smart board eco board by Ljiljana Reljic

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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

LR : Main idea and inspiration was brought by the question how to use different materials which we'll help kids in learning.

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

LR : Main focus was on creating an interesting and fun toy for kids to play with and learn about recycling and poluttion of the environment.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

LR : Creating other smart boards with different motives.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

LR : One year.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

LR : We decided on this particular concept because working with kids gave us an inside view on their thoughts and their needs that include learning.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

LR : Another companies don't use our product and we, indeed, do plan on selling rights, or partial rights to other companies.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

LR : Following worldwide trends, we concluded how different materials and textures have an positive effect on kids.

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?

LR : We were inspired by the Montessori's materials.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

LR : Kids from 2 to 12 years of age (kindergarten, pre-school kids, middle school kids, also disabled kids)

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

LR : Materials which are used for the design, wide range of possibilities and devolpment of motor skills.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

LR : Concept of the board requires its name. It's a smart board because it demands a lot of thinking while using it.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

LR : We used rulers, sccisors, needls, scalpel, glue, etc.

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

LR : The most unique thing is actually how we got an functional and high-quality product by using different recycled materials.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

LR : The designers of this project are colleagues from work.

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?

LR : While making this design, we didn't want technology to play a big role in the product. In that way, withouth technology, smartboards recuqier kid's full attention and teach them some basic things about life that technological devices can't.

DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?

LR : Our designe is influenced by theoretical researches, but also by practial usage of materials that the product is consisted of.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

LR : It was challenging to make our product interesting enough for kids and how to corporate different materials.

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

LR : Encouraged by level of interest in kids and by positive reactions of parents and collegues.

DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?

LR : We learned different techniques which helped us create the design and how to get an actual project from just an idea.

DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?

LR : No, thank you.