Cologne IMM Furniture Fair - Presenting the Ramazzotti Lounge

As a continuation of our Ramazzotti lounge design project, a few students fine tuned the designs, made new models, and also an exhibit to display at the IMM Cologne Furniture Fair.  This was a great opportunity for us to display our work, and contrary to my previous feelings about the design, I think it looks pretty nice (except the towering "visual center".  Today was my shift to stand at the exhibit and talk to people, so I took the chance to take some pictures...

Oh, and I just noticed that my camera captures reds horrendously...yuck.

Our little stand, with the models both 1:1 and 1:10 and the exhibit behind it.  And the bar, of course.

Sitting.

Looks nice eh?

Our professor inspecting the results.

Me being a human billboard.

Getting drunk on the job? I think not...

Group sitting!

One great thing about working there today was that I was right next to the Dezeen Talks, which were quite interesting.

Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

Mr. Fairs speaking with Stefan Diez, a German designer who had some very worldly things to say.  Maybe I'll do a post on the Dezeen talks later on...

Ramazzotti project wraps up

Well, sorry for the lack of updates lately (not that I think anyone really reads this, but blogging rule #1 is write like everyone is reading so....).  Anyway, after a couple more rounds of models, and one concept being worked on by the whole class and then presenting it to the client, the Rammazzotti project has wrapped up.  Unfortunately, I was not very happy with the outcome.  Working in a team of 20+ people with different skills and different levels of motivation is extremely hard and I feel like the professor did not guide us well.  We basically had 4 different concepts mashed into 1, resulting in an incoherent and unconsidered design.  The client never actually gave detailed feedback, and in fact never saw the design in progress (he sent 3rd parties to look for him), only the final.  Needless to say, in the end he was not very happy.  While this lounge was originally planned to be actually realizd, now I am not so sure.

I have one very applicable quote for this project:

A camel is a horse designed by committee.

Another round of models happened after my last update.

One of the other notable concepts, involving a giant arc installation.

Another concept involving a tree-like visual center and rounded furniture.

The final iteration of our concept before it was merged.  First feedback meeting with client's subordinates.  Too late.

Me presenting our concept.

After each concept was evaluated, we shuffled around again, tasking people to work on the best aspects of each concept.  I was tasked with working on this arc installation, which I found quite interesting actually.

The installation involved a metal frame covered in a canopy of these polypropylene elements.  I helped to develop the shape, arrangement, material selection, and construction methods.  Oh about the shape, its the "Ramazzotti shape", which is actually the shape of the bottom of their glasses.  We exploited this shape to the MAX.

Building a 1:3 model.  We only built half the arc to make it easier.  This is the frame, anchored in the ground and suspended from the ceiling.

Shapes going on, attached with zip ties as it would be in the real thing.

Each shape would have a small logo detail to add a touch of branding.

The groups building 1:3 furniture from MDF.  

More furniture.  Ugly furniture (in my opinion), I must say.

Our 1:3 models begin to come together.  That tower-like thing is supposed to be a "visual-center" for the lounge.  Does not match anything at all if you ask me.  In fact, nothing in this lounge matches anything else in it.

Setting up on the day of the presentation.

The client from Rammazzotti (purple shirt guy).  Doesn't look happy does he?

Again, I sense skepticism.

This was quite a disappointing project for me I must say, and I am glad its over.  The main flaws as I see it were this:

- Too many people in the project

- Too many differing skill levels and motivation levels

- A general lack of knowledge about manufacturing techniques

- Too many different concepts

- An unguided and seemingly arbitrary process 

- Trying to mash 4 concepts into 1, resulting in complete incoherence

Hey, I guess I did learn something.  Not to do all the above.

Sorry, I'm frustrated as you can tell.

Designer out.

Ramazzotti Update

Here are some updates on my project to design a lounge for the Italian liquor company Ramazzotti.  I left off when the larger class had split into smaller groups, and here is the development process of our group's concept.

My Contribution to our concept was an idea of modular, multipurpose furniture.

I wanted the furniture to have a modern feel while having an element of class. 

The idea for the furniture stuck, and I refined it to fit into our final concept.

We paid a lot of attention to how our lounge concept would be laid out.

A 1:10 model for the first iteration of our concept.

Our next iteration, with refined furniture models.

A small part of our second iteration, showing how the layout creates a small group space.

More to come soon!

Ramazzotti Lounge

One of the projects I'm a part of in my semester abroad is designing a lounge for the Italian liquor company Ramazzotti for use in trade fairs, fashion shows, and similar events.  The company will actually produce our final design and hope to have it in use by January, which is very exciting but the whole process seems very rushed.  The class is rather large, and we are only producing one final design in the end.  It will be interesting how this works out...

Sampling Ramazzotti glasses.  No alcohol though :(

I had never heard of Ramazzotti before coming to Europe... According to popular opinion, it seems its a drink for old people, but Ramazzotti wanted our lounge design to tailor to a young professional target market...Perhaps looking for a change in brand image?

They have a very interesting glass design.  It's very heavy and holds deceptively little liquid.  Just what you want for a bar glass I guess.

With a class so large we came up with almost 100 different concepts for various aspects of the lounge from mechanical drink holders to crazy drinking games.

We then split up into smaller groups to work on individual concepts.  A group of 20 is really impossible to work with.