Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Prototyping: Making Ideas 3 September - 23 October, 2011 (part two)

ILLUMINI
illumini Decanter 2010, Thumbler Tumbler 2010 and illumini Light (prototype) 2011



Designer-makers Karen Cunningham and Mandi King established illumini in 2010 after completing the two-year Associate Program in JamFactory’s Glass Studio. Through their highly skilled and intuitive understanding of glass, combined with their clean and contemporary design language, illumini has produced a range of items which actively bridges design and craft.





Illumini prototyped their designs through two JamFactory Glass Studio’s Special Projects program. The porgram ensures varied training opportunities, and a depth of experiences for JamFactory’s Associates whilst providing independent artists, designers and craft practitioners with the means and facility to realise their designs and artworks in glass.



In developing their products, illumini set design parameters to a single phenomenological property of glass. For the illumini Decanter, they exploited glass’s tack and stretch, cleverly using a tack point hole in the design as an ergonomic handle and contact point to aerate the wine, whilst the solid cast glass component in the illumini Light uses glass’s ability to conduct and diffuse light.



SIMONE LeAMON


Ricotta, 2011 and La Prima Ballerina, 2011

Simone LeAmon has a multidisciplinary approach to design and art that has seen her develop designs and concepts for graphics, lighting, furniture, interiors, public art, motorcycle apparel, fashion and jewellery.



Ricotta and La Prima Ballerina have been developed over two years, through a collaboration with Melbourne-based lighting manufacturer Rakumba.
The Rakumba Design Collaborations began with LeAmon undertaking a residency where she spent one day a week at the Rakumba factory over a period of six months. Immersing herself within the company allowed LeAmon to learn about lampshade production and Rakumba’s manufacturing capacity, with a special focus on understanding the skill set embedded within the staff. The free exchange of ideas between LeAmon and the staff in the factory fed the design and development of these lamps.


Ricotta’s design is informed by the skills of one of Rukumba’s wire frame makers. To celebrate his years of knowledge, an inverse shade has been created where the shade is on the inside and the wire is expressed on the outside. The name stems from the grid pattern created by the pleating and wire which resembles the grid on the plastic barrel of a ricotta cheese mould.
La Prima Ballerina is based on a traditional shade form originating in the 19th century. Having fallen out of fashion few contemporary shade makers possess the high level of technical skill required to produce it.





LUCELUX


Stretchlight, 2008 Peppered Sunlight, 2009 and Splashlight, 2011

Lucelux is an Australian lighting design company based in Wagga Wagga, NSW. It was established by designer and metalsmith Rohan Nicol as a way to expand his practice beyond studio based jewellery. Works in the Lucelux range have been developed through a unique partnership with local manufacturer Precisions Signs.





Stretchlight is inspired by the inexplicable forces of the “Big Bang”—in particular, the form of the light reflects the theory that matter was distributed throughout the universe via rhythmic waves of energy, where it was compressed by gravity into the stars and planets. After early prototype attempts to produce the diffuser on borrowed vacuum-forming equipment resulted in limited success, Rohan approach local skilled vacuum formers to produce his prototypes. With the prohibitive costs of tooling a unique partnership has developed with designer and manufacturer, whereby Precision signs have invested in the project, providing the tooling free of charge and producing a small initial run of each design.
Peppered Sunlight underwent rigorous prototyping and has employed new print technologies to create its distinctive patterned diffuser. The light is dimmable and height-adjustable, and its interchangeable diffusers create lighting effects that are reflective of dappled light through trees. The ingenuity of this design was rewarded with the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award in 2009.



Splashlight is currently in the prototyping stage, unlike the vacuumed formed lights, this design is spun aluminium.


Prototyping: Making Ideas will exhibit at The JamFactory, Gallery One from 3 September to 23 October.

Prototyping: Making Ideas 3 September - 23 October, 2011

Prototyping: Making Ideas provides audiences with a rare opportunity to learn about the processes and stories behind the design and development of a succesful product.

A prototype is an essential step in the process of designing any product, it allows designers to explore alternatives in their designs; test material and production methods and demonstrate the functionality of their product before committing to production.

 


Adam Goodrum's Chatterbox Prototype














Adam Goodrum
The development of functional, full-scale prototypes is a key characteristic of furniture and object design in this country and has contributed to the international success of many Australian designers, Adam Goodrum has been working with Italian company Cappelini for the production of his Stitch chair whilst and Trent Jansen has work produced by Moooi in the Netherlands.





When prototyping a new design Adam Goodrum, regularly creates a 1: 1 scale cardboard model, this scaling is extremely important to him as it allows him to walk around the object, to get a feel for the object in space, and to see how people will engage with it, whilst questioning its size, comfort and suitability.





The journey from ideas and sketches, through prototypes to final product, can be a long process and it is rare that just one prototype of any design is created. Through presenting early prototypes at various stages Prototyping: Making Ideas plots this challenging and exciting trial and error stage.














Trent Jansen
Trent Jansen’s practice is focused on creating sustainable design, through developing pieces that maintain a lasting relationship with their user. To develop this lasting relationship he imbues his designs with references to some of most powerful human relationships such as the bond between mother and child (Pregnant Chair, 2008)




Pregnant Chair is two Beech chairs, the smaller of which fits exactly within the lines and space of the bigger chair. The chairs though not 100% identical resemble each other like a child does their parent. Pregnant Chair is being produced by Dutch design firm Moooi. Trent had spent time in the studio of Marcel Wanders in 2004, (as well as running his own design studio Wanders is the creative director of Moooi), however it took him several years to build up the courage to send Wanders a design to consider.



With a firm belief that a prototype should be fully functional and at 1:1 scale, Jansen worked with furniture maker Jon Goulder to produced the first prototype of the Pregnant Chair. From this he refined the design before sending technical drawings to Moooi.


Moooi went on to produce further prototypes. Working with an International company did at first present challenges, as images rather than a physical prototype were sent to Trent to refine areas of the design. Trent worked closely with Bart Schilder, Moooi’s product developer on the incremental improvements; sketches of details were sent back and forth—Jansen sending line drawings Schilder returning computer renderings. From these two different ways of working, a second set of technical drawings were developed and the final prototype created.






















Sasha Titchkovsky and Russel Koskela
Started in 2000 by Sasha Titchkovsky and Russel Koskela, Koskela’s Sydney showrooms, presents a refreshing approach for Australian design. Their collection focuses on sustainable furniture design and manufacturing, presented alongside a carefully considered array of objects and homewares by local designers and artisans.

Through its commitment to quality and innovation, Koskela works directly in partnership with a number of suppliers, manufacturers, and craftspeople to create its unique homewares and interiors. Successful collaborations include the celebrated lampshade made with the Indigenous weavers from the Elcho Island and Mapuru Homeland, as well as recent projects with the glass and ceramic departments at JamFactory.


 The klassikko dinner set produced in collaboration with JamFactory’s ceramics studio highlights the time that prototyping may take especially in a medium such as ceramics, where various clay bodies and glazes must be tested to consistently achieve a desired result.

This range has been designed with glaze inside and on the lip, whilst the outside is left unglazed. The main concern for the studio was to find clay body that would reach a suitable level of vitrification, to ensure the exterior unglazed surface remained white and stain-resistant as possible.


 Though the original prototypes were wheel-thrown, the range will be produced using the jigger/jolly- a semi-industrial machine that enables the production of exact replicas of each item from moulds.




 
 
 
 
 
 
  Prototyping: Making Ideas exhibits at The JamFactory,              Gallery One from 3 September to 23 October.