Author: monashziyujin

How much you will value the function and concept of a product.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 1 is a camera I designed for the blind people, Mer camera and the name Mer is inspired from the word memory. The design concept of this camera is to hope that it can let the blind people enjoy the happiness of taking photos and share photos as normal people. For this blog I would like to share some ideas that how the functionality and design concept play an important role in the “good taste (Christoforidou et al., 2012)” of products in some way by comparing with my personal work Mer camera and the Ergorapido designed by Łukasz Jemioł (figure 2).

First of all, I would like to give a brief concept of Mer camera. When I designed this camera, I started by analyzing the general reasons why normal people use and own a camera. Generally speaking, there are two reasons. The first one is to record some precious moments in life, or to create some impressive images in the form of photography art. One day in the future the photos can help people recall the scene at that time, or use photos to share their own visual feelings with others. That is the first reason, but another reason to use and own a camera is a little different.

Another reason is some people want to achieve a kind of lifestyle by having a camera in their life. In other word, the functionalities of camera just a small part of the reason why they own a camera, they’re more concerned on what it means to own a camera. It could be a lifestyle of being that loves to travel and live, or it could be people who want to show their concern for the beauty of life. As a conclusion, they purchase cameras to cater for their self-satisfaction. They purchase for the meaning behind the objects. The yoga industry is a good example, As Juliana Luna Mora mentioned in the article “yoga is a multisensory luxury experience, providing consumers with achievement of both tangible and intangible physical, mental and spiritual individual needs and aspirations (Juliana, 2018).”

What’s more, Mer camera is completely focus on the function. More specifically, figure 1 the switch located on the top of the camera, and when you turn on the switch, there will be a slight sound and a shaking as the feedback. The switch is designed move left or right only. It allows the blind people to better understand whether the camera is on or off. Furthermore, The Braille next to the buttons can help blind people understand the function of each button more quickly. For instance, if a blind person just got the new camera, he might want to take a try right away. Then the Braille can help him understand the function of each button immediately without spending a lot of time reading the introduction first. Also, blind people cannot use the icons to locate the key information they want quickly, they may often need to read the instruction from the very beginning to find the information they need. Therefore, giving some key buttons with Braille can save their time to a certain extent. For the blind people, functionality is their main consideration. They also have their own “good taste” for the products, so is this camera a good taste or bad taste for the blind people? Will it feel the same as the “Bling” product we saw? Compared to the Ergorapido, “Electrolux has developed a model of a handheld vacuum cleaner, the Ergorapido, in a limited edition designed by Łukasz Jemioł, whose external shape is the same as the original but it is encrusted with approximately 4,000 Swarovski crystals (Design You Trust, 2011).” In my opinion, the Ergorapido is a very good example of bling product, “Bling is obvious, straight to the point, and easy to recognize. A bling product shouts out its message: bigger is better, more is better, glitzier is better (Christoforidou and Olander , 2009).” So when we want to judge if the Ergorapido is “good taste”, we cannot just focus on its functionality, but from its main concept when it is designed which is obvious, more is better and glitzier is better. It is the same as blind people, in order to figure out if a product meets the “good taste”, we cannot just think of a product from one side, whether from its function or how many diamonds it has. According to Lisbeth Svengren Holm, “Consequently, it is not appropriate to simply express a taste-related opinion; one must also show that the thoughts behind that opinion are adequate to count as an expression of taste. It requires a legitimization to be judged as a competent arbiter (Christoforidou et al., 2012).” And “Referring to Plato, Brunius (1961) states that beauty in objects implies partaking of the truly beautiful, that is, the form or the idea of beauty (Christoforidou et al., 2012).” The meaning behind a product is an important role in its value. Now for Mer camera how much you will value its functions and how much you will value its concept?

REFERENCE

  1. Christoforidou, D., Olander, E., Warell, A. and Holm, L. (2012). Good Taste vs. Good Design: A Tug of War in the Light of Bling. The Design Journal, 15(2), pp.185-202.
  • Christoforidou, D. and Olander, E (2008a). ‘Bling bling and how its message captures our interest – or is bling bling as tasteless as the design elite find it?’ Nordcode 7th Seminar: Paradoxes within Design Research – Mechanisms and Contradictions, Lund, Sweden, 28–30 May 2008.
  • Juliana, M. (2018). THE YOGA INDUSTRY: A CONSCIOUS LUXURY EXPERIENCE IN THE TRANSFORMATION ECONOMY. PhD Candidate and Teaching Associate. Monash University.

Designed by Nature

Vespers, Series 3, Mask 2

Vespers, Series 3, Mask 2 was designed and created by Neri Oxman and her Mediated Matter Group at MIT. There are 15 masks divided into 3 series and each series has 5 masks (3dprintersonlinestore.com, 2019). The image above is one of the series III called: Future (Morris, 2019), The Biological World which is exhibited at The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) International.  ‘She designed Vespers to reveal “cultural heritage and speculate about the perpetuation of life, both cultural and biological (Buzzworthy, 2019).”’

More specifically, in a long time ago from gold mask of Tutankhamun to plaster death mask of the 19th century, People are creating death masks of their era and culture all over the world, In this way, people want to use death masks to preserve the memory of the dead and immortalize them. However, Neri Oxman’s death mask is intended to take advantage of modern technology to explore and represent the transition between life and death. “the masks are designed and built using 3D printing and spatial mapping algorithms, aiming to explore the transition between life and death in a modern, technologically focused light (Buzzworthy, 2019).” She seems to want to challenge other industrial design products and even architectures in a way that can only be born in the new era. What’s more, Vespers also brings to us a question that what if instead of being the final designer or the decider in the design process, we participate in the design as a guide and facilitator and let nature decide the design? In other words, since the industrial revolution, design has been restricted by the rigid standards of manufacturing and mass production, which limited greatly the imagination of designers. As a result, this keeps our design embedded in the environment as an industrial product. Oxman wants to create a new perspective to look at design. What is not only integrate nature into our design, but also guide nature to design something even beyond human imagination and combined nature with new era technology, a design that advocates the growth of nature in the products. Trying to make the world become a Better place. Like Liene Jakobsone said in the article:

“it is critically concerned with future and design’s potential in shaping it towards the preferable; and it is aware of the ideological constraints that limit the society and impede its progress (Jakobsone, 2017).”

What’s more, as the above image shown, the whole mask is 3d printed with a dark airflow-like shape inside and a series of pale blue-green rings in the middle. These colorful swirls are actually meant to represent the airflow created by the last breath of a dying person. To get this shape, designers use extremely sophisticated software to design and simulate it, which is then printed by 3d printing.

It is worth mentioning that each series has its own unique meaning. The three pictures above, from left to right, are series 1 “Past”, series 2 “Present” and series 3 “Future” (Morris, 2019). As can be seen from the figure, the shape of series 1 is more irregular than that of other series. Series 1 seems to express the moment when the “last breath” just exhales from the mouth. In the second series, the shape of the mask part begins to stabilize, some parts are still in the process of transformation and the top part begins to form the shape of the mask. By the third series, the whole mask had been reborn into a complete and stable shape.

The interesting point is that the third series compared with other series looks contains fewer cultural expression and less color, but this series is the three series of one of the most vivid series, because the last series Oxman by guiding alive microbes to part of the design, with color part of the image is actually made by boot after through the complex process of microbes formed after color. This design really creates a living work designed by nature. The Vespers realizes the product moving away from assembly closer to growth. Let the indispensable part of “growth” in life be combined with modern science and technology, let nature grow in products and let nature design products. We only guide and assist through modern science and technology. In addition, Neri Oxmans ‘design actually is very different from an ordinary industrial product. Not as a commodity or industrial product, but like the critical design to bring thinking to the public. Liene Jakobsone mentioned in the article:

‘Critical design indeed does not produce functional, industrially manufactured things Instead it creates non-functioning prototypes that are not meant for production at all, and due to these peculiar circumstances, it is often not regarded as a legitimate practice within the field of industrial design. Thisnonetheless does not mean that critical design lacks functionality at all, but its “function moves beyond physical and technical function, optimization, efficiency, and utility (Jakobsone, 2017)”’

The questions which Vespers are brought, such as Is our industrial product really a good design for our society and the natural environment? Is it possible that nature’s design will bring our society closer to nature? Will natural design make our society more harmonious and happier? These questions will certainly be conveyed to the minds of more and more designers to some extent, and then the concept of design by natural will quietly “grow” in their hearts.

REFERENCE

  • Jakobsone, L. (2017). Critical design as approach to next thinking. The Design Journal, 20(sup1), pp.S4253-S4262.