Tuesday, June 23, 2009

MoonLight goes online

Check out http://www.moonlight-lantern.com

"FEEL THE PLANET EARTH" Cifial Design Award 2008


At the "FEEL THE PLANET EARTH" Cifial Design Competition 2008 (Yes, the procedure took some time...), MoonLight has won one of the two first prizes. The 18th of June we received the award in Porto.

Loucas in action... The award money is equally divided between design team (perfect timing: from an economic point of view, it was not the smartest decision to graduate right now!) and University. TU Delft pays its part to Kamworks and supports this way their ambitious plan to produce the product for sale in fall (!).

We had enough time to visit the beautiful city of Porto...

...and spent quite some good time with the hospitable family of the award organisator...

Friday, January 30, 2009

The thing with the main lesson


I have been asked so many times about my main lesson from my BOP/sustainability design experience and I still struggle with the right two-sentences reply for a party, without pictures to show. Too many factors, a too long story, I definitely do not want to bore people. Besides, being a designer as well as a foreigner in the country I live in, I feel more comfortable with visual than verbal communication.

However, a Chinese friend and journalist asked me two months ago for one or two very short general statements in relation to our project that he wanted to implement in an article for a Chinese magazine about the Dutch Design Awards 2008.

"Absolute relevance is essential for success in sustainable development: Make it affordable, push quality AND make sure to understand the user's context. If these aspects are not in balance, it is not sustainable."

It becomes clear for instance that green technologies just represent a small part in sustainability. On the other hand I would have to tell in the same step that understanding the user's context cannot happen from a distance. And why. And how to translate affordability into marketing options that go beyond small unit prices. Und so weiter.

"Designing on the spot for the so-called Base of the Pyramid is an extreme challenge, from a personal as well as from a professional point of view. The biggest challenge is probably get these two important parts combined. Especially in a team"


Those who have worked on similar projects, will know what I mean. And maybe, a party is just not the right spot to tell about our experience.