Quand répondre à vos besoins quotidiens devient une priorité !

Le design produit consiste à imaginer et à créer des objets destinés à une production en série. Il englobe les aspects physiques ainsi que les fonctionnalités que doivent posséder les produits. Il passe souvent par un processus analytique et repose sur une approche de résolution de problème visant à améliorer la qualité de vie des clients et leur interaction avec l’environnement.

Victor DUGUET est un designer graphique qui aide à résoudre les problèmes, à visualiser les besoins des consommateurs et à apporter une solution. Cet auto-entrepreneur portant l’identité de “Coolamon Design” est un designer multidisciplinaire qui offre la possibilité aux entreprises de ne pas à avoir à multiplier le nombre d’intermédiaires ainsi que de limiter la perte d’information et garder une cohérence entre tous les design.

Se spécialisant dans le design produit industriel, il conçoit des objets usuels de notre quotidien, fabriqués à plus ou moins grande échelle. Son objectif est d’améliorer la qualité de vie des gens dans leur quotidien…

Pour lire la suite de l’article, je vous invite à aller sur https://www.prontopro.fr/blog/quand-repondre-a-vos-besoins-quotidiens-devient-une-priorite/

Cette artcile a été écrit par Denise Pion

FORM US WITH LOVE – Swedish product design agency

I had the chance to meet Riccardo PACCALONI, in Stockholm. Riccardo is the project manager of FORM US WITH LOVE (https://www.formuswithlove.se/). This studio was created in 2005 by Jonas PETTERSSON and John LÖFGREN. The studio is a mix between the process of traditional creative products and strategic applications. Today, they are based on three different area. Consultancy engaging in products, ranges, collaborations and spaces for clients around the world; Ventures which is disciplined and holistic approaches to launch and build brand; and Institution which is based on knowledge transfers and sharing of experiences, actively contributing to the broader spectra of design. They always imputed a bit of sustainability in their design but in 2015, they decided to act more toward sustainable design.

HOW DO THEY INPUT SUSTAINABILITY IN THE DESIGN?

As you already know now, there are five cornerstones in sustainable design; Produce locally, Use recyclable material or reused material, Produce a product that will last in the time, Create a product with the minimal amount of pieces or/and make it dismantle-able, and Work for the human. Riccardo added one which is the human behavior. It means people are always acting a certain way which you have to answer to reach the “good design” level.

When you design anything, you have to know how the people are going to react about the product. To do so, FORM US WITH LOVE created a list of the consumer behavior for when they are around furniture design. How do customer think? How do they act? What will they do with the product? Will the consumer act the same way if he is from France or Sweden? What does the consumer think about sustainability in this country / market?[…] Consumers never see and almost never realize the work that was done by the designer, but if the design is properly done, the consumer will fully enjoy the product without having to think about the process. The product will fulfill is function and will make the consumers life better.

When FORM US WITH LOVE design a product, they always try to be as sustainable as they can be. They have designers and engineers in the team. That way, they can combine the design with the manufacturing process and see all the possibility they have to design a better product. The fact that they have engineers in the team makes easier for them to design a sustainable product without having the problem of having too many changes when the product pass some engineer test. Also, the mix between designing and engineering is helpful in a design agency as it makes your work more precise and inspire trust. That way, the client can be more willing to manufacture a sustainable product. Nevertheless, the client isn’t all the time into it because it would mean that he should change the line production or invest money that he doesn’t have. We talk about this problem before and I will continue to talk about it. In fact, the reality is that most of the time the client is not willing to change everything. So the agency and the client need to compromise. This means changing the design or removing some pieces or even manufacture with a less sustainable material. The good thing is that most of the time, the client agrees to the compromise meaning that things are changing in the right direction. Small step after small step, we will succeed to create only sustainable product. Even if we need to change faster than we actually are.

FORM US WITH LOVE worked several time with IKEA. During the last three year, they created two sustainable projects, JANINGE and ODGER. ALKI is a chair that is fully made of reused plastic, without glue and make for all the IKEA restaurant. When FORM US WITH LOVE visited the manufacturer, they thanked them a lot because smelling glue was making them a bit “high” at the end of the day. I asked why designing with plastic was great and sustainable. In Sweden, they are really good to recycle some material such as the plastic, the glass and the wood. But they doesn’t recycle every plastic. They recycle 97% the plastic bottle and similar plastic. They even import this kind of plastic waste from other country to recycle it. If we talk about more technical plastic, it is another problem. It is really hard now a day to recycle technical plastic because of the chemical that we can find inside it. Riccardo taught me that IKEA is investing in recycling industries. And because this chair has been design to last a long time, in 5 years, most of the problem will be solved by IKEA or other recycling industries. Also, they could have use a more sustainable material like plastic coming from the ocean. But when they designed the chair, they realized that there was not enough ocean plastic available, so far, to create a huge amount of chair like IKEA needed.

IKEA is the bigger user of wood in the world. This means that they have some wood wastes. So how to change that, FORM US WITH LOVE decided to create a chair with this waste and mix it with some plastic, ODGER. Again, because IKEA is working to find solution to recycle their materials, they should find some solutions in the next 5 years to separate wood from plastic. This kind of initiative helps us to be freer on our design and to do sustainable project. The design of ODGER is sustainable because of the materials but also because it is dismantling. When FORM US WITH LOVE designed the chair, they decided to separate the siting part from the legs to gain place for the transport. Also, IKEA is worldwide known to create easy product to build by yourself. With this product, in 5 seconds, it is done. And if you break a leg of the chair, it is really easy to replace it. This make it even more sustainable.

Last example in which FORM US WITH LOVE had more flexibility is a sounds absorbent panel project for BAUX (https://www.baux.se/). The first panel that was created was made with wood, concrete and water. In a way, it is a good start but they knew they couldn’t separate the wood from the concrete when they had to recycle the panel. BAUX was willing to change how they were creating their sounds absorbent panel. That way, the team of FORM US WITH LOVE had more flexibility to test and redesign how BAUX will create the panels. With the help of materials researchers, time and a lot of different tries, they succeeded to realize a panel with is made only with paper. We didn’t talk in detail about how it was made but it is made with a reusable paper and a reusable glue.

Those example are good to show that some powerful companies like IKEA and smaller companies like BAUX are willing to change the way they were designing and manufacturing. But it is not always like that, teaching and explaining to companies what are the profits of being sustainable take some times and you will have to compromise most of the time when you will design.

I would like to thank Riccardo PACCALONI for the time he dedicated to me. It was interesting to discover more about how a design studio create, the reality of the job and how is it possible to bring sustainability in a design project. I invite you to go check their website: https://www.formuswithlove.se/

DESIGN ÉCOLOGIQUE

I had the chance to meet Wen ROLLAND, in Montréal. Wen is the director and creator of DESIGN ECOLOGIQUE, a design agency specialized in permaculture (It is a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem). Being a developer at first, Wen ROLLAND decided in 2017 to create DESIGN ECOLOGIQUE to coach companies, cities and people to become more aware of the environment. The goal is to create sustainable project using the permaculture. Most of their activities is about agriculture and helping the cities to develop in a better way, a smarter way – the ecological way.

WHAT IS ECOLOGICAL DESIGN?

Ecological design is a field of conception and ecological mindset that aim to create new design in respect of the environment, as Wen explained. To do so, nature leads with all what it can bring us, the human. It all answers to our needs. That way, we can create more ecofriendly systems. I liked in my talk with Wen ROLLAND how it was really different from all the talks I had during my road trip. I had the feeling that I was learning from him as much as he was learning from me. And I had this feeling because he put the relation in the center of his approach and in the design he develops. Maybe also because he doesn’t design for a client but with a client. It is totally different. For Wen ROLLAND, teaching is the core of what we should do as designers. Teaching something to someone with completeness makes him to understand what is happening and that way, he will get better ownership and move forward. He gave me the example of the work of an expert compared to his work. An expert will arrive and say that it is not possible or not efficient to plant vegetables at a given place, but he should plant them 10 meters farther, then he will leave. The farmer will not know why it is not a good idea to plant where we wanted to plant his vegetables, so he will probably do it anyway. Wen ROLLAND at the contrary explains the client why, and that changes all. In this example, it was because there was a cold wind blowing where the farmers want to plant but 10 meters away, a micro climate was there to protect the vegetables. Disclosing the reasons of his advices made the farmer understand Wen’s decision. Education is a big part of what DESIGN ECOLOGIQUE does. Though, teaching is great, working together is even better. Wen implements this in his practice to design a better way. The goal is to create autonomy by the education.

Sometimes, some clients call Wen just to ask his advice and opinion and check about what they did. And he likes that because it means they thought about it and understood what the issues and possibilities were. That way, if a designer work with the client and not for the client, the client can grow and teach himself how to get better. I know what some of you are already think about! How is he keeping is client if they know what to do and don’t need his help. Well, he doesn’t but that is not what he wants. He just want to spread his philosophy and try to make the soil better. That is what we should want as human. In natural life, no one wants to be the best. Some of them just are better or leaders like Lions. But they don’t want to kill all the other animals and plants because they have the chance to do it. They just want to live together and make it work. Why shouldn’t we do the same? Nature adjusts when things are changing. It is another cornerstone of permaculture. When something is dying in the nature, it is dying but it means that it was not supposed to survive in the given conditions. In our society, it doesn’t work the same way. 20 years ago, people were finding a job and they were performing it for the rest of their life. Now, the new generation doesn’t want to work like that anymore and a few people stay more than 5-10 years in the same companies. But all the rules are the same, the laws are the same even if the system as we knew it is no more. This means that we are not trying to change when we need to change. Wen is trying to change this idea because changing is good. Then Wen taught me about what happen in 2007 with the subprime crisis. The World gave a lot of money to save some Banks that were going to collapse and die. The issue is that if it almost died once, it will die again but it has to. Exactly the same way as the nature does. If it doesn’t work anymore and is not going well with how our society is aiming for, it should not survive, or it should change. Teaching and educating our society should help us to realize that sometimes, we should let things happen and change with it.

The last cornerstone of ecological design is the scale. When you design a system, you always must think about the place where it’s going to happen. Designing a system for a town and a small city is, of course, different because of the number of people, but also because the needs are different. For example, Wen designed an eco-hamlet where they must leave all the cars outside. That way, there is less stress and more security. The design is focusing on what the people need. Also, this hamlet used permaculture to design the way to move inside it. Like the roots of a tree, everything is beginning from the same point and growing to different smaller road until it reaches the last house. Because each root is connected, it is easy to move from one point to another. To design a town, you need to look at more information. It makes it harder to create a system that answers every problem. Nevertheless, it is possible to bring permaculture using another way. Sometimes, the scale is too big. Some communities are emerging allowing to act on a smaller scale. It makes it easier to act, to target problems and resolve them. For example, in some districts, they are developing some vegetables gardens or some places where you can do your own compost. Other towns are implementing more bike tracks to reduce the number of cars. When you design something, think about for how many people you are designing and where it is going to be use. To be a better designer, we should now always think about those three cornerstone. It will allow us to be more create and to resolve problem a more efficient way.

HOW THE ECOLOGICAL DESIGN CAN IMPROVE AGRICULTURE?

As I wrote on my last article with WDO, between 35 and 45% of the vegetables are wasted and thrown away. We discussed about the fact that if we increase the amount of plastic to protect the vegetables, it was maybe possible to decrease the amount of vegetables wastes. Well, Wen ROLLAND explained to me how it was not possible and why. First, when we import fruits and vegetables from the other side of the planet, we need to send them when they are not ripe. That way, they will mature during the transportation and arrive in our supermarket mature enough. The problem with that is that non-ripe vegetables don’t have all the vitamins that we need for our body. So, eating vegetables coming from the other side of the world is not good for the environment because of the pollution generated by transportation but it is also not good for our body. Second, those vegetables are already protected by plastic when they are sent to us thus increasing the amount of plastic. This will not help to decrease the amount of waste. The only way to decrease this amount is to redesign all the agriculture industry. This is where the design is coming. Redesigning the system, we will see that the best way to eat is to eat locally with what you have available during the season. For example, in France, it is easy to eat vegetables all year long, but in Canada, it is not possible because of the snow. In those condition, eating meat is probably the best solution. But not meat from anywhere, you should eat local meat and the animal should have had a normal life in the nature, eating grass and else. So for Wen, designing the local production and distribution of the local crop helps both the farmer as well as consumer, and overall the society with lower pollution and better health of population.

Another issue with the intensive agriculture industry is that they pollute the soil. When they are using pesticides and other chemicals products, the soil is becoming weaker and cannot survive. The only way to survive is to use more chemicals and create a vicious circle. Well, that is what a lot of people think. It is not true. Some way are possible to remove all or almost all of the chemicals from the soil. The problem is that it takes between 18 or 24 months. Nevertheless, using some special types of wood chip or insects. This will help to create some new underground ecosystem with warms and else. Those insects are going to create to air bubble which will receive the rain water. Vegetables will use this water during dry weather period to survive. The tractors used in the agriculture industry destroy this underground life which is another problem because it makes the soil weak. Some experts in permaculture realized that, if machines are not used or highly reduced, after the first year, the amount of vegetables is the same but are bigger and have more vitamins. The second year, the number of vegetables are increasing and they would better resist the climate changes and they could preserve themselves better. Using ecological design to create an agriculture system can be a great answer to decrease the amount of waste, but also to produce better quality vegetables and fruits.

SOME BOOKS TO READ

Introduction à la permaculture, de Bill MOLLISON

Ecological design, from Sim Van der Ryn & Stuart COWAN

Designing Regenerative Cultures, from Daniel Christian WAHL

Gaia’s garden, Toby HEMENWAY

Designing urban agriculture, April Philips

I would like to thank Wen ROLLAND for the time he dedicated to me. It was interesting to discover what is ecological design and the possibilities that permaculture opens. If you want to discover more about DESIGN ECOLOGIQUE and permaculture, go check the website: http://designecologique.ca/

WORLD DESIGN ORGANIZATION

This meeting was different from all the other I went before. I had the chance to meet up with Bertrand Derome who is in transition between two jobs. Before, he was the head director of the institute of product development, and now he is working for World Design Organization. During this meeting, we talked about what is sustainable design and how it is evolving.

Who is WDO and what is their goal?

WDO is the international voice for industrial design. Their goal is to share and promote knowledge of industrial design that as the power to create a better world. At the same time, they aim to create a world where design boost our cultural, social, environmental and economic life’s quality. They are currently working with United Nations to set goals about sustainable development.

The conversation with Bertrand Derome was rewarding because we talk about several topics all related to sustainability. To do so, he used examples or projects that he had to deal with. As an expert in sustainability, it helps me to understand more about this subject and open my mind even more. I discovered a lot this meeting. I’ll give you an advice, if you have the opportunity to meet up with expert, do it because you will learn a lot from it.

Let’s start with the beginning, is sustainability hard to implement in a company?

In 2008, Bertrand and his team did a test with 30 companies which were doing a transition towards sustainability in Quebec and France. After 18 months of research and application of a sustainable business plan, 94% of those companies were making the same profits or better. Those are really encouraging results because it means that even if some companies still have the same profit, they are helping the earth to get better. Also, they can advertise about the fact that they are creating sustainable product. In 2014, they did the same experience with 119 companies in France and Quebec and the result is the same. Investing towards sustainability means that, if you are not lucky, it is not going to increase your profit but the image of your company will gain from the fact that you are sustainable. You will look good to the rest of the world. And those 119 companies chosen to do the step. In North America, there are no laws saying that companies should have a minimum of anything towards sustainability. Just a few of them are investing in sustainability which is a shame because it means that we have to convince all the manufacturer that they have to change and that everything is going slower than it could be. If we compare North America to Europe, Europe is better in this field because they have to respect some quotas. They have a lot of laws about architecture, wastes etc… The problem is that some companies are struggling to make the change and keep doing profits but they have to because of the laws. If you want to create a company in Europe, you will have to respect those laws and those quotas. It is a good thing. Politics and laws can have a real influence to change to world and to protect it.

Between 2006 and 2008, there was a pic of enthusiasm towards sustainability. Even if some experts were talking about the climate change and sustainability since a long time, companies and consumers were finally starting to pay attention. The issue for most of the companies was that it was too expensive to change. And it is true. At first, it can expensive but it doesn’t have to be. If it is, just remember that, investing in sustainability might be more expensive at first but in a middle-long term, it is more than profitable. For example, if you buy a pair of shoes at 40€ but they last one year, or you buy a pair of shoes at 250€ but they last ten years, which one should you choose? Well, most of the companies were choosing the first option. So, between 2012 and 2016, the enthusiasms was not here anymore. Nevertheless, some companies did the change anyway. The issue is that it is easier to talk about sustainability with big companies because they take more time to see the big picture. The decisions are not made in the rush. Also, those big companies are most of the time more mature and have the treasury to do the step. Smaller companies are more willing, most of the time, to change or start a business respecting sustainability. However, some of them rush into it and don’t create the best sustainable business plan.

When they do, it can be really great. Bertrand told me what happened with one of the client he was working for and I hope that more and more companies are or will be that like. At least, they should. This example is about a hot tub company in Canada. This company was building hot tub because it is really famous and popular in this country. It was a rentable business. After doing a test about knowing if the hot tub was sustainable or not, they realized that even if they were using 400 liters of water, 85% of the non-sustainable part was due to energy loss. What they did was to ask themselves if they had to improve the technology or to rethink the product. The goal of this company was to bring happiness and relaxing time in the water room. They decided to create a product that was using steam and light therapy. That way, they became sustainable and created a new product and a new market.

How to do a good design?

Bertrand and his team had to design a desk with a storage unit. To make it easier to work, they added a light under the storage unit because it was too dark to work. They realized that the storage unit was creating shadow on the desk and that’s why they needed a light. After redesigning the all desk, the realized that it was more efficient and more sustainable just to move the storage unit on the side of the desk. When you design a product or else, remember that every choice you do is going to have some consequences.

It is the same about where you manufacture your product. I though, like a lot of person I guess, that manufacturing locally was better. Well, Bertrand taught me that it is a world wild say but it is not true all the time. It will depends on how you export this product. Manufacturing a product in China, sending it by boat to Vancouver, then use the train from Vancouver to Montreal as the same impact as manufacturing it in Toronto and use a truck to send the product to Montreal. Of course, if you send those product by train from Toronto to Montreal, it is way more efficient and the CO2 impact will be really small. Manufacturing locally is great because it is going to create so job and help the economy of the country.

What about agriculture?

Another question was, do you prefer to eat vegetable produced locally but with OGM, or do you prefer to import bio vegetables? And our answer with Bertrand was to say it is better to import bio vegetables because if we look at the middle term picture, farmers will have to stop using OGM to respond to the increasing demand of bio vegetables. The soil is slowly going to get better, and we are going to stop slowly kill our self. Also, using more plastic could be a solution to make agriculture more sustainable. Let me explain. Plastic represent between 5 and 15% of the sustainable impact of agriculture. But vegetables waste represent between 35 and 45%. If we increase the amount of plastic to protect vegetables and help to reduce those waste, it could be a win . I’m not saying that plastic is the best solution in general, but in this contest, it may be not too bad just to think about it. The best way should be to rethink all the vegetables distribution to reduce all the wastes though. You might think, why not use paper? Well, paper is not that great either. Let’s take the example of bags. A plastic bag will need only 0.7 liter per bag compare to a paper bag needing 8 times this amount. Also, the eutrophication (degradation in an aquatic environment) of a paper bag is 6 time higher than the plastic bag. Another good point for plastic bags, they produce only 137 grams of CO2 during its life time. Paper bags produce 30% more. But the good points about paper are that in the water, it’s decompose more easily which make all the fishes and turtle safe. Also, it is a reusable product. In France, we recycle 73% of the paper that we produce. Nowadays, we have new types of plastic like bio plastic which are recycled. The issue is that they are more expensive than plastic as we know it. This is why some companies which were trying to use bio plastic come back to normal plastic. The point of this example is to show that every decision has an impact that can be good or less worth than the other.

The advice of Bertrand Derome is that if you really want to understand and to do better sustainable design, you should visit a recycling factory. It will allows you to see how you can create your products and make it easier to choose which materials you should use, how to use then and else. If you want to learn more about sustainable design to, you should read: Le Guide OKALA – Apprendre l’éco-design. There are a lot of information and it is a solid start to become a better sustainable designer.

Thank you WORLD DESIGN ORGANIZATION and Bertrand Derome for the warm welcome and go check their website if you want to what is happening and design: https://wdo.org/

Good Design Australia – Reward agency

Australia’s annual Good Design Awards program, established in 1958, is considered one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards in the world. This aims to promote excellence in design and innovation. The Good Design Awards represent the diverse spectrum of design with 10 specific design disciplines, spanning 28 categories.

This March, I had the chance to meet the General Manager of Good Design Australia, Rachel Wye. It is interesting to gain insight into how this company of design awards thinks about design studios and to see a bigger scope of design methodology. It was great to understand what it’s like “behind the scenes” of design from Rachel’s perspective. When I’m meeting with design agencies, we talk about their work and how they design. With Rachel, I had the chance to talk about what people think about design and how they judge a good design.

What are the criteria?

The GOOD DESIGN AWARDS is an old award and the criteria had to evolve to be more truthful about what the design is and should be today. That is why they evaluate every design based on three main criteria which are Good Design, Design Innovation and Design Impact. There are 10 categories which you can apply to.

Good Design:

This criteria is different for each area of design. Check the link if you want to check for your category: https://good-design.org/good-design-awards/categories-criteria/

Design Innovation:

– Does the entry advance the design profession and push the boundaries of new and innovative thinking in design practice?

– Is the entry truly unique, imaginative and innovative and does it offer a totally new and groundbreaking value proposition with world-first features?

– Does the entry use new systems, materials, processes and/or technology in a clever, imaginative and original manner?

Design Impact:

– Social Impact: Does the entry have the potential to make a significant positive impact on society? Will it improve the quality of life for people and our planet and help contribute to a better, safer and more prosperous world?

– Commercial Impact: Does the entry have the potential to make a significant positive impact on business performance? Will the investment in design result in a significant increase in market share, sales and/or customer loyalty?

– Environmental Impact: Does the entry have the potential to make a significant positive impact on the environment? Will the design set a new benchmark for sustainable design and help contribute to a better and more sustainable future?

Good Design Australia introduced the design impact last year. It is interesting to see that they are now including the sustainability in the design even if you are not in the Sustainability Awards category. This is a huge step, meaning that the world is changing even if people don’t see it yet. With the help of Seabin group, which is a bin that collects plastic from the water, GOOD DESIGN AUSTRALIA created their first sustainable design trophy. It is made with reused plastic from the sea. Nevertheless, they are still struggling to find a sustainable packaging for the trophy. But the first step has been taken!

What is sustainability for GOOD DESIGN AUSTRALIA?

It is hard to define a sustainable product and it depends where we set the boundaries. Rachel gave me a simple example. A chair which is made with reused materials, made locally, which can be dismantled, is cost efficient and going to last one hundred years is not sustainable because we don’t need a new chair! Of course, this is an extreme example and that is why she used this example with me. If you create a chair that meets all of those criteria, yes, you designed a sustainable chair but, it is not a useful product. What I mean is that we need to produce more chairs in this sustainable way and more products like this, but at the same time, we have to stop creating products that we don’t really need. But if you do, make them as sustainable as possible. And again, I’m not saying that we should stop creating chairs or tables… but we have to do it the smart way, a better way.

The problem is also knowing what your product is going to become. Sometimes, the product is manufactured in the most sustainable way but will end up in a bin one year after the consumer bought it. This means that when we design a sustainable product, we have to think about every step of the production and the afterlife of the product.

But the first problem is that manufacturing a sustainable product isn’t that easy. Compared to architecture, manufacturing a product needs a lot of expensive machinery and manufacturers want to use them as much as possible to make them cost-efficient. The problem is that some of these machines are going to be used for at least 20 years. So how can we create a sustainable product if the manufacturer is not capable of producing it? But luckily, young generations have grown up with a sustainable mentality. This means that a lot of new companies, industries and others are going to aim to make sustainable products. And the good point about this is that manufacturers will have to change if they want to survive. During this meeting, Rachel told me that it was hard to manufacture products in Australia because it is really expensive, and therefore hard to compete with China. However, some manufacturers are moving back to Australia, which is a good news.

GOOD DESIGN AUSTRALIA also have the chance to see new businesses growing. Rachel and I talked about these different businesses but we spent more time on one in particular, which is the business services (that is how we called it). What is it, you will ask? It is a business that gives part of their profits to different environmentally responsible causes that work in the same area. For example, a packaging company could invest on a tree plantation because they are using paper for their production. That way, they are limiting the effect on environmental destruction and on top of that, they can improve their CO2 impact.

Thank you GOOD DESIGN AUSTRALIA for the warm welcome and go check their website if you want more details about how you can participate or even see design projects: https://good-design.org/

About me!

This article will be a bit different from the rest. I realized I have never talked about myself and the reasons behind this trip. Why am I doing this? Why did I leave for four months to meet designers? Why am I always talking about sustainability? Why am I sharing all of this, with all of you?

Let me introduce myself. My name is Victor DUGUET, I am a French industrial designer and for three years I have been working as a freelancer. During this time, I have worked for a range of companies – from start-ups to multinationals. I had the opportunity to excel in product design, my main focus, but also in interior design, UX/UI design, graphic design and CAD. Getting the opportunity to work in many different areas helped me find what I wanted to specialize in.

In 2014, I had a very memorable teacher, David L’hote. He sparked a change in my thinking, particularly towards sustainability. I became very interested in the subject and discovered that a significant proportion of the population is unaware or ambivalent about sustainability. I found this dishearteneing. As a result, I wanted to create a design studio that would specialize in sustainable design. I must note, this doesn’t mean I only want to work in projects based around sustainability – just that I want to create products that have less negative impact on the planet. To do this, I have to explore sustainable design right? I asked myself, where is the best place to do it and how can I achieve it?

Well, by doing my job. Getting into the field, trying to understand how design studios work all around the world and how some of them are bringing sustainability into every project they do like Locus Research.

To gain a wider perspective, I wanted to visit a number of different countries. This also allows me to discover new cultures. I am currently in New Zealand. I’m going next in Australia, Canada, Sweden and I’ll finish my trip in Danemark. About New Zealand, the Maori culture is particularly interesting for many reasons. The Maori people lived closely with nature, never taking more than they needed to. This is an early example of sustainable living.  Why don’t we do the same?

There are similar parallels with the aboriginal people of Australia. So far, I am really pleased with my journey. I have talked with organizations like Resident, Locus Research and Sam KEBBELL – an architect trying to introduce more sustainability to New Zealand buildings. He explained how the architectural process works here in NZ. Costs to build a house are already high and incorporating a sustainability aspect increase it by about 10% to 20%. Sam KEBBEL is trying to include sustainability in the brief of every building. It’s not always successful, but the principle is admirable. The New Zealand government appears to be committed to sustainability, but in reality, it’s deceiving. The actual requirements for a building to be classified as sustainable are too low, instead it has been employed more as a marketing strategy. 

It is our duty to try and change this way of thinking. We need to start thinking about our planet. I’m not suggesting stopping production, rather producing in a smarter way – the right way. Designers are at the forefront of production and so have the opportunity and really the obligation to commit to sustainable design.This is why I’m sharing my journey with you. Individually, I can only contribute so much, but by sharing these articles with you, the reader, I’m hoping to encourage a collective interest in sustainability. I know I’m not the only one pursuing this, but the more we are, the better.