Counterpoint Lab

Design Practice & Critical Theory curious musings by staff and students from the BA Design Practice course at CoGC................................. Disclaimer: opinions shared in this blog do not represent the views of the institution.

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Studio Spass

Introducing the playful work of Studio Spass. As described on their website: “Studio Spass (スタジオ・スパス) is a Rotterdam-based design studio that works across print, branding, web and spatial design projects as well as animation and photography. Founded by Jaron Korvinus and Daan Mens in 2008, the studio combines a rigorous, considered and intelligent approach with a playful sensibility.”

Their projects demonstrate that design interventions can be meaningful while retaining a sense of fun.

Street Sculptures https://studiospass.com/work/de-wereld-van-witte-de-with-12/

So Me Thing Kunsthal (2015) https://studiospass.com/work/so-me-thing-kunsthal/

Baltimore Bend (2022) Arttenders X Studio Spasshttps://studiospass.com/work/baltimore-bend/

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Research, you say?

We are designers, we are open to being creative and experimental, yet when it comes to critical approaches we tend to rely in traditional forms of research and writing.

What if we forget about the distinctions between theory and practice and merge them to question the role of design and the experiences that result from it?

Let's have a look at some examples of projects that explore design practices through applied theory:

Cargo

Lotte Ottevanger – Kidfluencer Starterkit

"Lotte Ottevanger’s project Kidfluencer Starterkit is “an installation inspired by the Dutch documentary ‘Mijn dochter de vlogger’ (My daughter the Vlogger). The documentary shows how parents record their young children’s lives in video blogs that sometimes become a substantial income source for the family. Ottevanger explores how parents seem to disregard their children’s privacy, putting their lives online without their permission; in a way taking advantage of them."

Floriane Misslin's project Diagramming "studies the production of fashion photography in an industry established on the binary womenswear / menswear." http://florianemisslin.com/diagramming.html

And the wonderful work by FormaFantasma https://formafantasma.com/

Their project UNDERGROUND RELEASE, BIO 25 / MAO SLOVENIA, 2017 questions the Slovenian underground with a multimedia installation. "The work reflects on the conflicting relationship that the designers have with the translation of natural resources into commodities and desirable products."

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Never design for free, unless...

A nice wee project by Lava Beijing during Beijing Design Week 2013. What is the value of our work? Should the reward always be monetary, or should design and what we do become open and shared within the communities we live in? Does sharing work for free cheapen our craft?

Maybe it's all about the context and who we are designing for?

http://lavabeijing.com/play/mobile-design-agency/

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Hello and welcome

Think of this space as an opportunity to find and share interesting projects that help us stay curious. Let's look around us and imagine what design can be.

Feel free to share any design projects, studios, written and visual work and any inspired ideas that you see around.

Shall we get started?

For our first entry how about a look at trans-disciplinary design studio https://snohetta.com/, they describe their projects as " (...) examples of attitudes rather than designs."

Summit by Snøhetta, modular furniture to encourage interactions.

Wayfinding inspired by Letterpress and traditional newspaper printing for Le Monde Group.