Posted by Harry
Announcements | 10 Nov 06 | Comments (17) | Stumble
Got this comment today from Fabrizio regarding MoCo Loco interviews:
“Who is doing these interviews?
You say these are "our usual questions", but you
came late. With these questions it seems to be
one of the popular designboom interviews,
they are using exactly the same kind of questions
since many years. Why don't you ask designers different things?
It is boring. “
Ouch! For the record the answer to ‘Who is doing these interviews?’ is myself (Harry) and MoCo Loco contributing editors. The ‘usual questions’ refers to a series we started a few months back on inspiration. As for the similarities with designboom, a site we admire BTW, I checked the most recent interview, an interview with art director Marc Atlan, and yes, there are similarities but there are more differences IMHO.
Here’s a question for you, we have a few more inspiration interviews to go, but in the meantime, what questions would you like us to ask in future interviews? Anyone, including Fabrizio, leave a comment with your question(s). The best questions, as voted by you our readers will be eligible to win Phaidon’s new Josef Muller-Brockmann
The deadline for question(s) submissions is November 17 and the voting will take place the week of November 20th.
Leave a comment with your question(s) and make sure to enter your email address when you're filling in the form.
well, I got two questions that might sound odd but, I feel they give an insight to a person's thought process:
1) If you were an animal, what would you be?
(people always seem perplexed by the question and a few just can't seem to answer it but, I find that most have an answer that fits their personality pretty well. How you see yourself tells alot about how you see the world. BTW, I'd be a wolf and my other half a sea otter)
2) When you walked out of your house this morning, what's the first thing that grabbed your attention?
(what made you think: HUH?, brilliant! , what the heck?! or, just made you smile? We're constantly bombarded by stimuli and we normally tune out most of it. I think that those things that actually get a reaction from us are able to stand out because they speak/can relete to our psyche and can give us a glimpse of who we are and how we see/relate to the world)
Anyhow, those are my two questions. I think they're better than asking if Neo-Baroque is the new black in design or whether they think that stark minimalism is passe.
Harry you are a myth :)
I prefer urban legend. ;)
do you believe price has any business in the design process? do you take cost into account when outlining the goals of a design, such as one might with anthropomorphic data? why or why not?
likewise, is sustainabilty a design issue and how does this influence your work?
do you spend a lot of your income on "designed" products/furniture/etc?
how do you think your chair/tea kettle/poster/whatever is helping to advance the current state of human civilization?
"anthropomorphic"... gosh, such big words, I feel so inadequate in present company... ;0)
but, here are several more odd questions:
what two modern day conveniences can you not live without?
have you given any thought on how you would change/improve them?
how would you make your need of them obsolete? (would you create something new all together? fold their functions into something else that exists? or give them up and deprive yourself?)
when designing an object, do you start by thinking about the use first -function precedes design- or, do you consciously put design first in order to make the user connect with the object regardless of its function?
I don't think my advice will win me a book, but if I was conducting interviews and was criticized for my lame questions, I'd first listen to personality interviewer Terry Gross on NPR. She consistently manages to break down the personas of professionals to get personal.
Then I'd steal a few questions from Greman television DW TV 's cultural series Euromaxx. They've interviewed writers and designers. A few questions I liked were "Do you have a secret passion?", "Whom do you owe an apology?" The first question is always entertaining because if you tell a secret passion, its no longer a secret. Some interviewees do not get that.
TypeRadio.com broadcast from TypeCon 2005 and aired interviews from type designers. They asked these type designers "Do you have any fonts on your computer you did not pay for?" My favorite non-sequitor question was "Do you own a gun?"
my2c. I hope this helps.
xtian
Q: The world is already full of stuff; why do you make/design more?
Q: How does the idea of accountability enter into your working methodology?
-What's your favorite shape found in nature? (i.e the outline of a tree, a mug,umbrella,a letter from the alphabet...).
-If it were empty, how would you fill or use it? (i.e I would fill the letter O with wood panel's and use it as a mat for my dining room table)
Q: Why do you wake up in the morning?
here are some good questions for any designer to ponder:
what was the last thing you designed/made for your mother?
are there any things or categories of things that you won't design? why?
how many stores do you go in before you decide on which new pair of shoes you're going to wear?
What makes you get up in the morning? (The basic "what are your interests" coupled with "how do you work")
Tell me a story. (Any story will do.)
more of my ramblings:
As we've seen of late, fashion in general and fashion designers have become mainstream and famous among the masses and not just among the few that can afford their clothes.
Is industrial design headed in this direction? Do you think that, just like in fashion, industrial designers will become household names to the masses? Do you have any favorite up-and-coming industrial designers that you think can become household names? What is it about their point of view, their work, that you admire?
at the turn of the past century we had Art Nouveau followed by Deco and Mid-Century Modern and Post-Modern...(let's not forget the cocaine 80's! They had that particular look and sound and feel. Damn I miss the 80's-LOL ) how would you describe the era we're currently in? (is it possible to describe? are we in a particular era per se or just in a hodgepodge transitional styles searching for direction?) what do you think will be the hallmarks of the next design era?
Dear Alinia:
I wish I was a famous designer so I could answer your question with an earth shattering revelation... alas, I'm but a mere working stiff but, should you be curious as to what a regular bloke has to say...
what makes me get up is the freaking alarm clock on the other side of the room. it keeps beeping away til I get tired of hearing it and schlep my sorry hide across the room to shut it off.
Oh, I dream of the day that I can be like Linda Evangelista and say, " I don't get up for less than $10,000" ... and not a penny less. ;0)
I like the "tell me a story" because it is so general that any designer or artist can adapt it to his or her situation and then dazzle us with something quite personal.
I also love the "thing you designed for your mother" aspect. The answers could be very telling.
"To whom do you owe an apology" is a great truth-or-dare type ice-breaker. I will use it at parties.
Last ones, I promise! (so, he says...)
Most design revolves around how an object looks and feels... let's talk about smell.
what smells make you happy? which arouse you? which bring up sad or conflicting memories?
If, you had to describe your work as a scent, a signature fragrance as it were, what would it be like?
top notes? (i.e. the first impression one gets)
middle notes? (the meat and potatoes of your design aesthetic)
base notes? (the subtle or not, lingering "wow" factor)
is style superficial unless the product evolves the function/system of the object
Q: If it is true that God is preparing a house for you in heaven, what will yours look like?