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Birds of Steel Multifunctional Panel by Mal White |
Home > Winners > Design #80035 >Interview |
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FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
MW: Design for laser cut decorative panels depicting New Zealand native birds in their natural New Zealand habitat as well as incorporating iconic features such as Mt Cook and Cathedral Cove.
FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
MW: I wanted to portray movement and energy within an otherwise flat piece of metal.
FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
MW: I am keen to experiment more with lineal effect to see if I can create more 3D like forms within the flat panel.
FS: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
MW: Each panel took approximately two days to complete
FS: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
MW: I was commissioned to come up with 3 new designs based around Kingfishers and Cathedral Cove, Morepork and Kiwi, and Kea and Mt Cook.
FS: 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?
MW: I designed these panels for a company to use as part of their product range of decorative panels
FS: What made you design this particular type of work?
MW: I wanted to break away from the more static style of laser cutting and create more movement within my design
FS: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
MW: No, this was totally an experimental piece which I developed as it was being worked on, so a little trial and error was evolved.
FS: Who is the target customer for his design?
MW: This particular design can be used in many ways and forms, for both commercial and residential customers. Ideal for landscaping, walls, backlighting, architectural features etc.
FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
MW: I think the energy of the movement within the designs is uplifting and having native birds within the design is a nice positive aspect to the composition, I believe this is what sets it apart from other decorative laser cut panels.
FS: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
MW: Birds of Steel is a metaphor for the constant struggle native bird life has against the elements and mankind (superhero came to mind). Ironically one of the materials used in construction of these panels is steel so it was a nice cohesive title.
FS: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
MW: The initial concepts were sketched in pencil and then reworked in illustrator and refined.
FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
MW: The most unique aspect I believe is that each part of the design have to physically link or join with another part to ensure the entire design held together when laser cut.
FS: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
MW: The illustrated design was created by me in Illustrator and then saved in a vector CAD formatted files for the client to be cut out using their large laser cutter.
FS: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
MW: Laser cutting technology is becoming much more precise, faster and able to be used on much larger scale projects. This allows for much more complex designs and fabrication which can be precisely manufactured to the requirement of the project.
FS: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
MW: Yes. I studied bird videos of flight movement and referenced native plant and bird imagery and scenery to help me depict the movement I needed in the design.
FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
MW: The most difficult part of this design was to work out ways to make the elements all link up physically so they wouldn’t full apart.
FS: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
MW: At first I was a little sceptical at the notion of nominating my piece for an award over in Italy. In New Zealand the world seems so big and I didn’t have much knowledge of this particular competition until it was brought to my attention. I did a little research and read a few reviews and decided what have I got to lose… and here we are now. The hardest part for me was the fee as Euros end up quite expensive over here in New Zealand.
FS: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
MW: With many designs I work on, this was a learning process as it was an idea in my head which I was keen to try and develop. I can happily say that it was success and it has given me faith to try more ideas.
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
MW: No
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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