This is What Design Can Do for me
An international event through the eyes of a student
VBAT gave me the chance to visit What Design Can Do, an international event in Amsterdam on May 21 and 22, 2015. What Design Can Do is an initiative by Richard van der Laken and Pepijn Zurburg from Designpolitie, and this year was the 5th edition. This event is happening once a year but they also have an inspiring blog which I can recommend!
“Designers can do more than make things pretty.” — Richard van der Laken
I was really impressed by the talk of Sissel Tolaas. Let’s call her a smell artist. She is capturing different smells and ‘catches’ them in a perfume. ‘We have all our senses for free. We use the nose to find a partner and food.’ One of her biggest project is City Smellscapes. She made a smell for each of the 25 different cities she visited all around the world. She also gave the audience some smell-sticks and said: ‘Nothing stinks, only thinking makes it so.’ I agree with her! We always want to have an opinion on everything we see, smell, hear, taste…
The smell that she gave to the audience was in the building for the rest of the 2-day event and it’s still in my clothing.
“Nothing stinks, only thinking makes it so.” — Sissel Tolaas
Interaction of our senses
The talk of Charles Spence had also an impact on me. I am always interested in the combination of design and what things are doing with the human brain. Spence said we have to stimulate the senses more in branding. ‘Play with the interaction of different senses, because all the senses have an influence on each other.’
He showed us some examples of cosmetic products. The brands are thinking on how to open the product and the sound it makes. That’s all part of the experience of the product and has influence on the quality. Also the shape of the packaging has a big influence on the taste (if we talk about food) of the product on the inside. A round packaging gives the taste of the product more sweetness and a rectangular shape more sourness. This only happens in the brain. Also the commercials, the way they use sound, colour, environment… the whole experience around the product also makes the taste of the product. They call this synaesthetic marketing.
Charles Spence also did research about the way restaurants are presenting food on plates; Crossmodal Research Laboratory. The composition of the food on the plate in combination with the colours also influences the taste of the food.
‘Actually, we design in your brains’.
“Play with the interaction of different senses, because all the senses have an influence on each other.” — Charles Spence
Ode to Beer by Vic Lee
Vic Lee is a really talented illustrator from London and he was asked to make a mural for Brand Beer that would bring to life Brand’s ‘Ode to Beer’ during WDCD. In two days he created this whole artwork. I recorded his developments over the two days and it was like meditating: I could have been looking at it all day. Every time you watch his wall tattoo, you detect new images, a new storytelling. Vic Lee is working with a lot of details, which makes his artwork particularly interesting.
Breakout session with Stefan Sagmeister
VBAT’s Creative Director Graham Sturt interviewed Design Rockstar Stefan Sagmeister about What Design Can Do for Urban Issues, specifically in Amsterdam. The breakout visitors have been invited to submit their question to Sagmeister live or via Twitter, using #asksagmeister. There was a lot of audience with good questions and Sagmeister took the time to answer many of their questions.
“I’ve visited Amsterdam often, and as a visitor I think Amsterdam is in my top #5 cities in the world.” — Stefan Sagmeister
Afterwards all the students who signed up for a portfolio review at VBAT Meet Market received a goodie bag with a t-shirt, stickers, notebook and an USB stick with interviews from the VBAT staff who give them tips about how to improve their portfolio.
WDCD gave me a lot of eye openers, a view on what’s going on in our world an what needs attention from design. I also see what we as designers can do for our society, and what a lot of great designers are doing. There are so many things I didn’t think about or didn’t see that way.
“There are millions of ideas to change the world, but unless you build them they don’t count.” — Cameron Sinclair
As student I don’t have the idea I can add something to this world, yet, if I see all those amazing designers. But the words of Cameron inspires me. Keep going, do something with your ideas and share them: Don’t compare with other people’s success.
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