Oscar Diaz – Quiet Design
In a world of design overkill, quiet thought provoking design is always refreshing. Recently I was inspired by the work of London based product designer Oscar Diaz, whose work I was introduced to at a Protein Forum event in London, where speakers discussed their science-led approach to design. Oscar discussed his ink calendar project, ‘Self Printed’ developed in 2007 for an exhibition entitled ‘Gradual.’ The calendar slowly fills in the days by itself to not only mark each day of the month but also to indicate the passing of time as it happens.
Oscar experimented with various papers of different weight and textures and inks, until he found the correct combination that would absorb over the course of a day. He also carefully chose the colours based on a colour-temperature scale called ‘D65, which corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe. This spectrum also considers our perception of the weather for that month, ranging from dark blue in December, various shades of green that evoke the months of Spring, to warmer shades of red and oranges in the summer.
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More recently Oscar has turned his mind to the design of cutlery, in his ‘Found’ series, whereby he developed super-light cutlery from existing shapes that he found in everyday objects such a plastic drinks bottles. His idea was that seeing as there are so many shapes already available in designed products, why not re-use the ones that already exist instead of creating more? This also allows the potential for small batch production without the need for moulds, and results in each set being entirely unique as they are hand cut.
After researching the shapes at the supermarket, Oscar cut the shapes out and then finished by coating with copper and then tin-plating for a metallic finish. Found was developed for Airmail exhibition in London earlier this year, I look forward to seeing what Oscar will develop for his next project.
www.oscar-diaz.net
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