Hasta La Ideas

Congratulations to the winners of the Design for (Your) Product Lifetime Student Challenge presented by Autodesk!

Building on Autodesk’s improving product lifetime resources on the Sustainability Workshop, in this challenge Core77, Autodesk and iFixit asked students to design a smart product that is smarter environmentally; a product that can be repaired and will stand the test of time, even if some of its components need to be replaced. Sustainability and repairability are important considerations for designers at all career levels. But, by the record number of entries for this challenge, it’s apparent that these issues are paramount with young designers as they face the future with increasing needs and decreasing natural resources. Out of the more than 200 entries, judges selected a terrific representation of winners in First, Second and Third place as well as some honorable mentions.

For First Place, judges selected two entries. The Easy Access Computer Monitor designed by Gabriel Nicasio, Praneeth Pulusani and John Zakrzewski from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Repairable Microwave designed by Marshall Jamshidi from Savannah College of Art and Design.

“The Easy Access Computer Monitor offers a cost benefit to users as well as an environmental benefit in terms of reducing the number of whole monitors which are thrown away rather than repaired,” said Dan Lockton, design researcher and creator of the Design with Intent Toolkit and a challenge judge. ” In increasing users’ confidence in repairing their own products, it could also have further benefits as time goes on. I can also imagine that in many workplace IT contexts, being able to replace backlights easily would have cost benefits.”

Commenting on the Repairable Microwave, judge, Kyle Wiens, Co-Founder and CEO of ifixit remarked, “This idea makes me say ‘This is so obvious, why has no one done this?’ That’s the hallmark of a good design. They combined it with a technical innovation that could dramatically increase safety of repair and increase reliability. That’s what great designers do—solve lifecycle problems in intuitive ways that make people’s lives better.”

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Second Place went to Rocio Garcia Ramos and Bernat Lozano Rabella from Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny de Barcelona for a Smarter Phone with removable parts, a customizable interior and endless exterior combinations that play with colors for housing, buttons and structure. Judges were impressed with the compelling concept and attention to lifecycle as well as the elegant unfolding structure.

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And, with a solid concept, using simple materials, and considering durability, ease of use and emotional connection, David Ngene from Rhode Island School of Design took home Third Place for his Able Modular Headphones.

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Honorable Mentions (Click for Full-Sized Images after the jump):

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On a recent visit to Croatia, I was struck by how many small Roman archeological sites dotted the landscape as well as how many wells, pumps, bridges and roads built by the armies of rulers like Diocletian still serve the region. I’m guessing that neither the taskmasters nor the slaves who carted the stones and dug the wells would have considered themselves industrial designers, but they were certainly part of a tradition of designing with intent—making sure that precious resources were used and re-used and, above all, designed to last.

Romans ruins of Solin (Salona), outside Split, Croatia. June 2004. Photo by Adam Jones

But what does it mean to design with intent in the 21st century when our natural and human-made resources are more precious than ever before? Designing with intent is more than just a perspective on the end product, it’s a total concept that can help designers structure the entire design process to more efficiently and effectively source, create, distribute and repair products that withstand the test of time, even if some of the pieces need to be repaired or replaced.

Core77’s Design for (Your) Product Lifetime Student Challenge is all about designing with intent. In partnership with Autodesk and iFixit, we’ve asked students and recent graduates to present a new “smart” product that’s also smarter environmentally. We love Dan Lockton’s Design with Intent Toolkit to help guide designers through the process. Coming up on our November 15 deadline for submissions, we’re looking forward to seeing a variety of entries we expect would make Diocletian proud.

Entries are due November 15 and winners will be announced on December 5 on Core77 and with a special webcast presented by Autodesk. Prizes include:

1ST PLACE

• $2,000 AmEx card
• Pro Tech Base Toolkit, available on iFixit.com, along with the Oak Gerstner Toolbox

2ND PLACE

• $1,000 AmEx card
• Pro Tech Base Toolkit, available on iFixit.com

3RD PLACE

• $750 AmEx card
• $25 gift certificate to iFixit.com

Good luck to all who have entered! And if you need some extra inspiration, watch this webinar from Dawn Danby, Senior Sustainable Design Program Manager at Autodesk and co-creator of Autodesk Sustainability Workshop, reviews a range of sustainable product development strategies, focusing on ways designers can guide users to more sustainable behavior.

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Last month, we took our show on the road at the IDSA International Conference in Boston. As part of Coroflot‘s Student Portfolio Review which takes place each year at IDSA, the Design For (Your) Product Lifetime Student Challenge and the good folks at Autodesk hosted a local beer and lobster roll reception for all attendees.

Educators from leading design schools including SCAD, Art Center College of Design and Carnegie Mellon were on hand (not just for the lobster and beer), but to hear all about the challenge and discuss how it could become part of their fall curricula.

“As an educator, I think The Design for Your Product Lifetime Student Challenge offers a great opportunity to engage students and ignite their creativity. Core77 and its collaborators have put together a competition that enables students to use the skills and sustainability knowledge they’ve acquired to design a smart product that is smarter environmentally. Autodesk and iFixit are also providing resources that will enable the entrants to tackle the challenge effectively.” said David Weightman, Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. “It’s always good that students have design opportunities that speak to them personally, and the benefits to the winners of publicity and cash won’t go amiss either !”

The Design for Your Product Lifetime Student Challenge is up and running at www.core77.com/dfypl. Students and student groups can enter now until November 15.

Check out the site for more information about this challenge or feel free to contact us at challenges@core77.com with specific questions about the program.

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Develop a compelling new “smart” product that is repairable and designed to last and you could win up to $2,500 USD in prizes!

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Kyle Wiens
is the co-founder and CEO of iFixit, the largest online repair community and Apple parts retailer. In 2011, he started Dozuki, a software company that is revolutionizing online technical documentation. Kyle is a board member of Softec and the IEEE CE Society. He has spoken widely on cloud computing, technical writing, repair, making service documentation accessible to a global audience, and sustainable consumer electronics device design.

Dan Lockton
is a researcher at WMG, University of Warwick, and at Brunel University in London, specializing in design for behavior change for social and environmental benefit. His Design with Intent toolkit is a resource of design patterns for influencing behavior. At present he’s working with CarbonCulture, a London-based startup aiming to reduce workplace energy use through connecting people with energy and behavioral data in engaging ways, alongside freelance consultancy and workshops for industry.

Jeremy Faludi
is a sustainable design strategist and researcher. He is a co-author of the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop. He has taught at Stanford University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He designed the prototype of AskNature.org for The Biomimicy Institute, and was sustainability research manager for Project FROG, a leader in modular commercial green buildings. He has contributed to five books on sustainable design, including Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century.

Fred Bould
has taught at Stanford University and California College of Arts and Crafts. His company, Bould Design is a product development studio dedicated to exploring new forms, functions, materials and meanings for products. Bould Design’s collaboration with clients such as Nest Labs, Roku, Logitech, Nambe and Pablo has produced a diverse body of work that has been published internationally and honored by several CES Design and Innovation Awards, the ID Magazine Design Review, the GOOD Design Award, Graphics Product Design 3, and the SFMOMA Permanent Design Collection.

Dawn Danby
has spent 13 years working across disciplines in sustainable design. At Autodesk, Dawn leads the Sustainability Workshop, which provides free, lightweight videos and resources online to teach young engineers, designers, and architects the principles and practice of sustainable design. Dawn co-authored the bestselling sustainability book, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century. She has given dozens of talks around the world, spoke at TEDGlobal in 2005, and was recognized by Fast Company in 2009 as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business.

Adam Menter
is the Manager of the Sustainability Education Program at Autodesk. Since 2009, Adam has supported Autodesk’s sustainable design program on projects related to education, strategy, and product development. As Manager of the Sustainability Education Program, he builds relationships with students, professors, and professionals who are working to advance the practice of sustainable design. He has worked as a design strategist at Jump Associates and holds both a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He is a LEED accredited professional and a leader of the San Francisco Net Impact chapter.

Allan Chochinov
is a partner of Core77, a New York-based design network serving a global community of designers and design enthusiasts. He is the editor-in-chief of Core77.com, the widely read design website, DesignDirectory.com design firm database. Allan lectures around the world and at professional conferences including IDSA, AIGA and IxDA, has been a guest critic at various design schools in including Yale University, NYU, University of Minnesota, RIT and RMIT. He has moderated and led workshops and symposia at the Aspen Design Conference, the Rockefeller Center at Bellagio, Compost Modern and Winterhouse, and is a frequent design competition juror.

Prior to Core77, his work in product design focused on the medical and diagnostic fields, as well as on consumer products and workplace systems. (Projects included work for Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Federal Express, Kodak, A.C. Nielsen, Oral-B, Crunch Fitness and others.) He has been named on numerous design and utility patents and has received awards from I.D. Magazine, Communication Arts, The Art Directors Club and The One Club. He serves on the boards of the Designers Accord, Design Ignites Change and DesigNYC.

In 2012, Allan launched a new graduate design MFA program in Products of Design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, focusing on the purposeful, systemic role of artifacts and design offerings in multidisciplinary contexts.

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