INTRODUCTION
The objects we collect, that we like to have around us as inspiration, have features such as color, shape, smell: if we go deeper, to their meaning, thinking about the person who gave them to us, for instance, we impart to them different, subjective values.
Inspiration Seeker aim is to use this subjective meaning as a source of inspiration, allowing us to search, virtually through keywords and then, through the system, to locating them in physical space if they are nearby.
This thesis project is focused on designers who collect objects and materials, toys, piece of papers and other stuff: how can they catalogue, search and share inspiration?
THE RESEARCH
For the reasearch I went to observe 3 designers’ studios: Studiocamuffo in Venice, Designwork in Udine and Invicta in Treviso.
I used two research methods:
a. interviews about work organization.
b. the way space and objects are organized.
Three important points emerged from this research, which I used to focus my design work:
1. the need to leave objects in the space where they are.
2. to offer the possibility to catalogue not just real objects but images from books and magazines as well.
3. the process of cataloging items needed to be fast and intuitive.
SCENARIO: THE POSTCARD
This video shows a possible scenario of the use of Inspiration Seeker:
“Eleonora is working on graphic for an Invicta bag for girls, she is looking for inspiration and suddenly remembers that the week before she had a postcard with a pink japanese graphic, but she can’t find it in that messy workplace. Andrea, her colleague, suggests to look for it in the Inspiration Seeker: if someone had logged the postcard in the Object Library, she can locate it.
They put keywords in the “seek” field and they find several images of objects that are registered in the system: they found it! Is a Tokidoki postcard and looking at the office map they can see the location.
Eleonora can then bring her postcard to her desk and hope to find the right inspiration for her work”.
WHAT IS AND HOW IT WORKS?
Inspiration Seeker is a system that can be used by design firms to catalogue collections of objects and link to them keywords that allow the designer to find them inthe application .
The system allows designers to look at other peoples’ objects and be inspired by them too.
Objects are catalogued and tracked through an RFID system and stored in a database: stickers and bookmarks with an RFID tag will be pasted on objects, or pictures inside books and magazines, that we want to “record”. We can input the following data:
1. name of the person who added the object inside the system.
2. keywords related to the object
3. link of website related to the object
4. images or video linked to the objectThe result is a virtual form about each object like this:
The system is then divided into 3 sections:
Object Library
To manage objects’ and users’ profile. The Object Library is the section that helps designers to organize objects and forms, to look at other users objects and to leave and receive messages about them. This is an important social aspect: the possibility to share thoughts, opinions and virtually objects, with other designers.
Image Pool
Fruition of a fluxus of images link to objects. The Image Pool is more an “experience”, link to serendipity rule of objects, thank’s to the possibility to look at the fluxus of images related to the objects, manage the speed of them and just enjoy images on the screen.
Moodboard
To manage saved images and create moodboards linked to a project the designer is working on.
In the Moodboard section a designer can save images of objects, creating a board as first step of inspiration for his project.
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCENARIO
We can indentify 3 main use, inside the design field, for this system:
- an important virtual library and knowledge exchange between design schools subscribed to the system;
- a big materials database: fabric from all over the world for fashion design, updated with latest materials for product design field;
- a design student can have a look in deep to what inspire a work of a designer that has got his own profile inside the system.
LINKS AND DOWNLOADS
- Video prototypes here.
- Full presentation in english.
- Report in Italian.
- My website with projects and cv to download.
REPORT IN ITALIAN
