Tasmeem Doha 2011

Pink Tank is a collaborative project with designers carefully picked from around the Middle East, it includes:

Manar Al Muftah, Graphic Designer, Qatar

Khalid Shafar, Furniture and Objects Designer, UAE

Richard Kahwagi, Graphic Designer, Lebanon

Younes Duret, Industrial Designer, Morocco

Their aim is to individually come up with a performance. They connect designers to each other and to students reinforcing the concept of “linking”.

TasmeemLab allowed the individual designers to talk about their outcome in these four days which includes their process.

Manar Al Muftah:

Developed a passion for Arabic calligraphy and print making, where in her project she linked graphic design and print making.

Khalid Shafar:

He is an Emarati Designer living in New Zealand, his object tells a story. To him, the word “link” is interpreted with a circle, Khalid thinks that a circle is the best form to represent the concept. The form of the Ogal (mens black circular form placed on the Gitra on head) is moved from its common use to a medium in furniture – it is used to create a partition just to define the interior space and not to block. He links the hand made with the tailor made with metal. Industrial and handicraft. Furniture and fashion. Cultural and contemporary.

Richard Kahwagi:

Link as a graphic designer: growing demand for typefaces which is why he believed that there is a need to create a new Arabic typeface. He used the Din typeface to adapt the font to Arabic with the same feel. He believes that it is much more interesting to customize a font that is original and new.

Younes Duret:

Linking between industrial and handicrafts. His form is a laser cut shape which is the industrial technology with Arabic jewelry (artisana) made using silk and linked them together which creates colorful lights.

Other than the individual projects, Pinktank had long conversations with VCUQatar students where they identified the students needs and asked about where they interact. Where do they exchange ideas. They later found out that the building lacks such a space which would be a landmark in VCUQ. The designers later went on a tour around the building and thought that maybe the school needs a place which would be a landmark where students could exchange ideas and could get together. Throughout their collaboration with the students, they noticed that Younes’s lamp could be used as a modular object that can be moved around the school. Why not take the lamp and make it bigger to become a meeting point. It could be used as a connecting element- why not substitute the shapes with an Arabic letter instead of a random shape.  With their research they thought the letter   ع    which means the eye and the place for natural water- great for a meeting point.

As I was watching the presentation, I personally enjoyed listening to the speakers and how they are very different individuals working together and how they are inspired from one another. Because they are all different I think this is what made the project very successful where they were learning from each other’s strengths.

 Michael Mauer is the Porsche designer, he is German and previously worked as the designer for Mercedes.

“I believe that design is very important for the look and appearance of the car” Mauer

Michael Mauer’s presentation quotes many people where it shows he has been influenced by others, a quote he mentioned is “ugliness is hard to sell”, “design is so important to the company that it is best not left for the designers”

Also, a headline which Michael believes is a successful and sustainable design headline in an article is “following, but any child can do that” it retains its validity.

911 is a “must have product, one is proud when they own it, there is no substitute”

The product is based on the principle statement which is based on simplicity. Assuming you have brand values, vital principles for brand success are: linked to the success of the 911.  The “icon” is not born as the icon, it is the outcome of the design, the evolutionary design process.

The principle of self similarity:

40 years of similar 911

Brand identity- Porsche

Product identity- must be unmistakable

Porsche constantly makes sure they move forward

Each 911 was immediately recognized, Porsche made sure 911 was seen as the NEW 911- to do this, Porsche made sure they moved forward for each design.

Self similarity is gained if designers work on clearly defined elements for brand identity.

The process when designing the Porsche consists of three major steps:

1-    proportions

The architecture of the car, it is the strongest link to the technical workers- package proportions is responsible of visual message

Mercedes/ Porsche: could not have been more different

Mercedes: very relaxed passenger, far from engine with short greenhouse

Porsche: short distance from passenger, longer greenhouse

Visual Message: the ratio of the height x width stays in proportion when compared to other car models for example the Panamera and the Carrera.

2-    styling

if you don’t get the proportions right you don’t get the styling right.

Keeping brand and product identity. For the 911, designers had the freedom to do a special shape. /for the air intake, the Porsche kept it as it is instead of changing and making the grills stand out. The design DNA and cues give designers the freedom to give their own interpretation, if they don’t, the design wont move forward.

3-    details

Consistent- continual development still be done in a way with same identity and sustainable of Porsche design.

I attended the workshop of  “Managing Life in a Construction Zone” Lead by Pornprapha Phatanateacha where to begin with they started off by a presentation by the two facilitators Fatima Zainal and Aisha Al Naema. The presentation described how the construction effects people’s lives  including the labor workers. Therefore cultural interaction is what Qatar lacks based on their research.

They also proposed a concept of how a tool such as a mobile phone interface, how it could improve on this cultural gap, to be able to help labor workers easily navigate in Doha

As groups we were to come up with a concept or tool that would help decrease this difference between different cultures.

Our group consisted of  Hadeer Omar, a graphic design graduate, Maryam Al Attiya, a junior graphic designer, Osama Barhoum, a junior engineer and myself, Maha Al-Darwish, a junior graphic designer. Also, as our facilitator, Fatima Zainal helped us to conceptualize.

Our outcomes for this project is to present 3 slides that would present our tool for this project.

We began identifying the problem, and we noticed that Qatar’s construction is mainly moving towards the World Cup in 2022, therefore we looked at the Asian Games in Qatar in 2006. We looked at how the construction was very intense before the event and right after the event, the roads were reconstructed and are still in the process of being reconstructed. Therefore we looked at the long term and short term plans of the 2022 World Cup, we thought that they should aim on creating a difference and making sure that this difference actually sinks in and is adapted to the Qatari society. We put in mind that this would be time consuming for people to adapt to and therefore we wanted to bring people together by minimizing the gap between cultures.

Our tool is to diverge from Qatar’s aim, just planning for a successful event and step backward to fill in the gaps, to ensure a successful event. This change would effect the outcome of the event. There would be a campaign planning for such events, where these events would take place in different locations to keep people engaging and creating international nights where cultures would be celebrated.

Tom Kelly is the general manager of IDEO.

During Tom Kelly’s presentation he emphasized the fact that designers are “making new connections”.  In the past, designers were not connectors in the world, design was only added in the end when all the “real work was done”, when the truth is that design pays a big role in the success of the real work.

Design, twenty years ago was only seen in ‘design magazines’, it later became central in business where “design has a place in the grown up table”. Design has become part of the process.

“Design is a value generator” Tom Peter.

Tom Kelly’s presentation consisted of many well know companies and their successes. The use of companies that are known by most of the audience made me as an individual more engaged in the presentation. He also related the business and design world to fairy tales we know as children.

Many of us are innovators.

With innovation there is good news where innovation creates complexity and creativity, leaders are acknowledging that this is what they need. Who are people going to look to now? At innovators, therefore designers.

Whereas for the bad news, “the red queen effect” from Alice in wonderland, where the story takes place on a chess board with Alice and the Queen. The red queen is always in a bad mood therefore Alice and the red queen are running and they do not make any progress. While their feet are moving there is no progress, the bad news is that it is not enough to be creators, you have to beat competition.

As children, we only saw the story as a narrative, we didn’t really analyze the characters or the tasks. By comparing real life to Alice and the red queen, as the audience we actually understand the claim behind this example.

In the past, we weren’t competing with everyone else.

Another example Tom Kelly mentioned derives from his home town, where Tom began by describing that in the 1960s in Akron Ohio, was known as the “rubber capital of the world” World= USA. They let designers innovate every few months, outside of Akron there was more competition because Akron was slow, they were moving at their own pace not aware of other competitors. Akron were not happy with this move, because in France they were competing, Akron felt that this  threatened their business model. But France created “radio tires” which is more advanced than what Akron has, just regular rubber tires. Therefore America decided not to buy these tires from France and eighteen years later, their sales went down to 0%.

The third example includes consumer electronics with Sony and Samsung. To begin with, Sony’s sales were high and Samsung’s were low. Samsung decided that they will be competitors with innovation strategies, they started experimenting, as a result their sales rise and in 2005 the value of Samsung exceeded Sony by 40 billion. Years later Sony began rising. Sony was an innovator but because they were working in a slow pace, they allowed their hungry competitors and people began saying “I want to be the next Samsung” which is the red queen effect.

Moving to the environment, dinosaurs were ruling the world for a long time, there was no competition. But because the environment outside changed faster than they can adapt to it which is why they disappeared. This leads to the question, Are we as a community changing as fast as the environment? We see the red queen effect here as well.

Design thinking:

- people (desirable)

- business (viable)

- technical (feasible)

Designers connecting with the World:

1-    the anthropologist

 CEO- is the first to see everything- when Tom Kelly first joined IDEO, it was very challenging work, there was clear success or failure. In 1991, there anthropologists came along, Tom Kelly didn’t get it, he told his brother David, “Human factor work is kind of California” which is a questionable value.

Anthropologists see new problems, these could be new opportunities, you set aside what you know and look at it with fresh eyes. “ Vuja de” keep asking yourself “why do we…?” when you do this, you can see new opportunities.

An experience Tom Kelly had was something we all went through, but because we don’t listen we don’t actually notice, when actually it is a very big issue that is concerned with safety. On the airlines, Tom was actually listening to the safety instructions where the mask comes down, with a clear plastic bag attached they mention, “although the bag may not inflate, oxygen is flowing in the mask.” Created a product with the worst interface.

The point with this experience to Tom is that: how could have I not noticed, a product you use, you would know if it works or not.

Another experience is when he was at the train station in Charles de Gaulle airport where the ticket entrance people would actually have their luggage with them and try to put the ticket in, no one actually noticed but Tom kept observing how people pass by and come up with tactics to pass, no one really notices because they stopped seeing things in the environment.

In Tokyo train station with 3 million people passing daily, Tom was standing with IDEO anthropologists where they notice an individual standing with her shoes not matching, they begin coming up with theories,

1-    maybe she has pairs almost like them at home

2-    girlfriend with the same shoe size

3-    maybe there is an opportunity

Oral B asked IDEO to create a new toothbrush for kids- they want it to be distinctive. Oral B expected IDEO to start creating new designs from Day1. But IDEO wanted to do anthropology, on day 1 they discovered that kids need a big toothbrush because they hold it in their fist, to begin with they thought that because kids have tiny hand they would need slim toothbrushes. It became the best selling toothbrush for 18 months until all the other competitors began doing the same.

2-    cross pollinator

 Where you take in new knowledge and share it continuously- you want to be a cross pollinator.

Tokyo went to the USA took the idea of great simplicity and created “Muji” which now has 300 stores worldwide. They were inspired by an idea across the ocean, they were inspired and did not copy. Get ideas outside your country than inside.

Emergency hospital and Race car: doctor says there is one thing in common where seconds matter, with the car racing, everything is at your fingertips, therefore they adapted this idea to become more efficient and kept everything close and ready.

Cross pollinating generations: “tap into young ideas with a ‘reverse mentor’” time- learn a lot from them.

3-    story teller

 IDEO thought data should speak for itself but in fact it doesn’t. You have to wrap the message in the story.

Chip and Dan Heath- urban myths

-       simple

-       unexpected

-       concrete

-       credible

-       emotional

-       in the form of a story

Behavioral economics and choice architecture:

Example: India- get people to drink clean water.

Because in India they have strong beliefs in family, if you just tell them not to drink from the well they might reply, “you’re not saying my mom is wrong are you?”

By story telling, you are reframing the question by showing examples of the facts and the proposed outcome, “which water would you want your children to drink?”

Therefore 7 times the number of families switch to safer water.

In conclusion, the main three outlines of Tom Kelly’s presentation are:

1-    anthropologist- to be able to learn and identify  in a new way

2-    cross pollinator: look for ideas outside the normal world

3-    story telling: adopt power of story telling

I enjoyed Tom Kelly’s presentation because he was able to engage the audience using sense of humor. I also sense his confidence when speaking, it becomes very convincing as he brings up topics which are interesting and influences me as a young designer to adapt certain tactics to improve on the success of the final outcome.