How do we design?
During a one-year guest professorship British designer Sebastian Bergne has led three practical design projects with students at different stages of their educational journey. Each project poses a question that suggests an alternative starting point and approach to the design process that is relevant to the world in which we live.

Whether starting with a limited amount of a chosen material, a daily habit or a desire to make one’s own work available to the general public, the outcomes are presented with reference to their process and specific agenda. A selection of the varied outcomes are presented in this end of year exhibition. They are answers to the questions posed that go some way to define the individual design approach of each student.

What can a litre do?

Materials, their cost and characteristics are a key component of any object or design project. As designers we make choices that impact our world and the way we live. Appropriate and intelligent use of a material is a fundamental ability of any designer and can often form the starting point of a design project.

Students are asked to choose exactly 1litre or 1000cm³ of any material and to develop a design that uses it both effectively and ambitiously. It is expected that students are active in the workshops or studio working in three dimensions, developing their designs using a series of physical mock-ups.

What do you do?

Any action or activity that is repeated regularly becomes some kind of habit or ritual. Our lives are full of them, you might even say they give it meaning. Some habits are considered bad and others for the general good. What is sure is that changing a habit can be a method to manifest positive change in the way we live or behave.

Students are asked to identify an everyday action or activity, study, distil and adjust this process, redesign any necessary equipment or communication material to encourage it as a habit or ritual for a positive change in the way we live. Alongside this, they should identify a clear context and justify their position in promoting this particular activity.

Can you self-produce?

Self-production or “auto produzione” has become a recognised model of working for many designers at all stages in their careers. It offers the designer the opportunity to manufacture and sell their own designs direct to the end user and without the need for a brand or manufacturing client, but it is not as simple as it might seem.

This project will start with the origins and history of this method and cover all the aspects of developing and designing for self-production. We will look at the importance of identifying a manufacturing source, identifying the context for your creation, making it work financially, selling, supply and demand, creating your own brief and designing for self-production.