PLUG-IN : small scale design process

Abstract

This degree project is a realization of a strategy for collaboration between an industrial designer and employed workmen of a producing company. The collaboration aims to engage everyone involved in the co-authorship of a products design and manufacturing history. The realization has taken place in an open dialogue where the designer no longer owns the design process by himself. The project has been carried out in cooperation with the company Iris Hantverk. The company is owned by the Swedish body for visually impaired and has their main production facility in Stockholm. Through interventions and workshops together with the visually impaired workmen a plug-in* has been developed that transforms traditional vegetable brushes into shoe brushes. The result is a small scale design and production process where products emerge through exchange of knowledge and dexterity between designer and workmen.