An inspiring podcast on everything you need to know about color!
Next on TCA: Matching Melania talking about finding her voice in the world of fashion though the world of color. Live the last Tuesday of February!
S5E09 Design Activism with Fernando Laposse
Fernando Laposse is not only a true inspiration but a great storyteller. His designs are constructed throughout deep levels of culture, challenges, heritage and his great love for his home country Mexico. During our interview we talked about the essential importance of provenance, material, natural pigment and showcasing the story of indigenous communities and their daily struggles through his design work.
Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer with a degree in product design from Central St. Martins. His practice is material driven and focuses on transforming humble materials into refined design pieces, promoting their regenerative possibilities and tackling environmental issues. For Fernando, the material source and cultural context is of extreme importance. This has led him to forge a long-standing collaboration with Tonahuixtla, a community of Mixtec farmers in the south of Mexico. Rather than working with existing craft, Fernando develops new techniques from scratch which are then taught to members of the community. This in turn creates new sources of employment that revitalise traditional agriculture. Fernando’s projects also strive to communicate the complexity of issues like the loss of biodiversity, erosion, indigenous rights, migration, and the negative impacts of global trade on local agriculture. He does so by documenting the problems and announcing possible resolutions through the transformative power of craft and design. Fernando Laposse focuses on using lesser-known plant fibers like sisal, loofah, totomoxtle, and avocado in his work. He invests time in research to create pieces that not only showcase these materials but also highlight their connection to the culture and history of specific places and their people. Laposse works with indigenous communities in Mexico to help create jobs and bring attention to the challenges they face in today's world. His projects aim to educate and inform, addressing issues such as environmental decline, loss of biodiversity, community breakdown, migration, and the negative effects of global trade on local farming and food traditions. Laposse leads the way in documenting these problems and suggesting solutions through the power of design, showing how design can help make a difference.
Rethinking Color with Anna Starmer
Anna Starmer talked to TCA about her vision on the future of color being more value-based where homogenous colors have no place and we select colors that fit our values, that are beautiful and endure the test of time.
Anna Starmer has been guiding brand colour direction for over 25 years. Her colour library, client palettes and Luminary colour publications reveal the future thinking that will shape the future of colour and materials. She is a board member of the British Textile Colour Group, Intercolor and Interfilliere Salon de la Lingerie Paris. And sits on the colour futures panel for Dulux Paints.
Beyond her books, Anna works directly with brands and retailers, manufacturers, organisations and universities. She understands the technical language of colour, from materials for Dualit or Volvo, to colours for Triumph Lingerie to Ikea. Communicating and visualising colour for brands and manufacturers, Anna has developed colour libraries for clients, from Manolo Blahnik to Marks and Spencer.
Luminary Colour is the bi-annual publication and colour library, founded and created by Anna Starmer. The books and colour swatches are hand made in the UK to an exacting technical standard. Luminary has evolved organically from a future colour forecasting service with a 2-3 year ahead season, into a non-seasonal platform of inspiration and innovation; today we collaborate with botanical dyers, wild dye plant foragers, waste food pigments, waste material specialists and bio-colour innovators – featuring emerging colour swatches in every book.
Colour and material futures sit at the heart of our creative practice, yet beauty is so much deeper than surface level. Our stories have deep rooted connections to the origin of colour and long-term future intentions, way beyond a single season. Our work visualises a regenerative future, exploring a wiser, more intuitive ways of making and creating.
Design Experience with Xiaojing Huang
Xiaojing is the first person on the podcast to talk with an Asian perspective on color, design experience and CMF as she talks about the many differences between eastern and western consumer trends, preferences and color perceptions. As one of the most well-known CMF designers in China, Xiaojing will give her view on what is happening in the field and not just in China.
Xiaojing Huang is a renowned design strategist and trend expert, strategy director and partner of YANG DESIGN, chief editor of China Design Trends Report.
Winner of Red Dot Design Award, IDEA and Design For Asia Silver Award, Influential China Young by Linkedin. Chief editor of China Design Trends Report, which is by far the authoritative annual trend report for the Chinese market since 2013. The report has successfully forecasted well-selling Chinese design trends including gradient, purple, copper green and iridescence. She is curator of CMF TREND LAB, and design column writer of magazines including md. Invited speaker of many design events including TEDx, Color Marketing Group, NCS color forecast and Semiofest. Xiaojing studied in Guangzhou and Berlin from experience design expert.
As strategic director of YANG DESIGN, the forward-looking design consultancy in China, she has been leading the strategic team to build the CMF Lab and UX Lab , defining design strategy to realize business value for companies in different development stages. Her clients are leading brands including Boeing, BMW, GM, Nissan, Hyundai, Didi, Samsung, Microsoft, Huawei, BOSE, Haier, vivo, Schneider Electric, Unilever, Vanke, DuPont and 3M.
Accessibility via Color with Erika Kelter
How can color be used to make devices more accessible, user-friendly without compromising the design? How important are sensory experiences in today's world and what role do neuro-aesthetics play in the field of CMF. Erika Kelter will share her thoughts on how we may use color, material and finish to create a more sensory experience in a tech world.
As a Colors, Materials and Finishes Design Specialist Erika continues to foster her life-long passion for creating multisensory experiences through materials, colors, light, and texture, and understanding human sensory-emotional relations to objects and artifacts.
Before obtaining an MA from the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki, Finland, Erika had already gained a strong background in crafts by studying ceramics, glass blowing, goldsmithing techniques, and textile design. After graduation she worked in the arts and culture realm as an artist, teacher, and producer before her career as an CMF Designer.
Erika has over 15 years of experience working for brands such as Nokia, Xbox and Microsoft Surface, building quality, comfort, accessibility and sustainability through neuro-aesthetics and materiality.
Speaking Material with Chris Lefteri
Chris Lefteri invites us to the mysterious world of CMF. How do you bridge the gap between material industries and designers. Why does the material come first in the creative design process and what role does color play? What innovation is happening in the intrinsic world of materials and how does this relate to topics of circularity and recyclability? Material guy Chris Lefteri gives insight on how he builds stories around materials and the challenges he encounters in a world in search of sustainable materials.
Chris Lefteri is an internationally recognised authority in materials and their application in design. The work of his studio and publications have been pivotal in changing the way designers and the materials industry consider materials. His books include Materials for Design and six other titles in the Materials for Inspirational Design series. Chris Lefteri Design has locations in London and Seoul and works with multiple Fortune 100 companies. His studio is widely recognised as one of the leading studios working in the field of materials & CMF. In 2018 he launched FixIts, his first materials driven brand.
The Fast and Furious with Dominik Eisend
Dominik Eisend steers & drives Merck’s global Pull Marketing activities within surface solutions, always focusing on design & technology at automotive OEMs. He introduces new trends and stylings and listens closely to what is needed in the market to be able to present the right creations at the right time.
Dominik has a background in transportation interior design focusing on materials and CMF. Prior to his role at Merck he has worked for several OEMs such as Mercedes-Benz, AMG and FORD as well as for a German-Chinese automotive start up called BORGWARD where he was leading the Color&Trim design team.
He loves to work with materials or to experiment with new technology to generate material driven design experiences. He looks at color and surfaces to play an incremental role for good product design. In his eyes the material design will play the most influential role in the future of mobility. Dominik currently resides in Stuttgart, Germany.
“Excellent series about color. It’s a complex topic and Judith approaches it from a variety of angles with her guests. Always entertaining and insightful. I look forward to listening to each episode and learning something new about color and the visionaries in the color world.”
— Review Apple Podcast