Two people from this reading I felt I most identified with and was most inspired by were the ‘contemporary’ designers: Marti Guixe and Jurgen Bey. Each of these men has distinct styles, motives and levels of commitment to design and its relation to society. One important feature that these designers have in common is their persistence in questioning everything and in taking an unconventional approach to thinking and the world of design.
Interestingly enough, after reading the ‘Questions & Answers’ section of this book with Marti Guixe, I thought he would be the last designer I would choose as someone I could identify with. His self-bestowed title of “ex-designer” was both intriguing and irritating to me. To answer the question ‘What is your definition of design’, Guixe states, “for me design is a kind of submission you make to the economy when doing projects. As an ex-designer I am free from that, I don’t need to follow this parameter. But I like very much playing with it, to make that economy submit to me”.
In his response, I was bothered at first by what I viewed as a political response. Not exactly answering the question but in a roundabout way. The more I studied his ideals, styles of work and examples of his work, however, the more I grew to admire him. He clearly has many interests and strong beliefs about social norms. Like me, Guixe has not followed a linear path in his education and line of work. He studied Interior Design and Industrial Design. He lives and has lived an International lifestyle. As mentioned in “Bright Minds, Beautiful Ideas,” he has lived, worked or studied, in at least three different countries: Italy, Germany and Spain.
“Possession weighs you down and enslaves you to the fear of loss; you lose mobility and time, values in a society of constant change”.
Another aspect I find fascinating and inspirational about Guixe is his aversion to possessions and his attraction to immaterial objects. He finds out what people’s needs are and strives to find the simplest answer, without wasting materials or compromising his beliefs in the process. He designs systems and instructions. One example of this is his Camper ‘info shop’ proposal and plan for the store’s design. Guixe used a shoebox as a basis of the design and decorated the shop with artists’ and thinkers’ works and activities. In another phase he recommended the shoeboxes be designed with the phrase “If you don’t need it don’t buy it”. He cleverly tests boundaries while maintaining his ideals.
“Why make life unnecessarily complicated? Our habits have changed. We no longer sit at the table; we eat while surfing on the Internet. But food has not changed. I’m interested in our habits, in the relationship between the body and our actual environment and the process of feeding ourselves”.
Looking at Guixe’s work and reading about his mentality as a designer has already started to change the way I look at design. Learning more about him and seeing more of his work will definitely influence my own work this semester. As I’ve already demonstrated, Guixe is not a conventional designer. According to the text, much of his work deals with living matter such as food and human behavior. While some of his work might not represent the world’s view of beauty or even result in a large profit, it represents a unique way of thinking. Work such as the cacao dune ‘Remake’, ‘the Gin Tonic puddle’ and the ‘Oranienbaum Lollipop’, were particularly interesting to me, demonstrating his research and refinement as a designer. This translates to me as a designer, because I realize that design does not always need to be usable, functional or profitable. Sometimes its purpose is simply to provoke deeper thought or to provide a stepping-stone towards a new way of thinking.
Another designer from this reading that I could identify with is Jurgen Bey of the Netherlands. The manner in which Bey seeks to question the world and the ordinary objects within it is one of the main reasons I immediately felt that I could identify with him. I find the ordinary objects and the stories behind them are one of the most interesting ways you can conceptualize design. When I walk into a store full of merchandise or even look through a closet full of ‘junk’, I do not see what is, but what it could become. Coming from the other side of this, Bey see stories as items to collect and translate into functional objects. According to the book, “in the end most of life’s stories are found in the items we use everyday”.
“If you come across something of value and tuck it away in your metaphorical suitcase there’s sure to come a moment when you can make use it”.
Jurgen Bey’s work inspires me in his method of questioning reality to come up with solutions. As mentioned in his above quote, he tries to take from what already exists, recognize it and make it into something useful for people. I think it is commendable that he seeks to not invent, but to make use of what already is in a way that no one has ever thought of. According to the text, Bey questions, “Why should I invent something new when reality already offers so many stunning images, stories and extraordinary solutions? As a designer, all I have to do is find them and transform them into new stories and new products…A designer’s greatest achievement is to change the perspective of things a little”.
In his Healing series, Bey takes ordinary objects and tells a story with them. The significance is that healing is about coping with shortcomings. When I first looked at the photograph, I was drawn to the chair with the books replacing the broken leg of the chair. It was a unique and aesthetically pleasing solution to the problem. Upon further inspection, I saw the broken chair leg had been turned into a toy car. This simple solution to a broken everyday object sends a powerful message.
“Everything has a reason and a story behind, even apparently senseless behaviors and phenomena”.
Based on the philosophical questions posed by Bey and a similarity in how we view ordinary objects in design, learning about Bey and his work will surely have an influence on my work this semester. In the section representing sketches by Jurgen Bey, the author states that Bey is a researcher. The series of images that follow were taken from his concept book and each creates a possible idea for a future design. When Bey was asked ‘Does design have to be beautiful’, he answers that in fact it does, but sometimes design has to be ugly to keep people away from a certain place. In his concept book images, he also questions the perception of beauty, the broken, age, frailty, language, newness to life and much more.
Just as Bey and Guixe do everyday in their work, I hope to take away from this an enhanced perspective on the world of design. I plan to continue to question aspects of reality, what is, what was and what the future of design holds. As I continue to develop my style as a designer, I would like to develop my own method of thinking and create meaningful, thought-provoking work.
