Designs of the year
After attending the designs of the year opening at the Design museum on Tuesday I thought a topic discussing the shortlist seemed appropriate.
I was one of the nominators, so I thought to get the ball rolling I would post my quick reasons for choosing the two of my nominations that were shortlisted. These were meant to be included in the exhibition but were sadly omitted. I think it would be worthwhile to see WHO is nominating (a short bio perhaps) and their reasons WHY.
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1 Rites, Klaus Obermaier/LPO, Royal Festival Hall
I should start by saying that I didn't really care for the aesthetic they chose for this piece, it was a bit 'generic futuristic' for my tastes but the idea at the heart of the piece is very interesting. I'm not usually a fan of interactive works being 'performed' but I was very impressed with how stylish and graceful this piece was, with all the elements (3D, sound reactive, camera tracking, live music, performance) working perfectly together. The staging was very simple and really helped reinforce the link between the movement of the live dancer and her onscreen persona. Camera tracking is certainly not a new idea but it was very inspiring to see it handled so deftly and playing to a full house of regular paying patrons, not just the usual crowd of interactive designers.
2 Unlimited Web Page/ POKE
http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go
A fun site that encourages the user to play about and spend time on the page and therefore with the brand. What impressed me most about the site was the wealth of play opportunities on offer and the care and attention the designs have clearly lavished on it . The core idea of a long web page is great but they have taken it a step further with great illustrations and lots of simple, engaging interactive toys.
so, anyone been? any thoughts?
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posted by Matt Cooper
on 14 February 2008
Orange
I didn't see the Rites performance so can't comment on it, but, I have seen the Orange website, so i'll talk about that.
I have a lot of respect for the coders behind this:
• I love the infinite scroll, I haven't seen it done this well anywhere before
• I love the fact that they have included a real/fake scroll bar inside the flash (i've always wanted to do that)
• I love the fact that the real/fake scrollbar mimics the operating system that i'm viewing the site in. Try it on a Mac and on windows to see the difference
• I love the fact that the scroll wheel on my mouse controls the flash. You take this for granted but its really difficult to do (codewise)
• I like the character design, based on the original work by Airside a year or two ago I believe. I'd 'love' it if they had worked on this too, but it doesn't look like their work (i might be wrong).
Ironically I only see this as a piece of POKE, I've only just realised which tv campaign this is tied to (follow the tv campaign link at the top of the page). But then Orange has never been a particularly coherent brand - and probably better for it.
Someone should submit this to dynamo.
posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 19 February 2008
I submitted it to dynamo :-)
http://www.dynamolondon.org/projects/131
posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 19 February 2008
Who nominated the nominators?
I attended the opening of the Design of the Year exhibition and was generally impressed with the diverse range of really high quality work selected. I particularly applaud the Design Museum's move away from celebrating a single individual, as it has done (somewhat controversially) in previous years. Instead there is a genuine attempt to give a multi-disciplinary review of some of the year's best work.
That said, I quickly became curious about how the selection panel was put together and what criteria they may have employed to arrive at this collection. There is no indication that anything more than a simple "I've seen this and I like it" approach was adopted. (Not unlike the criteria adopted here at dynamo in that regard, of course).
The neat little handbook, designed by Esterson Associates, sadly does not offer any further information about the credentials of the nominators, nor the rationale behind any of their selections. We are not offered anything more than a brief description of each project.
Given the healthy range of disciplines represented I would like to have known more about the people behind the nominations. I suspect even seasoned professionals would not be personally familiar with many of those persons on the list beyond their own specialisms. I recognised about 20 names out of 50 or so. Consequently I'm intrigued to know how their specialist knowledge influenced the choices.
I was pleased to see interactive design well represented, with Poke's Orange Unlimited website (above) and Ross Phillip's own SHOWstudio project The Replenishing Body, in amongst the selection. <www.dynamolondon.org/projects/104> There are a good few other projects with digital components too. Apple's iPhone, for instance, is an obvious and well-deserved inclusion. <www.dynamolondon.org/projects/117>
It's a good collection of work, check it out and see what you think.
posted by Sarah Boris
on 26 March 2008
a piece of Poke
Does it matter if it's a 'piece of Poke'?
It actually has been art directed by Poke, they presented the work at the last BD4D event which was held at the ICA.
They carefully selected the illustrators as all art director would do, basically managing the project from concept to production.
To reply to Matt, how many designs do you see today that are genuinely one designer's work? Especially when you consider work that's done by a studio. I am sure you, yourself create pieces for projects as you are part of a studio.
It's a bit like saying all major contemporary artists only do pieces of the work of art. the best example is probably Damian Hirst who has loads of assistants doing all the work for him. He probably only signs the work, maybe not even...... though no one says it's a piece of Damian...
So in response to you saying you would have loved this never ending web page to be Poke's only, is it more that you would have like it too look different? and have a more unexpected type of illustration.
I personally think the idea is really what matters on the web page and that it's be perfectly and beautifully executed.
And to conclude I thing saying work is a piece of someone is probably a good/honest way of defining all the strands and implications of projects.
one job is thousdans of pieces of people.
I design everything alone but have lots of input from marketing people, curators etc.. Each comment they give me ads a little piece of them to my work and makes things evolve.
I think you get the best work out of billions of pieces, we just have to make sure we chose the good ones.
cheers
Sarah
posted by tony brook
on 07 April 2008
Looking forward to next year
In reference to Ross and Malcolm’s comments, there are a few teething problems, as they’ve mentioned they are primarily communication issues.
In no particular order:
It is an International competition, this needs dialing up, everyone I’ve talked to felt confused by this. The expectation seems to be that it would be UK design only.
The process wasn’t really clear. It takes a bit of explaining but once understood it makes sense. Not knowing why things were chosen was the single biggest issue, it left me a slightly bemused visitor. I was followed in to the museum on the day by a bunch of school kids, we all needed a little hand holding.
A purely personal view, I think that entries ought to reflect the spirit of the year in question. This wasn’t an issue in most categories, but for Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition (an OK set of pastiches) to win the Graphics prize was disappointing. Compared to other sections which had brave forward looking winners, this was a dull choice.
Finally, I’m not sure if it is a good idea to have an overall winner, you are comparing chairs with stickers which is a bit like comparing chickens and spoons. Having said all this, there is a lot of innovative and beautiful work featured and I’d definitely recommend a visit.