This year we’ve tasked our jurors with envisioning the future of product design. Each one of them had their own ideas to share with us and we’ve decided to collect their thoughts in a series of interviews called “Talking to Jurors”. We’ve asked all of them what they’re looking for in an entry and what they’re going to reward. Among all of their predictions and opinions, one stood out – design must be human and provide solutions that meet people’s needs. What is truly unforgettable is the product’s ability to improve the lives of everyone.
Here’s what the Architect and Graphic Designer Federico Babina thinks of contemporary Product Design – and the stunning picture he created exclusively for the 2019 Archiproducts Design Awards.
What are you looking forward to finding in our entries and which features are you going to reward?
I don’t have any expectations, I want to be surprised. My attitude in competitions is like a child receiving a gift. A good design is like a beautiful gift.
The ribbon and the paper that wraps it represent the object’s skin, the box is the body and the surprise inside is the idea behind the project and it has to be surprising.
In this year’s entries, I will reward the objects able of surpassing me for the ability to transform and shape the fantasy and imagination into a product.
Which role do you think a Design Award should have nowadays?
I think the jury of a Design Award should be like a group of “astronomers” discovering new planets and new galaxies to understand and expand the limits of this universe.
In which direction should contemporary Product Design go and how should it evolve to answer people’s needs?
I believe Design is made by people and for people. I can hardly see it as an abstract entity. Design changes with the society, flows with it and in some cases drives this change. Taking the challenge to improve our lives.
Every day we live, see, breath, touch and listen to Design. I love when it is capable to surprise me awakening unexpected sensations. This is why I think Design must be able to communicate but above all to listen.
Federico Babina’s work for the 2019 ADA
One of Federico Babina’s “Arch Snapshots”
One of Federico Babina’s “Archidesign” works
About Federico Babina
Federico Babina is an Italian ( since 1969) architect and graphic designer (since 1994) that lives and works in Barcelona (since 2007), but mostly he’s a curious person (since ever). Every day he tries to rediscover a way to observe the world as through the eyes of a child.
Children are able to have a vision of things totally uninhibited and without the conditioning of the experience. The children’s drawings are always amazing and beautiful in their spontaneous simplicity and clarity. He likes trying to explain the world he sees through different techniques of expression. He likes the richness of the language and the diversity of its forms. He does not want to confine himself in a prison of a style or shape. Drawing and illustration are for him two ways to recount and photograph thoughts, feelings and emotions. Every picture has a story and every picture is a witness of a story.