Experimenting and Design

I my self, do not like to make extremely conceptual design, but can respect it. I want my work to be more about function than statement. At the same time I believe that there needs to be a level of experimentation and “out of the box thinking” required to produce new and innovating designs. Theses experiments are what lead a designer in a direction, most of the time this path that is fallowed, could not have been found without experimenting and mistakes. I think that the best place to experiment is with materials and techniques. There has to be a significant amount of time dedicated to experimenting, but it should be done in a manner that will lead to a finished product or project that is worth wile. There is absolutely a large amount of thinking that goes on with experimental design/ experiments, but it is more important what you do with the information that you gain. As far as Max Lamb’s Pewter Chair in Sand goes, what is it? What is it for? Is it Design to pour metal in a sand box or is it a performance art piece? I have no qualms about one-off/ low production objects, but there has to be a reason for it and I don’t see that in the Pewter chair. There is nothing that speaks to the process of casting in the design of the chair, On the execution of his Pewter stools, Lamb did use casting techniques to form the top surface, he carved the design into sand, and poured into that.

Electric Cars

The Tesla Roadster

The Tesla roadster is an all-electric sports car that has the performance to battle a Porsche. At the hart of this car is a very large battery pack used to store energy or ESS (Electric Storage System). Most people think that an electric cars and their batteries consumes more energy to make and create more toxic waste that a standard automobile. The battery in the Tesla Roadster must be very large to propel the car to a 0 to 60 time of 4 seconds and have a range of 200 miles (the largest range of any electric vehicle) Containing 6800 AA sized Lithium-ion cell weighing about 450kg. These cells are manufactured in Japan where there are relatively strict environmental laws, and meet the RoHS standards. They are mostly made of lithium metal oxides with zero lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBBs or PBDEs. It is less toxic than the lead-acid batteries that are in regular cars, and at the end of its life it is recycled. Tesla Motors is working with Kinsbursky Brothers, Inc. (KBI)/Toxco to recycle the vehicle’s batteries. They want to maximize the amount of material that can be salvaged, (cobalt, aluminum, nickel, and copper, etc) to reuse in future batteries. It is uncommon for manufacturers to take such a stance in the recycling of their product, but they stand to benefit if they can reuse the materials to create more cars.

High Heels

Heels

I believe that designers can start or direct a trend, whether it is visual or conceptual, but it is up to the user to determine the meaning to the object. In the case of high heels, the design started out as a form of empowerment for woman, then that changed to a form of domination over woman. Now woman wear heals for whatever reason they want. You could have two women who wear the same shoe for very different reasons. One could be a conservative businesswoman wearing a black suit, and the other could be the opposite, wearing a mini skirt with facial piercing and rainbow hair. Both woman play different roles in society, both ware the same shoe. In this case the designer made the shoe with their aesthetic and preferred use, but it is the end user that dictates the final style of the shoe. You could say that a designer suggests a use for their product, but does not have the final say. When you sell a product you do not come with it to show how to properly use it, there may even be instructions, but how often done one even read them. How often have you seen some one sitting on a chair cross-legged, when it was designed to have both feet on the ground? This is the same thing. I do not believe that designers need to enforce how products are used; this allows people to define who they are as individuals.