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red dot Academy: profit by Design
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Jacquie Ang
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Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Professor Peter Zec
Professor Peter Zec >> Yes. This is a big dearth in design. Design is one of the cultural-social disciplines where criticism is not established. Designers and companies would get a much better understanding of their work from a voice outside. I would appreciate a good community of design critics, which at the moment I can’t see. Most articles about design are positive — it’s always promotion-oriented — but it might have to do with acceptance since design is still struggling to gain more acceptance in society and industry. So in a situation like this, design critics, as I explained for myself before, probably have to be more sensitive.
Professor Peter Zec >> I hope the new generation of journalists will establish design criticism.
TAXI >>Another design industry-shaping position you held was the President of ICSID. At the time of your appointment in 2005, you indicated your intentions to advance design issues both internationally and globally. You said: “This requires — similar to a well-functioning choir — not one strong voice, but as many voices as possible that sing the same song.” As you reach the end of your two-year tenure, have you found those voices and assembled the choir?
Professor Peter Zec >> When I began my presidency, my deepest wish was to bring the idea of design to the Arabian world because up till now, design does not play an important role there. This was one of the objectives behind the search for more voices singing the same song. One of our first board meetings took place in Dubai and last April, Dubai hosted the International Design Forum for the first time. This is a highly renowned event where invitees come from all parts of the world. It was a big success and this would not have happened without the engagement of ICSID. I’m happy with that.
We have also started a project I developed for ICSID. This is The World Design Capital Project. We invited cities to submit their applications for 2011 and there was a lot of interest.
Meanwhile, we have selected the new winner who will be announced in San Francisco at our congress. I think ICSID has undergone a lot of changes during this time. My personal approach was to bring transparency and better communication to the organization. For example, the minutes of our board meetings are circulated two weeks later. This is very new in ICSID history; normally members are not updated all the time. But I feel that my main achievement is with the Arabian world. It’s amazing how one initial event has spawned several design activities there.
TAXI >>Design is everywhere and it impacts society and culture. Being an esteemed advocate of design, could you share with TAXI what are the obstacles you face in sharing your belief that design goes far beyond mere commercial articles?
Professor Peter Zec >> The public lacks design understanding. I think in most countries, design education starts too late, if there is an education at all. From my point of view, it would be helpful if we could have a kind of education in consumerism when kids are still young because they become a consumer very early these days. They own credit cards even if they are under 16, they have mobile phones, they spend on computer games, and the Internet is an open market for kids as well, so I think there is a real need to educate them about values and quality in products and the market.
This would be a much better approach in design education than just focusing on design. An education on valued consumerism is an education on design as well. If you are focusing on value and money, then design will automatically play a major role. This is much more sophisticated than forcing someone to learn the socio-cultural aspects of design. Education should involve his personal life experiences. I think this is a big challenge for schools to implement.
TAXI >>While convincing the greater public the other values design brings, we are trying to get business owners to recognize and invest in design. Do you see a paradox here?
Professor Peter Zec >> Yes, this is rather contradictory. On one point, you think in terms of money and profit as an entrepreneur. On another point, you need to be responsible to the society. But I think it depends on the perspective. I just wrote an article for a new book Hall of Fame published with ICSID, and I studied a little about the historical roots of design.
The cradle of design is located in Europe as Germany established design with the Bauhaus and other social movements. This is why design related to socio-cultural requirements early in Europe.
In America, design was developed in a totally different context. Design solved problems in survival, which at that time meant making money to create a buoyant market. The American approach is more money-driven compared to the European’s social-driven approach. Industrialization led intellectuals to believe there was a devaluation of products because of mass production. They fought for better quality and insisted on taking social responsibility so that these mass products can be maximized to the best use. This was never a problem for the Americans. They have a more developed business sense so they were constantly looking at what can design do for higher profits.
In the globalized world today, these two tendencies are merging. America is influencing design developments in Europe and Asia. Even in United States, the economy’s developments have more companies thinking in sustainable terms. This is unbelievable 10 years ago. And this is one of the advantages that globalization has given us: ideas and concepts travel around the world and the fusion brings us this paradox, which is what you mentioned before.
However, I think what we now feel is a paradox will turn out well at the end. A company needs to spread social interest because healthy social developments bring in the consumers. A good company always has two things to do: High quality products and profit sustains the company but they must take care of the environment and the market too. Developing the social aspects of design will provide a much better market situation. This is the challenge for many developing areas of the world.
So what appears as a paradox at the first view has logic behind it if you look deeper.
TAXI >>You have published several books on design and lectured in as many as 40 countries. In your opinion, is design education today adequate and relevant enough to support the emerging talents of tomorrow?
Professor Peter Zec >> No. This is a very sad story because I have the feeling that design education has not developed much. If you compare it with the concepts in the 50s for example, design education these days is not broad enough. I think our world has become much more complex, as I mentioned before when I talked about globalization. That means the designer today should not just focus on the shape of a single product; he has to think about the whole context and that includes the economy, history and culture but all these are not part of the design education concepts I know.
Designers are only trained in the know-how of designing a product — the materials and the processes —but they know very little about the surroundings of the product and its role in the society. When I talk to young designers, I see their weakness in literature. The general education level of designers is very weak but this is not the fault of young designers; this is the problem of education.
I think if we offer the opportunity, most young designers will take it because they would see that it gives their careers an edge. But it’s difficult to implement. When design education becomes more of a business, you have to look at the number of students. Very few schools, like those of Cambridge and Oxford, can afford to maintain high standards. Newcomers to the business have to fight for students and the easiest thing to achieve it is to be nice to them and give them good marks for little work. It is not the fault of the students who take it; it’s the situation and the structure. We need to think about how we can restructure the whole education system for design. Maybe we could establish schools or programs to offer what’s missing?
TAXI >>Armed with both expertise in business communication and design, you have provided design consultancy for many companies over the world. With rising acceptance of design being part of their key strategies, what else do business owners and managers expect from designers?
Professor Peter Zec >> Designs that make more money. The system of economy is defined by either you pay or you get paid. When design enters economy, it is just the question of: Is design a better payment to me or do I have to pay more to get a higher profit out of it? From the business point of view, design is only relevant when it achieves this core understanding of the business model. Of course, at the next step, cultural and social issues can play a bigger role, but only if these elements bring you better business.
Companies invest in sponsoring cultural or social events to position their company under a better light and there should be monetary returns on their sponsorship. The problem is the unpredictability of design. You never know what you get from your investment. You can never say that investing in the best designer will give you market success. This is the insecurity that entrepreneurs and managers face when they have to make decisions about design. They need to develop their market presence or design will always be very suspicious if they simply look at numbers. What they expect is the minimum return of investment or more. It’s very unromantic, I think.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
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Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Prof. Werner Aisslinger
But I think it is also about ecology. When somebody uses an object for 10 or 20 years, it’s also more ecological to use than to trash when you have a product that can change its appearance throughout its lifecycle. It becomes a partner to the consumer.
For example, when I create a modular shelving system, what was a high shelf could become a sideboard in the owner’s next home. A bookshelf can grow to accommodate more books. Modular systems allow consumers the freedom of choice and get involved in the creative process and decide how the final configuration of the furniture will be.
TAXI >>The Loftcube has won you much acclaim and you have also expressed hope to see a kind of rooftop community. With the Loftcube, are you redefining residential space and urban lifestyles at the same time?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> I hope to. It takes time to implement a new idea in the public’s daily lives. What I see at the moment, it’s more avant-garde for people to do this but maybe in 10 years’ time, it’s going to be a standard.
Although it’s unconventional, I wouldn’t call this concept of living on rooftops some kind of urbanism anarchy. For example in Singapore, you have many high-rise buildings. If you like the view out there, why don’t you put a small house on top of the big house? That was the initial concept of the Loftcube. In reality, it might be difficult considering the building permissions we need but on the other hand, it works.
The vision we had when we started the project three years ago caters to a smaller market. There is a bigger market of people who look at the Loftcube as a holiday house, weekend house or a guesthouse. We have requests all over the world for use in the countryside or seaside.
It’s difficult for a designer or an architect to change lifestyles because it is influenced by culture and the economy. With the Loftcube, we try to change people’s minds from design’s point of view. Avant-garde ideas need time to reach mainstream. To date, we received 11,000 requests from 50 countries.
TAXI >>Did the numbers and diversity surprise you? Did you design it with the intention to break cultural and geographical boundaries?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> That’s a good question but it never works like this. At the time we embarked on the project, we had only three months until the exhibition. It was such a rush; you just do it. You don’t think about how you influence architectural discussions… you think nothing but finishing your project. When it comes out to such a big response, you think to yourself: Maybe you made something that touches the subconscious. The Loftcube is a minimal home that might have attracted people on an emotional level… I think it’s a deep wish at the back of your consciousness to have a safe, transportable small box, perfectly organized, that you can control. It might be your little shelter that you can move with around the world.
Maybe it’s like a car. Cars are not just meant to go from point A to B; it’s a private space. Car owners get personal with their automobiles. They feel that the car is an extension of their personality. Germans like to drive alone in their cars to work. Until the last moment they reach the office, they want to extend their “home” and be surrounded by their private area.
It must be something like this because I can’t explain otherwise. There are so many good design pieces in the world that design cannot be the only attraction.
TAXI >>Metropolis once posed you a question: “Who do you design for?” And your answer was: “I don’t have a special customer in mind.” Weren’t teachers always harping on designing for your target audience? Did you throw that rule out of the window before or after graduation? I’m sure students and peers alike must be wondering how you made a living with such an uncompromising conviction to set trends yourself.
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> If you are a scientist and you work on something for an abstract world, you can’t say you are your own client. As a designer producing daily objects, you are a consumer at the same time. You can ask yourself: Would I use this? Do I like this? Of course, you shouldn’t be the final measure but if you are already skeptical about it… I ask my wife, my kids, or my friends for their thoughts on my idea and if they’re not convinced, I know something is wrong.
TAXI >>Founder of Magis Mr. Eugenio Perazza, whose firm you have worked with for the Nic chair, follows a philosophy that it takes both the company and the designer to come up with good design. What are your thoughts on this?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> This company takes a big risk because Magis invests in design ideas. Most companies spend on marketing and the only marketing Magis does is in innovative products. They never advertise in magazines. They believe in good projects. Every year, they have 20 new projects — that’s 20 designers — and they believe that good design gets published and gets presented in exhibitions. His idea is that a certain design quality develops the whole brand, the whole company, so he believes in industrialization rather than marketing, and spends a lot of money on moulds and high-end technologies.
It’s an interesting company.
TAXI >>In your website, you mentioned find the latest innovation that goes “beyond actual borders of aesthetics, materials, approaches and technologies” as your personal approach. How do you keep yourself updated and your works constantly pushing the envelope?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> To be innovative, you have to know history. It’s very important you know what has been done today or 10 years ago or 50 years ago, because design evolution includes designs in the past. When you think about what is coming next, you need to know what is there now and what has been done before.
How I inform myself is by accident. I don’t read all scientific magazines and I don’t go to every fair that presents new technologies — otherwise I can’t work. It’s more about being open-minded.
Scouting for the latest materials is not difficult these days. Transforming them into a really good idea and a design object is an intellectual movement that is complicated. The material alone makes nothing. There are always agents coming to my office presenting samples of tiles and fabrics, all very interesting but you don’t have an idea what to do with it.
It only starts to turn interesting when the transformation — these new materials and technologies sometimes come from other industries — takes place.
TAXI >>Your work has been labeled “futuristic” and “flexible”. How far do you envision your projects? Are you a mobile worker, just like your creations?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> The more visionary projects are sometimes executed without a client. I start researching and experimenting, and when I reach a certain step, I begin to talk to a company. Companies don’t make requests for futuristic things. They usually always ask for things they can commercialize at the moment.
The project I made with Vitra Design Museum, Level 34, is a landscape system for the office. This was a very interesting project. We discussed with the company how people would like to work now and the future. It was a long discussion exploring how office work could be changed, how furniture could changed and the needs of a modern office. Companies usually want something they can market the next year so when I do something that is a preview of 5 to 10 years later, I start the project on my own. The Loftcube for example, was not commissioned; I just did it out of interest. A year later, I found a company interested to produce, distribute and develop it. Sometimes you have to take the first step. A commercial partner will knock on your door if the idea is good enough.
I’m a mobile worker; I must. I spend a maximum two days in the office and spend three days traveling and having meetings. I need the hours to develop my ideas.
When I started 15 years ago, there were no cell phones. A fax machine was quite exciting for designers then. It’s easier nowadays to work independently. You open your laptop and you are online. The time is perfect for freelance designers like me. I can work everywhere in the world at any moment.
TAXI >>Japanese architect Paul Noritaka Tange does not believe in inspiration to come up with good designs. Rather he feels that the solution can be found if designers think hard enough. What are your thoughts on this?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> No, I disagree. In design, the idea always comes from inspiration. Design is not a rational process. Engineering is a rational process. I always ask: Why do you need designers in a totally rational world when engineers can design. Designers endow the quality of emotions, of personality, to an object. This emotional aspect, the intuition or idea you had at the moment, those are things you can’t quantify but makes the quality of design.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
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Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Song Hee Kong
Without the media, design awareness will not exist. I still meet people who are surprised at my profession as a product designer. The media introduces the latest designs and trends, which in turn drive consumerism. The media’s influence is an advantage, both directly and indirectly.
Song Kee Hong >>On the other hand, it sometimes portrays a one-dimensional aspect of design. Design, in its basic form, is just like any other profession. There are the positive aspects and there are the negative aspects. There are times when it’s fun and there are also times when it gets tough. It’s not always about designing a slick mobile phone or a trendy gadget. Designing medical equipment for example, would have a set of requirements different from the mobile phone. The designer needs to employ an understanding of ergonomics, how a person would use it, the environment in which the machine will be used. If the machine will be used in the operating theatre, it might need to be portable and compact. The state of mind of a user in the case of an emergency will also have to be considered for safety.
The direct impact of such one-sided portrayals leads to an influx of design students who may not have a thorough understanding what the profession truly entails.
TAXI >>Amongst Design Exchange’s portfolio of work, there is the Penguin, a Bluetooth modem designed for Vivid Technology, and the Deskjet 9600 for HP. The design process can be such a long, winding road. How do you curb wavering interest? What keeps you motivated?
Song Kee Hong >>Not all projects are long and tedious. The Penguin, for example, was actually executed quite quickly. It was completed within a couple of weeks. The Penguin was an interesting case. The time given was short. We drew inspiration from various sources, tried many forms and had many ideas on the table. The one that was eventually picked was inspired a min jian kueh (a traditional peanut pancake). We stylized the form, how the pastry wraps around and gave it slick metallic finish. The client loved it.
I don’t think it is possible for me to losing interest. I take my profession seriously. Passion is a criterion. Designers who jump into the profession for the wrong reasons become disillusioned and find difficulties in sustaining jobs.
TAXI >>Since you started your career in 1991, what has been the most memorable response to your work?
Song Kee Hong >>When good work is released into the market and its gets positive response, the feedback makes all the hours and resources invested are all worthwhile.
TAXI >>Who do you think you work for: The client, the product, the consumer, yourself, or all the above?
Song Kee Hong >>All of the above. A professional designer has to bear certain responsibilities. The client buys the service. The deliverable is intended to distinguish them from competitors in order to succeed on the market. I think professional designers, engaging in any contract, should not forget about that. We all want to win awards; we want to express ourselves, but we have to remember our responsibilities.
TAXI >>Designers are tasked to design tomorrow’s products today. Taking a sneak peek into your crystal ball, what do you think we can expect from designers tomorrow?
Song Kee Hong >>The design industry is huge. There are many tiers of designers and many classes of customers. The quality of a design is only as good as the client itself and the designer. I don’t think I should make an industry-wide statement but at least from those coming from Design Exchange, our work will focus on usability.
I think aesthetic is a default. When you engage a designer, you expect good design. We want to go a step further. The product itself, at a single glance, should be intuitive. You should not have to read the manual to start operations. That’s the least we aim for. A product’s purpose should be clear.
Besides usability, we aim for a positive experience from the time a consumer makes his purchase to the point of unwrapping and using it.
TAXI >>If aesthetics have become a default, have industrial designers become tastemakers today? Judging from the rising awareness and appreciation of designer everyday items, consumers seem to define their lifestyles and even personalities by media-acclaimed design.
Song Kee Hong >>There are many good designers around the world who develop good products. However, the companies they work for must have the marketing muscle to push that product into the consumer consciousness and penetrate far and wide with such impact to effect design worldwide. Like it or not, it needs support and money in marketing. It is naïve to think that all designers have the ability to drive design.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
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Steven Heller, Chip Kidd & Stefan Sagmeister
Sara Little Turnbull & Darrel Rhea
Adelia Borges & Linda Fu
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© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
Interview with Professor Peter Zec
 | TAXI >>Hello Prof. Zec. There is a section on red dot’s website where your editorial columns are available for download. Looking at the introduction, do you see yourself a design critic?
Professor Peter Zec >> I think I’m more of a design observer. I do not have the liberty to be a real critic as the person running the red dot design award. I have to be very careful with criticism because our approach in design promotion is to help companies to perform better. If I become too critical, I probably destroy more than I can build up. My columns are mostly design observations. I look at how design develops in society, the kind of irritations design can impose or the contradictions we can see but I’m not an aggressive critic against different designs. TAXI >>Do you see any value in design critics? |
Professor Peter Zec >> Yes. This is a big dearth in design. Design is one of the cultural-social disciplines where criticism is not established. Designers and companies would get a much better understanding of their work from a voice outside. I would appreciate a good community of design critics, which at the moment I can’t see. Most articles about design are positive — it’s always promotion-oriented — but it might have to do with acceptance since design is still struggling to gain more acceptance in society and industry. So in a situation like this, design critics, as I explained for myself before, probably have to be more sensitive.
Professor Peter Zec >> I hope the new generation of journalists will establish design criticism.
TAXI >>Another design industry-shaping position you held was the President of ICSID. At the time of your appointment in 2005, you indicated your intentions to advance design issues both internationally and globally. You said: “This requires — similar to a well-functioning choir — not one strong voice, but as many voices as possible that sing the same song.” As you reach the end of your two-year tenure, have you found those voices and assembled the choir?
Professor Peter Zec >> When I began my presidency, my deepest wish was to bring the idea of design to the Arabian world because up till now, design does not play an important role there. This was one of the objectives behind the search for more voices singing the same song. One of our first board meetings took place in Dubai and last April, Dubai hosted the International Design Forum for the first time. This is a highly renowned event where invitees come from all parts of the world. It was a big success and this would not have happened without the engagement of ICSID. I’m happy with that.
We have also started a project I developed for ICSID. This is The World Design Capital Project. We invited cities to submit their applications for 2011 and there was a lot of interest.
Meanwhile, we have selected the new winner who will be announced in San Francisco at our congress. I think ICSID has undergone a lot of changes during this time. My personal approach was to bring transparency and better communication to the organization. For example, the minutes of our board meetings are circulated two weeks later. This is very new in ICSID history; normally members are not updated all the time. But I feel that my main achievement is with the Arabian world. It’s amazing how one initial event has spawned several design activities there.
TAXI >>Design is everywhere and it impacts society and culture. Being an esteemed advocate of design, could you share with TAXI what are the obstacles you face in sharing your belief that design goes far beyond mere commercial articles?
Professor Peter Zec >> The public lacks design understanding. I think in most countries, design education starts too late, if there is an education at all. From my point of view, it would be helpful if we could have a kind of education in consumerism when kids are still young because they become a consumer very early these days. They own credit cards even if they are under 16, they have mobile phones, they spend on computer games, and the Internet is an open market for kids as well, so I think there is a real need to educate them about values and quality in products and the market.
This would be a much better approach in design education than just focusing on design. An education on valued consumerism is an education on design as well. If you are focusing on value and money, then design will automatically play a major role. This is much more sophisticated than forcing someone to learn the socio-cultural aspects of design. Education should involve his personal life experiences. I think this is a big challenge for schools to implement.
TAXI >>While convincing the greater public the other values design brings, we are trying to get business owners to recognize and invest in design. Do you see a paradox here?
Professor Peter Zec >> Yes, this is rather contradictory. On one point, you think in terms of money and profit as an entrepreneur. On another point, you need to be responsible to the society. But I think it depends on the perspective. I just wrote an article for a new book Hall of Fame published with ICSID, and I studied a little about the historical roots of design.
The cradle of design is located in Europe as Germany established design with the Bauhaus and other social movements. This is why design related to socio-cultural requirements early in Europe.
In America, design was developed in a totally different context. Design solved problems in survival, which at that time meant making money to create a buoyant market. The American approach is more money-driven compared to the European’s social-driven approach. Industrialization led intellectuals to believe there was a devaluation of products because of mass production. They fought for better quality and insisted on taking social responsibility so that these mass products can be maximized to the best use. This was never a problem for the Americans. They have a more developed business sense so they were constantly looking at what can design do for higher profits.
In the globalized world today, these two tendencies are merging. America is influencing design developments in Europe and Asia. Even in United States, the economy’s developments have more companies thinking in sustainable terms. This is unbelievable 10 years ago. And this is one of the advantages that globalization has given us: ideas and concepts travel around the world and the fusion brings us this paradox, which is what you mentioned before.
However, I think what we now feel is a paradox will turn out well at the end. A company needs to spread social interest because healthy social developments bring in the consumers. A good company always has two things to do: High quality products and profit sustains the company but they must take care of the environment and the market too. Developing the social aspects of design will provide a much better market situation. This is the challenge for many developing areas of the world.
So what appears as a paradox at the first view has logic behind it if you look deeper.
TAXI >>You have published several books on design and lectured in as many as 40 countries. In your opinion, is design education today adequate and relevant enough to support the emerging talents of tomorrow?
Professor Peter Zec >> No. This is a very sad story because I have the feeling that design education has not developed much. If you compare it with the concepts in the 50s for example, design education these days is not broad enough. I think our world has become much more complex, as I mentioned before when I talked about globalization. That means the designer today should not just focus on the shape of a single product; he has to think about the whole context and that includes the economy, history and culture but all these are not part of the design education concepts I know.
Designers are only trained in the know-how of designing a product — the materials and the processes —but they know very little about the surroundings of the product and its role in the society. When I talk to young designers, I see their weakness in literature. The general education level of designers is very weak but this is not the fault of young designers; this is the problem of education.
I think if we offer the opportunity, most young designers will take it because they would see that it gives their careers an edge. But it’s difficult to implement. When design education becomes more of a business, you have to look at the number of students. Very few schools, like those of Cambridge and Oxford, can afford to maintain high standards. Newcomers to the business have to fight for students and the easiest thing to achieve it is to be nice to them and give them good marks for little work. It is not the fault of the students who take it; it’s the situation and the structure. We need to think about how we can restructure the whole education system for design. Maybe we could establish schools or programs to offer what’s missing?
TAXI >>Armed with both expertise in business communication and design, you have provided design consultancy for many companies over the world. With rising acceptance of design being part of their key strategies, what else do business owners and managers expect from designers?
Professor Peter Zec >> Designs that make more money. The system of economy is defined by either you pay or you get paid. When design enters economy, it is just the question of: Is design a better payment to me or do I have to pay more to get a higher profit out of it? From the business point of view, design is only relevant when it achieves this core understanding of the business model. Of course, at the next step, cultural and social issues can play a bigger role, but only if these elements bring you better business.
Companies invest in sponsoring cultural or social events to position their company under a better light and there should be monetary returns on their sponsorship. The problem is the unpredictability of design. You never know what you get from your investment. You can never say that investing in the best designer will give you market success. This is the insecurity that entrepreneurs and managers face when they have to make decisions about design. They need to develop their market presence or design will always be very suspicious if they simply look at numbers. What they expect is the minimum return of investment or more. It’s very unromantic, I think.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
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Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Prof. Werner Aisslinger
 | TAXI >>Hello Prof. Werner. Designers these days exert a phenomenal influence on consumers and their lifestyles. With modular furniture systems like the Book and Level 34, are you empowering the consumer by allowing him to make his personal choices?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> Yes, that’s the concept of modular systems. One important point behind this idea comes from the industry. When you produce things, you need to store and transport them. Modular systems afford assembly of pieces so that make it easy to transport, package and store in the factory. On the other hand, the user can influence the appearance of an object. These modular systems are more prevalent in office furnishing where you face constraints from architecture and office interiors. |
But I think it is also about ecology. When somebody uses an object for 10 or 20 years, it’s also more ecological to use than to trash when you have a product that can change its appearance throughout its lifecycle. It becomes a partner to the consumer.
For example, when I create a modular shelving system, what was a high shelf could become a sideboard in the owner’s next home. A bookshelf can grow to accommodate more books. Modular systems allow consumers the freedom of choice and get involved in the creative process and decide how the final configuration of the furniture will be.
TAXI >>The Loftcube has won you much acclaim and you have also expressed hope to see a kind of rooftop community. With the Loftcube, are you redefining residential space and urban lifestyles at the same time?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> I hope to. It takes time to implement a new idea in the public’s daily lives. What I see at the moment, it’s more avant-garde for people to do this but maybe in 10 years’ time, it’s going to be a standard.
Although it’s unconventional, I wouldn’t call this concept of living on rooftops some kind of urbanism anarchy. For example in Singapore, you have many high-rise buildings. If you like the view out there, why don’t you put a small house on top of the big house? That was the initial concept of the Loftcube. In reality, it might be difficult considering the building permissions we need but on the other hand, it works.
The vision we had when we started the project three years ago caters to a smaller market. There is a bigger market of people who look at the Loftcube as a holiday house, weekend house or a guesthouse. We have requests all over the world for use in the countryside or seaside.
It’s difficult for a designer or an architect to change lifestyles because it is influenced by culture and the economy. With the Loftcube, we try to change people’s minds from design’s point of view. Avant-garde ideas need time to reach mainstream. To date, we received 11,000 requests from 50 countries.
TAXI >>Did the numbers and diversity surprise you? Did you design it with the intention to break cultural and geographical boundaries?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> That’s a good question but it never works like this. At the time we embarked on the project, we had only three months until the exhibition. It was such a rush; you just do it. You don’t think about how you influence architectural discussions… you think nothing but finishing your project. When it comes out to such a big response, you think to yourself: Maybe you made something that touches the subconscious. The Loftcube is a minimal home that might have attracted people on an emotional level… I think it’s a deep wish at the back of your consciousness to have a safe, transportable small box, perfectly organized, that you can control. It might be your little shelter that you can move with around the world.
Maybe it’s like a car. Cars are not just meant to go from point A to B; it’s a private space. Car owners get personal with their automobiles. They feel that the car is an extension of their personality. Germans like to drive alone in their cars to work. Until the last moment they reach the office, they want to extend their “home” and be surrounded by their private area.
It must be something like this because I can’t explain otherwise. There are so many good design pieces in the world that design cannot be the only attraction.
TAXI >>Metropolis once posed you a question: “Who do you design for?” And your answer was: “I don’t have a special customer in mind.” Weren’t teachers always harping on designing for your target audience? Did you throw that rule out of the window before or after graduation? I’m sure students and peers alike must be wondering how you made a living with such an uncompromising conviction to set trends yourself.
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> If you are a scientist and you work on something for an abstract world, you can’t say you are your own client. As a designer producing daily objects, you are a consumer at the same time. You can ask yourself: Would I use this? Do I like this? Of course, you shouldn’t be the final measure but if you are already skeptical about it… I ask my wife, my kids, or my friends for their thoughts on my idea and if they’re not convinced, I know something is wrong.
TAXI >>Founder of Magis Mr. Eugenio Perazza, whose firm you have worked with for the Nic chair, follows a philosophy that it takes both the company and the designer to come up with good design. What are your thoughts on this?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> This company takes a big risk because Magis invests in design ideas. Most companies spend on marketing and the only marketing Magis does is in innovative products. They never advertise in magazines. They believe in good projects. Every year, they have 20 new projects — that’s 20 designers — and they believe that good design gets published and gets presented in exhibitions. His idea is that a certain design quality develops the whole brand, the whole company, so he believes in industrialization rather than marketing, and spends a lot of money on moulds and high-end technologies.
It’s an interesting company.
TAXI >>In your website, you mentioned find the latest innovation that goes “beyond actual borders of aesthetics, materials, approaches and technologies” as your personal approach. How do you keep yourself updated and your works constantly pushing the envelope?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> To be innovative, you have to know history. It’s very important you know what has been done today or 10 years ago or 50 years ago, because design evolution includes designs in the past. When you think about what is coming next, you need to know what is there now and what has been done before.
How I inform myself is by accident. I don’t read all scientific magazines and I don’t go to every fair that presents new technologies — otherwise I can’t work. It’s more about being open-minded.
Scouting for the latest materials is not difficult these days. Transforming them into a really good idea and a design object is an intellectual movement that is complicated. The material alone makes nothing. There are always agents coming to my office presenting samples of tiles and fabrics, all very interesting but you don’t have an idea what to do with it.
It only starts to turn interesting when the transformation — these new materials and technologies sometimes come from other industries — takes place.
TAXI >>Your work has been labeled “futuristic” and “flexible”. How far do you envision your projects? Are you a mobile worker, just like your creations?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> The more visionary projects are sometimes executed without a client. I start researching and experimenting, and when I reach a certain step, I begin to talk to a company. Companies don’t make requests for futuristic things. They usually always ask for things they can commercialize at the moment.
The project I made with Vitra Design Museum, Level 34, is a landscape system for the office. This was a very interesting project. We discussed with the company how people would like to work now and the future. It was a long discussion exploring how office work could be changed, how furniture could changed and the needs of a modern office. Companies usually want something they can market the next year so when I do something that is a preview of 5 to 10 years later, I start the project on my own. The Loftcube for example, was not commissioned; I just did it out of interest. A year later, I found a company interested to produce, distribute and develop it. Sometimes you have to take the first step. A commercial partner will knock on your door if the idea is good enough.
I’m a mobile worker; I must. I spend a maximum two days in the office and spend three days traveling and having meetings. I need the hours to develop my ideas.
When I started 15 years ago, there were no cell phones. A fax machine was quite exciting for designers then. It’s easier nowadays to work independently. You open your laptop and you are online. The time is perfect for freelance designers like me. I can work everywhere in the world at any moment.
TAXI >>Japanese architect Paul Noritaka Tange does not believe in inspiration to come up with good designs. Rather he feels that the solution can be found if designers think hard enough. What are your thoughts on this?
Professor Werner Aisslinger >> No, I disagree. In design, the idea always comes from inspiration. Design is not a rational process. Engineering is a rational process. I always ask: Why do you need designers in a totally rational world when engineers can design. Designers endow the quality of emotions, of personality, to an object. This emotional aspect, the intuition or idea you had at the moment, those are things you can’t quantify but makes the quality of design.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
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Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Song Hee Kong
 | TAXI >>Hello Song Kee Hong. You have worked with big names like Motorola, HP, Philips, Lenovo and Honeywell. In your capacity as the co-founder and design director of Design Exchange, what do you think has been instrumental in raising the value of design in the corporate world?
Song Kee Hong >> A product, whatever it is, has to work and deliver results at the end of the day. For someone to pick it up, shelf appeal is necessary for commercial success. These are our clients’ primary objectives. The concept of being different from competitors means more than just design; there are other factors like usability and cost. Design as defined by many as mere styling is not entirely true. TAXI >>Bane or boon: Which would you choose to describe the media’s influence in promoting design? |
Without the media, design awareness will not exist. I still meet people who are surprised at my profession as a product designer. The media introduces the latest designs and trends, which in turn drive consumerism. The media’s influence is an advantage, both directly and indirectly.
Song Kee Hong >>On the other hand, it sometimes portrays a one-dimensional aspect of design. Design, in its basic form, is just like any other profession. There are the positive aspects and there are the negative aspects. There are times when it’s fun and there are also times when it gets tough. It’s not always about designing a slick mobile phone or a trendy gadget. Designing medical equipment for example, would have a set of requirements different from the mobile phone. The designer needs to employ an understanding of ergonomics, how a person would use it, the environment in which the machine will be used. If the machine will be used in the operating theatre, it might need to be portable and compact. The state of mind of a user in the case of an emergency will also have to be considered for safety.
The direct impact of such one-sided portrayals leads to an influx of design students who may not have a thorough understanding what the profession truly entails.
TAXI >>Amongst Design Exchange’s portfolio of work, there is the Penguin, a Bluetooth modem designed for Vivid Technology, and the Deskjet 9600 for HP. The design process can be such a long, winding road. How do you curb wavering interest? What keeps you motivated?
Song Kee Hong >>Not all projects are long and tedious. The Penguin, for example, was actually executed quite quickly. It was completed within a couple of weeks. The Penguin was an interesting case. The time given was short. We drew inspiration from various sources, tried many forms and had many ideas on the table. The one that was eventually picked was inspired a min jian kueh (a traditional peanut pancake). We stylized the form, how the pastry wraps around and gave it slick metallic finish. The client loved it.
I don’t think it is possible for me to losing interest. I take my profession seriously. Passion is a criterion. Designers who jump into the profession for the wrong reasons become disillusioned and find difficulties in sustaining jobs.
TAXI >>Since you started your career in 1991, what has been the most memorable response to your work?
Song Kee Hong >>When good work is released into the market and its gets positive response, the feedback makes all the hours and resources invested are all worthwhile.
TAXI >>Who do you think you work for: The client, the product, the consumer, yourself, or all the above?
Song Kee Hong >>All of the above. A professional designer has to bear certain responsibilities. The client buys the service. The deliverable is intended to distinguish them from competitors in order to succeed on the market. I think professional designers, engaging in any contract, should not forget about that. We all want to win awards; we want to express ourselves, but we have to remember our responsibilities.
TAXI >>Designers are tasked to design tomorrow’s products today. Taking a sneak peek into your crystal ball, what do you think we can expect from designers tomorrow?
Song Kee Hong >>The design industry is huge. There are many tiers of designers and many classes of customers. The quality of a design is only as good as the client itself and the designer. I don’t think I should make an industry-wide statement but at least from those coming from Design Exchange, our work will focus on usability.
I think aesthetic is a default. When you engage a designer, you expect good design. We want to go a step further. The product itself, at a single glance, should be intuitive. You should not have to read the manual to start operations. That’s the least we aim for. A product’s purpose should be clear.
Besides usability, we aim for a positive experience from the time a consumer makes his purchase to the point of unwrapping and using it.
TAXI >>If aesthetics have become a default, have industrial designers become tastemakers today? Judging from the rising awareness and appreciation of designer everyday items, consumers seem to define their lifestyles and even personalities by media-acclaimed design.
Song Kee Hong >>There are many good designers around the world who develop good products. However, the companies they work for must have the marketing muscle to push that product into the consumer consciousness and penetrate far and wide with such impact to effect design worldwide. Like it or not, it needs support and money in marketing. It is naïve to think that all designers have the ability to drive design.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
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