Dedicated to inspiring designers, inventors & the creative spirit in all of us.

Italian manufacturer Boffi is reissuing Joe Colombo’s Minikitchen, a monobloc kitchen on castors, designed in 1963. This is more proof that good design does demand relevance in new times. The all-in-one design would still fit into any small dwelling, or any museum, for that matter.

One of the more famous Colombo pieces is his 5 in Uno nesting glass design. I have seen this before but was just reintroduced to the designer when reading that the Minikitchen was being produced again. I think both of these designs are timeless and deserve recognition for their unique and inspiring qualities.

Joe Colombo’s 5 in Uno glass design.

Judson Beaumont is owner of Vancouver-based Straight Line Designs, established in 1986. Known for his custom wood, fiberglass and mold making, Beaumont enjoys offering a whimsical view into his world through furniture and exhibit design.  Much of Beaumont’s studio work has been displayed around the world and on numerous design sites.

What was your first impressionable moment that involved design as a child?

I never did art classes as a child, it wasn’t until graduating high school that I started to look into it as a profession. I then began to look at design more seriously and decided to take the concept farther by attending art school.

It is easy to see that you are influenced by your childhood; what are the things from your childhood that you wish to pass on to others through your work?

I try to pass on the ideal of never limiting yourself or your creativity, take chances and hold onto the childlike fascination with the abstract.

You attribute your style to people like Walt Disney, Dr. Seuss, Warner Brothers, Pee-wee Herman, as well as designers like Philippe Starck and Frank Gehry. Have you had the opportunity to meet or correspond with any of these cultural icons?

I have met both Frank Gehry and Philippe Stark at various trade shows. I admire the fact that they push the limits more than any other designers, always reaching forward and defying limitations.

How did you make the transition from student to business owner, creating Straight Line Designs out of design school?

I never wanted to leave art school; for me it was the greatest thing I had every experienced. After going through a short trial in the movie industry, I decided to venture out on my own and start my own studio. My plan was to create my own art school environment.

What is the key to your success in your design studio, having worked nearly 25 years with so many clients on so many projects? Is it the atmosphere, the content of your work, or maybe the end result of seeing people enjoying your finished work?

I think it is a little bit of everything combined. The talent of my staff, being able to create such unique products and getting to enjoy the reactions afterwards.

How important is it for you to have sketches and renderings to communicate to your clients before you create your finished designs?

It is one of the most important aspects of design. It is very important for me to visualize the project with the client on paper before it ever begins being built.

You have said that you try to incorporate elements into your designs that make each project un-intimidating, interactive and fun. Is this difficult when working with a medium such as wood?

No, we work with many different techniques to bend the wood and create unique shapes, we definitely push the medium. We also incorporate fiberglass and mold making into our list of materials, as well.

Giving talks and slide shows must be  rewarding, but how do you make time for speaking engagements; do you travel to schools and businesses or do they come to your studio?

It is definitely a little bit of both. I enjoy going to schools and events and talking with students but it is also great to get them down to the studio so they can see everything in a real working environment.

What should an aspiring designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit?

I would say sketching, and researching are definitely the most important stepping stones to becoming a better designer. Looking into other artists, getting inspired and seeing what others are doing around you.

Joel Escalona of Mexico studied Industrial Design at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Azcapotzalco in Mexico City (2008). Since 2006, he has been designing conceptual award-winning products, as well as home accessories and furniture pieces. He leads his own virtual studio developing simple, practical and innovative designs, always driven by storytelling concepts. Joel is currently working on various furniture and product design projects.

What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? I think I had a lot of impressionable moments, obviously, when I was a kid. For example, at school learning something new, at museums or even when I used to help my dad fixing the car.

For some people, there is a single person or a single moment that changed how they see things as a designer. Who would you attribute to you seeing things with a designer’s eye? It’s pretty hard to say; a lot of people influenced my design thinking. Even things I see or read change my way of seeing objects and, of course, my way of thinking on design.

Do you believe studying Industrial Design at UAM in Mexico City makes your work unique in the design world, opposed to a European or North American influence? I really cannot say with exactitude. Mexico’s Industrial Design is very young; we are talking about 50`s. Obviously design teaching has a lot of influence from Europe and North America. In UAM they have a technical approach to design, which helps me a lot.

What do you consider to be your strongest area of design — architectural, furniture or graphic design? I would say furniture and interiors, as it is the area I work in the most. But I’m very interested in working more in product design; I would love to get involved in technology.

What has been your greatest honor to date, as far as awards and recognitions? I have a lot of great experiences, like winning a contest by Volvo – they took me to their factory in Sweden, which was amazing; and also going to New York in order to show my work in ICFF as a part of ICFF Studio. I have been invited to Milan, and they just invited me to Maison & Objet in Paris. I have had a lot of great experiences in my short career.

Your work seems to have a very clean, polished and glossy appeal. What do you consider an influence in your design style? I don’t know, it is like my design territory.

Do you have any intentions of evolving from product design into any other genre of design work? Yes, of course. I’m thinking architecture; I would love to design houses.

Do you use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or any other communication networking sites to promote your work or stay in contact with other designers? Yes, yes and yes, I use that a lot. I’m very into networking and, actually, I think I have never used normal mail.

What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit? Studying and practicing. A creativity killer is ignorance.

Arne Van Oosterom authors the Weblog that accompanies Design Thinkers, a strategic design consultancy in Amsterdam that specializes in business, service and social innovation/ transformation. Oosterom is also a lecturer and chairman of the Service Design Network Netherlands.

1. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? I grew up in a family of artists, illustrators and designers. So I guess creativity is in my genes and design has been a part of my life as long I can remember. Drawing, photography, writing and making music were things that played a major role in my life while growing up. And they still do. Being creative is a way of life for me. It’s the way my brain works… quickly bored, constantly wanting to be stimulated and always restless.

2. What is service design? Service design is designing and organizing the interaction between (service) provider and end-user using creative tools and methods. An important service design principle says: co-production leads to co-ownership, which turns customers into ambassadors. Meaning: organizations and governments should empower the consumer. Easily said, but in reality most marketers and communication managers have no idea where to start. They are used to only dealing with the cosmetics — the outside. Implementing ideas using this service design principle has major consequences for the internal organization.

But all the new developments happening around us are pushing us to take a look beyond boundaries of traditional media, top-down structured businesses and marketing techniques. Even though organizations and governments usually play it safe and are not easily persuaded to move into another direction, the necessity for change is getting stronger.

This is where service design can be instrumental. While using service design methods, organizations are forced to look into a mirror and deal with realities. Besides that, service design offers methods to use newly found insights for developing ideas, concepts, prototyping, building and implementation. Service design is a holistic approach and looks at the whole system. The back stage and front stage of a service organization.

I believe that service design is a natural response to the changing world, which is fueled and accelerated by new technological developments.

3. What is social innovation? To me, it means adding real value to people’s lives by designing better systems. But personally, I don’t like the word ‘innovation.’ It’s one of the most misused words ever and has lost all meaning. I feel attracted to the word ‘transformation.’ So I would use ’social transformation’ (through the design of systems) or just social design.

A few months ago I started the Social Design Task Force in collaboration with people from agencies and universities in France, Finland, Austria, Scotland, England and the Netherlands. Our aim is to use our creative talents, networks and recourses to improve people’s lives. This means we are involved in a very wide range of projects. For example: We are trying to find a way, a system, to get people (living in cities) to use their bicycle for trips up to 5 kilometers. If the project would succeed it will dramatically reduce traffic jams and improve safety, health and air quality in larger cities. Another project is a crowd-sourcing project for Greenpeace where we try to get young people actively involved in climate change issues.

We are trying to find solutions to problems that affect our lives in a very personal way.

4. You spend a lot of time traveling and going to speaking engagements.  What is the benefit of attending these forums? We, at DesignThinkers, are pioneering and want to be at the forefront of developments. This means we are searching all the time, always hungry for more knowledge, new insights and meeting new people. Being connected and having conversations with professionals from many different disciplines is the best way to keep learning and growing.

In some ways it’s almost an addiction, but I have to keep moving and keep challenging my ideas. I refuse to believe that I know all the answers. Like most people, I don’t know much. But I’m working very hard to find out what the questions are.

If I stay behind my desk there is a chance I would start to believe in my own delusions. I’d start running round in circles. Putting my ideas to the test in the real world, with people who might not agree with me, is very hard, sometimes painful, but always of tremendous value.

5. If you go to just one design conference anywhere in the world, which would you recommend? This is very difficult to answer. In fact I don’t like going to conferences as a spectator at all. Especially those conferences aimed at people like me. Usually the programming is about telling us stuff we already know by people we already know. There is always a lot of agreeing.

That is why I primarily go to conferences to meet people. Initially I go to meet up with people I met before, in real life or online, and I always end up making new friends.

But if you are interested in service design and want to meet and greet the professionals, I have to recommend going to the service design conference 2009 held in Portugal. The conference is organized by the International Service Design Network (http://www.service-design-network.org/), of which we are part, and is a great opportunity for me to meet up with all my friends and colleagues from around the world. But be warned: they are agreeing with each other all the time…

6. Much of what you talk about on designthinkers.eu has to do with innovation and creative thinking.  Who is a good example of executing good business sense pertaining to innovation and creative thinking in the Netherlands? My first thought is TomTom. They showed that with creative thinking and a new approach you can create a whole new market and even be world changing.

And I am a big fan of the way Phillips is trying to integrate creative thinking in their organization. Phillips is a very large and complex organization, so implementing new ideas is not easy. But I applaud their courageous attempts and I’m expecting great things from Phillips in the future.

7. As a product designer, you have to meet the demands of consumers.  Do you believe consumers are more conscious, or ‘smarter’ than, say, the consumers of even 10 years ago, and are demanding smarter designs from today’s designer? People have the same basic needs as 10 years ago. That has not changed a lot.
What I find more interesting is the amazing impact the Web is having on our world. Internet is upsetting the balance in a major way. It makes companies and governments more transparent and vulnerable and it enables people to self-organize.

Everything in our world is organized and structured by the law of networks. And Internet is a new kid on the block, but it is going to have an unparalleled impact. We are witnessing the first symptoms of a much larger phenomenon that is going to restructure everything we know.

The opportunity the Internet gives consumers (or ‘prosumers’) and citizens to self-organize into influential peer groups is going develop into one of the biggest social and economical changes of our time.

8. What separates the designer from the average consumer, and how do you bridge that divide? A good designer is a translator or intermediator (much like an artist).
The designer is the bridge. But in the end we are all just people, and consumers and all people are extremely creative.

I would like to add that I don’t think designers should be put on a pedestal. Lately, people are trying to convince me that designers have super powers. Well, they don’t. As far as I know they are no smarter than the next person.

9. You use Twitter and are registered on LinkedIn.  What do you feel is the best way to reach designers around the world in regard to communication technologies? I do not target designers per se. So I wouldn’t know. I like to connect and have conversations with people. People I can learn from or have fun with.

I’m on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo and everything else because it’s part of my job. I advise customers about social media and so I must experience it first-hand.

I’m always trying to connect all my social networks together. But in general they are unsatisfactory and just crude versions of what is yet to come. I can’t wait for web 3.0 to break down all the walls.

But I must say I’m enjoying Twitter… against all expectations.

10. What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer? Work hard and make lots and lots of mistakes. If you don’t experiment and try and try again, you won’t grow. Even the most talented and famous designers had to work long and hard and fail miserably many times before becoming world-class.

And last but not least: don’t let anyone tell you what to do. Think for yourself.

It was said to me not so long ago that I should write a post about the Wacom that I work on everyday in the design studio. Giving it more thought, I could not do what I do without my Wacom. The progression of the workstation is astounding, considering the formats that I have used as a designer and while growing up. So here is the evolution of my writing tools and work surfaces since kindergarten.

Like any other child, I believe crayons were my starting point. Crayons on paper, crayons on cardboard, crayons on walls. Rubbing onto textures, coloring within the lines and even chewing a few crayons. Then I graduated to colored pencils and markers. At this stage, I am mostly talking about dried-out, hand-me-down markers and colored pencil stubs from the art bins in grade school.  

Next, I moved up to graphite pencils ranging from 6B down to 2H. They were commonly under lock and key by my art teacher and were soon followed by Prismacolor brand colored pencils. To have access to Prismacolors was the touchstone of any art student, because that meant your work was respected enough by your instructor to have any color imaginable at your fingertips, and you could hand sharpen them with an Exacto knife. Reaching a greater level of artistic ability opened my grip to bigger and better things like watercolors. New media meant new materials to draw on as well: heavy paper, watercolor tablets and spiral-bound sketchbooks.

College then provided me with the marker rendering experience, old-school style. The thin, accurate Prismacolors of the past were set aside for thick, two-sided rendering markers. Marker rendering had me balling up cotton swabs and smearing baby powder on the surface of marker paper, hoping that I moved in such a fluid motion that it was a ‘one take wonder’ that I would not have to correct. I even learned to inject alcohol into the old markers to revive the dying pens in my small collection. Markers were cool, but markers were time consuming and messy.

All of these different drawing instruments through school led me to a crossroads where style and execution met technology. The next tool to be learned was the computer mouse. 

This challenge was an advancement in my hand and eye coordination like I had not seen since I had first learned to grip a crayon. Learning to use a computer mouse was almost like going back to step one. So many advancements in technology had taken place as I had progressed from crayons to markers that I understood the new standard was the computer mouse. By training my artistic eye to communicate with my index finger and palm, I could bridge that gap between new interface and the elements of design that I had learned through my early years of art education. 

Just as I had learned to grip my crayon and coordinate the far reach of my imagination to the surface of the paper with the movement of my hand, I had mastered the mouse. I went through college learning to use design programs with a clicking mouse. At home, at school and at work I reached out intuitively to grasp the mouse as I worked on any project, click-clicking away. But here is where it gets tricky — as I moved into the design world upon graduation, I had to adjust to a new technology that, once again, brings me back to step one again. The Wacom. 

The Wacom uses an interactive pen display that had me training my hands and eyes to once again adjust to writing on a new surface. No more crayons on cardboard. No more Prismacolor in a sketchbook. No more cotton swabs and alcohol soaked rendering markers. Everything I needed; every tool, every color, every texture within reach of a writable surface. No more dirty palms or stained fingertips. No more crumbled paper, wasted on a bad stroke. The Wacom was revolutionary in how I designed. 

Today, I grip the Wacom pen with the same loose grip as I did when I learned to scribble with a crayon. I select my pen tip, choose my color and draw as I so simply did when I learned so long ago. The Wacom interface that I use today has been so well designed that the action of simulating the crayon in hand is intuitive. I can’t wait to witness the next advancement of the writing tool. I imagine that will include speaking with my hands and illustrating ideas in 3D.  I’m ready, and I can not wait!

John Muhlenkamp is from El Dorado Hills, CA, but has had opportunities that have taken him all across the map. He currently works for the supercharged design firm Astro Studios in San Francisco. John is a graduate of the acclaimed BYU ID program and is always looking to learn new things. John has a love for all types and areas of creativity, with a particular passion for footwear design and soft goods. He also enjoys time with his wife, Melissa, and daughter, Eva, in the San Francisco area. John takes delight in golf, basketball, wakeboarding, speaking Spanish, photography, vacationing and, of course, sketching. He took some time to speak to us about design.

Interview: John Muhlenkamp from Industrial Design Sketching on Vimeo.

What a clever way to celebrate your book collection and interest in geography. The designer has taken a great amount of time in creating a nice wall display for magazines, newspapers, books and digital media. I think there should be one of these in every library. And I also believe there should be one designed for each continent, not just this cluster of the continental United States. Who would have thought that there would be more reading in Texas than in Pennsylvania?

Justin Knecht joined the Centre for Design Innovation in Ireland after working for Crayola in the US. Justin has spoken at a number of conferences and company events including SEEdesign, HOW, Hallmark Cards, DMI, Thinking Creatively Conference, Oracle, the Macromedia User Conference and the Allaire Developers Conference.  Enjoy!

1. It’s been some time now since you made your way across the pond, relocating a great distance from your roots in the Keystone State. What is the difference, culturally, designing in Ireland compared to the United States? It’s a much less developed space. The professional design community itself would probably consider itself young by certain standards, which is interesting in a country that has so much history and heritage. The text from Dublin-based Design Factory’s 25-year retrospective spoke to the fact that Ireland‘s cultural identity is largely based upon language more than the visual arts.

For a long time the majority of design talent was leaving Ireland to work in other places, and gradually those people began returning and establishing the professional design community that exists here today.

On a practical note, working with small to medium sized enterprises, like we do at the Centre, is a great reality check. The case studies typically used about big brands just aren’t relevant. Smaller organizations want practical stories, practical tools and practical results.

2. Conferences, blogs and books are vital to the creativity of so many people working in the design genre. What do use as influence when looking for inspiration and motivation when you are designing? It all comes in one big stream through Google Reader these days. I can’t name a single source, though I’ve been inspired by watching various TED Talks. They are a regular 15-minute investment worth making.

3. Your personal blog, Vertical bones.com, is titled “a documented experiment in following your bliss.” Can you credit any one person with instilling that creative, innovative spirit that drives your sense of curiosity and adventure? Well, the quote is most closely attributed to Joseph Campbell. However, I was at a design conference in NYC and Bruce Mau was speaking amongst a group largely composed of corporate creatives. He was drinking water that was recycled sewage, which was a bit humbling following a P&G presentation about the millions spent on the development of a women’s disposable razor. He turned to the audience and said something like, “We have the talent and creativity to do anything. What are you going to do?” That stuck with me.

4. Who do you consider an inspiration to your style of design work, professionally? My life these days is much less about doing actual design practice and working more around the design process, and getting companies to use design effectively to bring products, services, brands and experiences to market. It’s design as a verb, not a noun.

So with that in mind, I’ve been influenced by the IDEO process, or the approach that Adaptive Path is teaching. No single approach is perfect, but I’m most interested in the practical “how”. I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with individuals from the Design Council, and have been influenced by their Designing Demand program and the methodology surrounding its implementation.

5. In your article, creating the right space to foster a spirit of innovation, featured on Centre for Design Innovation blog you share a case study that says there is “an exponential drop of frequency of communication between engineers as the distance between them increases.” How can we bridge this divide so that international offices can work seamlessly without having the tolls of location and distance hinder creativity? I certainly don’t have a solution. My comments were mainly about the importance of space, of a place where innovation can take place and collaboration is facilitated. I’ve often quoted a Steelcase statement that a place can “enable or constrain what takes place in it.”

I also feel strongly that an innovative environment is made up of three components: (Right) People, (Right) Process & (Right) Place. When I was managing a design studio, those were the three strategic themes I always concentrated on.

6. What advice would you give to companies looking to be more innovative? Understand your users. Innovation starts and ends with people. People will reveal the insights you need to create unique solutions, and they will evaluate how well those solutions meet their needs.

7. Is Ireland a good place for innovation? Yes. The same qualities that made Ireland so successful over the last decade will help Ireland innovate themselves out of the current downturn. The workforce is highly-educated, well networked and incredibly resourceful.

8. Is there anything you miss as a consumer, or designer, living in Ireland that you were used to having at your disposal in the States? Tastykake

9. What should any designer do every day, in order to become a better designer through habit? Have a genuine interest in people.

John Caswell Design offers a few not-so-conventional designs, including a chair named “zippy.” Assembled unlike any other chair, zippy is held together with zip ties. Other designs include two-legged chairs, a mirror comb set, and rubber infused wood table named “grippy.” Be sure to take a look; seeing this designer’s imagination in motion will definitely stir your imagination!

Adjust your speakers; this is our first video interview at Davison Creators!  Sit back and watch as Spencer Nugent conducts a sketch-interview and talks about his thoughts on design, influential people and things that keep him designing!

Spencer Nugent Interview from Industrial Design Sketching on Vimeo.

Spencer Nugent originally hails from Bog Walk, Jamaica, and now resides in San Francisco, California, where he works as a designer for the award-winning firm, ASTRO Studios. He is co-founder of the sketch supersite IDSKETCHING.COM along with John Muhlenkamp, both of whom function as the main contributors to the website. Spencer enjoys the visual arts, photography and science fiction. He has always had a passion for learning new things and teaching and helping others. He is currently engaged to his sweetheart, Jennifer Shaw, and they plan to wed in April.