Rachael Jane Sleight is a designer who explores the theme of timeless design with her love for materials. Due to Rachel’s interest in materials, she has studied how we interact with materials over the course of our whole lives. From this research she then found herself steering towards a path of sustainability.
During the talk Rachel got me thinking about why things are designed in certain ways?
I started to think about the simple everyday objects I use, like my phone. Why is the volume button on the side of the phone rather than the front or back? There are many aspects of designing a product that I had not taken into consideration. There must be a reason that the home button is on the front and the volume button is on the side. Probably because the home button will be the most used and hence it must be in the most convenient place. The volume and off button will be used much less and so can be put on the side, as having lots of buttons on the front would ruin the aesthetic of the phone. Rachel has highlighted to me how key the small details can be in the design.
Rachel also made a point of saying ‘making waste visible’, this could be perceived in different ways, as in it could mean we need to make our waste visible so that it is more evident how much waste we are producing and what it’s doing to the environment. Though I perceived it as meaning that we should be re-purposing the waste and bringing it back in our community in many visible forms. Instead of hiding waste like it is an eyesore, we should refurbish it and turn it into something eye-catching.
Examples of refurbished waste.
Comments