Alsfeld Cutting boards by Nott Design Studio Team

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

NDST : Always find something different when creating designs, such as new functionality, new way of interaction or new volume

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

NDST : The combination of a functional and decorative component of an object. Hardboards are a utilitarian item and after being used they are often just put away into the cupboard. We have created a set that could be stored on the table top as decoration being functional and easy-to-use at the same time.

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

NDST : We’ve got a lot of items under design at the moment and we hope this award is the first step towards our future achievements.

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

NDST : The design including the production of prototypes took 1 month

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

NDST : It’s an independent design. We’ve created what we would like in our kitchens

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?

NDST : We’re planning to rent out or sell the rights for production and looking for the interested producers

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

NDST : The absence of the hardboards that would suit us on the market

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

NDST : We designed it from scratch on our own

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

NDST : The people having a kitchen and loving quality design

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

NDST : Functional decorativeness

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

NDST : What inspired us to create this design is a German town of Alsfeld, so we chose the very same name

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

NDST : Conciseness and expressiveness

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

NDST : We consulted with the operators of СNС control milling machine

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

NDST : The use of СNС control milling machine allowed to make geometrically precise grooves on the surface of a board

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

NDST : We had to change the material of a board from oak to maple, because oak boards had chips formed when being worked up on a СNС control milling machine

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

NDST : We wanted to take part in an international contest for a long time and when we had a chance to present a worthy product we did it

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

NDST : It was a good experience of working with wood and wood-processing machines