We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Carles Marquina about their original and creative Shelf design work. Carles Marquina is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original shelf works.
Carles Marquina ("CM") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Xanxan Shelf. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
CM : The most direct principle has been material reduction. We know that it is vital for the planet and that, commercially, is very advantageous, we see it constantly in examples like Ikea. As an inspiration, we are obliged to mention (although It was not consciously or explicitly in the design process) the clothes rack that is very common in the Mediterranean lands.
CM : Xanxan was first conceived under the challenge of reducing the material cost and ecological impact of an existing concept. We were specifically looking for an unexploited product category in which we could contribute with fresh ideas.
CM : This product is currently available on a small scale basis. We are looking for companies interested in producing an industrial scale to ultimately reduce its costs.
CM : We started the project in the Polytechnical University of Valencia, where its first 5 months of development took part, reaching the concept stage. After finishing our degrees and creating the studio, the design process was summarized and finished after 7 more months of work.
CM : This design was born from a personal project. We are convinced that the formal reduction of a concept without sacrificing its functionality is one of the reasons for design. And as we are convinced that this product achieves this goal, we were quite clear that we should make it a reality to exemplify the values we want to convey through Smallgran.
CM : We are looking for companies interested in producing and distributing this product. Our priority right now is to find a company with which to produce it on an industrial scale. That was our intention in designing it. However, if we observe sufficient demand and we do not find producers, we are planning to produce it ourselves.
CM : We detected a market opportunity and found a solution that allowed us to improve an existing concept in a new and impressive way. As a young studio, it was the ideal design to capture the attention of the design world and to win awards.
CM : Sure, everything influences everything. But at a conscious level during the design process we did not have any so I could not tell you specific names.
CM : People curious, playful and different, who is not afraid to do things differently.
CM : Obviously, right? Compare it with a normal shelf, it has nothing to do. That was one of our goals. Since if we had designed something that looked too much like a normal shelf, we would not have been able to differentiate it so much that people would pay attention to it.
CM : It's pretty silly, just like us. Xanxan is what sounds in movies in moments of tension (at least in Spanish), and tension is the protagonist in this design.
CM : This project involved some old-fashioned methods. Most consisted of experimentation and prototyping, so we used many workshop tools to create and test the different systems we were weighing.
CM : It must be the tension. It is an element that is not usually present in furniture products and here, we not only introduce it, but we give it a leading role.
CM : In the detail design phase we work with workshop technicians and artisan carpenters from our land to optimize materials and form.
CM : It is a rather important role, even if it does not seem so. The technology we use for string tensioning is extremely simple, which is not easy to achieve, and we had a hard time developing it (although just because of its simplicity I would not dare to say that we discovered it or that it is exclusive of this design).
CM : This project was driven mainly by market research and experimentation. Starting from the goal of reducing the material cost and ecological impact of an existing concept we started to study companies as big as Ikea in order to understand their approach and to find an unexploited product category in which we could contribute with fresh ideas. We have decided that we should be able to develop our initial goal while delivering an interesting and new design proposal. From that point on, it was mainly creativity and experimentation but always with the goal of meeting the requirements for shelves, fixed by the best-selling shelves in the market to ensure our product's viability.
CM : The main design challenge we encountered was to develop a solution that would feel new and creative while fulfilling the initial goal of reducing the material cost and ecological impact of an existing product concept. From the technical perspective, this product posed three main challenges: 1. Developing a tensioning mechanism for the strings. It had to fix the strings, allowing for progressive tensioning without the need to disassemble the product and we needed to keep it simple in order to maintain the cost low. 2. Finding a wood that is light-weight and cheap but at the same time resistant and resistant enough to withstand the tension of the strands. 3. Finding a rope that holds its mechanical and dimensional properties over time, and is cheap, lightweight and feels good.
CM : After getting some press, we were contacted by the Design Award staff and they told us they wanted us in the competition. It was the first time we got an invitation like that and we were pretty thrilled, plus the prize was aligned with our views of this product's future (getting a company to produce it) so we accepted.
CM : We already knew designing things to be simple was very difficult, but we had never done it. It turned out to be extremely difficult, but we love a good challenge.
CM : Check the other interviews!
