Download Design
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
The Download Design initiative launched in 2014 as an university course at MOME in collaboration with members of Fabunio. The project challenged students to design furniture for specific life situations, seeking answers for today’s economic, social, and environmental challenges. Using the sharing economy model, the manufacturing designs of the furniture are available to download for free, thus making knowledge sharing effective and democratic, which we believe will lead to a better world.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
The Download Design initiative is a university course in collaboration with members of Fabunio - Hungarian Wood and Furniture Association, that joins more than 200 Hungarian companies as consultants and contractors. Twenty of our members were actively participating in the Download Design project. The project challenged students to design furniture for specific life situations, seeking answers for today’s economic, social, and environmental challenges.
The successful and fresh-minded experimental project launched in 2015 seeks answers for arising problems and anomalies in the wood and furniture industry while making quality design furniture available for the general public.
The project had a new theme each year, creating more and more imaginative furniture, that showcases a more mature approach to design. The first theme in 2015 was the first home, so students of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) designed pieces to start their independent lives in. In 2016 the focus was on the first child titled „Download Design Baby”, in 2017 the needs and preferences of the 6-12 age group were put into focus.
Using the sharing economy model, the manufacturing designs of the furniture are available to download for free, thus making knowledge sharing effective and democratic, which we believe will lead to a better world.
Key objectives for sustainability
The project aims to utilize local resources and support micro-enterprises. Students are required to use technology and materials that can be sourced in Hungary within a few kilometers of your home regardless of where you live. In other words, after downloading the manufacturing designs of DownloadDesign furniture for free, you can ask the next door joiner to make it for you, or you can do it yourself if you have a home workshop. Environmental awareness is another fundamental point besides the local focus - that relying on local opportunities and resources reduces your waste output, environmental load, and costs. Download Design pieces have no marketing or packaging material costs, design fee, or sales margin, and you can also keep your transport costs to a minimum. All of these result in a reasonable expenditure as the costs are limited to two items: the material costs and the joiner’s fees.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Each year, the project has a new theme, creating more and more imaginative furniture that showcases a more mature approach to design. The first theme in 2015 was the first home, so students designed pieces to start their independent lives in. In 2016 the focus was on the first child titled „Download Design Baby”, in 2017 the needs and preferences of the 6-12 age group were put into focus.
One of the main objectives of designing these products was its’ young target group. The project aims were to visually educate young people and introduce them to contemporary design, thereby sustainable design becomes part of the everyday life of people at the youngest age.
The visitors and recipients had the opportunity to get to know the whole process of design and also the designers behind the project personally which adds great value to the quality of experience of these products.
Key objectives for inclusion
The aim of the cooperation is to provide the general public with manufacturing designs available for free in the spirit of contemporary open design solutions, which can be easily implemented and paid for in the Hungarian carpentry industry.
The project was accompanied by a strong bilingual communication and marketing campaign, as well as a Hungarian – English – German language website (www.downloaddesign.hu). The completed furniture pieces will be presented at an exhibition podium of Construma – OtthonDesign trade fair and exhibition (https://otthon-design.hu/), attracting approximately 48.000 visitors yearly.
The success of the project is shown by the fact that the plans have been downloaded by thousands around the world.
The life of the products continued after the project is finished. A nice example of this is Enikő Barbarics' Download Design desk (Taligáló), which was chosen as one of the 10 most exciting student works in the designboom article at Dubai Design Week (https://www.designboom.com/design/global-grad-show-dubai-design-week-11-20-2018/).
We hope that the results achieved will encourage students to continue their studies with confidence in the creative industries. In the last 5 years, as a result of this project, the number of furniture design pieces at MOME has increased significantly among the final exam projects.
Results in relation to category
The one-semester university project provides insight into the business world (collaboration with external partners, completion of multi-stage design work on time in a competitive situation), and into the world of environmental awareness and marketing. As well as helping students to master the specialized, European-level competencies that are essential for the development and operation of the sector, and seeking answers for arising problems and anomalies in the wood and furniture industry.
The furniture pieces are made in joint cooperation – from the design process through the implementation until an online platform and a joint exhibition – between a project lead curator, supervisor teachers, exhibitors, and carpentry professionals. The students have the opportunity to put themselves to the test in the real world instead of a simulated one, providing them with the advantage of building an extensive network of contacts at the beginning of their careers.
How Citizens benefit
The Download Design project has been shared as a product family on a number of surfaces, reaching an extremely wide audience. This goes beyond the promotion of Download Design as a brand.
Hungarian design culture is constantly evolving and it is important to promote related changes. Educating customers and watching European trends will become an increasingly important requirement.
Many times we don’t even realize how closely object, form, environmental and visual culture belong to our everyday lives. The objects surrounding us not only make our environment beautiful, but also reflect the changes of our time, and respond to society and environmental problems with the tools of design.
Furniture designed in the spirit of Download Design present and bring the approach to sustainability closer to the recipient, as well as presenting that the need for designer pieces are not only the privileges of those with higher incomes but can also be accessible to ordinary people.
It was important for us to pass on the joy of creation to the audience. During the workshops, it was possible for the visitors of the workshop to put together the pre-made elements of a Download product and decorate them according to their own taste, creating a dialogue between the object, the designer, and the user.
Based on the feedback, there is a need for such projects, the visitors welcomed the initiative with interest and joy.
Innovative character
The Download Design Project responded boldly to cultural and economic changes in the world, new economic models, and the consumption habits of the so-called digital native-born Generations Y and Z.
The one-semester training project provides students with an insight into the entire product design process. The key roles of local values, environment, design, and sustainability have proven to be long-term and value-creating investments. Fabunio member companies, on the other hand, came into contact with young designers, which also had a positive impact on their own products and corporate culture. Thus, factories that have only dealt with contract manufacturing or with products that have a low added value could experience what it is like to cooperate with designers and create their own products.
During their university studies, students had to work from their own budgets and were often able to actualize only models or DIY plans on their own. The fact that prototypes of the plans were produced, and the designs, as well as the products and the creators themselves were presented directly, initiated a kind of dialogue with the host audience. It has been proven that sustainable design is not just an “elusive thing” known from a distance at museums or in magazines, it not only the privilege of multinational corporations but can become part of our everyday lives, no matter where we are in the world or what income we live on.
