Following last year's remarkably successful inaugural exhibition at the Terminal Building, WantedDesign is back and bigger than ever as a major satellite event to the 24th International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Core77 is pleased to partner with the event in support of their first Student Design Challenge, which, along with the Live/Work design contest and the iGet.it pop-up shop, are new for 2012.
For the student Design Challenge, WantedDesign has invited students from six schools—three stateside and three French—to participate in a three-day digital fabrication workshop:The "Design Students Challenge" will be an engaging live workshop that allows design students, ambassadors of their schools, to express their creativity and technical ability. Over the course of three days, design students from the U.S. and France will use one material, one conceptual tool (e.g. computer software), and one fabrication tool (a laser cutting machine) to design and construct a lighting design of their own invention. At the end of three days, the designs will be presented and be judged by the public and a jury of design professionals...
Participating schools are Art Center College of Design, Parsons The New School for Design, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), ENSCI les ateliers, Ecole Boulle and Ecole supérieure d'art et design Saint-Etienne.
We had the chance to chat with the creator of the design challenge, François Brument.
Core77: Can you introduce us to your personal work and your interest in exploring digital manufacturing?
A hundred years ago, the industrial revolution had totally changed the way we conceived of and fabricated objects. A century later, how should we approach the digital paradigm? My aim is to investigate how thinking, conceiving, fabricating, distributing digitally can profoundly change the design practice.
Where did the idea for the Student Design Challenge come from? Why did you choose this particular format?
The idea came to me when I was a jury during students design diplomas. A lot of them were using laser-cutting techniques, but they were using it as a way to escape from manual modelmaking—not exploring its untapped potential as a new technology. The idea, then, is to create a very short format to explore a fast and expressive use of laser-cutting and digital conception techniques.
You've run this project before in France—how do you anticipate this transatlantic iteration to be different or similar to the previous challenges?
I've always thought the digital battles as fun moments to compete and share skills and visions... but I've been really surprised how quickly design and aesthetic approaches of each school were appearing. I'm very eager to see how students will express themselves and enjoy this moment together.Lighting is an interesting choice for a design challenge as LED and fluorescents are really redefining the typology of the lamp. Any thoughts for the student teams?
Express yourself and surprise us!
What are some of the benchmarks we can expect to see from the teams over the course of the 3 days? What challenges can than anticipate?
The great thing about laser-cutting is that it allows users to produce a functional and ready-to-use object. I hope that visitors discovering the students projects on the last day of the challenge would look at them as objects, exhibited alongside the other finished work at Wanted Design.
Check out our WantedDesign coverage from last year:
» Colleen&Eric
» C4 & 4lonso
WantedDesign is at the Terminal Stores at the Tunnel, 269 11th Avenue, between 27th and 28th Streets. The show will run from Saturday, May 19 to Monday, May 21, 2012, from 10AM–7PM daily, with shuttle service to the ICFF from 11AM–5PM daily.
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