Form Us With Love

The past few weeks class discussions and exercises of writing the corresponding blog entries delve me down deep into the realm of purpose and application of design in our world. I realized the responsibilities and the potential of especially industrial design is far greater than just “making stuff” to fill our overcrowding environment. Through this week’s class spent on discussion of Art & Design, I was reminded of yet another aspect of design. Although function does play a dominant part in designing, art and its principle are yet another unforgettable major component in design that also greatly impacts the users.

Art and design are separate worlds that endorse different values, however art in design mean a whole significant other. Unbound to the “form follows function” aesthetic principles, art in design allows forms and meanings to find inspiration from nature and others that we subconsciously recognize as pleasantly attractive and resolved.

FORM US WITH LOVE is a young design studio of three designers in Stockholm, Sweden with a mission of “innovative, sustainable design with the segments of product, environment and identity.” Designers Petrus Palmer, John Lofgren, and Jonas Petterson have a design philosophy of Innovation, Interaction, & Love. They share “FUWL religion” as being all about Innovation, journeying outside the box and not doing “what everybody else does”. Then they refer Interaction as their “holy book”, since it is interaction between man and artifact where they find inspiration for ideas and answers in solving problems. There are additional stepping stones of research and analysis for the design process, but they argue “process is always just the process.” Their third component, Love, a spark of passion is what completes the big picture of their design.

I find their nature-inspired furniture designs such as the Prosthes hanger and the Group of Trees, very elegant while equally functional, and also as they would like to think, “innovative”.

Through their research, FUWL learned prosthesis is an artificial extension that replaces a missing body part in medicine. With this new knowledge and inspiration, they were able to apply this to Prosthes Hanger, allowing the user to “prosthesis” with what they might have at their homes – a spare hockey stick, a broom, or even a spare branch. Away from just its creative and playful interactive appearance, we are able to learn there is more to the purposeful unique form they have settled with.

With another problem to design a new type of room divider, FUWL studied the old traditional designs for it. They realized the traditional box-like screens lacked the ability to stimulate creativity in public places. They knew their design would have to fulfill its function as well as introducing something poetic that can improve the user experience with the object. The Group of Trees are not only sound absorbing well-built barricades, but also “creates a sensation of a small group of trees in the middle of the woods”. Their presence in public spaces stirs up a peaceful and quiet mood to study, work, or relax. Its repeating patterns of assembled molded wings can lock into one another with altering directions and the material choice of polyester felt (PET) adds a third function to absorb sound.