Posted by Greg
Designers | 09 Apr 07 | Comments (6) | Stumble
We met designer Tara Murray at last year's THAW exhibit where we saw her Take Note wall hanger made from wood and reclaimed waste architectural plotter paper tubes. We liked her work and asked her tell us more about it. Tara is a graduate from the University of Calgary and recently obtained her masters degree in Industrial Design. In short, she studies the design process from the perspective of product attachment, identity, value, meaning and memory. What we liked was that Tara's work goes beyond the superficial; adding "emotional connectedness to older products through new design". Her research and design interests have led her to explore such themes as sustainability, Canadian pop culture, and the construction of gender identity through design. After the jump, a few pieces from her studies. JGB
Doily Chair.
Canadian-Styled Tea Cozy.
Take Note (shown in THAW 2006).
Great work, the cup design is actually the Hoch Die Tassen, designed by Hrafnkell Birgisson.
I would expect someone at mocoloco to notice the blatant rip-off that is 'Tipsy Lady Wine glass'. Very disappointing.
Hmm, they did look familiar. We'd like to give Tara the benefit of the doubt, it's possible they may have been created without prior knowledge (Calgary and Berlin are worlds apart). We'll investigate and get back to you. For the record, we don't condone copying and we wouldn't intentionally post copies.
Paul, Thorsten, it's as I thought, Tara had no prior knowledge of Hoch Die Tassen. I just got an email from her; "My Tipsy Lady wine glasses were one result of a large number of explorations in tea cup reuse (and later other existing
product reuse like the Canadian plaid jacket and doilies) for my thesis on emotional attachment to old objects. I handmade the glasses for this use only and am not selling them. I have been designing for years and hate to see people take advantage of the work that other people have done. I therefore understand completely if you wish to remove the article from your site to avoid the possibility of further mistaken assumptions.". Done. Thanks Tara for the rapid reply!
No problem at all. It happens that people have the same idea in different parts of the world without the knowledge of the other's existence. I was a little surprised that no one at mocoloco had noticed and made her aware of it. Nice work otherwise.
Paul, Thorsten:
Thanks for your comments. We have obviously uncovered a very strange coincidence here that has surprised us all. Best regards.