Never Mind the Object
Why should you care about objects? It is not until objects are filled with content and reason that they become meaningful.
This exhibition is about ideas which require the observer to dig a little deeper, penetrating the surface.
In ten concepts the third year students at the Product Design programme illustrate reason driven ideas through objects. Four students at the Visual Communications programme have explored how product design is communicated, interpreting the design students’ collections and temperaments. The result is presented in concepts for graphic design, films, photos and online communication.
Concept and Creative Direction
Andrea Andersson, Hanna Hein, Per Sturesson & Eddie Åhgren.
Credits for the films
Director: Niclas Larsson
DoP: Erik Nordlund
Producer: Jacob Eklund
Actors: Daniel Hallberg, Peter Johannesen & Michelle Eismann
Focus Puller: Anton Österlund
Hair & Make-up: Marie-Louise Krieg
D.I.T: Lucas Stålklinga
Gaffer: Michael Wahlberg
Best Boy: Chris Higham & Simon Elvås
Production Assistant: Nils Nygård
Assistant: Diana Ionescu
Baseball Coordinator: Björn Johannesen
Post Production & Sound Design: Stopp
3D: Magoo & Olof Lindh
Motion Graphics: Olof Lindh
Credits for the catalogue
Photographer: Pål Allan
Set Designer: Marika Åkerblom
Retouch: Jonas Skoglund
Assistant Photographer: Joakim Johansson
Models: Kiljan Ardal, Franz Kalanzi-Fors, Amanda Karsberg
Translators: Ar Parmacek, Kerstin Rydén
A few words about the assignment
Beckmans College of Design has a long tradition of interdisciplinary student collaboration between the programs. These collaborations are important for the students understanding of the design world. In this project, four students in the second year of Visual Communication, have explored how furniture design is communicated, interpreting the design students collections and temperaments. The result is presented in the overall communication concept, Never mind the object, and appears in digital communication, a web site, films, photos and graphic design. In addition, the students have collaborated on designing the showcase.
Annika Berner, Programme Director Visual Communication
Commitment and finding reason is crucial in order to be able to assimilate information. Each individual must learn himself how and where to find knowledge and his own thesis as a tool in a design process. The course encourages critical thinking and to cross-link theory with practice. The idea is the building block, and creates a conscious attitude to the product. The students are encourage to formulate their position and direction, and through this new ways to design. This is a project where content give shape to objects. Special thanks to the supervisors Gabriella Gustafson and Åsa Jungnelius.
Katja Petterson, Course Director Product Design
Thanks
Camp David, Stopp, Delight Studios, Kameraten, Dagsljus, Ljud & Bildmedia, JS Hyrservice, Gateau, Lindt, Vitamin Well, Henrik Hallgren, Annika Berner, Gustav Johansson, Goody & Peter Hein, Johan Eckerström
Steady, stable, safe, in equilibrium, solid, reliable, secure, durable, enduring, unchanging, permanent.
All of the properties above would in most cases be attributed to masculinity rather than femininity, as positive rather than negative. I want to draw attention to a manly fragility that many of us do not acknowledge, instead of hiding behind a facade of tough attributes. The object is a portrait of myself.
Unstable, insecure, unbalanced, rickety, moody, emotionally unsteady, fragile, uncontrolled.
Special thanks to
My beloved Linda Lindström
What makes us keep and care for an object for generations? Do we have a stronger relationship with handmade items than we do with the mass-produced? This is a study where handicraft is implemented in mass-production through new materials and new methods of using ancient handicraft techniques. A production method that makes each item unique, where craftsmanship and raw materials are clearly visible in the final product.
Special thanks to
Perstorp for Capa material and chemical knowledge.
Bröderna Axelssons Plåtslageri for metal and workshop.
Confibra for plastic material and mold knowledge.
Per-Olov Olsson for milling and engineering knowledge.
Christoffer Aldell and Shane Schneck for valuable discussions.
Sara Guldbrandsson for helping me with prototypes and manufacturing ideas.
Is it possible to give life to an object? That question has been the foundation of my mission to create a stronger relationship with an object. Historically, animal ornamentation in furniture design has been figurative. In this project I have focused on the tactile experience of an object to create a more empathetic, and therefore more sustainable, approach to furniture. The result is a detachable armchair covering, an easy way to alter an existing piece of furniture. The cover is a fabric mix of cotton and polyester. The padding material consists of small cellular plastic balls and plastic granulates.
Special thanks to
AB Leve plastprodukter
Nina Norgren and the bulldog Biffen
Working from the premise that political merchandising can be so much more. More than a printed name or a political party's logo on a balloon, or a pen. I examined a product's ability to influence our perception of an idea or a message. The floating lamp's size, functions and anatomy are all meant to amplify a bystander's apprehension of a directed message.
Special thanks to
Kronplast Industrier AB
"The chest is an oblong, rectangular container in wood with a lid, and can contain anything as long as it is not liquid."
– Peter Anker, Chests and Caskets
The chest is the oldest piece of storage furniture known to us in Europe. Its history is long and filled with symbolic and social functions. Today the chest is a romantic survival in our modern homes. The storage boxes in cardboard and plastic that we use today have a functional purpose but lack an attractive look. ”Bastard” is a hybrid between the chest and a moving box, with a light and durable box in corrugated cardboard, and lid, hinges and handles in wood. It is a storage box which can both be stacked and act like a sitting furniture. A piece of furniture that is proud of its origin and has a practical, but also an aesthetic, value.
Special thanks to
Joel Fransson, Glamyra AB, for CNC milling.
Tre Well Emballage AB, for corrugated cardboard.
Miss Coraline for love and patience.
M&P, my brothers and my future assistant.
"…People in industrialized countries seek to have their photographs taken – feel that they are images, and are made real by photographs."
– Susan Sontag
My object, Supernormal Mirror, shows the digital portrait modified without help from the beauty industry. Just because our self-image is dominated by images does not mean that our self-image must be based on our appearance. Together the mirror and the monitor have become a smaller table. A mirror presented by the new human.
Special thanks to
Aflash Photonics for polarizing film and material knowledge. www.polarization.com
Bröderna Axelssons Plåtslageri for metal.
Erika Wolters for graphic support.
David Bicho, Astrid Hams and Tone Winqvist for valuable discussions.
Mikael Axelsson for welding knowledge.
In old and rural Sweden, furniture was often simple, practical and manufactured locally. Based on these criteria I have created a contemporary piece of furniture. As in traditional handicraft I have used self- produced timber. Birch and alder from Riddersholm compose the raw material of the furniture. The divided seat makes it possible to easily change its shape; chair, stool or table. By placing several pieces together, new combinations will appear. Ending up with a modern piece of furniture influenced by ancient times.
Special thanks to
Jenka Tapetserare for material and assistans.
Asp snickeri, carpentryknowledge and assistans Special-plast AB, for material and material knowledge Alec
Sandberg AB
I have reinterpreted the concept of a documentary and how different narrative techniques can be represented physically. My documentary is told in the shape of a sideboard, which is a model in scale 1:20 of the house I grew up in. A story about how something big becomes small, about how time and scale changes the view of a world.
Special thanks to
The family Kalanzi-Fors for their enormous support and love.
Tatiana Savin and Patric Kalanzi for the greatness in this project.
Cembrit Tepro AB, Anna Ranow, Krister Wågskär, Per Richardsson, Joakim Pettersson and Ulrika Stiernborg for your expertise, guidence and help.
With the aid of decoration and design, we try to make our homes represent us. The image of us displayed there offers a highly controlled presentation of our identities, interests and social relations. We use objects to highlight qualities we believe will be perceived positively by others. To external spectators, or maybe even to the others living within the same space, our homes become the mirror images of what we wish existed inside them. And in this way, interior decoration and furnishing helps us censor our unwanted sides.
Instead of creating another instrument for this concealing process we're all engaged in, with this work I want to embody this part of reality instead: what would happen if all that broods in the corners took shape?
Special thanks to
Ar Parmacek
A fascination with how easily people use systems they don’t need to fully understand or mentally visualize, led me to work with the topic Internet. How can I visualize and materialize this most material and structured world, that we usually meet in a virtual environment? The project resulted in furniture that communicates three themes I found central in my research on the development and use of the Internet; flow, processes and layers.
Special thanks to
Stockholms blästringsservice AB
This website accompanies the exhibition Never Mind the Object
at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2012.
The project is a collaboration between the Product Design programme and the Visual Communications programme at Beckmans College of Design.
Place and time
Greenhouse V03:07, Stockholm Furniture Fair.
Stockholmsmässan, Älvsjö
7–11th February 2012
Opening hours:
Tuesday–Friday: 9–18
Saturday: 9–17
