Can Design be Judged?
30 June 2008
As a form of art, there’s the debatable question of whether design really can be judged.
Pushing the boundaries is never easy and will always be met with a degree of scepticism and fear. But those very designs, which are once judged to be ludicrous, can go on to form a part of everyday life.
Take chairs, for example, originally formed in wood; with wood-working techniques dictating their shape; in those days society would never hear of a good chair being made from anything else. However, these days furniture design has changed more radically than any other time in history and chairs can now be made from practically anything.
Design merely for the point of design, to push the boundaries, doesn’t deserve to be judged, because tomorrow it may be the norm. However, if a design has been created for a practical consideration, and to serve a particular purpose, then why shouldn’t it be?
And, that’s exactly what Shackletons, a leading specialist furniture provider did. They set a design challenge and judged the results for themselves. The challenge was posed to furniture design students across the country. They were asked to create a feasible chair for the elderly. A chair, which took into consideration all of the practicalities and materials Shackletons had to work with.
But, as well as this, the students were also tasked with creating a cutting edge, concept chair that could stretch the realms of design. The only limitations of which, were themes for the chairs to fit into; an iconic chair for Shackletons, an Olympic chair and finally a chair specified for the hotel and leisure industry.
The aim of the competition with the feasible chair was to show that care home chairs don’t have to conform to a stereotypical, plastic cushion and floral pattern designs. And the aim of the concept chairs was to demonstrate that Shackletons are leaders in design and not afraid to push the boundaries.
The three students chosen were Kristina Allison, Bryony Hodgson and Kelvin Dodds. Each student worked for several months with Shackletons to produce their final designs and ultimately a winner had to be named.
Bryony on the other hand went for the Olympics and sensibly ignored the controversial logo and focused her chair on the five rings.
And finally there was Kelvin. He had a real challenge with the iconic chair and came up with ‘The Pheasant’. With an elongated neck, precise balance and sleek appearance, this chair will be the envy of the creature from which it is aptly named.
