Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch
introIndustrial designers and product designers can create pretty things, make us desire mundane objects or make our lives a little less complicated. They can also be at the forefront of social, technological or environmental change – improving the world, one great design at a time. We’ll be keeping an eye on these product designers to see what they come up with in the year ahead. Find out why…
0/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
Ryan YasinAnyone who has raised children will tell you that kids’ clothing is just about the most wasteful thing you could possibly spend money on. No sooner do they fit the next size up, they’re already straining the seams. During a growing spurt, toddlers barely get a handful of wears out of garments between the inevitable washes. Enter Petit Pli, expandable children’s clothing designed by Ryan Yasin to grow with a child for several years, stretching and expanding to fit in all directions.
1/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
PentatonicUpcycling and circularity are all very good and well, but not everyone is into the shabby chic aesthetic that often accompanies sustainable interiors created from reclaimed pieces and materials. Johann Bödecker and Jamie Hall founded furniture brand Pentatonic to create beautiful, sleek, contemporary objects made, as they put it, “from trash”. All materials used to build the chairs, tables and accessories already available through their online store are recycled and recyclable, but – like the Pentatonic Handy Glass collection, made from recycled smartphone glass, the “most premium grade glass on the planet” – they don’t wear their eco cred on their sleeve, looking sleek and premium rather than yard sale chic.
2/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
CraveNeed a laugh? Spend some time reading the Amazon reviews on products “for women” – like the legendarily terrible Bic pen “For Her”. For product designers, feminising a design often means “shrinking and pinking” it. At the same time, body positivity is bang on-trend, and everyone from small boutique brands to multinational corporations are scrambling to figure out what it is that women actually want. Industrial designer Ti Chang set out to combine form and function in one female-focused industry that hasn’t always been great at recognising women’s real needs. The result: Sex toy brand Crave, which offers “quiet, elegant, discreet” toys that are feminine without skewing “girly”, and were actually designed with women’s desires in mind. [Photo: Catalina Kulczar]
3/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
HelderSexual harassment and abuse dominated media narratives throughout 2017. A series of court cases and public accusations, culminating in the TIME Person of the Year cover featuring women who had broken their silence and spoken out against their abusers, indicate the time is ripe for victims to regain control of the narrative. Dutch design student Nienke Helder was ahead of the curve when she chose to focus on the treatment of trauma-induced sexual issues for her graduation project at Design Academy Eindhoven. Unfortunately, the project was inspired by her own unsatisfactory experience with clinical sex therapy, but hopefully the resulting designs, developed in collaboration with (para)medical experts and affected women, will help victims regain a sense of security, confidence and physicality. [Photos: Nicole Marnati, courtesy of Design Academy Eindhoven, Nienke Helder]
4/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
ThamiFor Thami Schweichler, design is a collaborative discipline and one that should strive to improve the world. The “Social Entrepreneur and Maker” is “focused in working on design for social innovation”. A core member of The Beach, an Amsterdam design studio for social and sustainable innovation, he is also a co-founder of Makers Unite, a project that created sustainable products out of the piles of life vests washed up on Greek beaches along the European refugee route. The initiative saw the very refugees who had once relied on these vests on their journeys across the Mediterranean upcycle them into bags and laptop sleeves. [Photo: Charles Devoyer]
5/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
DavidWood is not always the sustainable choice – unless it come from David Krynauw’s studio. In 2017, he unveiled his first larger structure, a wooden chapel commissioned for an architect couple’s wedding ceremony, built from wood planted by the designer’s father. His ambitious long-term aim is for all his woodwork to be made from trees grown on his own farm, or from reclaimed wood. Having recently launched factory tours, it’s clear that the designer is committed to his sustainable vision and not afraid of transparency.
6/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
KampAuckland-based KAMP.studio effortlessly combines digital production and a hands-on craft aesthetic. The select objects are designed by New Zealand native Daniel Kamp and 3D printed in limited editions. Unfortunately, that means many of his highly covetable designs are currently sold out, such as the stylish Press Pour Over Brewer and Espresso set that manage to look at once deceptively simple and quite unlike any other coffee paraphernalia we’ve ever lusted over. Made from porcelain, hand-cast in 3D printed moulds, and hand-glazed, it’s both delicate and solid, sure to appeal to the third-wave coffee crowd.
7/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
BioplasticsAs 3D printing becomes more accessible and less of a novelty, the question of sustainable plastics is increasingly relevant. The technology can only be considered innovative and forward-looking if the material used by printers is low-impact and readily available in large quantities. Dutch design duo Maartje Dros and Eric Klarenbeek made inroads towards a solution for this dilemma when they announced that they had developed a process to convert algae into bioplastic for 3D printing. The designers have previously experimented with 3D printing fungi and using vegetable starch for similar purposes, so this probably won’t be the last innovation to emerge from their joint studio.
8/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
UncomfortableUsually product designers we admire are remarkable for their dedication to quality and craft, or for the clever ideas behind their genuinely useful designs. Greek designer Katerina Kamprani’s “deliberately inconvenient” collection of purposely pointless products may be immaculately executed, but the resulting objects are not fit for use. They throw up more problems than they solve – which is the point. The Uncomfortable is a project that illuminates the functionality of everyday objects by altering them in a way that renders them useless, like buttons too thick to fit through a button hole, a wine glass with an opening in the wrong position or a concrete umbrella.
9/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
AtangAtang Tshikare, the artist and designer behind Cape Town studio Zabalazaa Designs, applies African patterns, textures and crafts to contemporary murals, interiors and objects. The resulting pieces often feel like a blend of street art and traditional craft. In 2017, the studio opened a showroom in the hip Woodstock district and launched a collection of 16 handmade limited edition pieces with Cape Town interior design studio Okha. Perhaps in 2018, it’s time for global recognition. [Photo: Side table, collaboration with Okha design, photo: Kopefiggins]
10/11
Living
10 Young Product Designers To Watch.
Slide Nr 1311/11
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.