Vivienne van den Dungen

In the history of (smow)blog only two designers have contacted us to comment on our comments.

The first was Brooklyn based Jason Miller and the second was SintLucas student Vivienne van den Dungen.

Writing about a stool she was exhibiting at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven we commented that :

“Our one complaint would be that the current version doesn’t really seem to know what it is: the higher component being to short to be a back rest and to narrow to be used for holding, for example, a cup. But the basic idea is very interesting.“

Words we stand by.

Vivienne van den Dungen @ YP Out of the Box, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven

Vivienne however contacted us, and her comments not only forced us to see the work in a different light; but also wonderfully illustrate why with student projects the focus of the critique should never be on the product but on how the student responds to the set task.

Because student projects always involve a set task.

According to the information provided in Eindhoven the premise of “SintLucas -YP (Young Professionals) Out of the Box” was: “Fourth-year students show stools made of different kinds of materials. The students have used two of their own opposite qualities as the source of inspiration for their designs.”

What was not explained was that in addition the stool should have the measurements of 50x50x35 cm, and the back had to be 20cm or shorter.

And so obviously Vivienne couldn’t build a stool with a higher back. Or make the stool much wider.

The question therefore is – was such a stool design appropriate given these limitations?

To which we say: Yes – because the basic idea was and remains interesting and as with all designs that make sense it is always worth experimenting and seeing how far you can push the concept.

As far as we can remember Vivienne was the only student to attempt a backrest. A foolhardy idea given the 20cm limitation you may think – or perhaps a worthwhile attempt to see if one can take the limitation and use it to your advantage?

The combination backrest/shelf is neat idea.

We just don’t think the result is ideal –  but the attempt was certainly valid.

Vivienne contends that the double function does work – and having never sat in the piece we obviously cannot contradict that… other than to say we have elbows like manic geese and we wouldn’t trust ourselves not to spill beer all over the carpet while reading the paper.

But maybe we are the exceptions.

Vivienne however also says is that she plans to make a piece with a longer back and/or a differently organised “shelf”

Which is lovely to hear.

We wish Vivienne all the best not only with the re-working of the design but also with the rest of her career.

And we hope she continues to complain about our comments on her products – because product design needs more dialogue and discussion.

SintLucas -YP (Young Professionals) @ Dutch Design Week 2010

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