JAIME SALM - inspirational hottie

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/04/17/mio-founder-jaime-salm-on-sustainable-design/

Jaime Salm’s lecture was really cool and he had a lot of good insight to share with all of us. My mom always gets mad because she swears she will tell me things 1000 and I don’t listen, but the minute someone else says it I hear it. Like my mother, I have a feeling Jan felt the same way as Jaime reiterated so much of what she tells us on a daily basis. Here are a few of things that stuck with me:

• CUSTERMER-IZATION – consumers love products that they can customize. Its important in the design process to take this into consideration and design products that allow for consumer altering ie different colors, styles, patterns, shapes. Its also important to remember that not all consumers have the same aesthetic as you and try to design things from a multiple points of view

• DESIGN BRIEF - you design your own brief. When starting a project create a design brief that is a summery of what you plan do with your work. Perhaps address questions of who what when where why. Once this brief is laid out, follow it through out the whole process!! Jaime gave an example of when they took the 3d wall paper to a company and the company told them everything that was wrong with the project. Jaime took the specific criticisms and turned them into a design brief to take the project to the next level.

• STAY POSITVE – like the story about the wallpaper, Jaime embodies the spirit of optimism and positivity. Instead being crushed by the critiques, he turned it around as a way to get ahead. Negativity and “yes but” thinking will NOT get you anywhere. Also, always be in the right state of mind to take advantage of all opportunities that come your way. Make connections that will prove to be useful later on down the road. Always take yourself seriously as a “designer” not just a “student” – after all Jaime made his 3d wall paper in undergrad!!

• PROTOTYPE- maquattes are for real! Make billions of maquettes before even thinking about diving into the final project. Try out all possibilities. Maquettes should not be perfect or even highly thought out, use them as a way to explore all/any possibilities out there, Jaime used the term “Frankenstein” maquettes.

• MATERIAL USE – let the material do what it does, don’t “force your will onto the material.” Examine the materials innate properties instead of forcing them to do a job that some other material could do better. Its about working smart, not hard. Also take into account that just because someone has already done something doesn’t mean it cant be done again. Try using a different material or a process that is the cheapest AND environmentally friendly. And always remember to ask how the material relates to the design idea – in Jan’s words “ALL DESIGN DECISIONS SHOULD BE BASED ON THE GOVERNING IDEA.”

• THIRD WORLD EFFICIENCY? – I was particularly inspired by this point. Jaime noted how in poor countries there is a “weird efficiency,” that in poorer countries people have to be efficient and use everything they have because they have so little. As a designer, I feel like growing up in an affluent environment teaches you very little about efficiency. There is little need to think outside of the box or think about sustainability when money is not an option, because you could just go out and by something to fix the problem or if something breaks, go out an buy another one. I think this issue is really starting to get more attention in this economic recession when people’s funds are not unlimited and we are starting to see that our planet can not be treated like dumpster. Times of recession are often promising for alternative strategies for doing things. People are more receptive to new ideas because they begin to see that the old ways of doing things are not always the best ways.