I visited Salone Internazionale del Mobile or the Milano design week (5/4/14 – 12/4/14). This study trip was organized by Lucid, the study association for industrial design at the TU/e. They offered a chance to experience the Milano design week to its full potential by putting together a diverse program so you’ll see the things that are a must see as new things from new upcoming designers which are worth seeing/experiencing. Before I went to Milano I discussed this study trip with my coach. We talked about what I wanted to achieve with this trip and how I could achieve this. SCA is competency I wanted to develop, so the Milano design week is an excellent chance to develop this competency, because there is a lot see and experience. Also the fact that Milano is for a week the place to be as a designer you get an excellent opportunity to develop your identity, vision and your style as a designer. This can be achieved by seeing lots of different designs and discussing this with fellow students or the designers themselves. To develop my SCA I decided to do the following; I am going to choose five things I like and five things I dislike and motivate my decisions why I choose a particular design. I believe that this a good way to develop my SCA, because you become more aware of yourself when you are able to explain why you like or dislike something. I also think this is a great way to develop your vision and identity.

You can find the full report about this little assingment here

This little assignment was difficult for me, because it is hard to tell or explain why you like or dislike something. Often you liked something, because it is just “nice”. Also the fact that I need to take photos of things I like was something I was not used to and so often forget to do. After this assignment I became better at telling why I like or dislike something which, I am sure of it, will come in handy in the near future during my study, because correctly express yourself about something and telling others why is important if you want to make a statement as designer.

I also got a better understanding of my vision/identity, which I didn’t expect that this would happen. After the study trip I realized that the designs/concepts which I believe are the most interesting are designs which are functional and aesthetically good designed. However the most important factor for me is the function of a product or service. If something is very beautiful but it doesn’t fulfill its purpose you still have nothing to the product or service. A good example of such product would be Juicy Salif from Philippe Starck. A good looking product which is widely known to be worthless when it comes on using it. So that’s why I believe that when the focus from functional point of view start to drift too much to the aesthetics aspect part of the concept, the concept will weaken.