Day 2 pt. 1: Design Museum

THE DESIGN MUSEUM

THE FUTURE IS HERE: A NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

From 28th August and 4th September I visited three museums/gallery which were The Design Museum, The V&A Museum and The Serpentine Gallery. Their exhibitions will inspire me and give me ideas/ways to approach this course, by looking at ways different craftsmens/artists present their objects and their meaning behind it.

The Design Museum held an exhibition called "The future is here: A new industrial revolution which explores the ever-changing relationships with the designed world, showning boundaries between designer, manufacturer and consumer are becoming blurred. Significant changes in the way objects are made, the materials they are made of and the type of objects that people use have the potential to affect commerce.

"The exhibition looks at what drives innovation and new manufacturing techniques, how these can lead to increased growth and productivity and how they will change your future. The boundaries between designer, maker and consumer are disappearing with a growing movement of ‘hacktivists’, who share and download digital designs online in order to customise them for new uses." - http://the-future-is-here.com/about/

Unto This Last

While the ethos and principles behind the company are rooted in the traditions of regional craftspeople and artisans, it relies on sophisticated digital technologies to realise its products. Bespoke software has been developed that automatically adjusts the cutting patterns depending on the precise thickness of each plywood sheet, further reducing the need for industrial processes. The software also optimises each sheet by instering smaller products into available spaces, helping to spread materials cost and reduce waste.

Unto This Last is also hoping to franchise its business model, providing others with the software, designs and production system that it has created to set up new workshops in other towns and cities.

The reason why 'Unto This Last' caught my eye is because of the description above, before reading it I personally like how minimal and modern the interior furniture is. The round edges making it child friendly and gives off a sleek finish, the oak appearance will give off a fresh and natural aura in any room. However the description made me think deeply behind the idea of how it's made and how it changes traditional craftspeoples lives. By modern technology software it replaces the process of making furniture in a way that it is less time consuming and quick to create, meaning it will hugely affect craftspeople. It's great for companies to have advanced technology to keep their business running but it's sad to know craftspeople are unable to use their skills to use.

I really like the structure of the facet chair and how it's using three pieces of wood to create the curve of the back and seat, it creates a contemporary look. It is personally my favourite created by Unto The Last and I sketched the face chair using pencil to structure the shapes and fine liner to add lines and definition. I wanted to highlight the oak markings on the wood and using a mixture of yellow, orange and browns the achieve this.

Do task chair
manufactured by Orangebox

No matter how good a product is, there comes a time when its first useful life comes to an end. Orangebox design all their products with this natural lifecycle in mind, using closed loop cycles that recover all the materials used and recycle them into new products.

Simple design features allow this chair to be stripped into its componment parts very quickly and with minimal tools. This shows that the same careful thought that is applied to assembly can be used at the end of a product's life to maximise the value of the recovered materials. To further eliminate waste, customers can their used and unwanted products to Orangebox, which has established its own recycling centre. If product is still in reasonably good condition then the most

energy efficient next step is reuse ratherthan recycling.

In comparsion with Unto The Last's facet chair, the meaning behind the chair isn't about the process of producing the chair but the life of the chair itself. Orangebox has considered the mind of consumers and prevent additional damage to the world, by allowing customers to recycle, reuse and easily assemble with little steps and minimal tools, it truly shows they care about the future outcome of their products. Recycling is a way to use past items over and over again till present day and I think it fits well with this course.

I like how they presented the chair by seeing each componment parts seperated by strings, illustrating how quick and easy it is to assemble.