We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Sonia Ponka about their original and creative Shelving System design work. Sonia Ponka is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original shelving system works.
Sonia Ponka ("SP") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Quadro Qusabi Shelving System. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
SP : I am amazed by scaffolding versatility, so I wanted to make furniture as flexible!
SP : I wanted QQ system to be very easy to erect and reassemble.
SP : I would like to find better production methods to make it cheaper, and as a result more available for consumers.
SP : About 2-3 months, however there were changes in dimensions when I began to produce it. Actually I found out that the system is even more flexible that I had expected after I made the first prototype.
SP : I think that people get bored with the same piece of furniture or, for example, it does not physically fit in the new accommodation. So I really wanted to make a shelving system which can look different every reassembly.
SP : I would like to sell it to some big company like IKEA or MUJI, but I would like to participate in future design updates, because my design is customizable, and a lot of sub-products can be produced for QQ system - just like covers for I-phone (there is the main product, and there is a huge market of sub-production to personalize I-phones. Same thing can be done with QQ system)
SP : My strange love to scaffolding, I guess :)
SP : No, but I had a lot of support from my Professor and lab.
SP : Mostly young people, who often move from place to place, or like to rearrange their living space.
SP : There are no other shelving system with similar assembling principle that I know of. And I have been studying a lot of shelving systems for my PhD paper at Kyoto Institute of Technology.
SP : Quadro means 4 or square - it is a basic element and motive. Qusabi means wedge in japanese, and also it is the title for scaffolding system I have been mostly inspired by. And well... It sounds good for my taste, especially shortened - QQ (kinda cute)
SP : Mostly paper prototypes, because I needed to understand assembly methods more then anything else.
SP : Posts and wedges - the system itself.
SP : Manufacturers who made real size prototypes for me.
SP : It is easy to produce, however I think there are more advanced technologies to make it better quality and cheaper.
SP : Yes, I am a PhD research at Kyoto Institute of Technology.
SP : The dimensions are very important. There were few mistakes done by manufacturers. A millimeter mistake makes any part useless. So they had to remake those parts exactly as I have been asked them to...
SP : I don`t remember now. I think I just tried to upload my designs and forgot. But then there was a good preliminary results, so I decided to nominate my design.
SP : I think the competition between designers is huge now, especially when economics is not so good. So I have to work very hard to understand what`s missing on the market and then make this new product look beautiful and effortless.
