top speed of just over 50 miles.

The battery promises a 50-mile range in eco-mode and it takes 3.5 hours to fully charge. A bright blue wire extension fits neatly into the car’s nose and works with any household plug.

We drove the two models around Ibiza and it proved to be a rather fun companion on the roads of Europe’s party island. Read the full report published in Wallpaper*.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

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Salone del Mobile 2012 highlights

2012-04-26T19:25:14Z

The design world congregated on Milan last week for Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Europe’s leading design fair in Milan. To mark its 51^st year, the fair set its focus on technology and its influence on design. This is a vast show, spanning most of Milan with its hub at the exhibition centre in Rho. Read the report published in Wallpaper*.

We reported on the Heineken sponsored concept club design earlier. Plus read our reports from the 2011 Salone del Mobile here.

Watch the making of the Heineken pop up club

Salone Internazionale del Mobile will run 17-22 April.

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Technology as art: data.anatomy[civic]

2012-05-18T16:11:12Z

Finding beauty in complex mathematical data is essentially at the heart of one of the latest art/car collaborations. Japanese digital composer and artist Ryoji Ikeda has translated the entire data of the new Honda Civic into an audiovisual installation with intriguing results.

Exhibited at MUMA (Kraftwerk) on a bespoke 20-meter by 4-meter wall – the giant robust concrete warehouse in East Berlin admittedly adding to the theatrical drama – data.anatomy[civic] is a twelve-minute video art with sensual fast-moving imagery and hypnotic music. It is a visual and sensory treat.

The project started in early 2011 with development leader of the new Civic Mitsuru Kariya allowing Ikeda complete access to the CAD data of the car. ‘This information is confidential and top secret like a CIA file,’ muses the artist following the screening, ‘and we felt huge responsibility.’

Then came the difficult task of translating it all into visual and audio form. ‘When I saw the data I felt like a microcosm – it is so detailed,’ he says. It took around 3000 engineers over four years to create this. ‘And I had to respect what they do.’

Working with his team at the studios in Paris and Tokyo, Ikeda analysed the data and began to compose his work. ‘A Civic consists of thousands and thousands of tiny parts,’ he says. ‘It is like a human – there are so many organs in it – and that inspired me.’

Asked if the sound triggered the music or the music the sound, Ikeda notes that the process was essentially democratic. ‘The colours, frequencies, music – all come together. It is mostly a mathematical operation.’ Honda’s Kariya later remarked that he could almost see the engineers and designers involved in the project in Ikeda’s installation.

Ikeda’s compositions often involve visualising complex data – subject matters have included NASA – although with Honda the process was more complex. He explains: ‘It was the little things – the tyre, the wing all three-dimensional figures - having to translate all this data into my computer language first.’

He insists he worked with the entire data and took almost a crash course in car construction. ‘I knew what the data meant,’ he assures me. ‘You are watching entire parts but the frame set is so fast your brain cannot make them out.’ Every single part is used in the installation.

Ikeda believes data can be beautiful. ‘It is pure information. This is very abstract – a pure mathematical model,’ he adds.

He admits that the Honda team have created a substantial and functional product. ‘I’m making art, which is useless, but to be enjoyed. You can’t find meaning. You can say its enjoyable, boring or whatever – it is just art.’

But why work with data? ‘This is very contemporary technology and I am doing contemporary art,’ says Ikeda, before adding: ‘I’m not doing paintings and it is very natural to use this technology.’

Commerce will always be flirting with art. In many ways they need each other to survive – one for creative recognition, the other simply to survive.

In the case of data.anatomy[civic] and others that we’ve reported on – light designer Paul Cocksedge’s collaborative lamp with BMW Sestoseno shown at Milan last year and the Mini-sponsored sculpture this year – the viewer almost needs to eliminate the sponsor and judge the work in isolation.

In this context Ikeda’s installation is a simple celebration of the intricacy and complexity of car making – of technology and of aesthetics where data almost becomes alchemy.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

data.anatomy[civic] is on at MUMA (Kraftwerk), Berlin until 1 May 2012. For more information visit here.

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Gerry McGovern on Land Rover design

2012-04-14T09:07:44Z

Jaguar Land Rover is having a bit of a renaissance. Owned by Tata Motors since 2008, the Indian firm is breathing life back into the two brands, encouraging them to explore their identities within the context of 21^st century aesthetic and functional needs.

Land Rover, in particular, has revealed an edgier side to its personality in recent years with cars like the Range Rover Evoque which has been an incredible success story for the company.

Designed to seduce young female buyers and tease customers from markets where there is less brand awareness, the car has brought 80% new customers to the marque. Back in March, at the Geneva Motor Show, Land Rover unveiled the Evoque Convertible concept – the same car minus a roof.

The firm also revealed another concept at the show. The DC100 is the marque’s vision for a modern Defender – a tricky car to redesign given its almost cult status amongst loyal customers who include the Queen.

We caught up with Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern at the show to find out more.

Design Talks. Why did you decide on the Evoque Convertible concept?

Gerry McGovern. This is a natural progression for Evoque. The car has been incredibly successful for us, not just in terms of sales but building brand momentum, relevance and global recognition. This concept is another twist on it really; I’d argue it is a natural progression and has a lot of appeal.

DT. Can you talk us through some of the design decisions?

GM. Generally convertibles tend to be quite parallel to the ground in terms of waistline – we had to make a decision to do this or work with the actual design of the Evoque, which is very dramatic.

So we came off the waistline and let is naturally progress round the back which gives you a back end that is higher than you would normally get on a convertible. However, this is not an ordinary convertible, it is a 4×4 for a start, it is also a Range Rover, so a luxury vehicle.

DT. How closely will a possible production car follow this design?

GM. There is still more refinements to be done but I do think it lends itself beautifully to open road motoring in a Range Rover which we haven’t seen before. We’ve seen it in Land Rover Defenders in a functional sense but not in this context.

DT. Do you see the car going into production?

GM. Depending on the reaction at the show it will give us the impetus to put it into production.

I would look to simplifying it a little – the feature line that is there for the hood mechanism, I’d like to see that hidden, more integrated. It will take some clever packaging but we can do that.

DT. The Defender is arguably Land Rover’s most iconic model. This is a real-life off-roader and its design to date has heavily reflected the car’s functionality. Why challenge this with the DC100?

GM. We haven’t done a Defender for 60 years, so why on earth would we try to replica a vehicle that looks 60 years old. The traditionalists would say we’ve gone far too far.

But, the manufacturing techniques for creating this vehicle are outmoded and it’s not a modern package so it is not legal in certain markets. The look is a pure consequence of its function and manufacturing and tooling at the time – pure form follows function. The world has moved on.

DT. The Defender has to be highly functional. How have you achieved this in the cabin?

GM. Inside is very elemental using durable material that is very functional – you can hose it out – but in a modern, robust way. It has floating seats as well as a central foldable one for your dog! This vehicle has to be very capable – you can kick the hell out of it and it’ll get up for more.

DT. Do you see this car entering production?

GM. Our design DNA is simple but to develop a modern day version is very complex. There is still more work to be done and on this particular design we will look at alternatives but the essence of what we have here is the right positioning to start.

DT. Land Rover is in the process of designing a whole new generation of vehicles and this includes replacing the ones that are at the end of their cycles. Tell us more.

GM. We are looking at where there are opportunities like with the Evoque to stretch the brand. Fundamental to the car is its design. Design has been around with Land Rover but it has usually played second bat to functionalism; this isn’t the case anymore. Design is now on an equal footing with engineering and that’s where it needs to be in a world where design is a fundamental differentiator.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

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F1 inspires men’s jewellery line

2012-04-12T19:15:43Z

The world of high-performance racing cars could not be further away than that of jewellery, so it was intriguing to see the outcome of a recent collaborative venture between the king of Formula One McLaren and jeweller Links of London.

Fashion is often flirting with carmakers. High-end brands such as Rolls Royce, Bentley and Aston Martin are forever commissioning luxury marques such as Louis Vitton to create bespoke luggage for them, or to help style a one-off car. Sadly, the outcome isn’t always that inspiring.

Here, however, the results are quite different. The small collection of men’s jewellery and accessories, which go on sale this month, really do capture the spirit of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 cars.

The process was quite simple. Links of London’s creative director for men’s jewellery Philippe Cogoli visited the McLaren Technical Centre, met with some of the team including director of engineering Tim Goss to get a feel for how McLaren operates and what this company stands for.

Anyone who has visited the Foster-designed building (and DT has done here) cannot help be captivated not just by the architecture, but the whole immaculate set-up where company boss Ron Dennis famously scrutinises each and every move, down to the daily flower arrangement in the lobby and the various contemporary art pieces that sit alongside old F1 cars and a cabinet proudly displaying the company’s many, many racing wins.

This is where Cogoli went to get inspired, returning to his London headquarters with some screws and bolts leftover from making the latest F1 car for inspiration. His collection is clearly mechanically inspired. It captures what McLaren stands for which on the one hand is movement and energy, and on the other, first class engineering and the use of very sophisticated material that are needed to create these ultimate speed machines.

We caught up with the Cogoli and Goss in London before the launch at the McLaren Automotive showroom in One Hyde Park to find out more.

DT What is the first thing you consider when designing a F1 car?

Goss The process will invariably start with a brainstorming session when we work out how to extract the most performance from the constraints the regulations place on us. In the face of obstacles we are constantly challenging mechanical design requirements.

DT What attracted the two companies to one another?

Cogoli Both brands share a similar philosophy of excellence in their fields, of producing products with a purpose, of pushing the boundaries with design and they share a pride in being British.

DT Was it difficult to marry these very different worlds of F1 and jewellery?

Cogoli Yes definitely – it was a real challenge. By essence they are totally different in their own environment, therefore only some of the elements were transferable and so a certain amount of subtlety was required to achieve products that are wearable but with a distinctive look.

DT Were there any similarities in the process and your design steps?

Goss Research is definitely a stage that both Philippe and I go through. Through our research activities this may be finding new materials, or inventing new systems, the overall philosophy and layout of the car starts to take shape. Though clearly the activities are different the process the same.

DT What was the starting point for you in terms of the design process?

Cogoli The starting point was learning more about the McLaren organisation and DNA, and translating this into the jewellery world, ensuring the core values of both brands were represented.

DT Philippe was working with different materials for this collection, how do you work through the challenges of complex material development?

Goss Material development and production processes are often what make the unachievable achievable. We place impossible demands on designers to achieve an aerodynamic. The resolution is to maybe find a new material or to rethink an existing one.

DT What aspect of the cars most inspired the jewellery collection?

Cogoli Various spare parts of the car, high-tech material and functionality. In addition we used inspiration from the McLaren Technology Centre, taking the trademark screw used in the building (which appears in the jewellery collection).

DT How closely did you follow the technical components of the car when designing the jewellery?

Cogoli Various parts of the car provided inspiration loosely but a balance has to be achieved between the engineering and the fashion/jewellery world.

DT What inspired you the most when you visited MTC?

Cogoli The level of perfection and ultimate achievement of the highest standard with every aspect of their field, from small details through to the overall futuristic building.

DT What inspired the men’s accessories range?

Cogoli The idea behind the small leather goods was to introduce a touch of high-tech material such as Kevlar – well known in the car industry – and a hardware piece integrated into the shape inspired by the rear of the F1 car.

DT Did you have a specific male customer in mind when designing the line?

Cogoli From the start it was clear that McLaren Sport and Links of London share a similar type of customer so it was very clear to whom the collection should be aimed. After that the aim was building a collection that allowed that customer to purchase a piece suited to their own personality.

DT Both the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 car and the jewellery collection are functional yet surprisingly elegant. How do you achieve this?

Goss The car is designed to great precision, down to the paint thickness, which may alter its aerodynamic profile. It’s the weightlessness of the car that gives it its elegance. Philippe in his collection has brought that elegance and precision with the end result being engineered art.

DT For you what were the major challenges of working with automotive designers?

Cogoli The major challenge was to create a jewellery line that best mirrored the intricacies, precise engineering and technical brilliance of an F1car. I believe the shapes we have chosen and the fabrics we have used have helped us to achieve this.

DT Do you have any plans to design another collection – perhaps one for women?

Cogoli Hopefully this is just a start of a long and successful collaboration and additional designs are in study. The option for a unisex line is open to development.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

Israeli designers exhibit at Holon

2012-04-24T17:22:35Z

For a taste of design in Israel today, head to Holon for the Holon Design Week and supporting Designer Plus Ten exhibition at Design Museum Holon.

This is the first time the museum will curate an exhibition that focuses exclusively on local talent. Expect designers from textiles, fashion, jewellery, industrial design and digital and visual communication to exhibit their work.

Participants include Daniel Gassner and Ori Saidi (Ototo), Itamar Burstein, Alon Shoavi, Asaf Hanuka, Yaron shine, Shelly Satat and Elon Kombor (CoupleOf).

Designers Plus Ten is on from 8 April to 20 May 2012, Design Week Holon is on from 8 – 11 April 2012 at Design Museum Holon, Israel