I Like Local*

Doba Lamp

2012-05-28T13:16:00.000+01:00

Designed by Porto-based studio Gud Conspiracy, Doba is a lamp made adjustable by an old-fashioned Portuguese technique to wind skeins of wool using a tool called a 'dobadoura'. The lamp's hardwood frame mimics the tool, with notches guiding the rich red chord around the upper part of the frame and protrusions lower down around which the chord can be wrapped. Loosen the lamp's chord and choose the height and angle you want to direct the light, then wrap and secure the chord below. More images below (I think they describe the lamp better than I can...)

(Images via Gud Conspiracy)

Uncorked Potential

2012-05-24T16:37:00.000+01:00

Cork is an interesting material: reusable and fully biodegradable, water resistant, maleable, light and buoyant. It grows on cork oak trees, and those trees do not need to be cut down in order for cork to be harvested. Rather, cork can be extracted from the tree's bark without any harm done to the tree itself, and the bark regenerates itself completely, getting smoother each time. Apparently a cork tree can be harvested safely approximately 20 times in its lifecycle, making cork a highly eco-friendly material with little impact on the environment.

The cork oak tree is indigenous to the western Mediterranean, and more than 50% of the world's cork is produced here in Portugal. It's an industry under threat as more and more wine producers are switching to screw caps instead of corked bottles (I've yet to come across a screw cap on a bottle of Portuguese wine though - how's that for solidarity?!). Given its importance to the Portuguese economy, as well as its unique set of qualities, designers here are looking at new ways of employing cork. In 2011 ExperimentaDesign (Lisbon's design biennale, its next edition will be EXD '13, from September to November 2013) teamed up with Portuguese manufacturer Amorim to produce a range of new cork products entitled 'Materia', which were then showcased both at EXD '11 and at Salone del Mobile in Milan that same year. A number of local and international designers were invited to contribute to the collection, resulting in a range of fun/ctional objects using cork in clever ways.

Above are items from the collection by international designers. 'Bote', pictured second from the very top, by Swiss studio Big-Game utilises cork's buoyancy by creating a set of playful boats. Above, 'Pinha' by London-based Raw Edges is an adjustable lamp: pin the shade at the level you want for varying shapes and differences in the amount of light emitted.

'Senta' by Portuguese designer Fernando Brízio is pictured above. Possibly best known for his marker-stained dresses, Brízio makes use of the lightweight nature of cork by producing a portable stool. Below is another Portuguese design: 'Pino' by Lisbonite Daniel Caramelo. 'Pino' - again portable - is a voodoo-inspired pin board. Keep your notes close and your enemies closer...

(All images by Luís Silva Campos)

Tilewatch

2012-05-22T10:00:00.000+01:00

Since moving to Lisbon I've been taking a lot of photos of the all the tiles totally covering the place. I thought I'd gather them together on a Tumblr called Tilewatch and it's over here. Enjoy!

Patterns on Plates

2012-05-20T16:42:00.000+01:00

I've recently had my interest in pattern reignited. Some of this is probably down to the prevalence of prints in a lot of spring/summer collections (and an iPad subscription to Harper's Bazaar to tell me this), and some of it certainly comes from relocating to a city covered in patterned tiles (more on this to come...). I guess patterns provide a unique opportunity to explore colour and form within some sort of a framework: symmetry and repetition underpin everything, and no matter how many shapes, lines, colours or textures you use, ultimately there's a common thread running through. Aspects repeat and things come full circle: you know where you stand with a good pattern.

Catarina Carreiras is a Portuguese-born designer who's worked on a number of projects with and for Fabrica, Benetton's creative lab. One such project, a collaboration with French designer Sam Baron, is Benetton's 2011 home collection. Along with some brightly-coloured cutlery, Carrieras and Baron designed a range of ceramic- and glassware using bold patterns and bright colours. Utilising quite simple, graphic patterns they succeeded in designing a range good enough to eat (off of).

(All images by Gustavo Millon / Fabrica. Styling by Catarina Carreiras and Valentina Carretta)

Ideas for Lisbon

2012-05-18T16:20:00.001+01:00

While walking along Rua Augusta on Wednesday I saw a massive operation going on at MUDE, Portugal's Museum of Design and Fashion: a number of people atop cherry-pickers applying thousands of Post-Its to the building's large protruding sign. My first thought was, 'ah, those designers and their Post-Its', thinking of one of the industry's popular brain-storming tools. As it turns out, MUDE is working with Lisbon's city council on something of a very large-scale brainstorming exercise. Being officially opened on Wednesday of next week by the city's mayor, these Post-Its (55,000 in total) are in place for the people of Lisbon to contribute their ideas for the future of the city. Entitled 'Ideias para Lisboa/Ideas for Lisbon', this project aims to inspire active citizenship and more open communication with the city council, who are committing €2.5 million this year to the implementation of citizens' ideas.

Ideias para Lisboa gives the people of the city an opportunity to speak their mind on the place where they live and work, and the council who looks after it. They can do so in a prominent space in the city (MUDE is situated on one of Lisbon's busiest shopping streets, leading onto the iconic Praça do Comércio), so hopefully the location of the project encourages a strong and meaningful engagement from the public. And hopefully a strong engagement from the public in a very prominent place ensures the city council listens to that public, takes note of their ideas and Lisbon sees positive change in its services, spaces and more in the future. It's no coincidence that the location for Ideias para Lisboa is MUDE, the Museum of Design and Fashion set to celebrate its third anniversary: 'mude' is the Portuguese word for 'change'.

Mag Kiosk

2012-05-09T17:38:00.001+01:00

(Image of Mag Kiosk via Visao)

The neighbourhood I live in in Lisbon is called Alcântara, which is a little west of the city centre, right underneath the 25 April bridge. It's a nice neighbourhood, and one of the highlights is a place called LX Factory. LX Factory is a complex of restaurants, bars, shops and studios, so-named because they're housed in former factory buildings. I've been finding myself in LX Factory regularly - mainly to attend dance classes (it's like exercise but not mind-numbingly boring), often to grab a coffee and occasionally to pick up a magazine or two in Mag Kiosk.

Mag Kiosk is housed in a portacabin situated just in the entrance of LX Factory. It's got a great range of Portuguese and international magazines covering art, culture, architecture, design, fashion, technology and probably more. I recently called in to check out what Portuguese publications were covering design and architecture. There are two magazines produced here on the subject - that are stocked in Mag Kiosk, at any rate - called Arqa and Index Newspaper.

In particular, I quite liked Index Newspaper. Not only is it bilingual (which does help), this tri-monthly newsprint magazine produced in Porto is really nicely designed by Porto-based studio Volta. The magazine is laid-out in such a way as to give the content plenty of breathing space, with an emphasis on a great type choice and strong images. The striking cover illustration for issue two (pictured above) is by Miguel Almeida. I'm looking forward to issue three (out in July) already :)

Design for Life Raffle

2012-05-07T16:59:00.001+01:00

A group of Irish designers - led by Jenny Walsh - have come together to raffle a wide range of objects and services in aid of Cystic Fibrosis research in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital. So far over 20 designers and creatives have donated prizes for the raffle including furniture, textiles, jewellery and photography services, such as the striking green side tables above by Klimmek - Henderson. My favourite of the prizes on offer has to be the skipping rope by Nick Barker of UpCycle, below. Made entirely of PET bottles harvested and reprocessed in Ireland - even the rope itself - it's a really attractive product: proof of how fresh and new recycled objects can feel, and evidence of the immense potential of seemingly ordinary raw materials.

So for a chance to win some top-notch Irish design while supporting a really great cause, visit www.designforliferaffle.com for more information on the prizes and to buy tickets! Tickets are available now for €5 or €10 for three from the website. The draw will take place on 7 June (exactly one month from now) and the prizes will be on display in the Irish Design Shop in the RHA, Dublin 2 from 1 to 7 June if you need any more convincing, though I hope you don't :)

Storytelling

2012-05-04T21:37:00.000+01:00

Last night saw the opening of Storytelling: a joint exhibition by costume and prop designers Harmless Creatures and illustrator and fashion designer Kitty Moss in two locations in Dublin. Obviously I couldn't make it, but Kitty and the Creatures were kind enough to send me some images and a film so I didn't miss out entirely :)

Over in the Market Studios on Halston Street Harmless Creatures exhibit Oz, an exploration of Frank L. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The exhibition brings to life the characters of the Cowardly Lion, the Straw Man and the Tin Woodsman (pictured above) through costume, photography and film, in collaboration with photographer Philip White. The Creatures' costumes seem to utilise a minimum of materials to maximum effect, taking the bare essence of each character and amplifying it through texture and intricate layering. Take a look at the video below and I think you'll agree.

Meanwhile, Kitty Moss presents Maud & Minet in the Little Green Street Gallery on Little Britain Street. Maud and Minet are ghostly characters that Moss illustrates (above), and these characters have inspired a capsule collection. The show features the collection amid a multimedia installation, showcasing a set of garments with an old-world elegance in an eery setting.

Both exhibitions run until 7 May in each location, and I recommend you get over and see them - if you don't live in Lisbon you don't have an excuse ;)

Considering Design at the Humanscale

2012-04-30T09:00:00.000+01:00

(Diffrient World Chair)

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #262

A highly technical product with a close relationship to everyday life and the human body, few objects need to balance form and function and adhere to ergonomics like the office chair. A market long dominated by Hermann Miller and Knoll, the last decade or so has seen the rise a new player called Humanscale, providing us with task furniture with the most comfort using the least amount of materials and fuss. And what is Humanscale’s secret? A passion for performance, comfort and ease of use, and a designer called Niels Diffrient. Diffrient, now in his eighties and still designing, has developed three of Humanscale’s biggest success stories – the Freedom, Liberty and Diffrient World chairs. I spoke to Niels about his process and principles, and how important it is to provide good design solutions for the workplace.

What is it that sparked your interest firstly in design and secondly in task furniture?
I elected to study aeronautical engineering in school. A fellow student told me there were more girls in art, so I changed to art which led to design. During my college years, I worked for Eero Saarinen on a chair while studying design and architecture at Cranbrook Academy.

Irish architect Kevin Roche also spent some of his formative years working in with Eero Saarinen. Can you tell me a little about that?
Working with Saarinen on his furniture designs, my drawing board was next to that of Kevin Roche. This was 1949-1953. We have been friends ever since.

Can you talk a little about the starting point you take for a design? Does the last design inform the next, does one chair lead from another?
Good design, like most creative efforts, builds on the past. It is essential to learn from past failures as well as successes. Business and government often seem oblivious to this fundamental rule. Currently, our society is fixated on short-term gain at the expense of long-term intelligence.

What design of yours are you proudest of?
All of them and none of them. I am currently working on one which builds on the past and I take pride in making each a degree better than the last.

(Freedom Family. All images courtesy of Humanscale)

Can you talk a little about the importance of sustainability in your work?
The key to sustainability is efficiency. A design should use less material and energy for the most useful result. There is too much wasteful, style-driven design that doesn’t last. No amount of recycling will equal using less in the first place.

Do you see a difference between today's young designers and older generations? Has the design process or the industry changed?
The people are the same; their circumstances are different. From a design standpoint, the sacrifice of the hand/mind link being replaced by the digital processor is the most threatening. The gains to be had by computer programmes should only be employed after establishing an objective through intimate personal process.

What are you working on now?
I only work on things, and with those people, that I feel good about. Currently it is largely for improving the experience for people in office work. This is the largest proportion of workers in our society. The Humanscale company is also dedicated to the same goal so this produces mutual satisfaction.

OFFSET2012, Part 2

2012-04-27T15:05:00.000+01:00

(Making Marks panel discussion in OFFSET second room)

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #262; read OFFSET2012 Part 1 here.

From Friday 9 to Sunday 11 March Ireland’s premier creative festival OFFSET returned for the third time to the newly-renamed Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Over 25 designers, illustrators, animators, artists and more from Ireland and all over the world presented their work and shared insights into their practices to attendees twice in excess of the last edition (my guess is there must have been about 1500 people there). Over the course of 3 days in 2 rooms from 10 in the morning to 7 in the evening we the audience were exposed to top-quality work from many disciplines and saw the fruits of ambition, determination and a whole lot of labour. And now to condense all of that creative inspiration into 800 words or less... here goes...

(Lettering by Jessica Hische)

Finding what you love and sticking to it
Though OFFSET consisted of almost 40 presentations, panel discussions and interviews, there were a number of common threads running through many of them. Finding what you love and sticking to it was definitely one of those threads, with US-based letterer Jessica Hische hammering that point home best with her explanation of ‘procrastiworking’. Procrastiworking is all the work Hische does when not working for her clients, from setting up websites like Inker Linker (creating a database of great printers all around the world) to Mom This is How Twitter Works. Hische firmly believes that by making time for the work you really like, it will have a positive impact on you and your client work, and if her bright, energy-filled client work is anything to go by, procrastiworking seems to have a very positive effect.

Taking risks ...
No one seems to me to take quite as many risks as Dutch advertising agency Kesselskramer, and Friday’s presentation by Erik Kessels was definitely one of my OFFSET highlights. To say that the practice is unorthodox is an understatement – from ads for the Netherlands’ Radio 1 that sparked complaints from animal rights activists to ads for mobile phone provider Ben that sparked complaints from human rights activists right down to an entire advertising campaign that pitched the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel as the world’s worst hotel, Kesselskramer approach their projects from any angle but the obvious one. Though it would be really hard to pick a favourite project from the ones shown by Kessels at OFFSET, one that certainly stuck in my mind was the stamp they created for TNT Post in the Netherlands – it’s a 30-frame lenticular stamp and those 30 frames are directed by Anton Corbijn, the Dutch director better known for directing ‘Control’, a feature film about Ian Curtis. It may have been the shortest smallest film ever made, but it got the red-carpet premiere treatment nonetheless.

... and learning from mistakes
For a man with such a massive amount of design experience and respect in the industry, Micheal Bierut has no qualms about sharing his mistakes. Bierut has been working with Pentagram for over 20 years and has been working in design a lot longer. Throughout that time he has received hundreds of design awards and accolades and has work featured in major design collections the world over. He’s also made a lot of mistakes and was keen to share with the OFFSET audience how much he has learned from all of them. His presentation passed on sound design advice not only of his own but also of his colleague Paula Scher and veteran designer and illustrator George Chwast, who both presented at OFFSET too. Nuggets such as ‘if you can’t make a good idea work, maybe it’s a bad idea’ and ‘the client is always (eventually) right’ could become mantras in any design studio, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them scrawled on a post-it above many a creative’s desk in Dublin from here on in. Bierut used examples such as his work on rebranding Saks Fifth Avenue, his signage for the New York Times building and his identity for the Museum of Arts and Design to illustrate the obstacles he’s overcome (some of which he readily admitted he had made for himself) in creating usable accessible design solutions.

(Michael Bierut. All images courtesy of OFFSET)

As all of us many attendees poured out of Bord Gáis Energy Theatre each evening, the energy and excitement all of us shared was palpable. OFFSET2012 provided the creative community in Dublin and beyond a real source of inspiration. Though a little tired after an intense weekend of presentations, parties, discussions and drinks, I have no doubt many creatives were keen to dive back into projects the following Monday, approaching their work with a newfound perspective and vigour and already looking forward to OFFSET2013...

SIT: 20 Chairs, 20 Architects

2012-04-24T14:58:00.000+01:00

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #262.

“What is it about designers and chairs?” exclaim my parents any time design comes up in conversation. The reality is that the chair is an object that has been central to life and culture for thousands of years, and as such has become the embodiment of the cultural changes and technological advancements designers love to celebrate in their exploration of an archetype. But I can never explain this to my parents as well as Deyan Sudjic described it in his 2008 publication The Language of Things:

“The chair ... has been around for at least three millennia – long enough for it to have assumed an authority of its own, distinct from that of the people who sit in it. In so doing, it has irretrievably confused sign with substance. There are seats of power, country seats, ex cathedra pronouncements, tenured chairs, and of course, chairmen, to say nothing of those occupying hot seats, driving seats, back seats and Cabinet seats. The chair is at heart an object that must be described as being useful, and yet it is also regarded as culturally significant because it has a long history that is so closely associated with so many purposes that go far beyond utility.”

O’Driscoll Furniture hosts an exhibition entitled 'SIT: 20 Chairs, 20 Architects’ in their showroom on Lombard Street, Dublin 2 until 19 May. The concept behind the exhibition is simple – 20 architects select a chair each to display, with an explanation of the importance of that chair to them. Some architects have chosen designs of their own, or chairs that have featured in spaces of their design, others have selected chairs that have a personal relevance or resonance. Needless to say there will be more than a few icons, such as Arne Jacobsen’s Egg Chair, pictured above. For more information, visit www.oddesign.com

Florafil

2012-04-18T17:26:00.000+01:00

Born here in Lisbon but having studied in Italy (via Belgium and the Netherlands), Tania da Cruz is a designer who values function and decoration in equal measure. Her work is instilled with a sense of humour too, such as Wig, a vase exhibited at Salone Satellite in 2011. Of her work, my favourite is Florafil, a botanically-inspired modular casing for wires, allowing you to hide a power chord while simultaneously making a feature of it...if that makes sense. Rather than try to tunnel a chord behind furniture or under a rug, Florafil embraces it (quite literally) as you run it along a wall. A playful, un-typical solution to a typical problem.

The Yellow Renovation

2012-04-14T18:48:00.000+01:00

When recently combing through my Twitter favourites (to say they'd gotten unruly is an understatement) I came across this project - a rather apt apartment conversion in Portugal. Designed by architects Pedro Varela and Renata Pinho, the Yellow Renovation does just that - an apartment is transformed primarily by a custom-built large yellow unit which acts both as storage and space divider. Though it's definitely loud, when paired with the grey rubber flooring, the white of the other walls and the glass divider in the kitchen space I think it works well.

Loud colours in the homeplace may well be a popular motif over here - when looking for an apartment I saw A LOT of spaces featuring garish green, orange and pink walls. The Yellow Renovation takes this Portuguese penchant for bright colour and makes it work an awful lot better than most other examples I've seen while trawling through Airbnb and others. The subtle and irregular circular holes in the cupboard doors serve to break up the yellow, and bring a little added character to the otherwise clean, sharp unit. A job well done, I think!

(All Images by José Campos)

Martí Guixé

2012-04-09T12:36:00.001+01:00

While reading a recent-ish issue of Icon Magazine I came across the work of Martí Guixé for the first time. This Catalan 'ex-designer' has for over 14 years been exploring one of the world's biggest mass-produced products: food. Through exhibitions, installations, conceptual projects and prototypes, all gathered together in the 2010 publication Food Designing from Corraini Edizioni, Guixé has reimagined how food is composed, presented and ultimately designed.

Pictured above is Guixé's I-cakes, which are cakes iced in such a way as to show the exact proportion of each of the cake's ingredients, presenting those proportions as a physical pie-chart and turning decoration into information. Below is Guixé's flavoured stamp, using the flavour(s) of the imagery on the stamp to return us to the days when we had to lick stamps to affix them - in the best way possible.

Perhaps my favourite of Guixé's projects is the cava target, pictured above. Fully embracing the cava cork as a projectile, Guixé feels this is an item that would prove particularly useful in his hometown, as F.C. Barcelona 'is always winning'. It's an item I'd certainly like to own as I begin testing and tasting Portuguese espumante :)

(All images by Inga Knölke)

Ilustrarte 2012 at Museu da Electricidade

2012-04-06T20:30:00.000+01:00

(Image by Adelino Oliveira, via Wikimedia Commons)

On the banks of Lisbon's Tagus River, just a few minutes walk from where I live is Museu da Electricidade - the Electricity Museum. Originally a thermoelectric power station, Museu da Electricidade houses a permanent exhibition on electricity along with an ever-changing programme of exhibitions exploring contemporary art, design and architecture. A building whose first phase was completed in 1908, Museu da Electricidade is a beautiful example of industrial architecture, and its permanent exhibition consists primarily of the very equipment used to power Lisbon city and the surrounding region until 1972.

(Image by Andre Sa)

On display in the museum until this Sunday is Ilustrarte 2012 - the fifth edition of an international biennale of children's book illustration. The work of 50 illustrators is on display, showing the breadth of illustration work being undertaken across the world. Aptly, considering the location of the exhibition, each exhibitor's work is displayed in an individually-lit chest of drawers, giving the exhibition a quirky but homely character along with an interactive element.

(Image by Philip Kennedy)

Though it's difficult to pick out a favourite from the 50 sets of work on show, one piece that stood out was Spanish illustrator Pablo Amargo's illustrations for a lengthy (in dimensions rather than amount of pages) book called Casualidad/Chance. The book focusses on a character who believes that nothing happens by chance, and in fact the wind is responsible for anything someone else might attribute to coincidence. This idea leads to some really charming illustrations of the wind's influence on things within the crisp depiction of an urban environment.

A No, For Now...

2012-04-04T22:29:00.000+01:00

Back in November, the Crafts Council of Ireland circulated a survey among its members and member organisations to float the idea of changing its name to include the word 'design' somewhere. The reasoning behind this was that it would better reflect the proportion of their membership working across or between craft and design, but I wrote here about the negative ramifications this could have on Ireland's wider design community, who remain unrepresented at government level and who the Crafts Council were adamant they would not broaden their remit to include.

Yesterday the Crafts Council announced the results of the survey. Though a large proportion of the individual members who took part in the survey were in favour of the inclusion of the word 'design' in the Crafts Council's name (over 69%), there was a 50/50 response from the member organisations who were asked to respond - 21 organisations were in favour, 21 were against, and 9 were undecided. As it's these organisation's representatives, not individual members, who would get to cast a vote on an issue like this, the Crafts Council has stated:

'we will consider how to reflect our remit in promoting design and craftsmanship and may add a tagline to our logo in the near future. However, we will not proceed with formally amending the organisation’s name at this time.'

This is great news, for now, but Ireland's design community should not linger too long on that collective sigh of relief. Though this proposal was met with resistance by the Crafts Council's membership when first raised in June of 2011, the Council's chair, Laura Magahy, persisted nonetheless. Set with the task of rebranding and enlivening an organisation often considered old-fashioned and out of touch, I have no doubt the caché the word 'design' brings, particularly since the success of Pivot Dublin, will prove tempting to the Council and its board again. Even if this doesn't rear its head again, it's time designers in Ireland got the recognition - and more importantly support - that they deserve. And it's high time the value and importance and sheer joy of design was properly and sustainably communicated to Ireland's public. Seriously, can we find a way to get ourselves a proper Design Council in Ireland now?!

Sun & Perspective, In That Order

2012-04-04T20:02:00.001+01:00

Well, that's it. Enough of Dublin, for a little while at least. I've just landed in the lovely Lisbon for some sun and some perspective, in that order. Stay tuned for thoughts and reactions to design in the south, with my unaccustomed eyes seeing everything bolder and brighter, even when the sun goes in. I'm going to keep on writing for Architecture Ireland, so you'll still find those posts here over the coming months, and I'd hate to lose contact with Irish design, so do keep me posted! Ayé logo ;)

Fundit's First Birthday

2012-03-29T13:04:00.000+01:00

Last week saw Ireland's first crowd-funding platform Fundit celebrate its first birthday. And in twelve short months Fundit has seen over €300,000 pledged by thousands of people to support almost 150 creative projects all over Ireland for some really cool rewards (based on the most recent figure I could see on their blog - these figures could actually be a little higher now). Of those 150 or so projects, I've been involved in two of them and have funded (or attempted to fund) a further three. Being part of some projects and a funder of others hasn't made me an expert on this at all - I doubt anyone could claim to be an expert at something still very young; the American model, Kickstarter, is only 3 or so years old, so this type of online crowd-funding for creative projects really is in its infancy - but it has given me some food for thought on it all. With Fundit now one year old, I think now is a great time to take stock on the initiative and see what's worked in order to continue growing the initiative's success, so I thought I'd share my take on things.

In spring of last year I was involved in two projects that were on the Fundit site around the same time: the Irish Architecture Foundation wanted to raise €15,000 for the 2011 edition of the Open House Dublin book and Dublin Dance Festival wanted to raise a minimum of €1,050 to allow three (or more, if fundraising went well) Festival artists free access to all performances to be exposed to the best of international contemporary dance at no cost to themselves. Two quite different projects and very different targets, but the experience of each was actually quite similar (just with a little added stress for the IAF's larger target, as you might imagine). A couple of things really surprised me about both. The first is the size of each organisation's network compared with the final number of funders. The IAF - at the time - had around 2,000 - 3,000 people connected to Open House Dublin via social media, about 6,000 people receiving their newsletter and had recorded 25,000 attendances at the 2010 OHD festival. So bringing in a couple hundred funders should be easy, right? Wrong - all those thousands of people attending the event and receiving regular contact from the organisation and in the end it was a little over 400 people who funded the OHD book. It was similar for DDF - at the time the Festival had over 2,000 'likers' on Facebook alone but only about 40 people funded the Access All Areas project. Don't get me wrong - those are each small numbers, but very significant ones, as that's all it took to get each project over the line. But it's worth bearing this in mind if you were to start a project of your own that 1,000 twitter followers may not equal 1,000 funders.

Another thing that struck me, not only about the projects I was part of but also about projects I funded was the amount of funding that came in at different times while the project was running. When deciding on the length of time the OHD book was on the site, I think the IAF opted for a fairly long stretch - six weeks - hoping that more time on the site might mean more funders. Speaking with Alex Synge, creator of the Keep Sketch project (the rewards of which are pictured below), he set up his project to run for about eight weeks for a similar reason, to ensure people were given plenty time to develop interest in the project and take the plunge to fund it. Both of these projects, and DDF's Access All Areas too, experienced a burst of funding at the start and a bigger burst of funding at the end (Alex says that the funding for Keep Sketch more than doubled in the final five or so days) and a slightly scary lull in between. The lull during the OHD project was particularly scary - In the first week or two the IAF had raised about 30% - 40% of its target and barely raised any more until the final week of the project, when a massive surge of interest pushed the project past its target by 17%. I think the reason for this is that typical Irish attitude where we say to ourselves all too often, 'ah yeah, I'll get around to that', but rarely 'get round' to whatever it is until there's a real sense of urgency. Because of this, if I were to create a project on Fundit in the future, I'd give real consideration to a short timespan and try to harness that sense of urgency so many of us seem to need...

I said above that now is a good time to take stock of what's happened so far on Fundit and where things might lead. With this in mind, I think it would be great if Fundit itself were to survey their project creators and - perhaps more importantly - survey their funders. They've had over 10,500 people fund projects so far (again, that's the most recent count I've come across - it could in fact be higher) and the average person funds a project by €40 - €50. I would be really curious to know how likely it is that someone funds more than one project on the site, and if so, on average how many projects have individual people funded so far? Also, I can say with some certainty that a very large proportion of the funders of the OHD book came from the IAF's own network, but in general what proportion of funders will come from a project creator's own network, what proportion comes from Fundit's network and what proportion comes from somewhere else entirely, such as another project on the site, a newspaper article, or word of mouth? If you guys have any thoughts on this, by all means share them in the comments below, and if you haven't already you can watch the promotional video I made last year for the OHD book below :)

OFFSET2012, Part 1

2012-03-21T23:30:00.001Z

(Image courtesy of OFFSET)

It's been a full ten days since OFFSET2012 ended. And it took most of this time for me to process what I saw and heard over the course of what really has become Ireland's premier creative festival. My first task was to try to condense 24 or so presentations, discussions and interviews over 3 days in 2 rooms in Bord Gáis Energy Theatre into a relatively coherent 800-word review for Architecture Ireland. That, which will be posted mid-April and entitled 'OFFSET2012, Part 2', was a difficult task, and while I think I just about managed coherent, keeping to 800-words was Not Easy. So much so that here's some further outpouring of thoughts and questions and excited reactions to the whole thing:

(Image of work Jessica Hische courtesy of OFFSET)

Procrastiworking
US-based letterer, illustrator and all-round creative dynamo Jessica Hische introduced audience members to the word 'procrastiworking', but the practice is something present in a number of presentations. Procrastiworking is the work Hische does when not working for clients, and for her, procrastiworking takes the form of a whole host of websites and projects such as Daily Drop Cap, Should I Work For Free? and the charitable venture 52x52.org. These projects seem to keep Hische's creative juices flowing, just as interesting side projects have done/are doing for a number of other presenters such as Pentagram's Paula Scher. But perhaps the most noteworthy side project of all is OFFSET itself: the massively impressive festival is organised by three Dublin creatives - Bren, David and Richard - entirely in their spare time, squeezed in around full-time jobs. For procrastiworking, OFFSET is remarkable, and something the creative community in Dublin and beyond could not do without.

(Image of Erik Kessels courtesy of OFFSET)

The future of advertising and sponsorship
The field of advertising – one I hadn’t given much thought to before OFFSET – was well represented at the event, from the polished work of inventive NYC agency Droga5 to the downright wacky work of Kesselskramer (if you visit the site I recommend hitting refresh a few times) and many in between. It was fitting to discuss the present and future of advertising in a venue that had been renamed after a corporate sponsor just one week before the event, so a panel discussing featuring Erik Kessels, Andrew Essex of Droga5, Hugh Linehan of the Irish Times and others thrashed out what direction advertising could be moving in the event’s second room. On the subject of corporate sponsorship, such as the kind that saw Grand Canal Theatre change its name, Andrew Essex made the point that if a corporation uses its money to support a cultural venture rather than invest a significant amount of money into a massive advertising campaign that shouts at people from every angle through every medium then perhaps a newly named theatre/venue/football pitch is preferable?

Certainly there were a number of artists in the OFFSET line-up who have benefitted greatly from significant corporate sponsorship and support of their work. United Visual Artists have utilised sponsorship from Sony and others to make massively impactful interactive sound and light installations around the world, and Miami-based FriendsWithYou have been able to create major installations and performances thanks to corporate support. In their words, ‘corporations are the new kings’, patronising the arts in the absence of the De Medici’s. With large sponsorship can come excessive influence however, and though UVA and FriendsWithYou have been able to work largely independently of their sponsors, others may not...

The rise of illustration in Ireland
When UK-born illustrator Steve Simpson first came to Ireland, he was one of a very small pool of people working in illustration here. He and the other few set up Illustrator’s Ireland in 2000 and the organisation now has over 50 members, each producing immensely varied work. Presentations from both Steve and Irish-born, US-based Kevin Waldron showed a glimpse of the illustration talent we have in Ireland, while their international contemporaries Evan Hecox, Von and Seymour Chwast showed it’s alive and well elsewhere too. It seems that in Ireland right now, illustrators are making a particular mark in the world of children’s books. In the US Waldron flies the flag that is being flown here at home by Chris Judge and Chris Haughton, showing how imaginative and engaging illustrated children’s books can be. Like all the other presenters at OFFSET, Waldron is really passionate about what he does, but illustrating children’s books isn’t always the dream job it sounds like – much as he wishes otherwise, there is a limit to how many characters Waldron can draw smoking a pipe...

(Image via Kevin Waldron)

There's heaps more you could say about this year's OFFSET - you can read some more of my thoughts on it next month, and some of the other reactions still rattling round in my head may still make it out yet. If you were there too, I have no doubt you're still filled with energy and excitement after it, and if you weren't, make sure you get a ticket for OFFSET2013!

Read OFFSET2012, Part 2 here

Plug Lamp

2012-03-13T19:27:00.000Z

Here's a product that featured in more than one Stockholm Furniture Fair round-up. Designed by Swedish studio Form Us With Love for Ateljé Lyktan, Plug Lamp is just as the name suggests - a lamp you can plug things into. Simple! No more crawling around the floor looking for plug sockets or sacrificing one electrical item to plug in another, and all this from an object with a simple charming shape in a number of different colours. I can't wait til they're available with a British Isles plug socket, or I move to the mainland. Whichever comes first :)

(Images by Jonas Lindström)

Design and Healthcare

2012-03-05T16:05:00.000Z

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #261

The Rise and Rise of Medical Device Design in Ireland
You may not have known it, but a design discipline experiencing real growth and success here in Ireland is that of medical device design. The field of development and manufacture of medical technology in this country is especially strong, and a short visit to the Irish Medical Device Association’s website will show you some startling – and impressive – statistics on the area’s growth. There are approximately 200 companies here involved in developing, manufacturing and marketing a diverse range of products and services such as disposable wound care products, precision metal implants including pacemakers, orthopaedic implants, diagnostics, contact lenses and stents. Almost half of these companies are Irish-owned, and many are global leaders. Ireland is Europe’s second-biggest exporter of medical technology, and when so many other Irish exports have been falling dramatically in recent years our medical exports have been growing and growing.

Though this is an industry that began in Ireland very much as a manufacturing industry, it is changing to being led by Research & Development, and the role of the designer is very important in this changing structure. Designers and engineers are being employed to initiate new products for the medical field as well as to develop new processes for the manufacture of medical devices. One such manufacturer making this change is U.S. company Nypro, a world leader in plastics manufacturing that serves consumer and electronics industries as well as healthcare. Over the last number of years, Nypro's 270-strong plant in Bray, Co. Wicklow has been making a significant shift from operating solely as a traditional contract manufacturer to a company that collaborates with clients at the earlier concept stages of a medical device's development to create better products and provide effective manufacturing solutions. In order to deliver this, Nypro has assembled a team of highly educated engineers and designers as well as experienced mould makers - a flexible team with varied skills and knowledge bases - to participate in a product's design, development and manufacture. This shift in emphasis is set to continue as Nypro will soon open its first Device Development Centre on its Bray site.

(Triport+ by Advanced Surgical Concepts)

Another Bray-based company, Advanced Surgical Concepts (ASC) is a small innovation-led team working with Olympus to design and distribute products to further advance laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery. The latest device ASC has produced enables surgeons to perform single-port, scarless surgeries for a myriad of medical issues. The device allows surgeons to enter a number of surgical tools all through the belly button, meaning the patient has no additional scarring and a significantly reduced recovery time. This product has been developed over a number of years by a team of engineers and an industrial designer - with much consultation with the surgical field - using the same iterative process any other design discipline would use.

(Triport+ by Advanced Surgical Concepts)

Education in Ireland has been changing to better serve this sector, and a close relationship between academia and industry has in many ways helped medical device development in Ireland to thrive. TCD, UCD and UL have jointly run a Bio-Engineering Masters for ten years now, and two years ago saw the first graduates of an MSc in Medical Device Design offered by NCAD in conjunction with TCD and UCD enter the field. Paul Fortune, Director of the MAN:MEDICINE Design Centre at NCAD believes that the application of creative thinking is of utmost importance in the field of medical device design and development, and NCAD’s MSc. is structured with this very much in mind. Though an emphasis is placed on bio-engineering and other medical-related studies within the course, the vast majority of students’ time is spent on the project-based learning seen in any design course. The Medical Device Design students in NCAD work year-round on projects that connect them directly with the industry, designing solutions to problems faced by medical device manufacturers and indeed the wider medical field. Above all, the course is designed to give students the time, tools and environment to be creative, as it is their creative approach to problem-solving that will bring about major innovations in the industry.

Ireland's medical technology sector has seen extraordinary successes in the last number of decades, and seems set to continue to grow in coming years. With the continued growth of the industry we will see a more and more prominent role for the designer within companies creating innovative solutions for the needs of the healthcare sector. The future for design and healthcare in Ireland is bright.

(Gregor Timlin's tableware in contrasting colours make seeing the edge of a plate, rim of a cup or handle easier to identify for users with sight issues)

Design and Dementia
Irish-born Gregor Timlin – Senior Research Associate at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design in London’s Royal College of Art – has built up a significant body of research into how design ideas can be applied to care homes for the better of people living with dementia. He has produced a set of prototype tableware to explore ideas of how to more effectively design for those with dementia in mind, and has set up a resource site called Better Care Homes to be used by designers as a jumping off point for designing for care homes.

Pearl O’Rourke – research into Assistive Technologies
PhD candidate at DIT Pearl O’Rourke is looking into how to employ consultative research methods into designing Assistive Technology devices – products which improve the capabilities of those with disabilities. These products can range from walking sticks to motorised wheelchairs, but the particular products Pearl is working on are customisable Computer Input Devices, ie alternatives to sometimes difficult to use keyboards and mice.

(Sleepover by Made*)

Sleepover by Made*
Designed by Made* Design in Dublin, the Sleepover is a sofa bed designed for dedicated healthcare use. It converts from sofa to single bed quickly and easily for a family member, and has a minimum extended footprint, meaning it doesn’t take up significant space when converted to a bed. With a contemporary aesthetic not overtly looking like a healthcare product, Sleepover is currently in use in the Citygate Mahon Medical Centre in Cork.

Design For All

2012-02-27T19:19:00.002Z

Last week I attended the launch of a universal design resource in Dublin. A publication by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) and the National Disability Authority (NDA), 'Building for Everyone' is a set of booklets giving a comprehensive guide to how to design a building or urban space according to the principles of universal design. Not solely a launch with a speech from the relevant government minister (this time round it was Phil Hogan, Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government), the event also brought together a number of speakers who helped stress the importance of universal design across all scales.

One of the speakers at the event was Onny Eikhaug, a Programme Leader at the Norwegian Design Council, with particular responsibility for Design for All. Onny's presentation was a great insight into Norway's concerted efforts to become fully universally designed by 2025. Through legislation, communicating to the public, connecting designers and the public and private sectors, and recognising achievements in the field, the Norwegian Design Council seems to be making very positive steps towards its amibitious target. Pictured above and below is the overall winner of Norway's first Innovation Award for Universal Design. Beating six other category winners including education spaces, easy-to-grip cutlery, hi-speed ferries and a new voting system, the Scandic Airport Hotel at Gardermoen outside Oslo was designed by Swedish architects group Krook & Tjäder AB with mobility issues, sight and hearing impairments and even allergies in mind. Doorways and corridors are wide enough not only for those using wheelchairs, but also those carrying lots of luggage; alarms work both visually and aurally; carpets are used to a minimum and all the paints, plaster, glues and textiles used were selected because they give off low levels of fumes; the solutions simplify good cleaning, which minimises the use of cleansing agents. And all while effusing Scandinavian cool and using a great colour palette, creating an environment tailored to everyone and where anyone would like to stay.

(Images via scandichotels.com)

The main theme of last week's event wasn't how awesome the Norwegians are at all this (though you'd be forgiven for leaving with that sentiment) but about how important universal design is - not for the 15% of the population living with various disabilities, but for the 100% of us who age, have mobility issues as a result of temporary injury, who sometimes end up laden down with luggage or shopping bags, or (like me) have a poor sense of direction. Our designers - from those designing vast urban spaces to those designing print and web materials - need to think of greater accessibility as not just essential for a small number of people but valuable for everyone. To hammer home the point, see below for one of a series of tv ads run in - yeah, you guessed it - Norway that ask "Din Feil? Eller dårlige løsninger?" - Your fault? Or bad solutions? When you see how design can build barriers for even the very able bodied, it becomes clear how important universal design really is:

Makers & Brothers

2012-02-21T15:24:00.000Z

This is old news to a lot of you by now I'm sure, but in the final weeks of 2011 brothers Jonathan and Mark Legge launched Makers & Brothers, an online design and craft retailer. Makers & Brothers puts an emphasis on the useful and beautiful, the processes of making and producing, and the 'sometimes nicely odd'. The site elevates the ordinary and reveals the extraordinary, through a careful curation of beautiful functional objects and quirky gems across a variety of scales and sensibilities. Choosing favourites on Makers & Brothers isn't easy, but I gave it a shot...

This isn't the first time a powder-coated steel object has featured on this blog, and is unlikely to be the last. Products that utilise this process always seem to me to strike a great balance between an industrial look and a fun feel. Welsh designer David Weatherhead's 'Hello Sunshine' letter rack, pictured above, is no different. Immensely simple, 'Hello Sunshine' would even make a stack of bills look good.

Makers & Brothers also stocks a small number of products from Falcon Enamelware - a British company founded in 1920 to create long-lasting, hard-wearing products for the kitchen, and after over ninety years of producing instantly recognisable ice white enamel objects with a navy-blue rim, it's safe to say their designs are timeless. This bake set sees that trademark navy-blue rim line a series of really nicely-proportioned baking pans and pie tins. Great packaging too.

There's something quite homey and wholesome about Makers & Brothers. Its items for sale are stripped back and pared down, and useful rather than merely ornamental. It gives smaller producers a bigger platform, and is beginning to widen its function to including interviews with its makers and insights into their processes. Makers & Brothers sees what it does as a 'curation' of everyday design, and everyday design is something which often lacks the consideration and curation other forms of expression receive. Makers & Brothers is retail, but a littler richer.

Glasgow's Riverside Museum

2012-02-13T16:06:00.000Z

On a recent trip to Glasgow I visited the newly-opened Riverside Museum - the city's new Museum of Transport designed by (st)architect Zaha Hadid. Though Hadid's aesthetic usually doesn't appeal to me at all (exaggerated computer-generated curves, I get it already), I have to say I kinda like the Riverside! The building's exterior form is essentially that trademark Hadid curvy extrusion of a not-so-trademark flat silhouette that creates the two main facades at either end of the building. The facades have a sharp, graphic quality about them that echoes the warehouses and steeples you see - or would have seen - along Glasgow's Clyde river, and the use of zinc-cladding on the building's exterior evokes some of Glasgow's industrial past. It's fairly textbook, but it works.

The interior continues curving, all in a pale lime green, but none of this takes away from the Transport Museum's impressive collection of trains, planes and automobiles. It's a remarkable exhibition of all things related to transportation, from an exhibit highlighting how the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 led to the first major increase of airport security measures to one of Scotland's more interesting transport inventions: the 1985 Sinclair C5 - a battery-powered tricycle.

One of Scotland's more successful inventions - the bicycle - is well represented too, with a type of velodrome displaying countless models and styles from all over the world:

(Images by Hufton + Crow and Haweye Aerial Photography via Zaha Hadid)

Overall, this is a really great place to spend a few hours in if you find yourself in Glasgow. Aptly, there are plenty of ways to get there such as bus, train and subway, but I recommend the walk from the city centre along the Clyde if you have half an hour and half-decent weather - get to it!

Let There be Light

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000Z

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #260

While the days have been shorter and the evenings darker, I can’t help but think about what might be some of my favourite designed objects: lights. A type of expression that can take its form in an industrial product, a decorative object, an almost intangible scheme or a quirky design, lighting – when done well – can constitute the best of industrial design, craft, art, architecture or the meeting points between them all. During Ireland’s Design Week at the beginning of November, Dublin-based lighting designers ShadowLight hosted an event exploring the philosophy of Mario Nanni, founder of Italian manufacturer Viabizzuno, and what he calls ‘The 8 Rules of Light’. Artificial light, according to Nanni, needs to inspire as well as illuminate. Viabizzuno’s range features a number of pieces that do both, as well as fittings you can believe blend seamlessly into an architectural setting. One more striking piece from the broad range Viabizzuno offer is their Peled Soffitto, designed by Antoni Arola. Light seems to burst from the ends of a cluster of slender aluminium rods hanging from a ceiling, creating an striking sculptural form, but one that doesn’t overpower its setting. Peled Soffitto seems to create a soft ambient light and functions equally as illuminant and focal point.

(Peled Soffitto by Viabizzuno, here and above)

(Collection of Light by Humans Since 1982)

Currently showing at Phillips & de Pury in London, the latest work from Stockholm design studio Humans Since 1982 is a curious piece, far more focal point in itself than functional lamp to illuminate something else. Evoking a display case filled with an insect collection, Collection of Light shows the LED as a curiosity in itself. By collecting and arranging various LEDs in a display case-cum-lamp, the aim is to "expose each illuminant as a worthy industrial product". The collection of LEDs in different sizes, intensities and colour temperatures certainly makes for an interesting display, and serves as a great reminder of the technology going into today’s lighting, placing it centre-stage rather than hiding it within a fitting. The result is remarkable: a beautiful, intriguing object filled with a range of beautiful, intriguing objects: a collection of light more than worthy to be part of anyone’s collection of design.