Are you an Artist?

Whilst doing a bit of browsing on my topic of "Are you a Designer?" I found this interesting blog post that is questioning the difference between Designers and Artist. Reading the comments below is just as interesting. Do you agree? What is the division between an Artist and a Designer? Or even I suppose, The difference between somebody working in manufacture for example and a Designer?

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/designers-are-not-artists

Konstantin Grcic - Umbrella

A fun piece here designed back in 2006. Taking an existing product and making an almost un-noticable change in order to make a difference. This Umbrella caught my eye as I tried to establish what I would utilise the modifiction for? What would you us it for?

Taken from his website it says:

Sometimes it‘s more difficult to resist than to act. As designers we‘re easily tempted to renew, replace or change things. One of the virtues of working with Japanese no-brand Muji is using what already exists, simplifying, even leaving things alone, creating objects that blend into the environment rather than making a strong mark.This idea is exemplified in the umbrella project we did as part of our long standing collaboration. The only intervention we made to an existing umbrella is drilling a hole into the end of the handle.

Project assistant: Alexander Löhr (KGID)
Producer: Muji

Konstantin Grcic - CRASH

A piece that caught my eye is this chair, called CRASH. This was a piece Konstantin worked on in 2010 in conjunction with the british designers of Establised & Sons. It is a rather simple piece that focuses on the way we treat manufacture when designing things. well, at least, thats what I understand he was aiming to do. Taken from his website it says:

The key characteristics of CRASH are its generous dimensions; it is wide and spacious ... and extremely comfortable. To crash out is a nice English expression which comes to mind.
Something I’ve been concerned with for years is the way how upholstered furniture is made. There is a huge industry out there producing endless upholstered furniture all made in the same banal way; glueing foam onto cheap wooden structures, then stapling fabric over it. CRASH consists of the same elements, a supporting structure, a piece of foam and the fabric cover. However, we do not bond these elements together. There is a supporting framework made of tubular steel, very simple and straightforward and a loose piece of moulded foam that gets pushed over the frame. The fabric finishes everything off, it is streched over the foam like a jumper.

Project assistant: Pauline Deltour (KGID)
Producer: Established & Sons

However, this description was not the reason I was drawn to the chair. The simple reason was that to me he had taken a beanbag and made a simple change which makes it so much better. A beanbag, although it deforms easily to fit your body… it is convex! Useless… you just roll off! What we need more of  is concave beanbags. That would be problem solved in my opinion. You do get them, but you also still get the useless convex versions.

Turns out that this chair is not of beanbag construction at all, but it brought this issue to my attention anyway. And also, I think it is a nice looking chair and looks like it does well what many chairs do not; it looks comfy to sit on! Would love to see some of his chairs for real.

Konstantin Grcic - Some examples

I said that I would focus on a product or two and go into them in a wee bit more detail, however, whilst looking into his portfolio of work i found more than just a few that are of interest. Take a look at his website: http://konstantin-grcic.com

Lets have a look at a couple anyway…

Design award 2010 - Konstantin Grcic

In 2010 konstantin was awarded the "Designer of the year" award by Design Miami. For this he designed and provided an installation in Miami. The installation involved a series of suspended netting chairs. Here is a couple of links to tell you more about it:

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/10/18/konstantin-grcic-to-receive-designer-of-the-year-award-at-design-miami/

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/12/09/netscape-by-konstantin-grcic-at-design-miami/



Also, check out this youtube clip of Konstantin discussing the award, his development of the chair and some other aspects of his designing methods. Very interesting:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UshQicFbKME

Panorama… Konsatantin Grcic

Konstantin currently has an exhibition on at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany. Looks rather intersting and is on until September. If you get the chance go and check it out. Here is a link to the website for more info:
http://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailseiten/grcic.html

Konstantin Grcic

As part of our Design and Technology course we were each given a designer who were were to explore. The designer I was given is the German designer, Konstantin Gricic. 

Konstantin… the designer who is always thinking sideways. He describes himself as "very german". in that he means he sees himself as a rational, very logical, very industrial type person. But, he still works in a very practical manner. This is something we, on my course, are encouraged to do as practical experiments give tactile and multidimensional information and insights.

A unique aspect of Konstantin compared to other designers working on similar products is that he is not scared of the commercialisation. Many designers see a piece of work going into a more mass for of manufacture as the point where the avant garde-ness of a piece is lost. Konstantin does not see it as this, he more see this process as a natural progression of design and he supports this process fully. I like that about him. it shows his lack of pretentiousness. He does not see good designs as something that should be held within the arms of the designers and a select elite.

Much of his work focusses around furniture and particularly chairs. Many well known designers and industrial seem to either start here or focus their work in this area. I am not very sure why this is the case. Maybe its just fashion. Maybe its easy. I dunno. Regardless of that Konstantins work stands out to me because each piece seems to strike a perfect balance between design that pushes whats already been done and feasibility. His work may be unique and design-y but it is usually also feasible. By feasable I mean it is feasable to manufacture it in a sensible quantity and feasable in that it can actually work well as a chair say. I really dislike chairs and such that are useless as a functional piece, especially if its in a situation that requires it to function well. Konstantin generally avoids this but he does seem to fall into this trap sometimes. 

I will post a couple of posts on some of his work, explore it in a wee bit more detail.
in the mean time… check out this short video I found on youtube. It explains alot about him…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctxNFlBmztc