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Every year, Electrolux Design Lab invites industrial design students to present innovative ideas for appliances of the future. This global competition attracts creative and lateral approaches to design challenges and has drawn thousands of entries since its inception in 2003. A prerequisite for any concept considered for progression, is an adherence to sustainable principles.

Previous finalists have included a portable solar cooker charged by its spray-on solar cells, a clothes washer where natural soap nuts replace detergents and a cooker that creates the night’s salmon dinner from a packet of genetically engineered muscle cells, oxygen, and nutrients.

The popularity of Electrolux Design Lab stems from a potential internship and learning opportunities awarded its finalists. For Electrolux, its dialogue and ideas are a springboard to thinking beyond current solutions to addressing challenges consumers face tomorrow.

In the short term, future generations of appliances will appear much the same as those found in our kitchens and laundry rooms today, however more intuitive, more energy-efficient and material-homogenous. Beyond individual appliances, we are thinking of the sustainable home, which is an integrated network where the waste from one product rejuvenates the function of another. The leftovers from yesterday’s dinner composts into fuel for the gas stove, water for the washing machine is heated by the district heating system, and heat output from refrigerators and other electrical goods is captured and piped to a place where it keeps occupants warm on a chilly night. In mega-cities where space is tight, we see how individual needs can be served by shared appliances, like on-demand laundry services and compartment freezers for apartment buildings—resource savers that consume a fraction of the energy of today’s solutions.

At Electrolux, we see sustainable design’s future as a culmination of the visual and interactive experience one enjoys when using a product, whilst simultaneously allowing us to make a change for the better. In the age of the conversation, designers are now better placed than ever to take this forward in tandem with consumers.
One particular conversation is also to be had with the suppliers of raw materials. Our foremost challenge in a world where population and economies are growing exponentially is to continually reduce the impacts of our products while guiding the consumer on how to make further sustainability choices.

In a push to Electrolux suppliers, we have highlighted the shortage of quality recycled plastic that can be used to manufacture products, whilst concurrently showing our concern with the amount of plastic that pollutes the environment. This is illustrated by our Vac to the Sea campaign which has seen Electrolux use plastic waste in the production of vacuum cleaners. Surely there is a permanent bridge that can be built to banish such discrepancies. Watch the Vac from Sea Video at Despoke TV

Henrik Otto is an Electrolux Design Lab jury panel member and seminar speaker at this year’s 100% Design

Since joining Electrolux in November 2004 Henrik Otto has embarked on a mission to make design one of the forces that powers the evolution of Electrolux into a leading global appliance brand. Henrik Otto’s vision is that Electrolux shall be the industry shaper.

Currently, Henrik Otto heads up one of the most significant appliance design teams in the world – an organization of more than 100 designers in seven countries on four continents. He oversees and directs the design process for more than 30 product lines in the kitchen, floor care and professional categories.

Henrik Otto began his design career at Swedish-based automotive giant Volvo Car Corporation, where he rose to Vice President of Design before joining Electrolux. Over the course of his 20 years in the profession, Otto has been awarded countless design accolades and peer acclaim.

At Electrolux, Henrik Otto has been driving the company’s latest design initiatives to a new level, with involvement in projects as the company’s leading design coach. These include Ergorapido (known as Pronto in North America), a cordless 2-in-1 combination lightweight stick vacuum with a detachable hand-held unit for instant cleaning; War on White, a campaign focused on working actively with the fashion and interior design industry to evaluate the introduction of patterned and coloured appliances, and the company’s new Global Design offering; introducing an entirely new design vision behind all major appliances produced in Europe, and soon, in other geographies.

Henrik Otto believes that good design is opinion making and that bland design is meaningless. No one shall be unmoved by the products and there should be a story behind every product. Products should deliver form, functionality and be customer friendly. As a part of Electrolux global brand strategy, Henrik Otto believes that, design should make consumers all over the world recognize Electrolux products.

JAMIE ANLEY FROM JAM INTERVIEWS GIOVANNA FORTE AND HAS A LUCKY DIP INTO THE CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE LOTS FROM THE SHOREDITCH BALL AUCTION WITH SOTHEBY’S, 15TH OCTOBER 2010 AT SHOREDITCH TOWN HALL

The Shoreditch Ball launched last year – how was it for you?

It was extraordinary. We seemed to attract everyone who was anyone together with everybody else. We had a true cross section of people from Shoreditch and beyond (yes, a few people came from Out West …). They all piled in and had an incredibly good time. The Blockheads blew our sound system at one point, but Phil Jupitus just kept going and no-one seemed to mind. The Sex Drugs and Rock & Roll took on a life of its own. This year we’ve gone a bit retro with jazz and swing, camped up with Jonny Woo and Pam Hogg. It’s all fairly “of the moment” as a two-fingers to austerity.

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As the Creative Directors for 100% Design, we have for the second year opened the doors to inspiring features and installations that will populate the central boulevard. Here is something to whet the appetite, a few features we look forward to seeing next month.

Tom Cecil – A Bright Spark
By Gemma Lewis, JAM

From his studio in East London, Tom Cecil explores his fascination of all things technically challenging and process-driven – he’s one of those likeable geeks who loves to get his hands dirty. Tom’s previous life in Engineering sort of explains this infatuation; from experimenting with underwater microphones, to growing his own ice, Tom dabbles with anything and everything that intrigues and challenges him.

After winning the Hidden Art competition earlier this year, a brief that was set by 100% Design, he has been given the chance to show his latest installation ‘Field of Lights’ on the central Boulevard of the show next month. The suspended structure, made up of over two hundred motion sensitive LED lights, was designed in collaboration with ML Electronics. It will be suspended just above head height to create patterns of light that follow people as they move around the space below. With an assortment of Tom’s work over the past 2 years being exhibited underneath, it’s a clever way for him to record and display how people react and move around the work. Clever indeed.

Print Tuft and Fold Make a Splash
By Gemma Lewis, JAM

This quirky design collective is made up of Chelsea College of Art alumni; Zoe Beck (Print), Claire Alderdice (Tuft) & Kim Bassett (Fold). The Trio met in 2005 whilst studying MA’s at London’s most bohemian art school, and after spending all their cash travelling and then struggling to afford exhibition prices, Print Tuft and Fold was born. “We each bring different strengths to the table, and this has really helped the brand evolve”.

They aren’t bashful when it comes to their application of colour, so when we invited them to create a bold feature in line with this year’s show colours, they jumped at the chance. They will be producing 18 seating cubes of various sizes, using their three contrasting approaches to deliver a mixture of kaleidoscopic inspired carpet cubes, city inspired digitally printed cubes, and delicately pleated fabric cubes. Right at the threshold of the show, it will create a great meeting point and is sure to be a hit when those legs get weary!
You’ll also find the girls brightening up 100% Futures this year.

printtuftandfold.com/

Testing us – The Decorators
By Gemma Lewis, JAM
Fresh from Central St.Martin’s, it hasn’t taken long for this group of creatives to join forces and pursue their interests in stories, people and places. They use their experience in architecture, psychology, landscape, interior and graphic design to build experiences, generate unexpected encounters and test conventions. Using narratives to create context-specific projects, they tap into art, cultural, and community environments.

At this year’s 100% Design show, The Decorators take on the role of design psychologists, inviting visitors into their waiting room to take the % Design Psychology test. A bit tongue-in-cheek, the result will be a theatrical production line in which bags are personalised to display the results of individuals. As the printed bags begin to circulate the show, those taking part will be able to see how they fared against others who have taken the test.

The Decorators want to know how much of a designer you really are – are you ready to take the test?

Design Guild Marks 2010
By Gemma Lewis, JAM
Butcher, Baker…..Furniture maker! The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, each year, reward the work of the finest furniture designers working in volume in both Britain and further afield.

Jonathan Hindle, Chairman of the Design Guild Mark Judges explains;
“The Mark is awarded for excellence in design, use of materials, manufacture and function. The judges establish whether materials are from sustainable sources and whether the piece represents good value. Although there [are] many submissions, the judges award the Design Guild Mark to only twenty designs. Their designers and manufacturers are now able to use the Design Guild Mark Logo and The Furniture Makers Company Crest on the piece, and in their promotional literature.”

At 100% Design this year we will be displaying a selection of the pieces awarded in 2010 to show the quality and detail that is needed for this mark of excellence. Call for entries for 2011 will be on the installation, and the closing dates for applications for the 2011 Design Guild Marks is 25th February 2011.

Elegantly engineered and versatile in their application, we feel naughty for gawking at this pair of legs!

Launched by MARK at this year’s 100% Design, Dylan explains “I’ve aimed to design a set of legs and other parts that combine in different ways to make the tables easy to customise in terms of size, finish and function, easy to store, easy to transport and install”. Simples.
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From the same country who brought us the Swiss Army Knife, Propellerjack is a nifty little design from Mossa which has earned them a red dot design award in 2009. The awards are only given to “exceptionally creative, innovative and of [the] highest design quality”. Propellerjack is the first product they have produced, and only one year after the company was founded – haven’t they done well!

Mossa’s passion is to produce innovative and emotive pieces, and Propellerjack certainly delivers on that. It’s a coat hanger and coat hook at the same time, with a magnetic device so it can be fixed and arranged on the wall en-masse to give a decorative wall installation. We look forward to seeing it for its UK launch at 100% Design alongside two other Mossa products; ‘Tripod’, a lounge seat, and ‘Rewind’, a coffee table, which will both be launched globally at the event.
Website:www.mossacompany.com/

Expressive, thoughtful and challenging…and ‘slightly’ disturbing. Thelermont Hupton’s products and furniture have become recognisable for reflecting ‘social conventions’ and ‘peculiarities’ as they like to put it. Take for instance these ‘Utter’ pots (pictured), a literal manifestation of what an object can say to someone rather than what an object says about someone.
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Anyone’s childhood memories of nettles surely cannot be the fondest. However, Lorna Syson is the first interior accessory designer to use these vicious greens to produce an Eco-friendly interior collection. The collection is being launched next month at 100% Design, and there’ll be no need for a dock leaf hunt, phew!
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