PRODUCT DESIGN

SORTIR DU CADRE – ECAL + DECATHLON

with Camille Blin

On the occasion of Paris Design Week 2024, DECATHLON is partnering with ECAL's Product Design Master's programme to unveil "Sortir du Cadre", an installation showcasing two prototypes of electric-assisted trekking bikes based on research into eco-design. Through this collaboration, DECATHLON engages the younger generation of designers around eco-design themes. These concept bikes, envisioned by students from Product Design Master’s  programme, express a vision of the future in which sustainable development and the pleasure of outdoor activities go hand in hand.

PRODUCT DESIGN

I as an Island

with Chris Kabel

Like Robinson Crusoe scavenged the wrecked ship for materials to build his home, First Year Master Product Design students, guided by Chris Kabel, were invited to delve into the flotsam of their creative minds for this open workshop. The workshop began with collecting, organizing, and analyzing creative flotsam and jetsam to create a self-portrait as a designer. Unrealized projects, obsessions and fascinations, irritations, vague dreams, (bad) jokes, and ideas too weird to talk about—all these resided within a designer's mind. Beginnings already existed: inspiring photos on phones, inviting materials, first ideas hastily scribbled down, quick sketches on paper, half-baked assemblages, or flimsy maquettes. These fragments and particles were analyzed to discover the kind of designer each participant was, extracting a direction for development during the week. This process of analysis, ideation, and translation, including the ‘end result,’ became visible as an island, shaped and populated by each individual's design process. It featured fragile beginnings, iterations, and the choices made along the way, culminating in a final conclusion shaped by material samples, shape research, 3D sketches, the development of a mechanism, a campaign, a film scenario, or whatever else was distilled from the initial flotsam.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Yohanna Rieckhoff – re- club

with Camille Blin, Augustin Scott de Martinville

Children’s feet grow quickly. Considering the need for shoes for different weather conditions, seasons and activities, the number of pairs per child is relatively high – and so is the cost for parents and even more for the planet. Shoes need to fulfil an array of consumer requirements in terms of style and function. They are composed of many parts and up to 40 different materials, including all types of plastics and glues. Hence, they are complicated to disassemble and recycle. In this context, Re- club features an everyday unisex shoe for children aged 1 to 6 that is built to be easily disassembled, allowing for recycling and refurbishing to extend the product’s lifespan.

PRODUCT DESIGN

U.F.O.G.O. Wind Turbines

with Camille Blin, Anniina Koivu, Anthony Guex, Marvin Merkel, Arthur Seguin

In 2023, the significant role of renewable energies in tackling the environmental crisis is blatant. In this context, wind power has once again been presented as a promising avenue for regions seeking to transition to renewable energy. However, concerns about their visual intrusion on surrounding environments pose a significant obstacle to their deployment. From a design perspective, this aesthetical factor is not insurmountable. On the contrary, it highlights the need for greater consideration of how we shape these technologies and integrate them into the environment and our lives. This project, completed by 16 MA Product Design Students of ECAL, has set out to explore how wind turbines can fit into natural landscapes and cultures not only sensitively, but beautifully – if we focus on their design. To complete the project effectively, a case study location was required. Fogo Island (Newfoundland, Canada), described locally as "this rock in the battering Northern Sea," was chosen due to its natural beauty, abundant wind, and tight-knit community of approximately 2,500 inhabitants. The island's climate and geography make it ideal for wind turbines. Additionally, Fogo Island is home to Shorefast, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a sustainable, renewable economy for the island. In October 2022, the students and tutors of ECAL visited and immersed themselves in Fogo Island. The project resulted in eight speculative yet practical wind turbine designs, considerately informed by various perspectives. U.F.O.G.O. is a sustainability project  grounded in reality, but not limited by what already is. Collaboration Partners: Shorefast HEIG-VD/School of Management and Engineering Vaud (Marc Pellerin, Philippe Morey and Marco Viviani) Media Partner: Disegno Funding: Summer University Programme of the Board of Higher Education (DGES) State of Vaud HES-SO Recherche Transdisciplinaire en Durabilite (under the project title 'INTEGRATED WIND TURBINES’)

PRODUCT DESIGN

Fogo Island Plastic Free Kites

with Camille Blin, Maxwell Ashford, Anthony Guex, Anniina Koivu

Fogo, nicknamed ‘a rock in the ocean’ is a small island situated off Newfoundland, Canada. As a part of a larger on-going semester project, 2nd Year Master Product Design students of ECAL, completed a short, fun, few day workshop, utilising one of the most abundant resources on the island - wind. Working in collaboration with the ShoreFast Foundation - an organisation working in numerous avenues to create a sustainable economy on the island, students developed plastic free kites. Fogo Island has the intention of becoming completely plastic free in the coming years and as their tourist numbers increase memorabilia of this special place are in higher demand. The developed kites are therefore to be made on the island and intended for the Fogo Island Workshop gift shop. Using Birch Wood, Ripstop Organic Cotton and hemp fibre string the students created a range of designs, taking reference from the unique features of the island.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Diplomas

with Chris Kabel, Elric Petit, Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard

Bachelor Industrial Design diploma's projects, 2019

FINE ARTS

More Rules for Modern Life

with Christophe Guberan, Stéphane Kropf

A selection of pieces by ECAL Bachelor Industrial Design and Bachelor Fine Arts students under the guidance of Christophe Guberan and Stéphane Kropf. Exhibition curated by John M Armleder.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Picture Frame

with Camille Blin

Focusing on an industrial production method as well on a particular perception of the image or on a high aesthetic materials, students presented a series of diversified frames. Exhibition pictures by ECAL/Younès Klouche

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

At your service

with Luc Bergeron

Students have worked in a real context by giving their skills to a person of their choice. They could for example developed tools for the shoemaker's corner, a french fries tray for a food truck or a lamp for maraicher producer.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Model, model, model

with Michel Charlot

This exercise aimed to sharpen the eyes of students to the objects around them and take more precisely aware of the formal quality of these. In the manner of a classic design course, they have to reproduce 3D objects 1: 1 as faithfully and intelligently as possible through models. Photos ECAL/Sébastien Cluzel

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Dialogue Wetter

with Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard

Rooted in the heart of Aargau, Wetter Metallbau invited 1st year Bachelor Industrial Design students to discover the metalwork and how to challenge its know-how by designing  a range of metal made furniture and accessories for home that were produced by Wetter’s LUN apprentice workers. Photos by ECAL/Younès Klouche assisted by ECAL/Giulia Chehab

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Filiform

with Tomas Kral

For the DNA project, the students of 1st year Bachelor Industrial Design had to design an object using mainly wire. The fonction of the object was suppose to be created depending of the material imposed.

EXHIBITIONS

ECAL Milano 2023: U.F.O.G.O.,
18–23.04.2023,
Spazio Orso 16

On the occasion of the Milan Design Week (17-23 April 2023), ECAL presents U.F.O.G.O., an exhibition that provides a solution for a better integration of wind turbines in our landscapes.