We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Stefan Radev about their original and creative Tractor design work. Stefan Radev is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original tractor works.
Stefan Radev ("SR") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Sao Ville Tractor . Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
SR : When it comes to agricultural production, tractors take a central, indispensable position, because of their multitasking abilities. They work with many different additional periphery tools and machines, that can be connected to them. As result these add-ons have led to heavily overloaded cockpits with lots of buttons and levers, most of them not as intuitive and ergonomic as they should be. On the other side technological development in the area of smart phones and tablets has made us almost equally productive in the office and while on the go. These have long grown out of the gadget niche, today taking a key role in helping us manage daily tasks or controlling specific peripheral machines and tools, in many different areas.
SR : The hardest part of the project was to simplify and improve a classic machine, that is at home in a traditional and conservative field. This could be achieved by defining a modern yet contemporary style of the exterior and interior, resembling the technological progress and resulting higher productivity, better usability by using modern technology like a tablet computer.
SR : The actual research and design work spread over 6 months.
SR : Target customers are all agricultural businesses, large or small. As the implemented design solutions would ease the management, lets say the actual work inside the cockpit a lot.
SR : Sao Ville addresses a common issue of heavy overloaded tractor cockpits. By uniting all peripheral application buttons and levers to be controlled from one universal device (a touch screen tablet) we have a much more powerful and easy to manufacture and use end product. Thus using a tablet computer in the cockpit gives the user more flexibility to manage his productivity.
SR : The name came into mind while being on a trip in Portugal. Sao Ville means saint village and pays tribute to the agriculture itself. Thanks to agriculture we aim to produce the food for our needs.
SR : The exterior and interior complement itself. The exterior is aimed to express the functional and sustainable interior qualities.
SR : The challenge was to modernize a classic and traditional machine implementing technological elements that are not common in this field.
