A Lifetime Guarantee

by Lucinda Bradford

Abstract

Advancements in technology have revolutionised the world of mass manufacturing, increasingly the human presence is being replaced by machine, favouring the elimination of errors and the output of flawless products. The prevalence of automation processes and quality controls have flooded the modern world with fault-less, cloned production and an ensuing aesthetic model of perfection that has redefined beauty in western culture. In the wake of this, society has been introduced to the occurrence of cosmetic obsolesce, defining the adverse response these flawlessly materialised products have to time and use.

The environmental turmoil this is contributing to is no longer rectifiable by recycling and the circular economy, initiated as the means of mitigation. Thus, an escalating importance of designing for product longevity is emerging.

There are many factors entangled in the pursuit of prolonging product lifespans, however, a designer is only capable of creating foundations that may enable these. The discernment of material perfection for its intolerance of time and interactive wear has brought to question how embracing material imperfections may enable graceful aging. Imperfections, whether exhibited by the composition of natural materials or entailed in the production process, not only mask the abrasive interactions of everyday life, but deviate from the cloned standard, engendering a uniqueness that has been lost to mass manufacturing.

The purpose of this project is encompassed in its title, ‘A Lifetime Guarantee.’ In challenging the product conditions abetting cosmetic obsolescence by designing with imperfections, this project takes a design-led research approach in the development of an informed design outcome. 

Design Intent

The purpose of this product design is to address the rapid turnover of products incited by the depreciation of their cosmetic state. Particularly, how material imperfections may be implemented as a design feature, to slow a product’s descent into cosmetic obsolesce, or prevent this descent all together.

The primary aim of this project is to determine a categorical combination of utilising both the inherently imperfect state of natural materials and deliberately crafted imperfections to generate the ultimate material composition for affording aesthetic longevity.

There were three research questions framing the design-led foundation of this project. The first probes how the innate heterogeneity and imperfections of natural materials affords graceful aging by their ability to accommodate wear discreetly, and to what extent their tolerance of wear surpasses S.F.C materials exhibiting no imperfections. The second question explores, to what measure amiable aging is exclusive to natural materials’ organic irregularities, determining whether crafted imperfections on S.F.C materials affords a tolerance of wear to the same degree. The third question employs insights realised from prototyping for questions one and two, to determine a viable means for combating cosmetic obsolescence through utilising naturally occurring imperfections in combination with crafted imperfections. 

Bio

I am Lucinda Bradford, an industrial designer.

I was born in Sydney but spent my childhood moving between moving between Europe and Asia with parents who were avid collectors of antiques and cultural artefacts. As a highly creative child, always fascinated by the changing world around me, I developed an avid interest in functional, long wearing pieces, adorned with antiquity. Inspired to create my own beautiful objects I undertook a Bachelor and Honours in Product Design at the University of Technology Sydney with the goal of exploring my personal interest in furniture and homeware design.

As a designer my work is guided by an objective for timelessness and longevity, cultivating emotive relationships between people and products. The synergy of items and possession has always been striking to me, with our relationships with the inanimate maturing along with us. My practise probes the integration of meaningful solutions into artfully crafted designs, creating products that lend themselves as a means of self-identification.

I’m greatly inspired by the dynamic platform design provides for enhancing the complex relationship between products and the world around us, a relationship where both parties are inextricably interdependent and mutually informative. Design is undoubtedly crucial to society’s progression and as a designer I aspire enrich our world with conceptually innovative and beautiful products.

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