Name: Brainstorm Design 2019: The World Is Skewed
Uploaded: 2019-03-21
Duration: 20 min 10 s
Description: Bad design can no longer hide behind marketing investments, and design for its own sake is irrelevant. This proposition is the foundation of Skewed Productions, Marcus Engman’s new global design venture seeking to put craft and meaning back into desi

[ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Marcus that was a pretty impressive smorgasbord of Image from your time idea and before we talk about your new invention, which is fascinating and really host of the press, could you give us a little inside in a bit of background to where you start it in the design well particular [ UNKNOWN ] because you have a number of. Moments in and out, ended up as Chief Designer, so. True, I actually started out at Ikea when I was 16 years of age, pushing trolleys outside of stores. Then I worked as an interior designer in a lot of stores at Ikea and became a global range strategist for the range, this is in the 90s. I was also a marketing manager for Ikea so it's quite diverse. I took on a lot of different topics. You pushed trollies, you're a marketing executive. True true and then in the year 2000 or something I actually left Ikea for the first time, and started my own agency there. It was a retail agency working with a lot of big retailers around the world. Doing new concepts and new ranges and so on. And then seven years ago IKEA called and wanted me back in the position of Head of Design. So that's what I did. So seven years as running the design department, which must be the most important department there. You've now left. You left very recently, September Yeah, looking back over all those years, what would you say you're most proud of, what's your legacy and what did you do at Ikea that changed? I think actually the way to lead, to lead through good examples instead of just talking and being visionary about things. Because that's so easy to do and when, they kinda toss like the head of design for gigantic company, then you You produce a lot of paper. But I wanted to lead by examples. So the way that we did, it was to do all of those collaborations and collections to show that things are possible to do, both externally but also actually internally within the company. And that was a foster pace change than doing it through strategies. So what I know of you, because Marcus was You are one of the stars of one of the best fly in world documentaries I have seen about a large company and at a design company that the BBC produced. But what I took from that was that you really pivoted the company in with collaborations with designers and creatives that you would never Normally associated with IKEA, and I think it was a moment that a lot of people in my profession really opened our eyes. Particularly I think Ilsa Crawford and then Tom Dickson were they, was that a- Is it because they're British or what? [ LAUGH ] Ilsa has Swedish roots but it's more that they represented something different. My time as editor at wallpaper No disrespect to Ikea but it was not the market that we would normally engage with. When Isla produced a collection for you it suddenly became a difference story. Was that a risk for you and at the company? Was it a gamble that could have gone wrong? No I don't think there was a risk actually because we were truly. Curious about it, both me and Ilsa when we started out at the very beginning. She want to learn more about mass manufacturing and was it possible to do what she was doing on a mass manufacturing level. And we were at IKEA at the time, super curious about her particularities around how could you work the tactility within design. Yes. And the tactile parts. And I think that ended up in a good way All of those collaborations has not been about names it's been about learnings, actually what could we learn together, same thing with Tom, the same thing with Vagilabra right now or Solange Knowles which we're working at at the moment. So Vagilabra and who was the last one? Solange Knowles with the Santerum, So again these are people you would never normally associate with IKEA, so it's really changing the perspective Of what that company produces as well as. It is and also what I wanted to bring to the table to the design department also working with design for a company like that was maybe not just focusing on designers and product designers but actually talking about creatives in general and what happens if you mix and match different creatives to solve the task. So that's my way of working. So it seemed you are really in your stride to there, and making differences and proving that difference and gambles can work, but you decide to leave. That's a big step to leave a company like IKEA, after so long in and out. Firstly, why did you leave? I kind of know why but it's an interesting, it's a big leap and it's a gamble to start your own venture. It is of course but I've always wanted to make change in different ways and that's whay I'm interested in working in design and the change that they wanted me to make at Arakeia I What's more or less gone through all of that so I wanted to do something new. So that's the biggest step for me then and then things I learned during my years at Ikea. I saw things that I couldn't really do something about when I worked at Ikea but I could do maybe on the outside. So that's why I started this new adventure. So now you're on the outside and the new venture is [ UNKNOWN ], skewed. [ LAUGH ] Skewed yeah. Tell us about skewed and why this is gonna do something different ?>> Skewed is more like a network actually than typical company, it is containing of three different parts, it the skewed productions Which is mostly resembling an agency. And then there's something called skewed conversations which is a magazine coming up and then there's skewed things which is products. Which is just about proving points to be able to do what you see. So skewed, three pillars. Skewed Productions >> Which is the first one. Yeah So you are not in the business of making things, you're in the business of making things better. That's quite a lofty manifesto. It is, but it is also my view up on the sign actually. Because I see a lot of crap happening out there and I don't think you need to do just one more of everything. [ CROSSTALK ] Earlier. Yeah, she's good at that isn't she? It is a call. So rethinking stigmas, this is part of. Yeah, here's some examples of what we're actually working on right now and this is the first time we talk about it. One of the companies that I work with is a small company called Unique which is actually working with prosthetics And they've been going about this since 2014 and they do it in a very different way. I don't know if you know about this but there's actually almost 1 billion people as some kind of what we call the disability in the world. So it's quite a big target audience and to get rid of those stigmas which is together with that to design for that in a better way. So they started out with covers for prosthetics. And then actually now, if you'd come to the next one, what they're working on right now, and we're working on together, is actually something which is targeting young females especially because they are the ones that's suffering from it. And it's scoliosis and braces for scoliosis. And the way to do it is a new kind of value chain for how to produce and how to do design it starts and It's All Digital and this is a thing which interests me a lot. It starts with capturing data through 3D scanning of photo metrics. Turning that into [ UNKNOWN ] I'm actually, working with [ UNKNOWN ] and generative design to shape that [ UNKNOWN ] things, for each and every person because this is highly personalized items. And then it's produce in 3D printing, all of it So that means actually that you're gonna get ladies like this far more happier. If you don't have braces when you're young and you have this disease, then you will go through a really painful operation to get rid of your Scoliosis So this is really rethinking stigmas, but also But is rethinking stigmas. But it's also as I see it, it's also a new way of working with the sign at where the designer is more put into the role of, of designing the same tools rather than doing the actual product design. And I could see this as part of also rethinking Retailing for this future, because this means this production of the land is and you can all most go back to the [ UNKNOWN ] ways but in the completely new way so go to the store where actually everything is produce for you on sides, while you are waiting so the future could be design as designing the tools for maybe other people to. That's a thing that I can foresee. A lot, yeah it is, and a lot of talking about design from time to time is about being an author of things. I think that it could be so much bigger than just being an author for one more glass. Rather when being, making tools for a change. From a starting point, rethinking gaming gear. Yeah that's another topic. It's actually something that I stumbled upon when I was at Ikea, and at Ikdea we talked about serving the many people. And how in the heck could you miss out on 2. 2 billion people, and that's actually the gamers, the e- sporters. There was more people looking up on e- sports last year than looking up on the Olympic Games, and I think that's pretty fascinating. And those e- sporters, normal sport we have invested a lot of time in designing their tools. But designing tools for e- sporters, nobody has done that And that's highly individual also. And they spend 14 billion hours per week sitting down in not so good situations, so that's a big design situation, I think. So you're rethinking their posture, the- The posture, it's ergonomics, and it's also actually bringing the thinking from UNIQ that we did for disability, the medical wearables How could you use that thinking and those learnings into economics? So this is all about 3D printing as well and using the same kind of design tools but turning it into a completely place. Now we have rethinking IKEA Co- lab. So you haven't Left completely now, I haven't left Ikea I have actually I'm not employed anymore. But I still work for them. One of the things I worked with is the future collaborations that they're going to have and also how we could be more efficient with our collaborations. One of the things that I introduced while at Ikea was to have a more transparent approach. To share what we were doing, to get people to understand the value of low pricing that is actually three years of hard work to make something which is as cheap as an Ikea item. And it was pretty simple, it was all about transparency. And the way that we do it right now is To maybe structure that a little bit and to work with design and communication hand- in- hand and to merge those two departments and to merge that into one kind of strategic thinking this is just a model for making things happen. It's like a five- step approach because you said some. Mildly controversial things about the role or the conflict between design and marketing. And sometimes marketing- For me, it doesn't make sense. Look upon a marketing department, it's like shitload of people. And then you have a design department, there's just a few of them, and they're making the change. And then you have a lot of other people who's talking about what the one's who's actually making the change is doing. Instead of letting them do the talk from the very beginning. So i think investing in the sign and being open about what you're doing and how you do stuff. It's the best kind kind of marketing. And this is coming from an old marketing manager. Yes you have experience and that's why you are not speaking from a point of ignorance. Mara Puccini last year it's a similar conflict he has. That it's more attention paid on. The well somebody famously said marketing is the tax you pay for bad design. Well I think it's also we're in the period where everything is changing from a media perspective as well. So now is the time to move money from marketing into design. And to make the sign even more valuable. Yeah. Rethinking fish. Yeah, this is funny one. This [ INAUDIBLE ] Just this started actually, and what is all about is, it's the protein sources of the future. We're gonna need a lot more protein to survive if the population is growing like it is and one of the most efficient protein sources is actually fish, Sustainably, farm fish, which is the future of fish as I see it. This is a big topic that I'm into together with some companies within the Baltic Sea, to rethink how we could so this sustainable farming, but also to rethink new products. So what could be products that makes people more prone to buy fish for the future. Just gonna say it's the very earlier stages. This is still This is just begun, but I think it's a really interesteing topic, actually. Slightly backwards. There's so many misconceptions about fish. Next year, we'll see what you've caught. [ LAUGH ] Next year. So second pillar's skewed conversations. I do believe this is a magazine. This is a magazine you could call it, a magazine, but it's also a part of the universe skewed. And starting out, everybody wants to do the magazine once in their life. I wanted to make a magazine. It's a tough business, yeah? [ LAUGH ] Which is more of a piece of art more than a magazine, and it's also Giving the voice to the people of one certain place at a time, so each and every magazine is actually gonna take place in one place, everything is gonna happen in that place. And we're gonna produce, So it's location- specific? Location- specific, and produced at that location, as well. So, it's two parts. It's one part, which is just art. Art basis, and pictures, and images, And also illustrations yeah from that very place. No words whatsoever and then there is one piece which is just words. And these is just examples or [ UNKNOWN ] it's still on mark up stage. There is gonna be launch before end of summer. So end of May you can look forward to this. And It's gonna be a lot about street culture and the first one is gonna be about Senegal, and specifically Dakar, which is an interesting place right now. And why by Senegal? Because I think that there's a lot of good creatives coming there. And also me, I love the skateboard scene. I'm an old skateboarder myself. And There's something happening there which is also interesting in this case we're seeing [ INAUDIBLE ] and from the past is also a lot of things like you see [ INAUDIBLE ] which is a fashion designer, he's an interesting individual as well Focusing the Skewed Things. So this is product. This is, yes product. [ LAUGH ] So getting to something you kind of know a little bit about? Yeah, precicely. And this is evolving, of course. This is jsut starting out. We're opening a webstore in maybe a week's time, or something like that. Starting up with the basic stuff. What I wanted here is a place, it's the same way of thinking as actually for what I did Ikea. It is to have proof points for your ways of thinking, in real products. So, here we do real products. Everything is gonna be Sustainably sourced, actually produced also in factories where it's only driven by sun and wind energy. People getting paid in a fair way in the factories, no matter where they are. 10 % of everything that we earn is gonna go to Skate This Town, which is a nonprofit organization working with skateboarding for young kids in different parts of the world. With skateboarding and education put together actually. And the first here is, you always have to start, since I've been working with range all the time, star with the boring stuff because you need the boring stuff. And that is like the basics, you always need that perfect t- shirt, you always need that perfect hoodie and those things. And this is like the first things coming up, and secondly Is gonna be in collaboration with different designers from different parts of the world connected to actually where we do the magazines. So the first batch of things which are not basics is gonna come from Senegal, and creatives in Senegal. So while you they're producing the publication. You're making the connections. We're doing all of that at the same time. I love Swedish efficiency so one trip one week, all of it at the same time. Get it all done and the final slide we have here is intruiging. You're designing volcanoes. Yeah, but everything sounds so serious. Me, I don't wanna be looked upon like the most serious Person ever. So one of the things that have been intriguing for me all my life is volcanoes. I truly love them. And I wanted to put volcanoes together with something which is very opposite of volcanoes. If you have been to a volcano, you know that the smell is not so good actually. But I wanted to do like an incense volcano. So this is volcanoes Collectables actually done with artisans from different parts of the world. And there is actually a volcano in Dakar, an old sleeping one. So this is gonna be the first volcano we do with an [ UNKNOWN ] from Dakar as well. [ UNKNOWN ] you must meet Cecil [ UNKNOWN ] who's speaking tomorrow who is a saint, scientist and artist I can see a collaboration going there we've talked to [ INAUDIBLE ] a time but I would like to offer some questions to the floor if they are brief questions to Marcus are there any [ UNKNOWN ] while he's here If not, the production team will be delighted because we run out of time but Marcus [ UNKNOWN ], thank you very much. You've let out of IKEA's [ UNKNOWN ] something more interesting. Thank you so much, thank you. [ APPLAUSE ]

Brainstorm Design 2019: The World Is Skewed

Design

Bad design can no longer hide behind marketing investments, and design for its own sake is irrelevant. This proposition is the foundation of Skewed Productions, Marcus Engman’s new global design venture seeking to put craft and meaning back into desi