DEVELOPMENT BY EXPERIMENT
It is essential to have an experimental approach in concept development. I am spending a lot of my time on research. It is great swimming in the pool of uncertainty. It takes many efforts to reach a final result. I love that moment when the sky finally turns blue.
Here is a shortlist of these projects.
1. Materials archive
This archive is a small collection of sustainable materials. Over a period of three years we collected enough samples to fill up six boxes. When combined with a list of properties these samples gave us a perfect starting point for the sustainable design process.
2. Properties of new materials
It is rather difficult to develop applications for new materials if there are no examples on the market. Extensive research on several new materials like Treeplast (a mixture of sawdust, natural resin and corn starch) and Paragon (a ‘natural’ plastic made of potato starch) resulted in a list of interesting properties. A series of brainstorms in which we combined three unique properties of the material led to valuable ideas for distinguishing applications.
3. Stories behind products
My interest in storylines made me study a small group of twenty-five consumers. In an interview I asked for a list of nine important objects that these people couldn’t live without. Out of these objects I chose two and asked them why they were so important. This resulted in fifty stories. Not all of them were as interesting but all proved the enormous influence of emotions. One woman for example loved her Atlas of the World. Not for geographical reasons, but only to fantasize about places that she probably would never visit.
4. This moment
This very moment has a lot to offer. The funny thing is, we do not know too much about it. Most of the time we are living in the past or concerned about what might happen in the future. To learn more about the moment I started a thorough research on quotes dealing with this subject. These quotes are collected from the internet, books, interviews and the street. This moment study will teach me and others more about the importance of living for the moment.
The Moment Company 