Interview Practitioner #2
- Ahmad Ahseek
- Apr 4, 2021
- 11 min read
Since the the very first designer I interviewed was not as predicted. This time I decided to make sure to find a designer whose practice was what I wanted to do, which means a designer from the discursive field. I've also looked out for designers who work mostly on installations rather than anything else.
I came across several designers through behance and Instagram. I send some of them a message or an email depending on where they were mostly available. I'll talk about the other designers in another post.
I came across this one Brazilian designer, Rafael Morgan whom, I've actually heard of before. He was very know for a piece that he made called 'The Indigestive Plate' which represents the poorer states of Brazil. This piece however is very well covered by the media, I visited his website and found many other project that hasn't been covered so well by the media. Therefore, I decided to ask him about these pieces rather than asking him about what might be his most successful piece.
He is known to have won a few prizes in the design field and being a designer who uses it as a tool to protest against what's not right. Thereby, being the ideal designer for me to interview.
I sent a message using the interface available on his website and this is a copy I received.
To be honest, I sent him an email without expecting much, since he seem to be quite known I thought he'd be too busy to answer. But… he did…. 😮
I was surprise to find how humble and honest he was, it was a very pleasant experience.
I did make some more research about him through his website and the available articles, and I created a profile for how I pictured him.
Here are the questions I prepared for him. I based myself on the views of design in the world of today, the prospects of design from his opinion, his projects, which I've analyzed and extracted certain aspects from them which I questioned him about.
All the questions were actually based on this template that I prepared:
Here's the interview:
Hello Adeeb,
How are you?
So, here are the answers to your questions.
Let me know what you think and if I can help you with something else.
By the way, feel free to correct any typos and things of that nature before publishing.
Q1: I did a little bit of research on you and your organization, I know a bit of the basics like you’re from Brazil, you focuses a lot on the discursive field of design. However, I’d like to know a little bit more about your past as well. I believe the start of your journey through design was quite different from what it is right now. Have you ever been employed by a company or been working as a freelancer before you build your own brand? And what were the challenges or limitations in terms of your previous works?
First, I want to thank you for this interview. One of the first things I’ve learned in this game is that if you want to keep creativity flowing you must be humble and helpful, specially with those who’re just starting out. I had so many doors slammed on my face that I’ve promised myself I wouldn’t ever do that to anyone.
Well, I’ve had many jobs in many different companies in the beginning, but it never quite worked out, at least not for me. I’m not the kind of man who can spend the whole day sitting on a desk doing technical work, and all design jobs I had the opportunity to take were about 80% technical and 20% creative, give or take.
So, to sum up, I always knew I would have to take the risk of becoming my own boss eventually.
Q2: What would you say is or should be the role of design? What do you believe design can do? Do you have any expectation of what design will be in the future?
These questions are tricky, because there aren’t black and white answers. It depends on your perspective. The role of design can be to make life easier, to make people smile, to help the planet, to blur the line between art and functionality or simply to help a company make more money by increasing profit margins through efficiency of material usage, manufacturing and marketing. To be honest, the late is the most common goal, using all others to make marketing points.
It’s hard to predict what will become of design in the future, simply because we don’t know where the future is taking us. I could say that there’s a trend towards the green direction, but most products marketed as green are just that; marketing.
The only thing I know, for sure, is that people will be force make a radical change in their consumption patterns, and that at some point, it will involve going back in time and making high quality products that last. In other words, we’ll be forced to ditch planned obsolescence.
Q3: What are the topics that interest you when you’re designing and why? Maybe also talking about your inspirations.
As you may have noticed, I’m a very critical man, and it includes being very critical towards myself as well. So, when I’m designing, the first thing that pushes me is the will to create something as close to original as possible. Most of the times, it ends up involving some storytelling. From my perspective, whenever it’s possible, designs should communicate on a deeper level than aesthetics, so I always try really hard to make my designs suspend natural skepticism by connecting with memories, humor, criticism, etc...You know, people’s brains are like incomplete puzzles, and good design is the one which is able to fill the gaps, in my opinion.
Q4: What encouraged you to use design as a form of protest?
To be honest, why not? I think every object of creativity can be used as means to conceptualization, which includes working as a vessel to the concept of protest.
Q5: Was there any designer or artist who inspired you with what you are doing now?
So many, but none specifically. Do you know what inspires me? Honesty. I think it’s the most beautiful think in the world. Generally speaking, and I’m talking about music, art, design and everything in between, honesty is what make things genuinely memorable. Not complexity, not sophistication, just simple and pure honesty.
Q6: What do you think of commercial design? Would you say it’s a waste of the potential of a designer or would you still agree that it has it’s purpose in the world of today?
Not at all. A designer should be able to make a living, just like every other professional, and commercial design is where the real money is, mostly. As long as you manage to save some time and energy to keep pushing your own creativity, working on your own projects, you should be fine. You just need to be careful not to be drained, because commercial design can be soul crushing if you allow it.
Q7: Have you had any experience in the advertising field in your early days as a designer and how did you find it?
Oh yes, I had, and I still have. Advertising requires a high level of problem solving skills, and I’m great at solving creative problems. As long as it doesn’t involve promoting evil things (I’ve refuse to work on a huge cigarette campaign once), I’m in...And about finding things, I’ve got to say that things that find me, usually.
Q8: Do you find any challenges in explaining your concepts to your audience or collaborative partner in some occasions?
Usually, if you can’t explain a concept clearly and in just a couple of minutes, it means it needs refinement. Blaming others for not understanding what you’re trying to say is a huge mistake. So, I always use this principle as a guideline.
Q9: What influence do you expect your work to have on your audience?
I’ll just say that I feel extremely honored if it can have any influence in guys like you. Aside from that, I don’t have any expectations.
Q10: What would you say is the difference between art and design according to you?
There’s a billion ways I could elaborate very complicated answers to that, but honestly, the biggest difference is that art can exist within itself, while design usually has a functional role to fulfill.
Q11: I’ve seen from your website that you used quite a wide range of mediums consisting of furniture designs, lamp designs and even graphics. Would you consider it a need for a modern designer to be multidisciplinary?
Yes and yes. Absolutely. This is crucial. The more you know, the better. The more experience you have with different fields, the better. You must do whatever you can to break free of your own box, your own bubble, not only as a professional, but as a human being. If there’s one thing such as a general life goal, is to expand.
Q12: What is your favorite medium to explore and why?
I believe the best part of design lies before any physical manifestation through any medium, which is the creative part, you know, the spark which gives birth to it all. In other words, when you have a good idea, it can take so many forms and shapes! On the other hand, at the moment you manage to materialize this idea, it naturally loses a lot of its energy. The difference between the creative genius and the average creative guy is that the genius can materialize ideas with minimal loss of energy, while the average guy ends up losing a lot of it during the process of translation. So, to answer your question, creativity is my favorite medium, independently of the shape it takes afterwards, and my biggest goal is to master this language eventually.
Q13: What are the challenges you face during your installation? Is there anytime that there’s a miss communication with your teams and you have to improvise to reach the due date?
To be honest, there are so many challenges that it becomes impossible to name them all. The biggest one is called Brazil. It’s hard to prosper as an industrial designer in a country where most industries just send people to major design fairs to take pictures and copy projects.
You have to convince the client that investing in original designs pays of, and this can be very tiring and frustrating. On the other hand, if I aim for international clients, they also need some convincing as to why hire a Brazilian designer for a project. Believe it or not, there’s still a lot of prejudice out there.
Yes, miscommunication happens, but it’s not a big deal as long as you keep the whole process organized.
Q14: As for your concepts, do you just work them out on what you observe around you or is there an extensive research behind each projects?
Both. Keeping your eyes open is essential, just like researching is essential. In fact, if you think of your brain as some kind of computer, as a neural network, the more data you feed it, the more chances you have of connecting these bits and pieces into something imbued of meaning.
Q15: From your website you said that you are very interested to work with strongly creative people. What are your expectations for a strongly creative person?
It’s a most rewarding process when different minds can overcome all differences and simply come together, connect, and create something new. Creating alone is nice, but creating collectively can be outstanding. Of course, we’re very complex beings, so more often that than not such kinds of partnerships don’t go as expected. There are some elements involved which we still can’t explain properly. Think about bands. Some bands have a huge level of creative synchronicity between their members, and they’ve become legends for it. Some, not so much. So, you never know. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s unpredictable.
Q16: Does this part of your business make it hard to find a proper collaborative partner? Especially if the understanding of design from the other party isn’t as refined as your understanding of design?
Actually, no. Teamwork is a requirement in this field, and it’s not fair to expect someone to fulfill your expectations on how they should perform creatively. Remember what I said about honesty? As long as everyone on the team is honestly giving their best, the likeliness of achieving good results is very high. You won’t go anywhere in life, personally or professionally, if you start any sort of relationship with the preconceived notion that your views are better or more refined somehow. I lost the count of how many times I was surprised by incredibly sophisticate insights coming from extremely humble persons. About this, I have an advice: If you want to be honestly creative, do not let your ego stand on your way, because if you allow it, it will. Be open. Be receptive. Be respectful.
Q17: I’ve read a bit about your ‘Damnation Cup’ project. To be honest I’m so fascinated by discursive design. However, do you sometimes get into issues with either, the government or these other businesses which has greater power and influence? How do you deal with such situations?
That’s nice. I really like this project for its simplicity and effectiveness of using function itself to effortlessly and interactively make a point. I did have some issues with the government back then, but nothing really significant. Needless to say, they’ve won. I did what I could to raise awareness, though.
Q18: Would you sometimes consider taking a different approach or tone of voice in your design to avoid a conflict with a bigger organization?
I’m not easily scared, but I was never a true activist, I must say. However, whenever I have the opportunity to fight for what I think it’s right, I don’t usually think twice. Life can be hard for courageous men, but it’s certainly harder for cowards.
Q19: I really like the idea of the ‘Mr. Lamp’ design. It’s in a way amusing, having a very joyful tone to it while also being very aesthetically pleasing. I think coming from you there might be a more interesting story behind how you came up with the idea. Was it based on a reflection on yourself? How it came to be?
Thank you. I really like this idea as well. There is indeed a story. I used to have a beaten up coat rack that was always over stacked with coats, shirts, hats and everything in between. One day, when by bedroom light died, I had to adapt a lamp to the coat rack as a workaround until I could replace it. The thing is, I had just moved to this new house, and I didn’t have a stair back then, so I couldn’t replace the lamp until I managed to borrow one from a friend, which took about a month, maybe a little more (lol). In the meantime, the coat rack served me really well as hybrid object, and it really became alive. So I thought, why not?
Q20: The design of the ‘chairity’ was yet another one that caught my attention. Firstly, I think the concept is extremely powerful in displaying pride. I believe as a work to create self-reflection it really does its job well. Secondly, it has a humorous tone to it. Does humor play a role in your designs?
Thank you again. Yes, absolutely. I have a peculiar sense of humor which can get me in trouble sometimes, but it’s worth it because it makes life way more enjoyable. I’m fascinated by irony, and believe me, there’s plenty irony out there for our amusement, if we know where to look. Life itself is a tragic comedy, and if you ask me, it’s way better to go through it laughing than crying.
Q21: May I also ask you which of your own designs is your favorite and why?
Yes you may, but I wont tell (lol). I have a strange relationship with my works. I don’t really become attached to them and I’m extremely critic towards myself, as I’ve said previously. So, while I’m aware that some of them are particularly cleverer than the average design object out there, I don’t have any favorite because I’m sure that I can accomplish so much more and this helps expanding the boundaries of my creativity.
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