object eye
Object magazine 62 — Vert Design
Thursday May 03 2012
Andrew Simpson, director of Vert Design, sees his role as to create ‘beautiful forms that relate to people in whatever level they’re meant to.’ And for him, those forms can be anything from a chair to a conveyor belt piece — while the latter might generally be regarded as less aesthetic than the former, its beauty is in the realisation of its purpose.
Simpson refers to his practice, currently consisting of seven designers, as a ‘design house’ rather than a studio. He defines a design consultancy as a ‘gun-for-hire’ practice, and design studios as practices that produce their own concepts and take them to market. Vert sits somewhere in between — they work with a lot of clients on various industrial design products, but will also develop their own products and pieces, both functional and purely aesthetic.
An industrial designer, according to Simpson, brings to the table ‘the language to describe form.’ Where the general public, including clients, will bring a value proposition to an object based on elements such as cost and content, Vert has a spreadsheet containing hundreds of words to describe form. From that list, they can derive the true desire of the client to deliver a masculine product, for example, should that be where the brief is leading.
Upon arrival at the definition, the next step is always a sketch. No matter what form that sketch takes — whether it be an ideated list of possibilities or a 2D hand drawn visualisation — Simpson asserts that every design has to begin with a drawing.
Object Eye is previewing Object magazine issue 62 over coming weeks. To continue reading about Vert Design and their views on the importance of prototyping, download the free app for iPad or Android tablet, or read the browser-friendly version on this website — click here to find out how. To continue reading previews of this issue, click here.
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