Duann Scott is a Designer based in Adelaide, South Australia, a PhD candidate at the University of South Australia and a writer for Ponoko’s blog and for the For-Tommorrow Blog.
In this interview Duann shares his views on design in Adelaide, working in bespoke design, the impact of the Prosumer and mass custimisation on design.
Enjoy reading and please leave your own thoughts in the comment.
Highlights
- “I have found the opportunities to apply an industrial designers skill set have come from quite diverse areas, none of which have involved mass produced items.”
- “We do need beautiful objects that are constructed to last and will be kept and treasured for generations. The cheap construction and disposability of an IKEA chair or shelving system locates that item as rubbish, waiting to be disposed of. The timeline of many products is so short that they are designed for obsolescence in 2 years. This is an unacceptable waste to think of our surrounding objects being so temporary.”
- “Most consumer configurable mass customisation now is purely cosmetic, just ticking a box, this will change as 3D printing of consumers designs gets integrated into the manufacturing process,, and not as an aftermarket mod or hack.”
1. Duann, Welcome to Design Droplets. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, could you please give us a quick introduction on yourself.
Thanks for giving me an opportunity to discuss my current research, I am a Designer currently based in Adelaide, South Australia. I studied Industrial Design at the University of South Australia, Louis Laybourne-Smith School of Architecture and Design, graduating with an Honors Degree. Since then I have worked with a few local multi-discipline design firms as well as numerous freelance projects, along with contributing to the Ponoko and recently the For-Tomorrow blog. I am also undertaking a PhD part time at University of South Australia, School of Communication.
2. You are an Industrial Designer in Adelaide and a PhD candidate at the University of South Australia, can you tell us a bit about the Adelaide design scene? Where it’s been, where it is currently at and where it is heading?
Because of Adelaide’s geographic and economic location in Australia and the world, I have found the opportunities to apply an industrial designers skill set have come from quite diverse areas, none of which have involved mass produced items. There are only a handful of ‘pure industrial design” studios in Adelaide which work on plastic injection moulded products and although there are two manufacturing areas to the North and South of Adelaide city, much of the work undertaken there is engineered, but not designed. This limits the opportunities available.
Since graduating I have worked on permanent museum exhibitions, touch-screen kiosks, architectural visualisation and animations, retail interiors, wayfinding systems, interpretive centers, web-sites, large scale public sculptures, earthmoving machinery, playgrounds and advertising. The closest to pure industrial design I have worked on is photorealistic 3D renders for product packaging and bespoke furniture. Of the 32 or so students that graduated in my year I know of one only that is working on ‘product design’ in Hong Kong, and another couple who develop their own conceptual range that they take to 100% design and enter in competitions such as Bombay Sapphire (congratulations Daniel.Emma 2009 finalists). So the education and training for industrial designers in South Australia does not reflect the opportunities available to the students once they graduate, perhaps if there was a broader ‘design studies’ that could then refined as a masters post graduate stream this may increase the employability and success of the students.
The Design Collaborative of SA (DCOSA) has recently been established to bring together Industrial Designers in SA and this is a great initiative to build the community, along with the local chapter of the DIA which is much more established with interior designers and architects. What is missing in Adelaide is a design culture found in the broader public that you find in Melbourne for example. The JamFactory, set up by the Don Dunstan government in the mid seventies is the major government funded space for contemporary craft and design and has a focus on designer/makers, which does not cater for the ‘industrially designed’ object. There is a new bi-annual design market Bowerbird Bazaar launched on the 9th of October 2009 which should spark some more interest in Adelaide.
Imagination Mind Twist Render
3. In your PhD you are looking into product branding, globalisation & personalisation. Can you talk about how these areas affect and influence the industrial design profession and vice versa?
I started the PhD in an attempt to explore a greater depth of research than I was have been able to in my professional practice. I have felt as though I only had time to do the bare minimum research to get a job completed as quickly as possible, and was starting to get frustrated as my curiosity was never really satisfied. Undertaking the PhD has allowed me to be overwhelmed by research, to look in great depth and attempt to understand the social and political drivers behind what is an incredibly interesting time for all design disciplines. My professional practice as mentioned previously has never been pure industrial design but there has been some minor crossover on a few projects, where an understanding of emerging online and technology driven trends has helped inform design decisions. I have also used Shapeways online 3D metal printing to make customised furniture hardware for a project with Khai Liew, that I would not have been aware of without my research.
Envision Engineering Manual
4. You currently work for Khai Liew Design, where you work on bespoke furniture with internationally acclaimed designer Khai Liew. Can you tell us a bit about the world of bespoke furniture?
Working with Khai Liew on bespoke furniture is an absolute pleasure as the foremost focus is pure, refined aesthetics and absolute attention to detail in craftsmanship. We work over the concepts repeatedly until the detailing is absolutely perfect, using the best craftspeople we can find and the finest quality materials. Our workshop is just down the road from our studio/showroom so we constantly check in as the pieces are being constructed refining the design, the process continues up until it is delivered to the client.
Although there are a few pieces in the showroom that we have made multiples of, most are made to order as a client commission. Khai and I discuss the clients needs, usually with a site visit to their house and from there we develop a concept. We have the privilege of having very trusting clients who give us free reign to develop the design as we see fit and rarely are there any client directions other than the dimensions of the space, or a specific artwork or sculpture it is to compliment. We use 3D CAD to develop the design as far as possible, along with cardboard maquettes, full scale prototypes, then the final piece of furniture.
Khai is not a ‘trained designer’ but has an amazing wealth of knowledge of the history of furniture design from years of finding and restoring Australian Germanic hand crafted furniture of the 1830s to the 1900s along with mid century Danish pieces that he imported and restored. We also use a 14th Century 3-way mitre joint in many of the tables and chairs which is a link back to Khai’s Chinese via Malay heritage. I am continually humbled, learning much from Khai about the history of art, design and architecture as well as looking at contemporary design with the benefit of his experience. We also have a relaxed lunch every day in the shed behind the showroom, with a tablecloth on a second-hand dining table. That’s nice too.
Nanny Rocker Concept
5. There has been much discussion in the design world about how designers should be questioning the real of needs of consumers and the world in general, in ways such as “does the world really need another chair or product?” As someone who is involved in creating bespoke design, what are your thoughts on this?
We do need beautiful objects that are constructed to last and will be kept and treasured for generations. The cheap construction and disposability of an IKEA chair or shelving system locates that item as rubbish, waiting to be disposed of. The timeline of many products is so short that they are designed for obsolescence in 2 years. This is an unacceptable waste to think of our surrounding objects being so temporary.
I understand that the cost of a bespoke chair designed by an artist at the top of their game is beyond the means of many people but perhaps a bespoke chair designed by a local emerging designer is not. Any item, be it a chair, a shoe or a coaster is less likely to be disposed of if it was made specifically for you, or has sentimental value. Even if you ‘design it yourself’ using a mass customisation configurator like NikeID to ‘personalise’ your own sneaker design, or an online service such as Ponoko to realise your own design, these are the objects you are more likely to cherish and not dispose of at a whim.
Khai Liew Double Dutch
6. You also write about the field of mass customisation, as a blogger for Ponoko. Can you tell us a bit about how blogging informs your own design practice?
Blogging for Ponoko is a parallel stream to my PhD research which forces me stay on top of contemporary design and any developments in the field of mass customisation, prosumer design, 3D printing and consumer empowerment. The nature of most blogs I read in order to stay aware, and especially twitter is by nature quite fast and shallow, so the difficulty is in giving the blog depth by considering it in relation to the slower stream of peer reviewed journal articles. It also forces me to consider an international perspective of what has become a globalised market and community. Writing for Ponoko has given me exposure to a network of peers that I may never meet, but that inform both my research and design practice.
I have also just begun contributing to a blog for Sydney based, and online mens fashion store For-Tomorrow which will focus purely on Australian and New Zealand Industrial Design and Furniture. It is important that sites like these give peer support and promotion to designs and designers that may not get exposure in mainstream press. It also gives me another opportunity to look at the Australian Design scene with fresh eyes whilst building a network of contacts.
SPUD - South Australian Museum Touchscreens
7. With the rise of mass customisation and the prosumer we are beginning in several ways to see the destruction of the profession of industrial design, do you agree with this or do you think the profession will evolve or become strengthened?
I do not think that desktop publishing has destroyed graphic design and likewise I do not see that Industrial Design will fall into ruins. There should be some movement towards design for modularity, configuration and modification,and this can get very complex, defining what can and should be able to be changed and how far. Most consumer configurable mass customisation now is purely cosmetic, just ticking a box, this will change as 3D printing of consumers designs gets integrated into the manufacturing process, and not as an aftermarket mod or hack.
What will be interesting is how we deal with the digital CAD files for 3D printable parts as 3D printing is slowly becoming more accessible. What happens when these 3D files are shared on peer to peer networks and manufacturers lose control. What happens when a disgruntled designer posts a 3D cad file on Pirate Bay so that a patented product can be printed using MakerBot or Shapeways.
8. Prior to your work at Khai Liew Design previously worked as an Industrial Designer & Project Manager, can you tell us a bit about Project Management in relation to the design profession?
Project management is not really my favorite part of the entire design process, especially when it is an inherited project, with inherited problems and an inherited budget. I would much rather pump CAD than Excel. But as you gain experience it makes sense to guide a design from concept through to realisation. I really do hate Excel.
Michael Kutschbach 2007 Adelaide Festival Sculpture
9. Can you share your creative process and design philosophy with Design Droplets readers?
I think we should use the tools of our time to design the products of our time. Prior to studying and practicing design my focus was on music composition and performance with projects ranging from playing in rock bands, to an experimental improvised outfit using home made and modified analog synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines with ‘one take’ recordings (Modula on Surgery Records), through to using a computer and software to record and compose, layering and filtering live instruments such as Rhodes, violin, flute, clarinet and vocals (Toby-1 on Surgery Records). In all instances my focus was on experimenting to see what the instrument or technology can do but then try and humanize it rather than being a cold experiment. The same is true for my interest in design; where with music time is the canvas within which you must compose, with design the canvas is space.
10. Duann, thanks for taking the time to talk with us here at Design Droplets. Do you have any final thoughts or advice for Design Droplets readers?
Thank you again for the opportunity to talk a little about what I see as some exciting times for design, and I welcome any discussion that may arise, or any input anyone may have into the research I am currently undertaking.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }