3 posts tagged “industrial design”
, as twittered yesterday by reBang, are joining the pool of marketplaces for all things handmade / homemade / self designed. This new marketplace, though, is a platform that exclusively addresses professional designers and has its members hand-picked by a jury:WeFew.net, an e-gallery for designers to showcase and sell their original designs and to engage with consumers and design professionals. (link
WeFew, thus, not only follow what has been declared one of the hottest e-commerce trends for 2008 -online marketplaces and showcases for artisans, crafters and designers- but they actually place themselves in the "elite" niche of the market. Those designers who deem themselves elitary are invited to apply for a WeFew membership, (hopefully) get selected by the jury and may then offer their exclusive designs for sale in their storefront hosted by WeFew.
WeFew's pricing model does not provide for neither listing fees nor limited time commitment, but merely charges a 15% provision per sold item. In addition, there is the option to reduce the provision percentage by actively reviewing aplicants for about 5% per 10 reviews. In addition to that, sellers will get the chance to speculate for a 3% commission per each five successfully recommended new members.
So who can join, really? WeFew have a clear idea about what can and what cannot be showcased:
At WeFew, we do not showcase graphic design, calligraphy, fine arts such as painting, photography, lithography, etc. except when incorporated into the departments and creative media listed here.
Embellished objects such as painted boxes, stones, shells, buttons, candle making, country crafts, folk art and objects made from commercial kits or plans are not acceptable.
WeFew showcases product design - design services including interior or set design, graphic design, makeup or styling are not accepted at this time.
Those whoever, who see themselves fit and talented and who design fashion, accessories, jewellery, furniture and homewares as well as innovative design objects utilizing ceramics, glass, metals, textiles and other special materials, are invited to apply for a membership - and can hope to receive a positive answer within ten days.
WeFew's motto is "We stand apart. You stand out.", and it once more stresses the site's demand on exclusive, if not even elitist, design. A jury of top-class design professionals currently selects the first generation of designers for WeFew, though apparently the jurying will be taken over by WeFew sellers in the future.
There is an option for thought exchange via an in-house forum, news will be available via the new site, and Typepad hosts the official WeFew blog.
Taken together, the website appears slightly flashy, uberhip, probably, in regards to graphics and colours; in my opinion, this is not exactly what designers would associate with exclusiveness or elitist design really, but that's certainly the point where tastes split. Interesting: the innuendo on "i"-pop culture.
WeFew was created by Autumn Gehring, an American in
It seems that initially, WeFew was meant to launch as Cherry Collective; after all, the company behind WeFew is Cherry Collective Online Pte Ltd, and its director is Autumn Gehring (logo genesis here).
WeFew received support through the Creative Business Fund of the Creative Community Singapore (CCS).
Previously discussed marketplaces:
vondir | | ShopWindoz | Big Cartel | pinkdoodleWeFew, wie gestern von reBang getwittert, tritt in diesem Frühling dem Pool der Marktplätze für Handgemachtes / Selbstgemachtes / Selbstdesigntes bei. Es handelt sich hierbei um eine Plattform, die sich ausschliesslich an Designer richtet, die nicht etwa jeden auf ihrem Marktplatz verkaufen lässt, sondern per Kuratorium handverliest:
WeFew.net, an e-gallery for designers to showcase and sell their original designs and to engage with consumers and design professionals. (link)
Damit springen WeFew nicht nur auf den besonders für 2008 als Boom angekündigten Zug der Onlinemarktplätze für Künstler und Kunsthandwerker auf, sondern sie versuchen, die Nische der "Elite" zu füllen. Wer sich als Designer also als elitär versteht, bewirbt sich bei WeFew, wird von einer fachkundigen Jury ausgewählt, und darf seine exklusiven Designs im eigenen Shop zum Verkauf anbieten.
Das Preismodell sieht weder Einstellgebühren noch eine festgelegte Laufzeit gelisteter Produkte vor; beim Verkauf eines Artikels wird eine Provision von 15% fällig. Zusätzlich kann eine aktive Beteiligung am Auswahlverfahren durch das Reviewen von Bewerbern den Provisionspreis für den eigenen Laden drücken, und zwar um 5% für 10 Reviews. Für die erfoglreiche Empfehlung von neuen WeFew-Verkäufern kann man zusätzlich auf 3% Komission pro 5 neuer Verkäufer spekulieren.
Wer darf also mitmachen? Da hat man bei WeFew ganz konkrete Vorstellungen:
At WeFew, we do not showcase graphic design, calligraphy, fine arts such as painting, photography, lithography, etc. except when incorporated into the departments and creative media listed here.
Embellished objects such as painted boxes, stones, shells, buttons, candle making, country crafts, folk art and objects made from commercial kits or plans are not acceptable.
WeFew showcases product design - design services including interior or set design, graphic design, makeup or styling are not accepted at this time.
Wer sich jedoch als "talented" einstuft und Mode, Accessoires, Schmuck, Möbel und Homewares, sowie innovative Designobjekte gestaltet, und das in Keramik, Glas, Metall, Textilien, Holz oder sonstigen Spezialwerkstoffen, darf sich guten Mutes bewerben und mit einer hoffentlich positiven Antwort innerhalb von zehn Tagen rechnen.
WeFews Motto ist "We stand apart. You stand out.", und unterstreicht noch einmal den Anspruch an exklusives, ja vielleicht elitäres Design. Um eine erste Generation hochkarätiger Designer auf die Seite zu holen, hat WeFew eine Reihe Designprofis in die Jury berufen, die aber offensichtlich später durch das hauseigene WeCurate-Programm abgelöst werden soll.
Austauschen können sich User zukünftig über das hauseigene Forum, Newbulletins können über die Newsseite abgerufen werden, und marketingtechnisch gibt es einen Blog bei Typepad.
Alles in allem kommt WeFew ein wenig knallig daher, überhip in Design und Farbgebung vielleicht; nicht unbedingt das, was meiner Meinung nach der Designer vielleicht mit Exklusivität oder elitärem Design verbinden würde, aber da gehen die Geschmäcker auch auseinander. Interessant: die Anspielung auf bzw. Abwandlung der "i"-Popkultur.
Ins Leben gerufen wurde WeFew von Autumn Gehring, Amerikanerin in Paris Singapur, die mit einem Hintergrund in Kunstgeschichte und langjähriger Marketingerfahrung sicherlich das nötige Feingefühl für die Bedürfnisse hochkarätiger Designer mitbringt - ob das so ist, wird sich zeigen.
Offensichtlich sollte WeFew ursprünglich als Cherry Collective an den Start gehen, immerhin ist die Firma hinter Wefew auch Cherry Collective Online Pte Ltd, deren Chefin Autumn Gehring selber ist (Genesis zum Logo hier).
Unterstützt wird WeFew durch einen Creative Business Fund der Creative Community Singapore (CCS).
Bereits besprochene Marktplätze:
vondir | | ShopWindoz | Big Cartel | pinkdoodle
The recent interview with Philippe Starck, printed in Die Zeit, stirred quite some emotions, also over on Twitter. What I found, though, were a lot of English blogs and sites that would quote off one source, which in turn had managed to take some lines of the interview (probably those that Google translation managed to make sense of the most?) and remash them into a completely new context. No link to the German original, no full translation of the interview. But yet, quite some people take this as a base for their own musings and commenting.
Weird.
Here is the translation of the German interview. I have done it rather quickly, but at least I bothered to. You can find the German text here, at Die Zeit online.
If you think it's an acceptable translation and you fancy using it, I do ask you to credit me properly. Thanks.
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"I do feel ashamed for this."
Philippe Starck is the star designer of the past two decades. Notwithstanding this he claims today, "Everything I have designed is absolutely unnecessary."
An interview.
ZEITmagazin: Monsieur Starck, you have designed everything, from toothbrush to spaceship. What do humans really need?
Philippe Starck: The ability to love. Love is the most wonderful invention of mankind. And then, one needs intelligence. Mankind, as opposed to animals, has managed to create a civilization based on intelligence. For this reason, no human can afford to not work on their intelligence. And humour, humour is important.
ZEIT: And you can't think of something material?
P.S.: We don't need anything material. It is more important to develop one's own ethic, and to stick to these rules. There is nothing else one would have to worry about.
ZEIT: You can't be serious. Isn't there so much else one needs in order to survive?
P.S.: If you want to talk about objects: one certainly needs something to light a fire.
ZEIT: Can you think of anything else?
P.S.: A pillow maybe, and a good matress.
ZEIT: So why, then, have you become an industrial designer in the first place?
P.S.: That is an interesting question. And I haven't found an answer to it for myself yet. Look, I have designed so many things without ever really being interested in them. Maybe all these years were necessary for me to ultimatively recognize that we, after all, don't need anything. We always have too much (stuff, SIC).
ZEIT: So all the things you have created -- unnecessary?
P.S.: Everything I have created is absolutely unnecessary. Design, structurally seen, is absolutely void of usefulness. A useful profession would be to be an astronomer, a biologist or something of that kind. Design really is nothing. I have tried to install my designs with a sense of meaning and energy, and even when I tried to give my best it was still in vain.
ZEIT: So this is the balance you strike of all your creating?
P.S.: Those people with more intelligence than me would have gotten to this point much earlier. Perhaps I wasn't smart enough and had to learn it the hard way. Ever from the beginning I had the feeling that ultimatively, product design was useless. It is because of this that I have tried to change this job into something else; into something that's more political, more rebellious, more subversive. So maybe the most important thing that I have created is not a new object, but a new definition for the word "designer".
ZEIT: You said that we are undergoing a transition towards Postmaterialism. What does this mean?
P.S.: Society is pursuing a strategy of dematerialization: it is more and more about intelligence and less about material. Take a computer, for example. In the beginning, computers were big as a house. Now there are computers in the size of only a credit card. In ten years from now they are going to be in our bodies - bionics. In fifty years from now, the concept of computers will have dematerialized itself.
ZEIT: So what else would designers create then?
P.S.: There won't be any designers. The designer of the future will be the personal coach, the fitness trainer, the nutritionist. That's all.
ZEIT: You have often stated that it was your goal to destroy design. How far have you gotten with that?
P.S.: It is accomplished! When I started out, design objects were but beautiful objects. No one could afford to buy them; design stood for elitism, but elitism is vulgar. The sole elegance lies in multiplication.
ZEIT: Please explain this.
P.S.: If one is fortunate enough to have a good idea, one has the obligation to share this idea with others. That is how democracy works. When I started to design, a good chair would cost about $1,000. Should a family that needs six chairs and a table have to pay $10,000, just to be able to have dinner? What an obscene thought. Four years ago, I designed a chair that would cost less than ten dollars. If you just strike three zeros off the price you change the whole concept of a product.
ZEIT: And yet you recently designed that motor yacht for a Russian millionaire?
P.S.: Exactly this is part of my Robin-Hood concept. I do use such projects like a lab. It allows me to try out new technologies and render them useful for the mass market. For this particular yacht, I developed a hull that wouldn't cause bow washes at 20 knots. I applied this concept to a solar boat, which in turn could be the prototype for a Venetian vaporetto.
ZEIT: And you don't want to stop designing?
P.S.: I do want to, for sure. I am definitely going to stop designing in two years. I will be doing something else instead, I don't know for sure. But I know that it will be a new way of expression; a weapon that will be faster, mightier and lighter than design. Design is really a terrible way to express oneself.
ZEIT: So you will only be switching the job.
P.S.: Exactly. I have been a producer of materiality. I do feel ashamed for this. What I want to be instead now is a producer of concepts. This will be much more useful.
ZEIT: Is there any object that you like, then?
P.S.: No.
Interviewer: Tillmann Prüfer
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Update, April 1st.
As much as it may sound like a prank-du-jour, but there is a good discussion going on chez Bruce Nussbaum's (thank you and reBang for pointing to my translation).
The first two comments, imvho, sum up the overall feeling of Starck's statements (implicit and explicit alike).
