MIO Lecture

I went to see the MIO lecture on Thursday night by Jaime Salm. http://www.mioculture.com/

I'm going to go over some of his points during the lecture.

"Users define success, design is for people."
This means that designing something to sell is impossible if you don't have an audience. You have to design something someone would actually want!

Jaime Salm was talking about how him and his brother were critiqued by the president of a company they were trying to do work for. He said that he told them everything that was wrong with their product. They took his critique and adjusted their work. After that it sold much better and was more user friendly.

"Repurposing Industry"
This was my favorite part of the lecture. The capsule light. He found these hats that were made out of this material and then played around with it until he came up with his own design. This reminds me of the gum and fish skin we saw during our trip to New York at the Cooper-Hewett. The artist was trying to find a new use for the material. This is something an artist should be able to do. Think outside of the box. Create something that has never been created out of something that's never been used to create it.

Business
I thought it was a good idea to move business to Europe, especially if they were getting people buying their stuff for more than double the price to include shipping. If there isn't a market where you are, why not go somewhere else?

"Active Sustainability - Environmental Conservation Everyday it is Used"
This is something that he was talking about around the end. The florescant lightbulb can be turned off and on again. By buying it and turning it on and off you are saving energy. Why not make a product like that? A cherry tree for example. It is completely positive. A tree circulates oxygen and to top it off provides food. When you take the cherries it doesn't kill the tree. It is also an attractive site. I would like to have a product just like a cherry tree. (idea taken from Cradle to Cradle)

So, the lecture was interesting and I think more people should hear it.