Chris Bangle – someone say ”Or you love, or hate him”. I admire him!

As the head of design for BMW Chris became one of the most famous – and reviled – auto designers in automotive history. Recently he abruptly resigned after 16 years with the German automaker. His daring designs have affected the industry, and made spurning rivals to follow in emulating his distinctive style.

On the Icsid World Design Congress in Singapore, Chris presented his work and thoughts about Personal Emotional Mobility 2050. He explained how it is a catalyst; a phenomenon that engages and inspires creativity and productivity within society. It was a very inspiring lecture, and I had the pleasure to meet him during my time I spend on the congress.

In my opinion, Chris is an open minded, daring designer contributing to a creative approach to the future of, not only cars, but more interesting – auto mobility. His geniality and strong innovation in automotive design are often compared to his controversy in some solutions. One of them is the BMW GINA concept car from 2008, see video below.

I was attending at the Icsid General assembly when it was held in Singapore 26th and 27th of November. The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) is a global not-for-profit organisation that promotes better design around the world. Today, Icsid counts over 150 members in more than 50 countries, representing an estimated 150 000 designers.

Icsid members are professional associations, promotional societies, educational institutions, government bodies, corporations and institutions, which aim to contribute to the development of the profession of industrial design.

Delegates from Sweden were, except from me, Dag Holmgren also representing Swedish Association of Designers,  Robin Edman, SVID, The Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, and Tomas Seo. The first picture below showing us together with the outgoing president of Icsid Prof. Carlos Hinrichsen and the new president Dr. Mark Breitenberg.

Konstfack (University College of Arts Crafts and Design), Ergonomidesign and White Architects. That was the program for my students at Nässjö Träcentrum when we were going to Stockholm for a field trip on the 17th of November.  Me and my colleague Rolf Herrström arranged the trip, with good assistance from the school. The day couldn’t have been better.

The wide range of the visits gave us an interesting overview. From the different faculties at Konstfack, to Ergonomidesign one of the most successful design agencies in the world, and White who is working with the complete set of skills within architecture and design.

At Konstfack Thomas Herrström was our excellent guide, at Ergonomidesign Maria Benktzon and Peter Ejvinsson, and at White Architects Märta Friman and Björn Tegnell. Thank you all concerned for making this to very pleasant and inspiring day.

When SVID, The Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, arranged a field trip within Design Management, I was there representing Swedish Association of Designers. The place for the study was Materia in Tranås; a natural choice, since the company is really skilled within the area. The comprehensive approach of Materia is very impressive, how every little detail is carefully thought out, and how all together bringing out the core values to get very clear – internally and externally.

Design management is also one of my special working areas. To introduce design thinking in the company strategy – management by design. I often have to prove and convince about the importance of design management. What’s the profit? Well, Materia is the perfect example:
Materia was founded in 1992 by Kersti Sandin and Lars Bülow. Materia has quickly grown into one of the most prominent design companies in the industry, with a turnover on 140 mSEK and 62 employees.

It was a very interesting and informative day, with lectures from Robin Edman – CEO SVID, Lisbeth Svengren Holm – Head of Research and Education SVID, Lars Bülow – CEO Materia and Kersti Sandin Bülow Director of Design Materia.

A short report from some of my journeys I’ve been doing recently. That includes impressions from fairs and exhibitions in Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo and London. Take a moment and have a look at the slideshow.

It’s obvious how the eco-trend is here to stay, and it’s very interesting to see the directions of the future development within the area. In some way the eco-friendly handicraft connected ideas are being replaced with the more high tech solutions, but still with the eco-friendly attention. Sustainable thoughts have become more naturally included to the process, nothing new when working with industrial design, but far more accepted from the market, much thanks to the importance as selling point.

It is very exciting to see the new materials that are being adapted. And the upcoming fabrics, wallpapers, nano technology – well, it’s pure science fiction. And there are far more to come! Many of the materials that the scientists have done are still waiting for field of application. But there are also the traditional stuff like bamboo, very eco-friendly and adaptable within many areas like furniture, table ware and even fabrics etc.

So… What will the future bring? Well that´s up for you and me to decide. Let´s be optimistic and innovative… and create a sustainable future for next generations.

From the workshop, City Move Interdesign in Gellivare Sweden, where I was involved earlier this year, the work has continued and I have now some uplifting news. The City Move is in progress!

This Monday the municipality formally decided to begin the Vision and planning project ”New Gellivare”. The project is the result of the municipality and LKAB deciding to work more jointly on the future of Malmberget and Gellivare. The project itself however is of course owned and controlled by the municipality.

The project will have two phases. The first is a vision phase, where a clear image of the future city will be developed. Citizens, local business will be brought into this process, beginning this fall. This phase can be thought of as co-design of a programme. The second phase is the more traditional planning process of taking the consequences of the vision and programme. The vision phase is scheduled to finish during fall of 2010. The whole project will end in 2012.

The City Move Workshop made two very important contributions in making this happen. The first was to show a vast number of possibilities, which helped people realize that there are far more options than they thought earlier. The other was the strong emphasis on the need for more collaboration between the municipality, LKAB and other parties.

Icsid congratulates the participants involved in the workshop, these are some of the fastest and most impressive results they have seen from an Interdesign since these events started in 1971, City Move is a real benchmark for future Interdesign events.

I am very happy and proud for being one of the participants contributing in City Move. Please, take a moment and have a look at these videos from our time in Gellivare/Malmberget, earlier this year!

Design Open is a design competition for Swedish students. I am participating as a coach for leading one of the schools, hopefully to win the first prize. The challenge for the students is to come up with sustainable solutions for future transport needs. This year, 1500 people will be involved in Design Open, together putting in 80 000 h of creative thougts on the subject. It will be intresting to see the outcome of that!
Click here to see the Design Open website.

From the design festival in Sundsvall.

Formex is Scandinavia’s leading fair for design and interiors. Of course Swedish Association of Designers attended at the event August 27-30. Here we are, happy board members, gathering in our stand for a group photo.
Standing from left: Anna Bonnevier, Daniel Byström, Hanna Ydremark, Ulf Berlin, Mattias Svensson, Katarina Brieditis and Gottfried Gemzell. Sitting: Nina Back-Sundström, Anneli Pettersson and Lotta Ahlvar.

During 22 of Mars to 4 of April I was participating in the City Move Interdesign in Gellivare, Sweden. Read more about the outcomes and result on this link from ICSID’s homepage.

Picture showing me and my groupmembers. From left Mr Nils Tvengsberg – Mexico/Norway, Rita Engler – Brasil, Sara Tunheden – Sweden, Daniel Byström – Sweden (me), Filippo Salustri – Canada and finally Widianto Utomo – Indonesia. Together we were ”the magenta goup”.

Instead of focusing on moving a city, our group focused on Citizens in Movement. Our findings dealed with how the people of Gellivare/Malmberget can get included and engaged in the moving process, and also engaging as well as forcing the municipality and LKAB to take a larger responsability. A united vision of tomorrow can create a positive spirit, and make the people moving forward together.

If you are interested, you can read more about the outcome from our group on this blog.

Wednesday 27.5 the Swedish Association of Designers (Sveriges designer) had their annual meeting in Stockholm.

When selecting the new board I was one of the nominated. Of course I accepted the offer. I feel very honored and excited to contribute. The position gives an opportunity to influence in the organization, it also gives new interesting contacts. 

The Swedish Association of Designers is a trade organization for professional designers based in Sweden. Members of the organization are from following areas: Fashion Design, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interactive Design, Product Design, Textile Design, Web design. The Swedish Association of Designers is also member of Beda and Icsid.

Investigations show that design has a sustained strong position, and that the extent of using design has increased. It is clearly a growing market for design, but also a growing understanding on how design can be applied amongst companies, business organizations and the Swedish government.

The meeting was held at a really nice site in Gamla stan, the design studio Ohlssonsmith. After all the formalities we gathered on the top of the roof for ecological wine and snacks in the sunset. Very romantic!

Lotta Ahlvar, Tomas Seo and Claes Frössen in the sun…