Tashkeel Lecture: From Material Values to Product Application

Join the Tashkeel Talk with Chris Lefteri, an internationally recognised authority in materials and their application in design, who will offer designers another approach to design process - one that starts with materials and not sketches. Most designers, when designing products, furniture or interiors, start by sketching an idea, which they then develop, generally through 2D. Once the design is completed, they explore the materials that they could use to realise their design. This can sometimes be problematic because materials do not exist to fulfil the design or be formed into the shape that is in the drawing.

This Tashkeel Talk offers designers another approach - one which starts with materials and not sketches. By discovering new and interesting materials, designers can ask critical questions about how the materials behave and feel, do they make a sound, do they have a scent, how they would make a user feel. With this approach, the materials will lead the designer into discovering a design. By breaking down the values materials can give, Chris Lefteri will discuss how materials can be used at the beginning of the design process, even before sketching out an idea. Using case studies from car interiors through to product design and sports apparel, Lefteri will explain how a new level of invention for inspiring designs can be created.