Reading: Craft and Experiments from PP Mobler's Workshop for 50 Years by H. Kaerholm & S.M. Hvass
Presenters:
1. Find an object at home of Danish design (preferable something that you've used or brought here) that is aesthetically pleasing bt turned out to not be very functional. Discuss why it didn't work properly and how this relates to the designer undrstanding material and craft.
Occasionally I need to restock on the necessities: soap, shampoo, etc. Away from home and trying to save money for traveling I head to Tiger. I know, it’s not the greatest, but it works well enough… usually. During my shopping trips to the one stop shop I occasionally become enticed by something outside my shopping list. A few weeks back I came across a grouping/bouquet of picture clips stemming in different directions from a white-cube base. Visually appealing, I thought this would be a great way to display the stack of note cards I’d been collection from various Gratis Postcard stands around Copenhagen. My plan failed.
The picture clip bouquet was dysfunctional on several levels. First, the lengths of the wires were far too similar. This caused the post cards to sit at the same height blocking one another from view. Second, the wires were flexible but always popped back to their original place despite my best efforts to maneuver them into a functional layout. The only thing that functioned properly was the base. I was worried it wasn’t heavy enough to support a bouquet of cards or pictures, but it managed just fine! Too bad the rest of the product didn’t work so well.
My picture display uses the bouquet style from the image on the left with the vertical orientation of the picture clips on the right.
[http://www.tigerstores.co.uk/products/1/tiger_home/98846/memo_holder/]
The product didn’t work properly because a strong effort was not put into testing the design. It would have been nice if the wires were moldable, but that wouldn’t be so important if they’d been at varying heights. Besides the issues with the wires, the clips worked fine and the base functioned well. I’m glad I only spent ten kronor on the display piece… I think it’s going to stay here in Denmark. No sense in wasting suitcase space on something I’m just going to toss out once I return home.
2. Looking towards the future: what possible changes in industry would lead to a change in the relationship between designers and manufacturers? Are ther no new designs as the authors emphasize in the readings, where all new designs are based strictly off of designs pre 1970s, or do you think there is new ecofriendly and innovative Danish designs that help the world?
Looking towards the future of design, if we are going to further develop relationships between designers and manufacturers we need to think local. Outsourcing manufacturing jobs to foreign countries (where a different language is spoken and factory workers, not craftsmen, are left to construct products) creates a detrimental breakdown in communication between a designer and manufacturer. By producing products more locally, the designer can have a stronger hand in the production of a product. Additionally, as one works more intimately with raw materials they may begin to see more potential for future designs. When that hands on approach is shipped across the ocean for someone else to experience, the potential is lost.
When it comes to new ecofriendly Danish designs, I can’t think of any one specific product, but in a sense the impressive environmental record of Denmark is a design that can help the world. With an abundance of public transit, bike friendly cities, a commitment to green energies and organic food, Denmark’s way of life is a design other countries should adopt.
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