Bingo!
Coming soon...To appear in: IO News Autumn 2009
Salone del Mobile
In 2003 four of us left Eindhoven for the design fair in Milan. We travelled by way of Brussels Charleroi, then on to Bergamo where we took a coach for the remainder of the journey; we were students and this was the cheapest.
We slept at a campsite located far outside the city centre: we had to walk, take a bus and connect to the Milan underground to reach the city.
The next day we attended the only football match I've ever seen live; Rome vs. Milan. Collina was the referee and the match ended in a 3-3 tie. We ended our day with drinks at 'Le Tre Marie' close to Via Torino. You find places like this by sheer coincidence. You then find yourself returning night after night because the food is so good, the service by Marianne is so attentive and Alfonso≠s cocktails are so surprisingly refreshing. We will simply have to forgive him for sending us to a trendy nightclub on our last night in townΣ we ended up waiting for an hour in the rain before finally being sent packing.
Of course we also saw design: Droog, Cappellini and Armani... the Zona Tortona and we even had a look at the design course at Polytecnico di Milano. Really exciting stuff... Really.
Two of the four of us are now designers, one is a mechanical engineer and the fourth is a designer and researcher in Delft. These days when we get together for drinks and talk about the trip, we never discuss Jurgen Bey, but we always talk about Collina, Marianne and Alfonso. Working as a designer is really nice, but sometimes design is just a really good reason for other unique experiences.
Appeared in: IO News, Spring 2009
Glasses or No Glasses?
Glasses or no glasses? A while ago in an IKEA advert I read the slogan 'Everyone=Designer'. The ad featured a paper cut-out of designer glasses with a thick, black frame. It would seem that everyone wants to be designer, because designers are hip, cheeky and they wear black, thick-framed glasses.Lideweij Edelkoort, a world-renowned trend forecaster and former director of the Design Academy, also wears these kinds of glasses. Large companies regularly come to her for advice on what colours and styles will be fashionable next year. She provides her sage advice, and (surprise, surprise) paint, clothing, vases and other products then appear in the Lideweij colours. This puts her in an enviable position of power, but it doesn't have much to do with being a good designer or having an understanding of design.
Do people on the iPod design team or the designers at Bang & Olufsen wear thick black glasses? I have no idea. You never see these people talking about their designs. Anyway, that's the last thing I think about when I listen to music. The story and the credibility are inherent to the product, and not in how the designers deal with their astigmatic eyeballs.
I also have glasses with a thick black frame ... but these days I'm not so sure if I should wear them or not. So I've settled for contacts. My glasses are somewhere in my desk drawer, just in case people do not believe that I am a designer.
Appeared in IO News, Autumn 2008
Contact
Thomas VisserLandbergstraat 15
2628 CE Delft
room: 10-2A-19
phone: 015-2783293
email: t.visser@tudelft.nl
Links to related projects:
Visser TwitterDesigning for Social Connectedness
Research @ StudioLab
Independent @ Home project
Links inspiring places:
Next NatureID-Studiolab
People who inspire me
Rem KoolhaasDan Wood
Ronald van Tienhoven
Koert van Mensvoort
Alex Hofer