Definition of a Designer-Maker + 11 Things To Love

from ffffound, work of Roland Tiang Co

The apt definition of designer-maker given on the hidden art website is worth repeating here:

“Designer-Makers design and make their own unique work, on a small or large scale. Hidden Art promotes and supports designer-makers who design and make functional items in three main categories:

1. Designer-Makers who produce hand-made items. For example, a potter whose work does not involve mass production.
2. Designer-Makers who design and then in some or all instances sub-contract out the turning of the design into a product. They may oversee the making of the product, but they do not produce it themselves.
3. Designer-Makers most possibly with a degree in product design, who develop a new design or concept, and then look for a manufacturer to produce it. Their ultimate aim is to become a pure designer and they themselves do not ‘make’ their designs into tangible products.”

Marie Langaa - teapot cast from textile. Doorknob handle. Danish Crafts on DesignBoom

Here are some things that I’ve run across and twittered about but haven’t had time, preparing and presenting my ethnography seminar and now my trip tomorrow to London to confront the onslaught of design euphoria, to share — but as I make way for more, here I give you a “check it out” rundown of all I’ve starred over the past weeks.

1. Narrative Identities by Nadia Troeman, on dezeen.com. She’s created a color wheel identity and branding system that shifts and changes based on the culture of the student body.  She’s a graduate student at Central Saint Martins.
2. A retrospective of the work of Croatian artist Sanja Ivekovi.
3. The Cardinal Club. Somehow eating in the private backyard of someone’s East Village apartment seems like the freshest idea. Not about a woman maker but, well, partly. Caitlin Zaino reports.
4. Supermarket Sarah, creative female entrepreneur. Like the Cardinal Club she’s opened up her home, a welcome respite from the maddening crowds of overwrought luxury stores and fast fashion stampedes. She moves between her Portobello Market stall and her home as Swiss Miss reports, “offering teas and cakes” to shoppers of her eclectic collection.
5. Repurpose. Weed through Margo‘s slapdash crafts page to find some real gems and inspiration. I can see someone re-imagining, for example, some of her work with china wreaths and swags.
   
6. Paula Wallace, president and co-founder of Savannah College of Art and Design, guestblogging for Fast Company.
7. A piece on the Women’s Monument in Memory.  Female Victims of Political Repression, Santiago, Chile.
8. 

   PIG 05049

   Christien Meindertsma’s book of photographs shows the path of a pig from the day it is slaughtered to all of its disparate uses – and it is the first ever communication design entry to be a finalist at the INDEX:DESIGN awards.

9. Jean Madden’s beds for the homeless, Street Swags, won the Index:Design award. ‘design to improve life.’
10. Lisa Maria Grillos bike bags write up in the New York Times, a feature entitled Plan B about businesses after the pink slip, reminds me of when I was similarly featured in a Daily News article entitled “Meet New York’s Newest Entrepreneurs” after 9/11. My ‘dog hoodies’ and I pictured big on the front. While my hoodies were indeed cute, a big hit, and told the story of my 2003, it takes a lasting passion for a product and its trajectory from homemade to a  full fledged large scale distribution channel to make it work. For me, hoodies weren’t my longtime passion but I had a fun run.  Maris Grillos bike bags show keen insight into a problem and if she can and has the desire to grow big without compromise, she may have more than what  the Times calls ‘accidental entrepreneurship’ on her hands.
    
11. Miranda July,  filmmaker, writer, installation artist of sorts, and now… pillows!
    -Chauncey Zalkin

Friday • September 18, 2009 • by Chauncey Zalkin

Category: Blog, Central Saint Martins, Ceramics, Christien Meindertsma, Competitions, Croatia, Designers, Jean Madden, Lisa Maria Grillo, Miranda July, Nadia Troeman, New York, Paula Wallace, Retail, Sunday Discovery, Supermarket Sarah, Sustainable, U.K.