A braille printer and an electric suit to prevent muscle spasms were among the products for people with disabilities included in an exhibition curated by Swedish design body Svensk Form for the London Design Festival.
Above: Inerventions’ electrical body suit to prevent spasms in people with muscle dysfunction
Svensk Form organised Design For Every Body at the Swedish Ambassador’s residence in London last week to showcase Scandinavian products that improve people’s quality of life. Among the items were various products to assist people with disabilities or impaired movement.
Above: Braille Box printer by Index Braille
Svensk Form’s managing director Ewa Kumlin said the products were examples of “humanistic” design. “More and more designers like to work with the problems that really matter,” she told Dezeen. “This kind of human focus has always been the backbone of the Nordic design philosophy.”
Above: Tobii eye-tracking technology worn as glasses
Among the products were a braille printer by Index Braille and the Elektrodress by Inerventions, an electrical body suit that eases pain and reduces spasms in people with nerve disorders and muscle dysfunction.
Above: computer adapted with Tobii eye-tracking technology
Another product selected by Svensk Form was a computer add-on developed by technology company Tobii that allows users to control the screen with their eyes.
Above: John armchair by Peter Andersson for NC Möbler
There was also an armchair for people with impaired mobility by designer Peter Andersson for furniture manufacturer NC Möbler. The armchair has a higher seat than most, a handle at the back allowing it to be moved easily and a pocket for an iPad.
Following their appearance in London last week, Kumlin said the objects could soon form part of a travelling exhibition.
Dezeen recently featured a one-handed condom wrapper for people with disabilities as well as a series of stories about Paralympic design.
See all our stories about London Design Festival »
Here’s some more information from the organisers:
Following last year’s success, the Ambassador of Sweden, Ms Nicola Clase, again opens up her Residence for a fruitful exchange between Swedish and British design during the Paralympic Games and the London Design Festival. Some of Sweden’s foremost producers and designers will meet with their British counterparts in two seminars titled Design for Every Body.
In today’s design, we find a growing humanistic approach with the end user in focus, and designers wanting to work with problems that really matter. Several products will be shown at the Residence, each of which has a different target group and purpose, yet all of them are aiming to increase quality of life. Some are made to save lives, others to increase function at various occasions or stages of lives, or simply to make every day life a bit more enjoyable. The products will be on hand and available to test together with the people behind the products.
On show will be Elektrodress, which eases pain for nerve disorders; an innovative braille printer; tools to increase our senses; a computer screen directed by the eyes; a dignified and functional chair for old age; gear for the city cyclist; children’s safety helmets; an office chair for women, revolutionary sanitary products; rain coats for the urban chic, laid-back brogue slippers and much more.
This seminar is a collaboration between the Swedish Embassy in London, Svensk Form, the Swedish Society for Crafts and Design and the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries.
The post Design For Every Body
curated by Svensk Form appeared first on Dezeen.
