Kel_E Design Diaries: May Design Series

May Design Series

19-21 May 2013

Excel London

I arrived at the May Design series on day 2 Monday 20th May just in time for the talk by Karim Rashid.

Unfortunately the seminar space was packed out when I arrived and I had to listen from the wings, but even with not being able to see or hear properly this was my favorite talk of all the design seminars Ive been to this year!

Hmm how to introduce Karim Rashid to those of you that haven't heard of him....is there any thing this man doesn't design! ...Furniture, Product, Spaces, Accessories, Lighting, Packaging, Art, Fashion, Brands, Surfaces and Media.

Even his website is really funky with the menu buttons to navigate the pages working like a keyboard so you play a tune as you hoover over your options. You have to check it out www.karimrashid.com

Analog Vs Digital

"How the move from analog to digital has changed our material world and how, in the future, design will inform and social behaviors, will change"

This 6ft something man dressed in a Baby pink suit was an amazing speaker, so enthusiastic and engaging that I left the seminar feeling really inspired.

Karim is all about challenging everything that is normally taken for granted and asked lots of thought provoking questions. Two of which really stuck in my mind......

The Hotel Room

A square box with a bed, a toilet, a lamp and a chair and desk

What else is made up of that configuration........

A jail cell!

Up until recently designers designed in 2D plans

We live in a 3D world

Karim designs everything in 3D and says that is the way of the future

His questions was.....If we used 2D to create 3D spaces what will we create when we design in 3D?

He wants people to live in the here and now and not be stuck with things that were designed many years ago which no longer really meet our needs today but we continue to use them anyway as no one has challenged them. Design is a tool to shape a better life for you.

He believes there are two reasons to exist: to procreate and to create.

Design should contribute to the world and shape the future as we are not designing things to go in a museum

Do something different and express your individuality!

Monday nights late night party!

Monday night was THE night to visit the May Design Series as it had late night opening till 9pm.
At six 6pm the free bars opened and the music started!

Karim Rashid Dj-ed on top of the DX bar which was great, however he had a rather unusual line up of warm up acts one being a VERY high pitched lady playing a Ukulele and no I'm not kidding!

Materia Gallery

Materia had a collection of innovative and inspiring materials on display in their on tour gallery.

Funky Materials from Materia


Genesis PD - real chili-peppers cast in epoxy coating

Vetroseta - glass sheets hand decorated with abstract multicolored patterns

Venezia Arts

Mosaico Moon Glacier Metallic

Avonite Petal Series

Pietra Kaikos

Chocolate Stone Border

Glass Colors

Versea

Decorlam

Imaz - A range of resin or glass panels with encapsulated materials, choose an existing product or propose your own material

Nature - Inclusions of real leaves, grasses and sea plants

Nature

What Developers Want
Martyn Evans,
Creative director, Cathedral Group.

"Inspire me, lead me, teach me"

This seminar was about the Cathedral Group's regenerative work, creating buildings that promote change using mixed schemes to regenerate town centers.

The project that I liked the best was the Deptford project.
The following information has been taken from their website http://www.cathedralgroup.com
Its such a cool project I had to share it!

Hotel Lighting with the WOW factor
Peter Veale
Firefly Lighting Design

I loved this seminar, Peter Veales style was to lead by example with a slideshow of examples of great lighting design.

Future Cities: Designing apartments for an overcrowded world
Richard Heap - Future Cities
Yolande Barnes - Savills UK
Chris Boulton - Yoo

This was a really interesting talk discussing possible solutions for the design of future housing when there is no more space left!
The outcome of possible solutions horrified me to be honest, after being a student and spending most of my time in one room I cant think of anything worse than having to live in a micro apartment I want a garden and rooms!

Future Home: The changing role of the Kitchen and Bathroom
Tim Farmiloe, Director, Farmiloe & Farmiloe
Maurizio Severgnini, Managing Director Built In Unit, Hoover Candy
Mark Russell, Contract Sales Manager, Hansgrohe
Thomas Johansson, Design Director, Electrolux

Key points from the seminar -

The kitchen has always been said to be the heart of the home this is very true at the moment with open plan multifunctional kitchens. There is an increased interest in cooking and peoples eating habits have changed.
Entertaining at home is more popular than going out and a luxurious kitchen is the place to do it.
With people paying more attention to their kitchens more time is being spent choosing appliances and the demand for built in and hidden appliances has increased.

The Bathroom is now a much more celebrated room, a sanctuary to be alone in and a place to pamper.
Bathroom design is now being heavily influenced by spa design and more luxury products are becoming available.

There is a big drive for Eco systems and doing everything by remote control everything is going digital!
Plan your meal from work by your fridge telling you what you have left in it and the meals you can make from these ingredients, fill your bath up on your way home from work so its ready when you get in, start running your shower from another room via your iPhone, touch screens replacing buttons.

However one of the speakers wasn't convinced by this digitization of the bathroom and argued that you should find products that give you pleasure in the bathroom and revert back to spa luxury rather than having the novelty of turning your shower on by your iPhone and reported of people having problems with such high tech new bathroom gadgets.
People need to understand these gadgets intuitively, if an instruction manual is required then its too tricky, for example in a bathroom you don't want to have to read a manual to flush the toilet.

Design for life and catering to impaired people is also a big issue as the population is aging.
Every new build house in the UK now needs to be wheelchair friendly which will also have a big impact on bathroom design.

There have been massive changes in what can be done with old materials and the question of "why are all bathroom materials hard?" was asked which is a good question!

Interesting Products I spotted around the show